Twenty-nine years after starting his disc-jockey business, Randy Rugroden is still loving his work.

“It’s still fun. I enjoy it,” Rugroden, owner of MegaForce Sound & Light Show, said. “My son makes fun of me because so many people know me. But it’s a very friendly business.”

For years, he taught country western line dancing as part of his DJ business, but knee surgery a couple years ago ended that. He was, however, still able to continue to do wedding dances and other events. And as he did, he had numerous requests to add karaoke to his services.

“I always said if I lost my other job, I’d add karaoke,” he said.

So when he did get laid off from his day job recently, he made good on his word.

“When karaoke first came out, it seemed like it was only a bunch of really bad singers,” he joked. About a year and a half ago, though, he went to a bar that had karaoke and found something entirely different.

“I was floored by the number of people who could really sing,” he said.

Rugroden said the fact that bars are now non-smoking also made starting a karaoke business attractive to him.

“That was my ticket to get out and have fun,” he said.

At karaoke, he gets to see the same people out doing it and gets to make friends, he said. “The thing that surprises me the most about karaoke is that they are not normally people who were in choir. It’s more of a social thing. They are there to have fun.”

Rugroden said his disc-jockey equipment alone fills his van, so he’s not able to offer karaoke and dance music at the same event.

He offers karaoke at the Moose Lodge once a month and the Office Bar in Glenville once a month. He also has plans to go to Waseca and Hartland for karaoke.

Whether he’s offering straight music or karaoke, Rugroden prides himself on the personal touches he gives.

“I use a wireless headset mike,” he said. “It’s very interactive.”

He specializes in wedding dances and will give those on the dance floor review of such dances as the “Electric Slide,” “Cha-Cha” and the “Chicken Dance” before starting the music.

He wants people to dance. “The reason people don’t dance is they’re afraid they will look silly,” Rugroden added.

Twenty years ago, people could get away with simply playing music at wedding dances. “Now you have to entertain,” he said.

His calling card, he said, is a dance called “The Shifty Bull.”

“I’m the only one who does that,” he said. “A lot of people ask for it.”

He teaches it to pairs of ladies, and once they know it, “the guys will happily get up and go.

“Once you get them out on the dance floor, they will come back,” Rugroden added.

He was in ninth grade in New Richland when he started as a DJ, and has been doing it continuously except for a year and a half, when he lived in Mankato.

Many people know MegaForce Sound & Light Show by the zebra-striped van Rugroden uses. He got the idea when he was taking a sales and marketing class. After that, people started to remember the name of his business.

“When I added the zebra stripe, the phone calls started,” he said.

Rugroden can be reached at 377-2507.