CD Source opens new location Monday

LOVES PARK, Ill. (WIFR) - Nine months after watching a devastating fire turn his record store in loves park to rubble the owner rebuilds at a new location.

“I wasn’t sure if we were going to do it again,” says CD Source Owner Brian Bowman.

The last nine months hasn’t been easy for Bowman. He watched his life’s work go up in flames last September as an electrical fire tore through his music store CD Source in Loves Park.

“Mostly shock because I wasn’t responding or anything. I was just kind of numb,” says Bowman. “With all the inventory and everything in there probably closer to three quarters of a million dollars (of items and property lost in the fire).”

In losing the invaluable records and CDs that took him more than two decades to collect along with the building that housed them, he discovered something he least expected.

“We started hearing lots of stories about people that used to come in when they were younger and now they’ve got kids. Those kinds of stories really helped me get through all of it.”

That support from the community inspired him to open a new record store on N 2nd St. across from the former location.

Bowman is hosting a soft launch at 10:00 Monday morning.

“The city is super excited about this opening,” says Nathan Bruck with the city of Loves Park. “We love to see that in loves park and just the traffic that it generates and the interest that it brings to this area.”

As Bowman rebuilds his life from the rubble, he promises to make new memories in his new store in honor of his old one.

“A lot of these customers are people that I haven’t seen since the fire. So, there’ll be a lot of a lot of reminiscing.”

Bowman says that may be hard for him at times, but he can’t imagine doing anything differently. His hope is that his new store thrives for several years to come.

The shop first opened in Roscoe back in 1995 and they have been in Loves Park for the last four years.

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