Ramirez said it has taken a lot of effort and discipline to keep Radio-Active healthy. Effort, in terms of hours logged and creative, entrepreneurial thought dedicated solely to the business. Discipline, in terms of growing without going too far afield of what it is the store is supposed to provide - music.

The places that have gone under, said Ramirez, did so by losing sight of what they are. When an indie record store is suddenly stocking, say, fake leather pants and "other things I can find at a shopping mall," said Ramirez, the spirit threatens to go out of the place, and customers notice.

“Word travels fast,” he said.

The New York Times published a story today about Record Store Day, and even that music-savviest of cities is seeing record stores close at a disheartening clip.

The hole-in-the-wall specialty shops that have long made Lower Manhattan a destination for a particular kind of shopper have never made a great deal of money. But in recent years they have been hit hard by the usual music-industry woes — piracy, downloading — as well as rising real estate prices, leading to the sad but familiar scene of the emptied store with a note taped to the door.

Some 3,100 record stores around the country have closed since 2003, according to the Almighty Institute of Music Retail, a market research firm. And that’s not just the big boxes like the 89 Tower Records outlets that closed at the end of 2006; nearly half were independent shops. In Manhattan and Brooklyn at least 80 stores have shut down in the last five years.

But the survivors aren’t giving up just yet. Saturday is Record Store Day, presented by a consortium of independent stores and trade groups, with hundreds of retailers in the United States and some overseas cranking up the volume a bit to draw back customers and to celebrate the culture of buying, selling and debating CDs and vinyl.

Among the highlights: Metallica will be greeting fans at Rasputin Music in Mountain View, Calif., and Regina Spektor is to perform at Sound Fix, a four-year-old shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that like many has learned to get creative, regularly offering free performances. At Other Music, a capital of underground music on East Fourth Street in Manhattan that faces a shuttered Tower Records, a roster of indie-rock stars will be playing D.J. all afternoon, including members of Tapes ’n Tapes, Grizzly Bear and Deerhunter.

One-day-only record releases will also be part of the event. Vinyl singles by R.E.M., Death Cab for Cutie, Vampire Weekend, Stephen Malkmus and others are being sold on Saturday, and labels big and small are contributing sampler discs and other goodies.

Radio-Active is participating by offering all-day discounts inside the store and at retail displays that will be set up on the curb outside. There'll also be giveaways as part of a day in which everyone will be encouraged to, in Ramirez's words, "just hang out" - which I've found is almost always the best way to approach quality time at a well-stocked record store.

Radio-Active isn't the only store of its kind in our area. Uncle Sam's is a local mainstay, with locations including Lauderhill, and there's Blue Note in Dania Beach, which moved from North Miami Beach last year as part of its strategy for surviving in the 21st Century.