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At This Shop 'Hearin' is Happening'

Jessica Bair/SUNCOAST NEWS

Jan Eberhardt stands inside his bold and brightly colored hearing aid shop, The Ear Shop, on Little Road in the New Port Richey area.

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By Jessica  Bair | The Suncoast News

Published: September 15, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - The slogan of the Ear Shop is "Where the Hearin' is Happenin'."

That is a statement that Jan Eberhardt, the managing partner of the store, hopes clients will understand.

Walking into the shop at 9804 Little Road, a visitor is confronted with bright splashes of color and retro style furniture. They surround hearing aids and other assistive listening devices, such as vibrating alarm clocks and wireless television ears.

The retired Alabama bankruptcy lawyer says he wants to cater to the baby boomer generation who are "not adverse to getting hearing aids."

"We've had success with the baby boomer group because they don't really care" about having to get one, Eberhardt adds.

The licensed hearing instrument specialist partnered with his brother-in-law Ted Brown Jr., M.D., an ear, nose and throat specialist in Spring Hill, two years ago after Brown began selling hearing aids from his office.

"We wanted to make it a little more retail friendly," Eberhardt says of the year-old shop.

"Typically people don't want a hearing aid and take someone or something, like their doctor, to convince them. Maybe these people need a boost to get them here," he says.

Besides the hip decor that channels Jimi Hendrix, the boost comes in the form of tiny high-tech digital hearing devices sold at the store and technology services that Eberhardt provides his clients.

A video otoscope looks down into the client's ear canal, which Brown can view simultaneously on his office computer in Spring Hill to further diagnose a particular issue or problem. A Web camera mounted on top of the monitor allows the client and the ENT specialist to discuss options.

"It's not just another medical procedure," Eberhardt, 53, promises. "It's a little more lively ... a normal, happier experience."

While sleek and smaller than your grandparents hearing aids, the Oticon Delta and Starkey Laboratories Destiny hearing products Eberhardt sells can cost upwards of $2,000.

The digital hearing aids process each frequency individually to achieve a boost in only the frequencies that have a loss.

"These open-fitting devices are all the rage," Eberhardt says. The ear bud, which sits inside the ear, allows air and natural sound in without plugging up the entire ear.

Eberhardt, however, recently became a vocational rehabilitation vendor, which will allow him to help clients of the Vocational Rehabilitation program to receive hearing devices for free so they may prepare, secure, regain or retain employment.

The Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation is a state- and federally funded employment program that assists individuals with disabilities or impairments to pursue meaningful careers, says Jeri Yopp, an administrative assistant for VR in New Port Richey.

It has three offices in Pasco County with one located inside Career Center Central, 4440 Grand Blvd., New Port Richey.

"We do whatever is needed to put them back to work," Yopp says. The Ear Shop is reimbursed by the state for the devices dispersed to these clients.

"Hearing loss isn't this big terrible thing and nothing to be embarrassed about," Eberhardt says. "The older you get the more important it is, especially if its to keep your job."

For more information on the Ear Shop, telephone 727-819-9794 or visit is Web site.

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