CUYAHOGA FALLS: Rich Kunkel was late and Scott Shepard knew it.

As the owner of Time Traveler CDs & DVDs at 2615 State Road, Shepard can just about set his clock by Kunkel, 55, a Medina County resident who usually arrives between 4:30 and 5 p.m. every Friday to check out what's new in the CD bins. He's affectionately known as ''Friday Rich.''

But last week, Kunkel didn't show until 5:15 p.m. after taking a midafternoon nap, and he had a particular CD in mind.

''I am anticipating THE NEW JACK BRUCE,'' he said to Shepard in a loud voice. ''Did it come in?''

Unfortunately, not yet. But Kunkel really didn't mind, because he was there to take in the vibe of the store as much as to find the box set by one of the members of the band Cream.

Time Traveler, which opened in 1991, is a throwback to record stores of decades past.

Rock music posters are hung throughout the place and music plays constantly from the speakers. Shoppers can find 20,000 vinyl records there, as well as 50,000 CD titles. The store carries 28 titles by the Byrds alone.

Movies, including concert DVDs, are a more modern offering, making up 30 to 35 percent of the sales.

With the CD business taking a hit from digital sales and illegal downloads, these are not good times for most record stores, and the 53-year-old Shepard has had a bird's-eye view of the change.

''I hardly see any kids anymore,'' he said of the customers who come to his Cuyahoga Falls store, as well as a spinoff business in Hudson. ''Kids don't buy CDs. They come in to look at the covers of the stuff they downloaded and show their friends: 'Look, I downloaded this!' ''

In fact, he said, many of the young people who venture into Time Traveler admit they don't even own a CD player.

Slumping industry

Statistics from the Recording Industry Association of America show that from 2006 to 2007, the dollar value of CDs shipped fell 20.5 percent, from $9.37 billion to $7.45 billion.

And just this month, Apple announced that its iTunes store sold more digital downloads than Wal-Mart sold CDs, making it the No. 1 music retailer in the United States.

But Shepard's Cuyahoga Falls location is still thriving, with a regular cast of characters frequently stopping by.

One customer comes every day between 3:30 and 3:40 p.m., and Shepard has set up a special bin for him.

''He always wants the greatest hits of bands, the Time-Life Collections,'' Shepard said.

Another regular, known as ''Shotgun,'' likes to talk about his weapon collections and loves bands like the Allman Brothers.

Still another customer stops in a few times a week and walks out with a stack of music every time.

''I think, 'Pretty soon his collection will be complete,' '' Shepard said, ''and every week, he finds more stuff to buy.''

Shepard has long been devoted to the record business, buying Introducing the Beatles on VeeJay Records as his first album. He was good at finding deals and traveled the country to sell his finds at record shows.

He got his first job in a record store in Denver in 1976 and later ran a series of stores in the Akron area. He opened on State Road in 1991, calling the place Titlewave. The following year, he changed the name to Time Traveler. His Hudson store opened last fall, but he is not sure whether he will be able to stay in business there.

Despite the industry problems, Shepard still smiles when he talks about owning a record store.

''When you are listening to music,'' he said, ''it's sort of like traveling through time.''

Loyal customers

The customers keep things interesting, he said.

''I have a clientele that comes in from all over the place,'' Shepard said.

On a recent Friday, Joe Kalial, 55, a Fairlawn resident, came to State Road in search of a Rascals' song titled How Can I Be Sure.

''It's hard to find some of this stuff,'' Kalial said. ''They have it.''

Also walking in the door that day and walking out with Bruce Springsteen's The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, was J.C. Hoenigman, 49, an accountant from Cuyahoga Falls.

''We've been coming here since they opened,'' he said.

Author Chuck Klosterman was a frequent visitor to Shepard's store when he was the Beacon Journal's pop culture writer several years ago.

''I always thought Time Traveler was one of the few record stores designed for the musical completist,'' Klosterman said in an e-mail from Germany, where he is teaching for a semester at the University of Leipzig. ''TT is where you could find lost music. If you needed an unpopular Kinks record from the mid-'70s or the first Black Oak Arkansas album or the entire Loudness catalog, they would either have it on hand or get it for you in a week.''

Klosterman, who writes for Esquire and ESPN and whose novel Downtown Owl comes out in September, said the name Time Traveler fits the store.

''As a consumer, you can literally travel through time.''

Robert Ethington, the popular culture manager for the Akron-Summit County Public Library, is another store regular.

Inside Time Traveler, ''it is always 1969,'' Ethington said, ''and you're far more likely to hear some obscure Arthur Lee and Love cranked from the speaker than anything from the last decade.''

''Friday Rich'' Kunkel, who worked as a printer in Stark County for 30 years and now studies medical coding at Stark State College, started going to record stores on Friday afternoons more than three decades ago.

''It hearkens back,'' he said of the Friday visits. ''You get paid on Fridays. . . . New releases came out on Friday. I usually have something on order.''

Kunkel has a collection of thousands of vinyl records and CDs that gets bigger each week.

''I'm older school,'' he said. ''I like the legit copy in my hand.''