Q1 2004 The Singing Machine Co. Earnings Conference Call - Final.

Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE

OPERATOR: Welcome to The Singing Machine first-quarter results conference call. (CALLER INSTRUCTIONS). I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Robert Weinberg, Chief Executive Officer.

ROBERT WEINBERG, PRESIDENT, CEO AND DIRECTOR, THE SINGING MACHINE CO.: Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining me this morning for The Singing Machine's fiscal 2004 first-quarter results conference call. It is a great pleasure from me to be here this morning with Y.P. Chan, who became COO about four months ago, and April Green, our CFO.

As you know, I was named CEO less than a month ago, though I have been a Director of the Company since 2001. I succeeded Eddie Steele who announced his desire to step down from his day-to-day responsibilities as Chairman and CEO. I want to thank Eddie for all that he accomplished at Singing Machine. He saw an opportunity in karaoke that no one else saw, he created a new industry and helped build Singing Machine into a meaningful dynamic company. We are pleased that Singing Machine will continue to benefit from Eddie's vision, guidance, energy and passion as a marketing and product consultant.

As for me, the nearly 30 years I served in various management positions within Toys "R" Us, I rose through the ranks from Buyer Trainee to Senior Vice President General Merchandise Manager where I was responsible for purchasing, advertising, marketing, imports, product development, store planning and allocations for the entire Toys "R" Us chain for more than 700 stores in the U.S. division, and I also served as a liaison for the International Division in those areas as well. I retired from Toys "R" Us in 2000 and founded Value Creations Group, which is a manufacturing, marketing and distribution company based in Ramsey, New Jersey. So hopefully you can see that I have considerable experience in the areas most important to Singing Machine as we enter into a new phase of this Company's history.

Another important personnel I would like to mention is that Howard Moore succeeded Eddie as Chairman of the Board. Howard has been a Director of Singing Machine since August 2000. He joined Toys "R" Us in 1980 as Executive Vice President and General Merchandise Manager and was a member of that Board of Directors for Toys "R" Us from 1984 to 2000. Additionally we also recently announced the hiring of a new Sales Director, Dennis Nordon (ph), who has over 25 years of successful selling experience, as well as Robert O'Connor who also joined as Sales Director who formally had served as Vice President of Sales at Economy of American Heat (ph) as well brings over 30 years of consumer electronics selling experience to our company. Dennis and Robert report to Jack Dromgold, who was promoted to Executive VP to Sales and Marketing. And those of you who have followed the Company for awhile will recall that Jack joined us last year after serving since 1993 as Vice President of Sales for Hasbro (ph) Games. These management changes are more than skin deep. There is just an incredible amount of experience and talent within the group.

I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that we are well on our way to building a new Singing Machine, but let me explain what I mean. My first order of business when I took over the reins of CEO a couple of weeks ago was to work with Y.P. and the Board to develop and implement an action plan designed to enhance every key area of our operations. We are working closely with our primary lender, La Salle Business Credit, and we remain optimistic -- but cannot guarantee -- that we will negotiate in the near future a restructured credit …