A bit of History...

It all started in a log cabin in the deepest woods of Massachusetts.

......well, not exactly!

.....But close! Actually it all started in a converted chicken coop in Cheshire Massachusetts, a thriving metropolis of some 2,000 people. AngelFire Productions started out as Cheshire Illuminating Company, a very small, but never chicken organization owned by one person, Steve LaVigne. Steve was just a little over 9 years old when he got the urge to fix other people's dead electronic thingies and rent sound equipment. Steve also built lighting stuff for what were then called record hops.

Later Steve was in high school in Adams, Mass. doing lighting and A/V work for the teachers there. It was a great way to get out of tests! He also did sound and lighting for the school plays and also did a "Music At Noon" program by back feeding the schools measly sound system. This got Steve out of the sheer boredom of study halls and pep rallies. Steve also did light shows and record hops under the name of "The Psychotic Reaction". Ah! Those grand 'ol hippie daze!

After high school Steve opened his first shop in October, 1972 at 11 Spring Street in Adams, Massachusetts. Here the store was called Sweetwater Sound. Steve repaired stereos, TV sets, and other things that nobody else wanted to repair. He also designed lighting systems and rented out sound systems, and DJ’ed record hops!  Steve even got into the movie rental business, having bought out a friend's 16mm movie collection. During one summer in Cheshire, he ran movies outside in a local ball field for the kids in town and at summer camps.

Later in 1974-75 Steve then closed his Adams shop and opened one on Newell Street in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, right between two bars in the Italian part of town. He then hired Jim Pelkey, a renowned local character and an excellent TV repairman when he was sober. Steve got really good at waking Jim up in the afternoons from under a tree in the yard to repair a TV or two. Jim was really amazing in that he always carried his tools and parts around in his jacket pockets. He very rarely ordered parts. This business also expanded into a variety store, selling candy, soda, and newspapers. Later Sweetwater Sound moved to another location in Pittsfield to get more space and also opened a location in Cheshire Massachusetts. The Cheshire location was a good place to get work done as it was generally quiet there!

Steve then decided that the grass was greener in Arizona, and moved there. After designing a sound and light system, and playing DJ at a place called "The Limit" in Chandler, AZ, Steve did a short stint in Las Vegas. As a repairman and designing ever more sound and lighting systems for some discos, he did pretty well, except Las Vegas drove him too crazy! Just a tad plastic, you know!

In order to save his sanity, Steve moved to Prescott, Arizona, where he has been ever since. Prescott is really an OK place to live, and Steve has lots of really great friends here. Except for some traveling he has been in Prescott since 1982.

Sweetwater Audio-Video CB Repair Inc. opened it’s doors on Holiday Drive in Prescott at the bottom of Bullwacker Hill just off of Hiway 69. We were 4 miles from Courthouse Square and at the time were just inside the limit to get a Prescott phone number. Our first phone number in Prescott was 445-5050, which we still use today! Over 30 years paying Ma Bell too much for that number. Back then we were kind of lucky to get that number, thanks to a kindly lady in the new orders department.

So, armed with our cool phone number and very long company name we set about doing business. In those days we repaired consumer electronics like TV sets, stereos, tape recorders and PA equipment. We also repaired CB radios tweaking them to have much more power than they were designed to have! Another specialty was video production. Back in those days it was black and white reel to reel video!

Sweetwater also rented out sound systems and did sound reinforcement. During the early years we donated a lot of sound work to the courthouse lighting and other things like pioneer days. We also started doing the sound for the Prescott Rodeo Parade setting up 8 announcer stations, getting the announcers and trucks for them to sit in and arranging all things to do with the sound for what was also the biggest parade of the year in Yavapai County. We still do this every year to this day- something like 30 years now!

Sometime later we moved up the hill a bit to our new location and home on #1 Sweetwater Drive. Steve bought about 3 acres of property there. The shop was in various places on the property including the infamous Luer Rocket! Yes-Steve is the infamous Rocket Man! For more about the rocket click here.

Eventually the business moved into the house there as it was expanded to make room.

During this time in 1986 Steve went to work for Yavapai College in the A/V department doing the repairs on the college equipment and setting up piles of projectors and sound systems and such.

Sometime in here Steve was stupid and sold the name “Sweetwater” to a company in Phoenix that had more money than brains. The company then became On Location Video & Audio, a rather boring name!

In early 1997 Steve left Yavapai College to maintain what was left of his sanity. On June 16, 1997 AngelFire Productions, Inc. was born. Steve was now full time in business again and have never looked back! Being your own boss is very good!

In 2002 AngelFire moved to Prescott Valley inside Steve’s big red house there. AngelFire pretty much takes up the whole first floor of the 3 story house. There is something to say for walking downstairs to go to work!

Steve will probably stay in the Prescott area for a long while!

That's all for now! I will add more as I think of it! There are still a bunch of fun details left. If you want to know more just ask!