Bloopers Revisited

In June of last year I wrote about a series of Radio Blooper LPs that Jubilee records put out in the 1960s. I was mostly focused on the LPs, and as always on the etymology. I think I neglected their author Kermit Schaefer and the rest of his media platform. He did guest spots playing clips of bloopers on the Mike Douglas Show. A movie version also entitled Pardon My Blooper was released in 1974. Most interestingly he did a series of books. You might think at first that books don't lend themselves very well to the genre.. but Kermit wrote half a dozen books to prove that for at least some people.. it did.

The series petered out in the early 1970s.. At first I thought the fad burned it self out but no. Kermit was already well into a long career as a TV and radio producer by the time these books say daylight. He was born in 1923, he was 56 when he died in 1979. Dick Clark picked up the Bloopers baton and did a series of TV shows blatantly ripping off the work of Kermit Schaefer. But Clark knew this perfectly well and usually carried a dedication to Kermit by name. More here.

In print, his Bloopers rarely cite the station on where they occurred, and more rarely who uttered them. They never cite when they occurred. Despite that, I generally think these are real. In that vein.. I'll quote a few here. Here I limit my selections to those that have call letters. Most of them can be cleanly divided into categories of incidental puns and mispronounced words. All in all not exactly hysterical.

"'A topless go-go dancer was in costume driving home at night, near Phoenix Arizona. She was busted by police for indecent exposure and for missing a lens out of her glasses.
WGN-AM Chicago

"...Don't forget, tonight at nine, our special guest... because it is.. .will be.. I forgot."
-WIOD-AM Miami, FL Alan Courtney

"Today, thousands cheered today as Pope Pius the 12th stood at his bedroom window in St. Peters Square and exposed himself."
WBAL-AM Baltimore

"Well streakers are at it again... this time at a local football game... I can't for the world of me figure out this type of behavior... I guess it's their way of showing they're nuts."
-Larry Glick WBZ-AM Boston.

"Hurry up folks and deposit your letters now. We'll be waiting for your droppings in the box..."
WFIL-AM Philadelphia

"Reigers furniture store features the finest, most durable furniture available. Shop at Reigers, where we have been servicing the housewife for twenty-six years."
WBAT-AM Marion, IN

He really immersed himself in the universe of Bloopers. He did Blooper books not at all related to broadcasting such as "Typo Bloopers" that was all about print and not at all about broadcasting. He did the Bedside Book of Celebrity Bloopers, Blooper Blowups, Blooper Tube, Bloopers Bloopers Bloopers and on and on and on.

A tale of two DJS

In the mid fifties there were two very mighty DJs. Thsi was a world long before MTV or VJs and as entertainers went... without being a rockstar they were as big as big got.

I'm talking about Dick Clark and Alan Freed.

I mentioned Mr. Moondong himself in my poston the Sony Paola scandal and later thought I was unfair. I threw his name out ther ewithout any backstory at all. Most of us are vaguely aware of the story, vaguely aware that hew was bribed. Nobody sems to know by whom, for what record or for how much.... So let me put it in prespective.

This was an era where there were no Federal payola laws. NONE. So these were violations only of state law. A lot of equity trading law, and related contract law has changed since then too so please, really listen to this one.

In 1957 Alan Freed got a show on WABC-AM new york. He'd come over from WINS-AM and had to for legal reasons related to a vagrant musician had to change his DJ name and his show name. Never mind that his PIA would forbid this today but just know that he was at WABC at this point, his new show was "Big Beat" and that Dick Clark by all reports hated his guts.

So Alan takes a bribe, and then a couple more. Later on he would he would put the tally in court documents at about $30,650 from seven record labels. Just previousto this WABC asked all staff to sign contracts stating that they had never taken bribes and never would. Alan refused. It made him a target and it was a poor choice. But it might have been unavoidable. The State of New York fined him $300.
Regardless. He was out at WABC after the arrest came down. He moved to KDAY in Los Angeles. Three years later he was busted again for taking $2,700 in payola from Sun records among others. The bust sent him to WQAM in Miami... and onward.

Dick Clark was running American Bandstand at this point. He signed the contract. Dick claimed to have never taken payola. Tuth told, he probably hadn't. Instead he held stock in 33 music companies. In court he admitted that these "investments" were making him $500,000 a year. On his show he frequenty played songs by bands wherein he held label intrest or publishing monies.

For example. He owned a peice of Duane Eddy. So Duane got played more than say... The Beatles. This went on until WABC pressured him to divest the "questionable conflicts." Dick didnt exactly take payola since he would only have to bribe himself.

TOTALS:
Alan Freed: under $35,000
Dick Clark: over $10,000,000 (probably more)

But Dick played the game and American rascist politics was pretty mad at Alan for refusing to play the lame-ass WHITE VERSIONS of black R&B hits. Dick Played Pat Boone versions. Alan played the original singles when they orignially came out. He was spinning cuts by by Joe Turner, Little Richard and Fats Domino. Thats why there were congressional hearings. It was not about the damn 30 grand.