As in many other industries, technology has a habit of quickly replacing old equipment in the music business. But with many musicians and listeners yearning for the feel and sound of vintage instruments, a small company out of Gainesville, Fla., has found a way to reconcile those two trends.

ToneRite, which is one of the hundreds of companes exhibiting at the Summer NAMM conference this week, has created a device capable of simulating the amount of vibrations guitar strings would receive after being played vigorously for more than 30 years.

The main idea behind the device is to provide guitar players with a string vibrator that is able to recreate the vintage sound of 1970s-era electric and acoustic guitars — something that normally takes decades to develop — in a matter of days.

ToneRite, which launched its first product in 2007, now has about nine employees and a range of products for different instruments. According to ToneRite global relations manager Andrew Solomon, the device his company is named for “fuses together tradition and technology,” which he said is something the music industry tends not to do.

Tourism officials in Pensacola, Fla., have chosen Bohan Advertising to market their region — which is home to the Blue Angels, among other things — to the wide world for three years. Gulch-based Bohan will officially begin working on the account in October.

A number of Miami-area doctors are complaining about the way HCA Holdings officials have ended their employment with the hospital giant. In addition to facing a big pay cut and/or a short time window in which to close down their practices, they say HCA's big physician recruiting push in recent years isn't working as well operationally as had been promised. The company said the doctors' exits are a normal business decision, but a former exec says the doctors' gripes could be a sign of bigger problems.

Curtis, who left HCA in 2010, said that HCA’s physician practices “just grew too fast,” hiring hundreds of doctors a year, and didn’t have the infrastructure to support them at its headquarters in Tennessee. “There were huge delays in getting claims, credentialing, and it just went on and on. It was not a well orchestrated process. Now they’re at a stage where they’re cutting doctors to reduce their losses.”

Nashville native and plumbing services veteran Tab Hunter is bringing his Florida-based company to the area. The twist on the enterprise Hunter acquired in 2010: It's surfer-themed.

“Our brand is sticky,” Hunter says. “When people see our trucks, they always ask, ‘What is that?’ or ‘Who are The Surfin’ Plumbers?’ I think that people who don’t live on a coastline find the brand more appealing. If you think about it, [the Sarasota-Manatee] area is not known for surfing, but the brand still resonates.”

National Nurses United officials are basking in the glow of a wide-ranging labor deal they've signed with HCA executives in Florida. The new contract covers more than 3,000 nurses at 10 hospitals across the Sunshine State. Union leaders plan to leverage the deal in other parts of the country.

RNs say the settlement could influence negotiations at 6 other HCA hospitals in Texas and Missouri where NNU affiliates are also in first contract talks.  In December, 2011, 450 RNs at HCA's MountainView Hospital in Las Vegas, members of NNU's Nevada affiliate, reached agreement on their first contract.  HCA RNs at two San Jose, CA, hospitals begin their negotiations for contract renewals this month.  Menorah Medical Center RNs in Kansas will do the same this summer.

Sitel today announced the opening of a new call center in Ocala City, Fla.

The center is expected to hire 500 customer support agents.

“This is a very exciting time for Sitel as we grow our North American footprint and continue to mean more to our clients, shareholders, associates and communities,” Judy Morris, Sitel vice president of human resources for the Americas, said in a release. “We are moving quickly and establishing a strong managerial staff to lead this new site.”

Nashville-based Sitel is a business process outsourcing provider with an international presence.