Music Source Light Show

So, who, you may ask, are these people who are going to be coming to my party, playing music for me and making my guests have a good time? At Music Source, they are trained professionals who have been doing this kind of thing for a long time with a lot of success. They are mature adults, they are employees of the company (no subcontractors or "farm out" jobs here) and they have a true love of the job because, quite frankly, no one is going to get rich as a Mobile Deejay. So why do it? Well, it's fun, it's challenging, you get to go to all of the best parties and there is a certain sense of pride and fulfillment that comes from knowing that you've been able to take a group of strangers and turn them into madly partying best friends through your talent and experience.

Two Operators with Every Show...
Each Music Source Mobile Unit is run by two people: the Disc Jockey and the Light Person. The D.J. handles the music program and announcing. The Light Person operates the light show, syncing it to the mood of the crowd and the music. The Light Person also acts as the liaison to the crowd, discussing requests, answering questions and helping people choose the music that they would like to hear included in the night's program. Both positions are very important to the success of the show but, by it's nature, the D.J. position requires more skill and talent in order to pull off a good show. D.J.'s receive more training, need to have a natural sense of showmanship and tend to stay in their positions longer than Light People. Often times in the history of Music Source, Light People have made the jump to D.J. and, oftentimes, D.J.'s also continue to work as light people when they aren't running a show.

John Roth-Owner/Operator Jonathan Michael Roth - (Owner/Operator, President, Disc Jockey). If you know Jon, it's possible that you know him as "JR", "Jonny-T" or a number of other aliases that he employs. John and Music Source first crossed paths in the early 80's when he hired the fledgling company to play at a party he was hosting at his apartment complex in Springfield. That is truly one of John's most innate and valuable skills, he is the consummate party host.

Along about 1990, Music Source was looking for a Light Operator and, possibly, Disc Jockey, based in Springfield. Thanks to mutual friends, Jon was recommended and proved to be a valuable addition to the team. Through the years Jon has incorporated his natural love, and amazing knowledge, of music along with his hosting abilities, to become an outstanding Music Source D.J. Jon is also an energetic promoter who brings a lot of business to the company through his extensive network of friends and business contacts.

Jon's "real job" for more than 20 years is as an investment broker and financial consultant. Jon operates his own investment and financial consulting firm and would be glad to talk to you about your investment, financial planning and retirement needs.

"He liked it so much, he bought the company...": In the summer of 2005, Allen (see below) decided to retire from mobile deejaying. Jon's years of experience and interest in the company led to his purchase of the Music Source operation. As head of the company, Jon continues the tradition of quality, professional mobile entertainment in Central Illinois that has become synonymous with Music Source.

Allen Stare - (Founder, former owner, retired). Allen started out on the radio when he was 15 and quickly made the jump to live performances. He liked performing in front of a crowd so much that he started Music Source in 1982 (get the whole story in the "History" section of the site). Since then, Allen has personally performed at hundreds of events throughout Central Illinois. In the summer of 2005, Allen retired from the mobile deejay business and turned the reins over to Jon Roth who bought the company and continues the proud Music Source tradition of quality mobile music.

Allen's "real job" (because this deejay thing is way too much fun to be called work) involves advertising, audio and video production, print design and CD-ROM development as owner and production manager for Intense Multimedia, Inc., a Central Illinois based multimedia design firm. Allen holds a B.A. Degree in Radio and Television Broadcasting from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. As far as we know, Allen is the only Mobile Deejay Service owner/operator in the Midwest who actually had a degree in the field.

Not surprisingly, Allen's outside interests involve music collecting and listening. He also enjoys movies and is an avid collector of classic movies. He's also a completely out of control computer geek who spends way too many hours on-line when he's not building websites, programming CD-ROMs or attempting to hack into the military computers of foreign nations (kidding...KIDDING!!).