ListenUp will be inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame on April 8, 2026, as part of the Hall’s inaugural Community Impact class, recognizing organizations whose contributions have helped shape Colorado’s music culture. The induction is part of the Hall’s 15th anniversary celebration.
Founded in 1972 by Walt Stinson, Steve Weiner, and Mary Kay Stinson, ListenUp has spent more than five decades influencing how music is experienced in Colorado — in concert venues, on the air, and in the home.
In its early years, the company became a driving force in Colorado’s live music scene by designing and engineering sound systems for some of the state’s most important venues, including Ebbets Field, the Boulder Theater, Fiddler’s Green, and the Rainbow Music Hall. Touring artists often preferred the quality of ListenUp’s house systems to their own touring rigs, helping establish the company as a trusted name in professional sound. Across Colorado, concert advertising frequently carried the phrase “Sound by ListenUp,” reinforcing the company’s high-fidelity reputation with music lovers.
ListenUp also helped make live concert radio a defining part of Colorado’s music culture. Through collaborations with local broadcasters, the company engineered hundreds of live concert broadcasts heard on stations such as KBCO, KFML, KVOD, KBPI, KADX, and KHOW, helping transform live music on radio into a widely celebrated format during the 1970s and 1980s.
As Colorado emerged as a major stop on the national touring circuit, ListenUp’s engineering work helped define the sound of live music in many of the region’s most important venues.
At the same time, ListenUp founders Walt Stinson and Steve Weiner preserved those broadcasts, creating an archive of more than 300 live recordings documenting a vibrant era in Colorado music history, including rare early recordings of artists who later became Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees and Grammy-winning musicians. Portions of that archive were later released as the four-CD “Live from Ebbets Field” series.
ListenUp’s influence expanded nationally during the early years of digital audio. In 1982, Sony and PolyGram selected ListenUp as an official U.S. launch partner for the Compact Disc. Through early demonstrations, retail leadership, and industry advocacy, the company helped introduce the format to American consumers and played a leading role in the adoption of digital audio.
“For more than 50 years, ListenUp has been guided by one belief: that great music deserves great sound,” says Walt Stinson, co-founder of ListenUp. “From designing live sound systems and recording historic performances to introducing new technologies and serving generations of music lovers, that mission continues to guide everything we do.”
Beyond its technical and commercial achievements, ListenUp has supported Colorado’s music community, launching initiatives including the ListenUp Gardens Concerts, the ListenUpTown concert series, and the donation of sound reinforcement systems to performing arts nonprofits.
Today, ListenUp is one of the largest independent specialty audio/video retailers in the United States, with six brick-and-mortar locations across Colorado’s Front Range and in Albuquerque, New Mexico, while serving customers nationwide through design services, and custom installation. Its e-commerce platform, listenup.com, launched in 1997 during the early years of e-commerce and is among the earliest online platforms in the specialty audio/video industry.
For more information, visit listenup.com.
