The Baltimore-Washington corridor isn’t only the home of heavy-hitting developers, high tech firms, and science research facilities. There’s also room for the little guy – the business that begins on a shoestring and graduates to Velcro.
ROAR Productions, Incorporated, a musical and audio recording firm in Columbia, is one such business. Launched in 1980 to provide “high quality, low cost” production service, ROAR set out to make it easy for an individual musician to procure a top-notch demo tape and for an advertising firm to have a commercial produced at a reasonable price. By all accounts, it has achieved its goal.
Steve Rosch, ROAR’s president, producer, and chief engineer, is the brains behind the business. He became interested in music at the age of three and began to write songs when he was eleven. When he was twelve years old Rosch received his first copyright. Later, he won an award at the fourth annual American Song Festival, which launched his performing career. At age 15, he began to record songs in a studio. He also played at clubs with a band, which performed some original tunes, and some years later he graduated to lead the band Fire & Ice.
But Rosch insists that he was an introverted kid and learned more about people than about music from performing. “I never liked kicking around Georgetown; I liked playing music,” says Rosch.
After he became fed up with the nightlife, Rosch took the music and recording equipment he’d bought, borrowed start-up funds from his father, and established ROAR. He moved the studio to Columbia in 1981, and today it has a staff of three engineers.
Rosch is ROAR’s production genius and creative director. His father, Jerome Rosch, is the company’s treasurer, office manager, and “conscience,” according to Rosch. “I started working in the business more out of instinct than expertise,” he says.
ROAR will take a project from its conception through its final production. Rosch writes the music and lyrics for many of his advertising clients’ commercials, but he hires engineering pros for the technical aspects of production. ROAR positions itself as a full-service studio, capable not only of producing solid demos for businesses or performing artists, but of managing a client’s entire audio and video marketing. The company’s services include commercial jingles, full-scale production, media buying, duplication, and talent casting.
Teaching music production and engineering is another of ROAR’s business functions. Its school of Recording Technology offers courses, which cost from $20 to $150, in the principles of recording, studio management, and audio production.
ROAR has a long list of commercial clients; it includes several advertising agencies, Rouse Company, Westinghouse, Reliable Stores, and JKJ Chevrolet. The firm has also recorded demos for a group of Buddhist monks, gospel and country music performers, and an African poet.