The music makers

Nation's Business, Feb, 1998 by Julie Fanselow

When author Sarah Ban Breathnach was writing Simple Abundance -- a self-help best-seller published in 1996 -- she discovered "Piano Reflections," a recording by a little-known classical pianist, Kelly Yost. Ban Breathnach listened to the tape every day as she worked, and she liked the music so much that she recommend it in her book and chose it as the accompaniment for the audiotape version of Simple Abundance.

Ban Breathnach's support boosted sales of "Piano Reflections" somewhat, but Yost's music had been finding an audience even before the author pitched in.

Since its release in 1987, "Piano Reflections" has sold nearly a quarter-million copies for Channel Productions, the small music label that Yost, 57, runs with her husband, Sam, 52. The recording's success has enabled the label to release other titles, including "Anne," a compact disc featuring the late Canadian composer Hagood Hardy's soundtracks for the popular family films "Anne of Green Gables" and "Anne of Avonlea."

Channel Productions has sold more than 460,000 copies of its seven titles, with an eighth -- a Christmas album from Yost -- set for release this coming fall. The company's annual revenues average between $300,000 and $450,000.

The firm has found its niche in the competitive music business, and it has done so from the unlikely base of Twin Falls, Idaho, a city of 33,500 that is far removed from entertainment-industry centers such as New York City, los Angeles, and Nashville, Tenn.

Yost initially recorded "Piano Reflections" as a favor to a local funeral-home director who was tired of the dreary dirges he usually had to play at visitations and services. When another friend, a bookstore owner, heard Yost's understated collection of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, she told Yost it would sell well in book and gift shops. So the Yosts held their breath and ordered 2,000 copies of the tape.

The shipment sold quickly, and "Piano Reflections" became a hit not just among funeral directors and booksellers but also with childbirth educators trying to ease the stress of labor and with teachers seeking to calm their classes. A year after releasing "Piano Reflections," the Yosts quit their regular jobs -- he as a banker, she as a piano teacher.

In 1989, Channel Productions moved from the Yosts' home into a 1,300-square-foot rented office suite. By 1992, the company had bought a 6,200-square-foot building. Its custom-designed recording studio was used for Kelly Yost's third release, 1996's "Roses & Solitude," and the forthcoming holiday album. Together with the Yosts, Channel Productions' two full-time employees And one part-timer handle everything from telemarketing and customer service to shipping.

The Yosts say a major factor in Channel Productions' success is its base in Idaho, where the cost of doing business is low and where they can regularly retreat to the mountains and lakes to recharge their artistic batteries.

In fact, the Idaho location has helped the Yosts connect with book-, gift-, and record-store clients and radio programmers. Sam recalls a time he was riding a lift at the Sun Valley ski resort with a man who turned out to be an Arizona radio executive. By the time they reached the mountaintop, Sam had persuaded the man to listen to Kelly's music and to try playing it on his stations. Those stations joined the more than 500 that air Kelly's recordings.

The Yosts also attribute Channel Productions' staying power to a sense of mission not often seen in the music business. We started out with an idealistic vision as opposed to a real commercial purpose," Kelly says. "We've adhered to that. If we're going to release music, it has to be good music that speaks to us, music that we want to share with the world."