Tolar A.V.L., Incorporated is a California S-Corp. The company was founded in 1990 by Robert Tolar, a 21 year old college student at Chico State University and musician. Bob began purchasing sound gear to cut long term costs of renting PA's for his classic rock cover band, Monkey Business, that was touring the Northern California club circuit and performing for corporate events in the Bay Area. After two years of throwing every red cent he found into gear, Bob had posession of the finest sound system in town, among the many local bands. "Hey man! If your not playing Friday night, how much would you charge to bring out your PA and do sound for our band? and Tolar Sounds Audio Services was born.

When Bob graduated in 1995 with a Bachelors Degree in Marketing and a minor in Recording Arts he obtained a business loan for $40,000 and made his first big purchase. He also obtained a half time position as a Studio Technician for CSU, Chico's Recording Arts Program and began teaching audio classes on the university level. The internship program with CSUC was also launched that year. Using the income from the college to pay for living expenses, Bob Tolar reinvested all the revenues from the sound company back into equipment. Today the company owns over $600,000 in assets with annual investments increasing by 30% each year.

Using the very well equiped scene shop at Chico State's performing arts center, Tolar Sounds began building speaker enclosures and road cases in 1997. Equiped with a considerable welding facility, the shop also allowed the development of custom fly hardware, mounting brackets and framework to be designed and custom built. Tolar Sounds began to develop a positive reputation for innovative designs and extremely maticulous engineering.

In the year 2000, Tolar Sounds began designing and installing sound systems for local venues. One of the first jobs we did was The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company's beautiful concert showroom, which has grown to become one of Northern California's key hotspots. We designed and installed the equipment for this venue and have done several upgrades since. It includes a full concert sound system, ellaborate lighting system and corporate video projection and switching. We still handle all the lighting and A/V needs for this venue today. You can check out some of these shows Friday nights on PBS. The venue has seen some great artists over the years. Huey Lewis filmed his 25 anniversary DVD in High Definition at this venue. Come see a show some time, but be sure to buy your tickets early. Every show they do sells out a half hour after tickets go on sale.

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away- when the Sept. 11th attack occured in New York we saw a dramatic downturn in large scale concert attendance, this damaged the concert production industry and drove down prices. We duked it out with other regional companies for market share and thankfully won, but the experience drove us to diversify the company for further stability. For this reason, we added Disk Jockey Services and sound reinforcement for weddings, a segment of the business that has grown significantly each year since then. Also in 2001, Tolar Sounds became a reseller of professional audio equipment, obtaining dealerships for the high end lines that the company had been relying on for years. The company obtained a C7 California State Contractors Licence the following year and began designing, selling and installing sound systems for churches, schools, clubs and restaurants. In 2003 the company began providing lighting and video sales and service as well, installing projectors, screens and video cameras and offering AV services for business seminars and meetings at hotels and rental halls throughout Northern California. The contracting business has been the fastest growing and largest revenue source. Recent projects include California Water Service Companies conference rooms, Bidwell Presbyterian Church in Chico, St. Elizebeth Hospital's Imaging Center in Red Bluff and Shasta Baptist Church in Redding. Currently, Tolar A.V.L. is viewed as one of Northern California's most advanced systems integrators.

In 2004, Tolar Sounds Audio Services was incorporated and the name was changed to Tolar A.V.L., Inc. (for audio, video & lighting). This last year has brought exciting new additions to the portfolio of services we offer, allowing us to intergrate all the areas of technical event production into one service. With the addition of "themed decorative theatrical lighting" and "live television production", we can now provide a corporate client with the sound system, video screens and projectors, several live camera angles with fades and transitions, decorative lighting to create a themed look and stage lighting to illuminate the presentation area. Or we can produce a large school Prom with lighting designed to transform the room into a totally unique environment, moving dance floor lighting, a video system with the latest music videos and live camera shots as well as the Disk Jockey and Sound System. This combonation of services has allowed Tolar A.V.L. to create a much more polished and integrated end result than would be possible with several separate companies as well as save the client considerable money by combining expenses such as transportation, labor, insurance, etc...Economies of Scale Baby!

As 2005 closed, Tolar A.V.L. purchased Magik Entertainment Professional Disk Jockeys. This beautifully fresh and edgy group of pro DJs has really made a name for themselves, but they were severely under funded and lacked marketing resources and a brand identity. We are proud to have them as a subsidiary and will be fuelling a huge new advertising campaign to elevate our new Disk Jockey Division to new hights.

Keep an eye out for our Tolar Sounds Open Class Sprint Cart, which can be seen getting it's ass kicked at Cycle Land Speedway Saturday nights.