Everyone’s heard of the Music Man. When
ya got trouble, the Music Man comes to the rescue with a big brass band.
Well, if ya have trouble my friends,
right here in Rehoboth Beach (and Lewes, Milton, Dewey, etc.) there’s
a pair of music men (who also happen to be computer gurus, web managers
and sound experts) who can make that trouble disappear.
Wayne Juneau and Tom Negran are the guys
behind Media Workshop, a Rehoboth home-based business that has folks
singing. Literally. And when they aren’t singing, they’re watching
their web pages come alive or their computers come back from cyber-hell.
From synthesized choir accompaniments to web page and computer network
creation, the duo have combined their technical and artistic skills to
build a clientele for all things computer.
Wayne and Tom, who have lived in Rehoboth
full-time since 1999 and part-time for several years before that, have
been together for 27 years. Wayne’s background is in radio,
voice-overs and computers. Tom worked for Bell Labs and AT&T as a
researcher and sound expert.
When the time came, they delighted in
leaving their New York and New Jersey careers behind to come to the
beach and work side by side.
Actually, they work back to back in the
computer room of their home off Old Landing Road. Their cozy
surroundings feature two massive work stations, networked together with
a variety of drives, CD Roms, gizmos and speakers, so digital
information can fly between the two machines even quicker that it could
be shuttled the four-foot distance by hand. “If we walk a diskette
across the room by hand, it’s called the sneaker network,” says
Wayne.
It was their involvement with
Rehoboth’s Metropolitan Community Church, where they have been members
since 1996, that gave them the start of their digital business. “I saw
a musical void here, when the church services featured tinny,
pre-recorded music,” recalls Tom.
Thinking he might be able to help, he
created computerized synthesizer sequences that he turned into
computerized keyboard orchestrations. His creations accompany the choir
and make beautiful music for the services.
“I’m a theoretical musician,” Tom
says, “not a performer. I’m much more comfortable using the computer
keyboard than a musical keyboard.”
Whatever the instrument, Tom uses his
background in sound design and ear for music to create, edit, and
provide accompaniments for the singers at MCC. He’s been invited to
give a workshop in his techniques for an MCC Conference. In addition,
Tom has a lot of fun with musical files and some of his creations have
been heard accompanying certain performers at Sundance and at last
season’s Follies event.
While Tom is tickling the digital
ivories, Wayne is taking the visual route. Both web site and newsletter
production come from his keyboard. The cyber version of Letters, as well
as sites for the Rainbow Chorale of Delaware, Representative Pete
Schwartzkopf and many others are produced by Wayne in consultation with
his clients. He is currently working on a site for the newly organized
Delaware Stonewall Democrats.
“People shouldn’t have to pay
exorbitant prices to have their pages designed and maintained,” he
says. “I just want to help business owners use the net to help their
businesses.” Wayne produces graphics, helps clients with content and
partners with the client to produce web pages that are right for the
specific business or organization.
It takes about 13-15 hours to reformat
and post every article and column in a typical issue of Letters,
according to Wayne, who tries to maintain the formatting to match the
printed version.
In addition, he’s a whiz at e-mail
lists and information dissemination. He produces an MCC newsletter as
well as an on-line version, keeping people in the community apprised of
church activities as well as local happenings.
From the musical and web page beginnings,
Media Workshop grew by word of mouth. Pretty soon, Tom was providing all
manner of computer assistance to local businesses and individuals.
Besides setting up networks (he recently installed a wireless network at
the Sea Witch Manor B&B) he’s been known to rescue the data from
fallen hard drives, reconfigure problem systems, perform upgrades, and
help people navigate the ever-elusive and often frustrating world of
computer literacy.
In addition to their dueling computers
(Gee, Tom can probably plunk out Dueling Banjos, on the computer at a
moment’s notice) the guys volunteer their time at CAMP Rehoboth and
Sussex County AIDS Committee (SCAC).
Every year on World AIDS Day you can see
Tom and Wayne, dressed in white for the program, participating in the
memorial service put together by SCAC at the Bandstand and at Epworth
Church. Wayne’s rich, resonant voice, honed in his radio days, is
always incredibly moving as he reads the names of those being
remembered.
For Wayne and Tom, the remembrance is
personal, as the couple served as primary care givers for Tom’s
brother Bobby who died of HIV infection in 1987. Tom now serves as an
SCAC Board Member and both men participate in the many fundraising
activities for the service organization.
By now, Tom and Wayne are completely
ensconced in beach life and their Media Workshop is thriving. “We love
the opportunities here, and the friendships, Wayne says, “It’s an
amazing community.”
Quick to laugh, Wayne adds, “Of course,
we stopped at Super G for three things this morning and it took an hour
and a half to get out of the store because of all the people we know
that we ran into. Lucky it wasn’t frozen food we were carrying!”
Tom adds, “I love it here. It’s
really an amazing place.”
And they enjoy being able to help people
with their digital services—whether it’s the digits on the keyboard,
or digits in the computer.
“We don’t know all the answers,“
says Tom, “but I think we know where to look to find them.”
If
ya got computer trouble my friend, Tom and Wayne are the media men to
solve the problem. And if you need that brass band after all, these guys
can provide that, too.
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