Nashville Entrepreneur: Buckin’ the Corporate Life

Nashville Business In Review, October 22, 1996
Story by Laura Millard

From the windy streets of Chicago to the royal trappings of Kuwait City, Glen Trew has worked on projects as varied as presidential press conferences and Gulf War newscasts to the highest of art forms, made-for-TV movies. He’s not one of those household names but he brings them to your screen just the same.

Trew is the owner of Trew Audio, a seven-person company that specializes in recording engineering for TV and film sound. Like most entrepreneurs, Trew found out what he liked and then got a job doing it.

A music major and French horn player in college, Trew has always been interested in the sound industry. His career began in the music industry making demo recordings. Soon he was mixing music programs as an engineer at Channel 5. "After the television industry experiences, I got more interested in the picture side of the recording industry than the music," he recalls. "So I gravitated to the area of least competition."

Since 1976, Trew’s worked mainly in recording engineering for TV and film sound; the two make up 90 percent of his business. Trew Audio also sells, rents and services equipment, and manufactures specialty equipment. One of Trew’s newest inventions, a revolutionary battery pack capable of powering a variety of sound equipment, has received international attention. Currently, Trew is negotiating with an Australian film company to distribute his innovation around the world.

With more than 20 years in the business, most of Trew’s knowledge is rooted in experience, not training or school. Trends change quickly, and a lot of the business cannot be taught. "I started in 1980 with just me and a mic," he recalls. Until 1990, he was a free-lancer who rented equipment. Now, Trew has seven employees and is expanding his offices and staff. By year’s end, he plans to have nine employees on board.

But it’s not the business that keeps Trew going. "I love the variety of film work," he adds. "One day I might be doing a McDonald’s commercial, the next, a BBC film on brain surgery, and the next, an interview with the President.