John "Klondike" Koehler
Unsung Hero of the Festival
by Linda Morris

There are no awards for what he does. And when the crowd cheers, the ovation is seldom directed at the man seen behind the audio control panel or gliding silently backstage among the scaffolding and cable. Nonetheless, his impact is undeniable. For three decades, thousands of performing artists and producers have put their bands in the hands of the man known as Klondike. John "Klondike" Koehler is a man with a mission: to provide the technical support needed to enable the artists to do what they do best.

Klondike Sound Company, of Greenfield, Massachusetts, serves between 400 and 500 concerts a year. The company specializes in "architecturally challenged" venues and open-air arenas. "That's really our niche, providing good sound in difficult situations, and we're fortunate that we have the depth of inventory which allows us to put just the right speaker in just the right place. If the budget is there, we can usually meet the musical or aesthetic goals that the producer has. "We have the capability to do 300 simultaneous inputs," Klondike said. In lay terms, that means KSC can accommodate three large bands, a half dozen mid-sized groups, and a couple of small ones all at the same time. In one venue, "we can do up to 20,000 people with our largest speaker system, and we do shows for as few as 50 people," he said. "You have to think as a technician first — and musically very quickly thereafter," he said. "I'm not doing anything magical — just attending to the details."

Those "details" include state-of-the-art equipment customized for each client. KSC's equipment includes ElectroVoice, Yamaha, and Soundcraft systems. They are one of only eight companies in North America to use the new VDOSCloudspeaker system, which can amplify sound over a wide area, yet keep it pure. "The idea is to get the equipment out of the way of the music," Klondike said. Even with electrical/acoustic groups, among the most difficult to mix, "I try to make the instruments sound as natural as possible."

As a technician, he said, "I think that I really hear most music as sound. It's really more of a left-brain experience. But in many concerts, there's a right brain reaction. And I feel privileged to have a front-row seat."