Dirty Record Promoters

In the February 6th, 1971 issue of Billboard, Bob Glassenberg didn't run a college radio chart or reports of any kind. He listed off all the record label contacts. As far as I know this is the only record of who was servicing college radio in that era. The college reporter lists from FMQB and CMJ were still a decade away.  Below I collate the two lists for a "complete" Rolodex of who a college radio Music Director would have called or written to for record servicing way back in 1971. 

In the record business you're either a lifer or you come and go before you get your hands dirty. I'm going to see what I can dig up on each of these promoters to see where they landed after the stagflationary cursed year of 1971. 

Label	POC	Address
A&M Records	Lance Freed	1416 La Brea Ave. Hollywood, CA 90028
ABC Records	Larry Ray	8255 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90048
Atlantic Records	Janet Duboff	1841 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
Barnaby Records	Carol Smith	1009 17th Ave. South Nashville, TN 37212
Bell Records	Howie Rosen	1776 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
Beverly Hills Records	Morris Diamond	6430 Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90028
Buddah Records	Andy Schwartz	1650 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
Capitol Records	Caroline Allmark	1750 N. Vine St. Hollywood, CA 90028
CBS Records	Kate Buckley	51 West 52nd St. New York, NY 10019
Colossus Records	Steve Schulman	1855 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
Douglas Records	Neil Illiano	145 W. 55th St. New York, NY 10019
Elektra Records	Bob Brownstein	15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023
GRT Records	Margo Knez	1301 6th Ave., New York, NY 10019
Hare Records	John Rowe	PO Box 129, Andrews, TX  79714
Kent Records	Joe Bihari	5810 S.Normandie Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90069
Lounge Records	Cornelius Dale	PO Box 4358 Jersey City, NJ 07304
Mercury Records	Denny Rozencrantz	35 E. Wacker Dr. Chircao, IL 60601
Mediarts Records	Penny Mitchell	9229 Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90069
Metromedia Records	Stan Monteiro	1700 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
MGM records	Sol Handwerger	1350 6th Ave, New York, NY 10019
Poppy Records	Morty Wax Assoc.	1650 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
Polydor Records	Larry Heller	8733 Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90069
All Platinum Records	Bill Darnell	106  Palisade Ave, Englewood, NJ 07631
Stang Records	Bill Darnell	106  Palisade Ave, Englewood, NJ 07631
Rare Earth Records	Alan Di Noble	2457 Woodward Ave. Detroit, MI 48201
Motown Records	Alan Di Noble	2457 Woodward Ave. Detroit, MI 48201
Roulette Records	Ed Kerwin	1700 W. 60th St. New York, NY 10023
Skeejin-A-Lintoo Records	Frank Growling Bear	PO Box 3453 Bridgeport, CT 06605
Warner Bros. Records	Billy Goldstein (East)	400 Warner Blvd. Burbank, CA 91503
Warner Bros. Records	Ron Goldstein (West)	400 Warner Blvd. Burbank, CA 91503

Lance Freed was the son of famous DJ Alan Freed. He was hired by A&M in 1966, and became the head of the newly created College Promotion department.  A year later he became executive assistant to Jerry Moss. Andy Meyer was took over as the college promotion director.  In 1973 Freed moved over to Rondor Music publishing with Jerry Moss where he stayed for decades, eventually becoming president. [SOURCE]

jimvallance.com  (Freed far left)

Larry Ray actually started at Elektra working there form 1964 to 1969 becoming the Director of National Promotions. He crossed the street to ABC records in 1969 eventually becoming the General Manager and he stayed there until 1971. Ray was out of music for decades until he landed in 1990 at Bruit Publishing working with some smaller Nashville publishers like Tumbleweed. 

I get the impression Janet Duboff is more obscure than she should be. In august of 1971 Glassenberg wrote "Janet Duboff is taking at least a month's leave of absence, which may be permanent, from Atlantic Records' College Department to go to go to Europe and work on "Gimme Shelter" promotion."  In October there was another update "Gunter Hauer has taken over as head of the Atlantic Records Campus Department. And he'll make quite a head. He's been on the campus radio scene with Atlantic for the past five years and even though he has not had the title, previously held by Janet Duboff, one might say that Hauer is the man behind the scene."  There isn't another word about here anywhere. More here. 

Barnaby Records was founded by adult pop singer Andy Williams and his business partner Alan Bernard in 1970. He named it after his dog. In 1971 Williams bought out Bernard. Barnaby ceased to be a working label by the late 1970s and Williams licensed the music to other labels. There is no record of her outside this list. 

Howie Rosen is a lifer. Today he runs his own eponymous promotions company today. [SOURCE] He started at Bell Records in the late 1960s, then jumped to Elektra, then Private Stock Records, Casablanca Records, and then Bearsville Records. In 1981, Mo Ostin and Russ Thyret invited Howie to join Warner/Reprise Records as VP of Promotion. In the 80s he went on to work at Motown, A&M, and in 1985 finally founded his own Howard Rosen Promotion, Inc. He was around so long we did cross paths. He mentored other radio promoters like Rex Donati, Chris Diaz and the infamous Siri Rosen. 

Morris I. Diamond was a musician before he was a promoter. He was born in 1921, in the Bronx and in the 1940s began his music career as a “band boy” for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. In December of 1970 Cashbox magazine records his self-releasing one of his acts: "Morris Diamond offers a capsule review of his own act (the Zekes), a three man group that records for Beverly Records: This is without a doubt one of the best action groups to come out of the L.A. market"  In the same issue they note that he signed two acts, Frank Fanelli and the Jubals. Before running Beverly Hills, he was the national promotion director of Mercury Records in the 1960s. In the 1980s he became a concert promoter mostly abroad, in Turkey. In 2018 Morris published his memoir, The Name Dropper, or People I Schlepped With.  He died in 2019. [SOURCE]

Billboard Jan. 1972

In 1971 Record World Magazine wrote that Andy Schwartz was working with the brothers, Joe and Slanz Bilello where were then, newly hired national album field reps. In 1972 Billboard reported that Andy Schwartz will be leaving Buddah Records to return to the sunny climes of Florida. "No replacement has been named but it's a good bet that his partner, Larry Harris, will take over the chores at least for moment."  In 1978 an Andy Schwartz played keyboards for the Buddah records artist Chic; I really hope that's the same dude. But my all appearances... he got out.

In February 1971, Caroline Allmark is named Capitol Records National College Rep, she was formerly national airplay coordinator. Cashbox noted it as well "Miss Allmark will function as liaison between colleges across the country and Capitol, and will make personal contact with students, faculty, student press and radio to develop a closer Capitol/college relationship. She will also act as coordinator for special campus marketing plans and promotional ideas, and act as spokesman from campus to Capitol for any problems concerning Capitol merchandise and sales revealed to her. In her former job at Capitol, Miss Allmark was responsible for the coordination of national album promotion through field promotion managers. She also conceived, developed, and directed national and regional promotion for album product." She had been in the prior role since February 1970. 

In October 1971 billboard recorded that "CBS Records has a staff of 49 college students working under Kate Buckley and Rick Dobbis." These were college reps, a street team-like convention that continues at some record labels to this day. In February of 1972 Perry Margolin at WRSN was complaining about Kate. "He said he was receiving fair to excellent service from every record company around except for Columbia..." By July of 1972 Sam Sutherland wrote "On June26, Kate Buckley, director of Columbia Records' campus program, met with friends and associates at the CBS offices in New York. The party signaled Ms. Buckley's departure from Columbia and from campus record promotion. For the moment, then, Frank Shargo will handle problems but Ms. Buckley leaves behind many friends" 

Colossus Records was founded in 1969 and closed in 1971, bought out by MGM. Schulman went independent. The window was short. Still, he gets a mention in Cashbox in May of 1970. "He will work in close cooperation with distributors in promoting Colossus-Heritage artists and product. Steve Schulman, of [Jerry] Ross’ promotion department, will handle national radio promotion working closely with D.J.'s and distributors." He got a similar mention in Record World that January. Cashbox gave him a full plug in April 1979  " Steve Schulman has been named director of creative services for Zane Management, Inc. Zane Management currently handles business affairs for jazz artist Grover Washington, Jr.; artist, writer and producer Bunny Sigler and others. Schulman's 18-year career includes his independent Schulman Record Promotion Services; vice president in charge of national promotion for Colossus Records; vice president and general manager for Gregar Records (RCA); national promotion director for Salsoul Records." By 1981 he had founded Schulman International to release schlocky exercise LPs. 

Cashbox records that in November of 1970 that Douglas Records launched a college radio department and hired Neil Illiano. "Appointed to head the new department is Neil Illiano, who comes to Douglas from the exec staff of University Review, a major literary/review monthly distributed on over 150 campuses."  I'm sure he was a very well-read man. But there is nothing about that resume that tells me he will survive promo. He gets mentioned in Cashbox and the Billboard list in February of 1971 and disappears.  Douglas Records was founded by Alan Douglas Rubenstein in 1967. The label still exits today but it's output peaked in 1977. The last mention of Illiano is in the Billboard September 1971 International Buyers Guide.

Back in October of 1970 Bob "Brownie" Brownstein was a new hire at Elektra as the Campus Promotion man. By November of 1971 he was bitching about college kids at the Loyola Radio Conference "Most stations don't pick up the phone to inform promotion people of when records arrive, if they were damaged or what response the album is getting (including which cuts are programmed). It was at this session that college people were surprisingly silent, without making comments about service or product." He doesn't appear in the trades after 1972. 

In 1968 Margo Knez was announced as the manager of promotion services at Epic records. The US branch of GRT records was founded in 1970, so Margo Knez had to be a recent hire. After exiting GRT, in 1973, Knez went to Stereo-Dimension records on 7th Ave. in New York. She went from there to MCA where she became the director of national promotion. Oddly in 1980 Cash Box reported that she "ankled [sic] the label and will relocate in New York as an indie. 

Hare records was an indie label based in Andrews Texas. It was active from at least 1969 - 1982 based on it's releases. Many of these list John Rowe as producer and/or owner. But some time around 1980 some of the 45s display Henderson and Nashville, TN addresses indicating a sale or business relocation. Either way the label seemed to cease operations shortly thereafter. More info here. 

There were four Bihari brothers: Lester, Jules, Saul and Joe. They founded Crown records, Modern Records, and Meteor records notably. In the mid-1960s, Modern Records entered bankruptcy but the Bihari's sold the catalog to their new record label: Kent Records.  Born in 1925, Joe was already 46 when those college kids were writing to Kent for free records. Joe outlived his brothers surviving, until 2013. 

Cornelius Dale is a complete mystery.  There was a gospel artist by that name active in the early 1970s, with a heavy hand on the Hammond B3 organ. He recorded with a series of different gospel artists all released on Glori Records which used another Jersey City PO Box. He penned the liner notes in most cases.

When that list was made, Denny Rosencrantz was already the National LP Promotion Manager at Mercury.  Mercury has also named Denny Rosencrantz to the post of national pop promotion director. In April 1971 he was promoted to National Pop Promotion. By 1972 his title included West Coast A&R Manager. Eventually they added  Phonogram President. He rolled with Kim Fowley and Captain Beefheart. In 1975 he signed Joan Jett and The Runaways assuring his place in history. By 1980 he was president of A&R for MCA. He was later president of BC records and VP at HK Management under Howard Kaufman.  Together they put out a flood of crappy hair bands in the 80s. 

Penny Mitchell is another mystery. Mediarts was an indie label founded in 1970 by Alan Livingston and Nick Venet. They were acquired by United Artists in 1972. 

I did ask the legendary Ron Harris is he remembered any of these folks. The first name he recalled was Stan Monteiro. He an absolute lifer. After working as a performing musician in jazz orchestras, he started his promo career at an indie in Boston; Herb Dale Enterprises. From there he jumped to RCA in 1966. When he left in 1970, he was replaced by Fred Ruppert. Monteiro had co-founded Jefferson Airplane’s record label Grunt in 1971 and was working at Metromedia in the early 1970s and got hired on as the VP of promotions at Columbia by 1972. He was back at Epic as VP of West coast promotions where he stayed into the 1980s. He was also director of marketing at CashBox in the late 1970s. He died in 2019. More here. 

Sol Handwerger was at MGM forever. Pittsburgh State U. Collections has a letters to and from Handwerger written in 1949. [SOURCE]  Back then the MGM Records logo had a byline below it "A Division of Loews Incorporated."  A 1960 article in The Music Reporter gave his title as Publicity Director. In 1967 CashBox published an article penned by Sol "My 20 Years with MGM Records."  That would date his start at MGM to the very founding of the label in 1947 by Frank Walker. He was still hustling jukeboxes even in the early 1970s, something that was rapidly going out of fashion. In 1973 Billboard reported he was formerly with MGM then that same year, Sol joined Audiofidelity Enterprises, after 25 years at MGM. Born in 1916 he was 56 in 1972 when that list was published; twice the age of the kids calling for records.

Poppy records was founded by Kevin Eggers in 1967. It appears he subbed his publicity work to Morty Wax Associates. Morty appears in the Glassenberg promo lists as learly as 1970. Which is also the first date they appear in Record World; the tiny photo merely identifies Howard Sherman standing beside Mike Millius from Uni. But Morty Dennis Wax was a real person, born in 1932 a song-writer, song-plugger, and eventually a promoter. Sources disagree as to the time line but he was a promo man for ABC-Paramount in the early 1950s, and in 1956 went to work for Edward B. Marks Music.  Another source puts him back at ABC Records in 1969. Around 1971 he went independent. [SOURCE]

Polydor was founded in Germany in 1913, and opened their UK branch in 1954 and finally a US branch in 1969. In 1971 Larry Heller was their FM Underground promotion chief. In 1972 he jumped to Reprise records where he stayed until at least 1974 by which time he starts getting executive producer credits on some trippy rock albums like The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie. I think he's the same Larry Heller who was President of ASI Market research and in the 1980s founded Music Research Consultants. He is a lifer, he just got out of promo. 

Bill Darnell started out as a singer. His earliest adult pop sides came out in 1941 on Bluebird. But he worked with Jimmie Lunceford before that in the 1930s. In the 1950s Darnell worked at Bang Records, Diamond Records, Paris records. He eventually became the head of Portrait Records.All Platinum records was founded in 1967 by performer Sylvia Robinson and her husband, record  Joe Robinson. Stang was just one of it's divisions He joined that team around 1970 before becoming General Manager of Sunburst Records, Ltd.

Alan Di Noble, aka Al Di Noble was named VP of Product Development at Casablanca records in 1979. He was their National Singles Director previously. According to Record World Di Noble was director of promotion for Motown Records in the 1970s and he launched his career doing local promotion in Detroit. Rare Earth was just a subsidiary of Motown. But according to Billboard he was it's Co-Manager. " Jones, national sales manager. along with Gordon Prince, national single sales, and Al DiNoble. formerly co-manager of the Rare Earth label, and now | director of promotion, have moved here [New York[] from Detroit."

Roulette records was founded in 1957 by four partners: George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy and Phil Kahl. Levywas the primary financial backer for the seminal hip-hop label Sugarhill, which was founded by Sylvia and Joe Robinson. [See All Platinum.]  Despite the relevance of Levy and Roulette Kerwin remains a mystery. 

Frank Growling Bear Nicola is a fun character. He was advertised in the 1970s as an American Indian ventriloquist. He also published a little poetry. As far as I know he self-released one 45 on Skeejin-A-Lintoo Records. he made an appearance on the TV game show To Tell the Truth in 1972. He lectured at Curry College in 1973. He sort of disappears after that. If you get curious that 45 can be found for about $10. I'm most curious how he knew Glassenberg. Weirder yet that there is no Barnham Station., the address in Billboard adds that mismatching the address on the 45. Maybe he meant the Barnum Avenue Post Office?

In October of 1970 Ron Goldstein announced that "He wants to hear from all college radio broadcasters who desire service from the company."  Apparently that led to a flood of service requests. In January 1971 Billy Goldstein was hired at Warner Brothers. Glassenberg conveyed his requirements for service "If you are not getting record service, send me a letter. Also send a carbon to the record promotion man. Keep a copy for yourself. I can't do anything unless I have it in writing."  When Warner Bros moves into downtown Hollywood offices, they hired Ron Goldstein to mange the operation. Ron Goldstein eventually became the president of Verve Music group. Ron escalated and in March penned an article which was a bit tone deaf asking for cash for records. $1.25 per album and $2.50 per double album. He reported that he cannot supply 600 college radio stations free of charge. His title at the time was Director of Special Projects. Ron went on to become the President of Island records in 1981 and stayed there through at least 2000.

Interview with Jeffrey Riman

 

Professor Jeffrey Riman was kind enough to make time to talk with me about reporting for Billboard back in the early 1970s while he was music director at WPIR. He endured numerous follow up questions and even remembered that he reported to Billboard by phone!  That's a detail I've missed in other interviews. I learned that Sam Sutherland made an appearance at an IBS conference at the March 23rd 1973 at the Shoreham Hotel. Sutherland even mentions his appearance in his Billboard Campus News column in the March 24th issue. 

The hotel that hosted the conference is located at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Calvert Street by Rock Creek park in downtown D.C. Just for fun I dug up a few postcards of the hotel. While it's very fancy today it was distinctly upscale even in the 70s. 

JF: Can you tell me about how you first became involved with WPIR?

JR: I was at Pratt studying fine arts but was also very interested in music. WPIR had a an extensive library with new music arriving daily it was exciting and interesting. I soon found out that with training I could have my own show. Having worked in theater in high school I  found the idea enticing. So I trained and practiced and did ultimately pass a test to do my own show which was mostly jazz, blues and some popular music. I enjoyed it even though our reach was minimal. I also made some good friends and had a sense of belonging that was a nice counterpoint to the highly competitive fine arts area where all of us young painters where chasing out dreams.

JF: Are you the same Jeffrey Riman who is the Chairman of the Newark Public Radio Community Advisory Board for WBGO?

JR: Yes, I participated in the CAB and was its Chair for a couple of years,. I wanted to see how we can better connect radio to the community.  Radio these days is a having issues connecting in a streaming world. I am no longer affiliated with WBGO as their programming is in a different direction then I would prefer although they seem to be doing well.  I like WKCR more.

JF: How did you start reporting airplay to Billboard? 

JR: I went to an [IBS radio event] in Washington. I think it was in 1973 and I met lots of A&R people from many record labels and there I met Sam Sutherland. A super nice guy who told me about Picks and Plays. When we returned to Brooklyn. Sam and I stayed in touch. ...he also was supportive of the station by sharing contacts that could help get us a more robust library. He was a great advocate for college radio and one day he just called and asked me what new record looked like a winner and all of the sudden I got those calls regularly. 

JF: Bob Glassenburg was the College Radio editor for Billboard. Did you have much interaction with him or Sam Sutherland?

JR: Sam was a great friend and enthusiastic supporter. I remember his enthusiasm and kindness.

JF: Per the Billboard "What's Happening" column of May 1973, WPIR hosted a programming seminar. How did that go?

JR: We were disappointed in the turnout But it was a great day Pete Fornatale of WNEW came out as did other guests and although under attended it was still a great outing. The article reflects my memory of it.

JF: In the February 10th issue of Billboard,  Dave Weinstein announces that you are the new Music Director. What was the transition like?

JR: Because of my connection with Billboard and my growing interest in all kinds of music David made me Music Director. I had no idea what to do but set about augmenting our library by reaching out to as many labels I could in search of building up our library of 50’s and 60’s music including Jazz, Soul and R&B and improving the pipeline of current music. The early 70s were rich with all genres (except disco)

JF: The latest record I can find has you reporting in the November 24th issue. In the following February the column was converted to move of a chart format. Was WPIR still reporting? 

JR: There seemed to be pressure to justify the college circuit and I could see that there was pressure to try different strategies. It just changed without explanation  and I was too busy to look back.

JF: There was another change in the June and July 1974 issues where airplay was completely removed and it re-focused on campus tour appearances. Do you know anything about the change?

JR: Only that it happened. I did notice that we began to get calls to pick up surplus concert tickets for give-aways. And there were lots of tickets for awhile. But hey I was in college and too busy to care much. Personally I was not a fan of many of those groups like J Giles, Doobie Bro, Yes and ELP I preferred mainstream Jazz, Early and current blues artists.

JF: I found an old RSS feed (XML) that records a Jeffrey Riman on the Podcast "Tea For Teaching." I'm pretty confident that was you. Was that your most recent radio experience?

JR: Yes,  But it’s not something I pursue. I like teaching more than anything else I have done. However I did guest host on WBGO several times but although it was great fun it was enough. 

The Billboard Rhythm & Blues DJ Spotlight

DJ Spotlight was a section in the Rhythm & Blues section of Billboard Magazine. Their Rhythm & Blues section itself goes back to at least July of 1952. It was a different era. Billboard still had both weekly Vaudeville and Burlesque sections.

It's original focus was on record reviews and charts as you'd expect. That same year, Bob Rolontz took over the "Rhythm & Blues Notes" column from Hal Webman. Mr. Kal Rudman was a contributing editor to the section starting in 1964. The column had been running since the middle of 1950, and addressed R&B more seriously as an industry. It was still full of record releases, and artist signings but it also covered R&B venue news, and both radio station and record label moves. Rolontz joined Billboard as a reporter in 1951, having grown up in radio. His father owned WCAU in Philadelphia. More here.

The Rhythm & Blues section fell under Music and Record news. But it didn't run in every issue. The spotlight ran irregularly. There was one spotlight it's first month, but three times in the following April. By March there was a spotlight every week. But back in the January 2nd issue there isn't a Rhythm & Blues section at all.  Because of that inconsistency I've broken out the below chart by week to indicate not just who is featured, but also if there was a DJ Spotlight at all. No DJ appeared more than once but some stations appeared multiple times. Out of 52 weeks only 37 DJs were spotlighted, and of those only one was a woman: Ruby "Lady Cool Breeze" Lewis of 890 KBYE-AM [More here].

Perhaps the most interesting discovery is that the spotlighted DJs are not all African-American. Both Charlie Brown of WLOU and the inimitable Porky Chedwick of WAMO were profiled. In a modern context it would be politically correct to see a race-agnostic chart or feature like that. I am not sure that's how it was intended or perceived way back in 1965.

Then suddenly in November, after the DJ Spotlight on Larry Daley, the feature just stopped. If it had been in December you might have expected it to re-start the following year.  But there were no Rhythm & Blues spotlights to come in January of 1966; and none ever again. It ended as abruptly as it began, without any explanation. The timing lines up with the departure of Rolontz for a VP job at Atlantic records but correlation is not causation. 

Date	Issue	Name	Call sign	City
01/02/1965	Vol. 77, No. 1	none
01/09/1965	Vol. 77, No.2	none
01/16/1965	Vol. 77, No. 3	none
01/23/1965	Vol. 77, No. 4	none
01/30/1965	Vol. 77, No. 5	Paul "Fat Daddy" Johnson	WSID	Baltimore, MD
02/06/1965	Vol. 77, No.6	George Hudson	WNJR	Newark, NJ
02/13/1965	Vol. 77, No. 7	none
02/20/1965	Vol. 77, No. 8	none
02/27/1965	Vol. 77, No. 9	E. Rodney Jones	WVON	Chicago, IL
03/06/1965	Vol. 77, No.10	George Woods	WDAS	Philadelphia, PA
03/13/1965	Vol. 77, No. 11	Jimmy Byrd	WILD	Boston, MA
03/20/1965	Vol. 77, No. 12	Charlie Brown	WLOU	Louisville, KY
03/27/1965	Vol. 77, No. 13	Porky Chedwick	WAMO	Pittsburgh, PA
04/03/1965	Vol. 77, No. 14	Bill Curtis	WUFO	Buffalo, NY
04/10/1965	Vol. 77, No. 15	Milton "Butterball" Smith	WMBM	Miami, FL
04/17/1965	Vol. 77, No. 16	Ruby "Lady Cool Breeze" Lewis	KBYE	Oklahoma, City
04/24/1965	Vol. 77, No. 17	George Truehart	WDAO	Dayton, OH
05/01/1965	Vol. 77, No. 18	Eugene Potts	WGIV	Charlotte, NC
05/08/1965	Vol. 77, No. 19	Chuck Moore	KPRS	Kansas City, MO
05/15/1965	Vol. 77, No. 20	Eddie Castleberry	WVKO	Columbus, OH
05/22/1965	Vol. 77, No. 21	Al Jefferson	WWIN	Baltimore, MD
05/29/1965	Vol. 77, No. 22	Edward "Pee Wee" Harris	WXKW	Troy, NY
06/05/1965	Vol. 77, No. 23	Sir Walter (Raleigh)	WAMO	Pittsburgh, PA
06/12/1965	Vol. 77, No. 24	Jerry Thomas	KNOK	Dallas, TX
06/19/1965	Vol. 77, No. 25	William Johnson	WUST	Washington, DC
06/26/1965	Vol. 77, No. 26	Bob Hudson	WCIN	Cinncinatti, OH
07/03/1965	Vol. 77, No. 27	Chet McDowell	KYOK	Houston, TX
07/10/1965	Vol. 77, No. 28	Chuck Cunningham	WLOU	Louiville, KY
07/17/1965	Vol. 77, No. 29	none
07/24/1965	Vol. 77, No. 30	Tom Reed	KPRS	Kansas City, MO
07/31/1965	Vol. 77, No. 31	William "Boy" Brown	KJET	Beaumont, TX
08/07/1965	Vol. 77, No. 32	"Big" Ben Tipton	KBYE	Oklahoma, City
08/14/1965	Vol. 77, No. 33	Bill Williams	WCHB	Detroit, MI
08/21/1965	Vol. 77, No. 34	Bill Moss	WVKO	Columbus, OH
08/28/1965	Vol. 77, No. 35	Dr. Bop (Hoyt Locke)	WAWA	Milwaukee, WI
09/04/1965	Vol. 77, No. 36	none
09/11/1965	Vol. 77, No. 37	"Cousin" Herb Lance	WERD	Atlanta, GA
09/18/1965	Vol. 77, No. 38	"Skipper" Lee Frasier	KCOH	Houston, TX
09/25/1965	Vol. 77, No. 39	Larry Dean	WWIN	Baltimore, MD
10/02/1965	Vol. 77, No. 40	Clifton "King Bee" Smith	KCOH	Houston, TX
10/09/1965	Vol. 77, No. 41	Ben Miles	WANT	Richmond, VA
10/16/1965	Vol. 77, No. 42	Rick Darnell	KPRS	Kansas City, MO
10/23/1965	Vol. 77, No. 43	Ruben T. Washington	KNOK	Dallas, TX
10/30/1965	Vol. 77, No. 44	Kelson "Chop-Chop" Fisher	WWIN	Baltimore, MD
11/06/1965	Vol. 77, No. 45	Larry Daley	WCIN	Cinncinatti, OH
11/13/1965	Vol. 77, No. 46	none
11/20/1965	Vol. 77, No. 47	none
11/27/1965	Vol. 77, No. 48	none
12/04/1965	Vol. 77, No. 49	none
12/11/1965	Vol. 77, No. 50	none
12/18/1965	Vol. 77, No. 51	none
12/25/1965	Vol. 77, No. 52	none

Music Vendor & Cash Box Mazines

Music Vendor used to be a top tier music industry trade magazine. It existed for only 18 years under that name and then became Record World. It began as Music Guild, which was first published on a steno machine in 1946.  Radio trade magazines have lost a lot of ground since then to online industry websites. The site digitalmusicnews.com has a solid Page Rank of 5, for example. But there are a few that hang on in print.

Record World was one of the three main music industry trade magazines, the other two being Billboard and Cash Box. Music Vendor was founded in 1946. Contemporary sources usually referred to Cash Box as "struggling." In reality Music Vendor and Billboard used up all the air in the room. It was a duopoly, Cashbox was the third wheel in those early years. But in the end, Cashbox continued on until 1996. Cashbox was revived as an Internet-only magazine in 2006. Music Vendor re-branded as "Record World" in 1964 and ceased publication completely in 1982. What went wrong?

Cashbox was focused on venues connected to coin-operated machines, jukebox operators primarily. Data from jukebox play was core to early music charts. The recording and collating of that data is where all music charts originate, and by connection the Top 40 format, top 10 count downs etc. By comparison, Billboard was and is pretty stodgy. They are very pop focused and have essentially no ear to the street. Billboard breaks no stories, no bands, and never discovers any new genres, movements or artists. They're retail-focused. Music Vendor by comparison was actually kind of hip. But it was Cash Box who actually innovated the "bulleted" chart indicating the movers on a top 100 chart. Their chart page was actually perforated so it could be easily removed and displayed. That was invented (probably) by Marty Ostrow. 

What preserved Cashbox and Music Vendor is that their advertising rates were lower than Billboard. So they had ad traffic from Independent labels that couldn't afford Billboard. That's how black artists like fats Domino and Brook Benton ended up on the cover. Billboard was still swooning over Pat Boone. Staff moved between Cash Box and Music Vendor often. Sid Parnes, who later was part owner of Record World, was a music editor at Cash Box starting in 1951. Parnes left in 1959 to start his own music form Sidmore Music. He and Bob Austin, another Cash Box alum took over Music Vendor in 1964 and changes the name to Record World.

They made it work for anther 20 years. But as 8-track and cassette sales rose and LP sales fell, personal grievances between Austin and Parnes strained the operation. It didn't collapse, it fizzled. But in early 2013 Bruce Elrod, formerly of Cash Box as well, re-launched Record World with a new mission to serve solely indie artists and labels. How appropriate.

Damn you Bill Gavin!

My major complaint of radio is it's increasingly homogeneous content. Brands are trademarked and xeroxed coast to coast, programs are syndicated, playlists centralized and tightened, DJs are voice-tracked and sat-cast. I have examined the history of radio and I have arbitrarily selected a precipice and a guilty party.Bill Gavin was in San Francisco when he took the Billboard list of the top 30 selling records and turned it into a radio show at KNBC. Then he started writing to DJs across the country and asking them to send him their top 10 lists. Many complied. Radio stations reached out to Bill and asked him to consult for them with this "top 10" data. KYA went for it as did KCBQ in San Diego. This collated list became known as the Bill Gavin Record report. For anyone that actually enjoyed regional diversity this was the beginning of the end.

Before the Gavin report the most important sources for information on hits were juke boxes and Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Bill took those concepts and went big and homogeneous. His sheet was serviced weekly by mail. Bill was looking at it as a radio programmer. His tip sheet was to improve listenership by playing the right music. There were other charts out there, Bill's were just better.His tip sheet was not like the trade magazines like Billboard Magazine and George Albert's Cash Box.

Cash Box had been running since 1942 and collated jukebox play. It was focused on vending machine owners. Billboard was much older, starting in 1894 but was initially marketed to the bill posting industry. It branched out into media as they were billboard buyers. Only in 1961 did they re-focus on the record industry. Their first music chart launched in 1940, Btu it mixed sales AND airplay. Bill got into programming with the playlist for the show Lucky Lager Dance Time. In 1941 Lucky Lager sponsored their teen-targeted program on KFAC. It was very similar to the Lucky Strike Hit Parade running since 1935. But Bill had a hand up on the competition. Bill had a Top 1o countdown. Lucky Strike just followed the Billboard Chart. Bill didn't want to ape Billboard.

The program was carried on 48 West Coast stations. What made the program odd was that it was scripted out of 1330 KFAC-AM but then hosted locally by announcers on the local stations. Bill was known to critique local hosts if he felt they weren't right for the program. It was carried by KMOD, KGO, KSEI, KTRB, KGW, KPOI,KVOA, KSFO. Bills tip sheet begot the end of local programming and the rapid expansion of both Top 40 radio, and radio consultants. In 1945 KFAC dropped the program to go all-classical but Bill wasn't ready to let go. His tip-sheet grew into a trade magazine.

Bill Gavin died in 1985 at the age of 77. His eponymous trade rag floundered in the late 90s as radio chains like Infinity and Clear Channel refused to participate in their conference and made their own centralized playlists. In February of 2002 it's British parent corporation pulled the plug. Lucky Lager is still bottled today and is at least available regionally on the West coast.

Soul Countdown!

Spider Harrison hosted the Show Soul Countdown on 1510 WLAC-AM starting in 1978. This was a bad ass R&B program that couldn't even exist today under the male constraints of contemporary R&B. He was a New York native, but for him the Big time was at WLAC in Nashville.He was a college radio DJ on WCWP, Post College Long Island, and interned at WWRL. He became a Program and Music Director at 106.7 WTLC, Indianapolis. He was brought on at WLAC to replace Hep cat John R. (John Richbourg) at WLAC in 1973, which led to his hosting Soul Countdown 5 years later. The program ran until 1980. personally, I blame disco for it's untimely demise.

Let me frame that a little. Between 1977 and 1980 WLAC was the only radio station in America owned by Billboard magazine. They bough it from orignal owners Life and Casualty Insurance Company of Tennessee. Life and Casualty Insurance had made a big mistake. In 1972 they brought in a consultant who tried to go Top-40. John R. was essentially forced out. Amongst this chaos spider rose up. Kent Burkhardt, the man who brought you AOR, (WKTU, WQXI etc) came in to consult on their poppier format. But WLAC held onto the evening soul programming. That was where Spider came in and killed. He's got an aircheck up on his website.

Wood Sudbrink bought the station in 1980 and went all talk. In the 1980s the soul and gospel that once was carried at night was trimmed back until there was just brokered religious talk. When Clear Channel bough the station at least that distateful practice ended. On the other hand now its' another cookie-cutter conservative talk outlet under the Fox News talk brand. More here.

Spider survived his departure from WLAC just fine. He became the west coast director for Sugar Hill records. In 2008 it was rumored he was in talks with XM about his own program. In the end I don't think that happened.

R&B & Race Records

I write often about jive-talking black DJs of the 1950s because the era fascinates me. I'm completely partisan towards it. The slow progression from jive to hip-hop is tied to radio, to turntables, and to technology. I'll make my indefensible bald assertion now and say it was the only genre born on the radio.In the 1950s and 1960s Black DJs made inroads into popular culture. But there was radio programming marketed towards them before that. Some record labels (Paramount for example) had been target marketing to them for decades. In 1942 Billboard became the first to chart it.

On October 4th, 1942 they launched a music chart called the "Harlem Hit Parade." Three years later they retitled the chart "race records." The term race records was alreayd established. The term is first known to have appeared in 1922, in an advertisement of the Chicago Defender, an African American newspaper. Race records were not meant to be construed as a genre. This was simple segregation. It was realty just records made by black recording artists. The chart initially was comprised of raw juke box plays but after 1948 also incorporated some retail sales data. Despite it's intended purpose, the chart at different times had both Bing Crosby and Dick Haymes on it.

In 1945, Jerry Wexler, suggested in the Saturday Review of Literature that the insensitive term "race records" be dropped in favor of "rhythm and blues." In 1948, RCA Victor was marketing black music under the name Blues and Rhythm. It wasnt' everything but it was industry acceptance. Billboard changed it in the summer of 1949, The Race Records chart is renamed the Rhythm & Blues chart. It's generally accepted that Wexler did not invent the term, but his article was the onus behind it's formal adoption. At the time Wexler was a writer for Billboard, why this article was published outside their magazine we may never know.

The chart became important enough to be subdivided. In 1948 there were separate charts published for Best Sellers and Juke Box plays. In 1955 a third chart was added, based exclusively on radio airplay. These three charts were re-consolidated into a single R&B chart in 1958.

Then in November of 1963 the chart was canceled entirely. Strangely this coincided with the assassination of President Kennedy. The chart that would immediately follow his dead never ran. Now, it's difficult to argue this as causal. But I don't like coincidences. The chance synchronization between death of a powerful civil rights figure, and the end of a race-based music chart seems unlikely. We may never know the connection. It may be indirect. But the chart ceased and Billboard gave a bullshit reason. They claimed that Motown was now so popular that musical tastes had converged. A quick examination of charts form that year disprove that crap of course. I'd show you the charts but they are still very much under copyright.

In 1965 A simpler more pop-oriented chart was re-launched. It is that chart, which has been boiled down into today's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart.