ADRIAN — The first time Mike McLemore ran sound at the Lenawee County Fair, he was convinced he’d never be asked to do it again.

He was brand new to the sound business — “young and dumb,” in his own words — and went into the job with nowhere near enough staff. It was overwhelming.

“I was so disappointed in myself, I thought ‘Nobody’s ever going to hire me again,’” he recalled. But instead, the fair board asked him back.

That was 50 years ago, and he’s been managing sound at the fairgrounds ever since.

McLemore, who now lives near Onsted, started working in sound while he was still a student at Adrian High School. He would repair equipment and do installations for everyone from churches to businesses that wanted to play background music.

Sometimes that required creative solutions. He once bought a radio-controlled car and used it to run wires above the ceiling tiles in a store.

In 1980, he named his business The Sound Doctor, and he’s still using that name today.

Fifty years ago, the sound setup at the fair wasn’t much to look at. First, the sound board at the bandshell was just set up on the bleachers; later on, it was placed on a piece of scaffolding. Neither setup was ideal for expensive equipment. One year, during a heavy storm, McLemore had to stay on the scaffolding with his gear, desperately holding tarps in place to protect it from the wind and rain.

A few years later, the current tower in the back of the seating area was built.

McLemore has seen plenty of changes in sound technology over the past 50 years. The digital age has made everything smaller — “there was a time I owned speakers I couldn’t pick up by myself,” he said — and speakers are much better. 

On the other hand, technology has brought new challenges, such as people wanting to play music over the sound system from their phones. “That makes me nervous, because I don’t know what’s going to come on their phone,” he said.

The fairgrounds have changed too.

“We’ve watched the fair grow quite a bit over the years,” he said. The current bandshell is the fair’s third, and the show barn recently underwent a major renovation.

“I’d say the last few years the grounds have improved incredibly,” McLemore said.

All four of McLemore’s children helped with sound at the fairgrounds growing up, and one — his daughter Megan — still takes time off from her job every year to work the fair.

The Sound Doctor currently maintains and operates a total of 13 sound systems at the fairgrounds, covering everything from the bandshell and grandstand to the show barns and the public address system.

Not surprisingly, McLemore has seen a lot of concerts and competitions at the fairgrounds over the years. But one stands out in particular — for personal reasons, not professional ones.

He was working at a fair queen contest, paying more attention to the sound board than to what anyone was doing on stage, when he heard something he didn’t expect: the outgoing fair queen thanking the sound team for their work.

“That’s not something sound guys hear,” he said. “We hear when it doesn’t work.”

He and his wife, Michelle, have been married for 32 years this September — and it all started at the fair.

Today, The Sound Doctor consists mainly of McLemore and two employees, Chris Momany and Dave Cramer. They run sound for fairs and festivals all over the country, from Vermont to Florida to Iowa. But for McLemore, the Lenawee County Fair is still special.

“We do a lot of national stuff, which is fun,” he said, “but it’s not as much fun as this.”