National Radio Publicity Directory

My favorite description is from the 1987 edition of the Standard Directory of Advertising Agencies. It reads as follows "The oldest publication dealing exclusively with radio talk show information, the NRPD sets the standard for comprehensive coverage of radio contacts in the USA and Canada"  That was true, until probably the mid-1990s, the problem was that it stopped publishing in the mid-1980s. It's also completely unclear why it stopped. I was still using paper directories 20 years later, so it wasn't the jump to digital.

from Radio Broadcasting from 1920 to 1990

These editions are hard to find; and information is scant. I've been looking for one for years now. But I have confirmed the existence of multiple editions from 1973, through 1985 but I've never found a physical copy or even a picture of one. I do think I've identified the start of the series via a blurb in the Television/Radio Age of August 15th,1977. It refers to the 1977-78 directory as the "fifth edition" If that was always an annual, it would start the series in 1972. I'll quote the whole blurb, it's one of the longer reviews it ever got. 

"The 1977-78 edition of National Radio Publicity Directory has been issued by Peter Glenn Publications. The fifth edition, which lists 3,500 radio stations and 2,500 talk shows, covers local outlets, networks, syndicated shows and college stations. Listings also include call letters, dial positions, network affiliation, watts, coverage and station format. Cities are grouped and cross-referenced to show the overlapping reach, particularly in the 200 major markets. There are other features as well. The annual subscription price includes a six-months update. The directory has a forward by Marge Warder,account executive at Burston-Marsteller. Price for the directory is $70 plus postage, handling and tax."

I did find a copyright entry from 1973 which tends to support an early 1970s start date. But if we think 1972 is the first year of publication, this The New York Times Advertising article on March 13, 1972 [SOURCE] would be some of it's first advertising copy in print. 

"One of the most popular types of directory, or at least so it seems, is the kind that lists outlets for the efforts of public relations practitioners. One such outlet, certainly, is the radio talk show, and so enters the National Radio Publicity Directory with information on over 1,000 talk shows. Peter Glenn Publications, 19 East 48th Street is selling them for $60 a copy. That includes the hard covers."

It's hard to know when the series began publishing semi-annually. Peter Glenn Publications was founded in 1956; though I am still inclined to think the series began in 1972. That image up top is from the book Radio Broadcasting from 1920 to 1990 by Diane Foxhill Carothers. It's a massive bibliography of radio-related texts. [LINK] It alone notes that the 1982 edition (which might actually be aka the 1981 edition) is the 12th edition, that's the only indication I have that the publication may date back prior to 1972. Though biannual editions would throw off that count. That 1981 edition has the most available metadata: it's authorship includes: Peter Glenn, Ronn Robinson, Bowen Jeffries, and David Vando. The book Making PSAs work lists a 1982 issue, and is the only print source to do so.  Around 1981 it started to be advertised as the "NRPD". 

It appears in the highly recursive The Directory of Directories in 1985, thought it was by all appearances already defunct. The Standard Directory of Advertising Agencies listed the book at a hefty $70 in 1977. A year later the Guide to American Directories describes it thusly

"Lists U.S. radio stations airing talk shows, network syndicated and local, with time spots, areas covered, or radius, format, size of audience, network affiliation, topics of interest discussed, and other pertinent information. Also lists college radio stations. 416 pgs. Annual"

I've started assembling a table of  the ISBN numbers. ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. That debuted as a 9 digit system in 1967 and expanded to 10 digits in 1970. ISBN-13 didn't debut until 2007. All the known editions are from between 1973 and 1985 so I expect any that have an ISBN to have a 10 digit ISBN with a "97" prefix. 

Year	Cost	ISBN	Year
1972	$60.00		2024
1973			2019
1974			2013
1975			2014
1976			2006
1977	$70.00		2012
1978		9780873140980	2022
1979			2022
1980		9780873140454	2022
1981	$77.00	9780873140478	2022
1982		970873140496	2022
1983	$179.95		2022
1984			2009

In the 1983 edition of the Unabashed Self-Promoter's Guide [SOURCE] I found a reference to the National Radio Publicity Directory possibly changing hands. The National Radio Publicity Directory shows up as a Morgan Rand Publication with an address of "2200 Sansom Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 Phone: (215) 557-8200" and describes it terms very similar to the original. "Deals with over 8,000 network, syndicated and local talk shows in the United States and Canada. $179.50 plus $10 shipping." Morgan Rand had that phone number through at least 1994. By 2014 Morgan-Rand Inc. had relocated to 1800 Byberry Road, Building 8. Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006, with a new phone number 215-938-5549. 

In the 1980s and 1990s Morgan-Rand marketed themselves not just as a publisher of directories, but also a full service directory consultancy, the "central source of information on directory publishing..." It seems very likely they were helping with the National Radio Publicity Directory; then perhaps took it over in the early-1980s. Info Commerce appears to own it today. [SOURCE]