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.

Cleveland and Columbus, worlds apart...

I drove from Cleveland to Columbus Ohio today. I stopped and picked a small basket of rasberries at Rosby's and ate them while they were still warn from the sun, while driving South only looking at the road. It is not a great distance, maybe 120 miles center city to center city, but in radio terms they are different planets. Without getting into the fact that Cleveland is better. Allow me to explain.
http://www.rosbys.com/

Cleveland is saturated.. maybe over saturated in the non-commercial band. It is not as bad as Chicago but, what is? details below:
88.1 WZIP college U akron
88.3 WBWC -college Baldwin Wallace
88.7 WJCU -college John Caroll
88.9 WSTB -Streetsboro High school
89.1 WKSV -simulcast of WKSU
89.3 WCSB -college Cleveland State U.
89.7 WKSU -NPR talk & classical
90.3 WCPN -NPR talk & classical
90.7 WNRK -Classical
90.9 WCVJ -Christian AC
91.1 WRUW -College Case Western Reserve U.
91.3 WAPS -Triple A
91.5 WKHR -standards

... I'll admit they are all over the market and obviously not all of equal stregnth or HAAT. But as you travel even local roads the cross talk is incredible. On vacant frequencies you get a wash of multiple stations. many stations are only audible on some sides of some buildings. Every stations is on the first and second adjacent of two or three stations. Some of these are great stations, and I dont want to lose them... but curently it is difficult to listen to any of them at all.

Columbus is the opposite:
88.1 -religious repeater
88.5 WLRY -a WUFM repeater
88.7 WUFM -christian AC
89.7 WOSU -Classical
90.5 WCBE -NPR talk

So how does one market get over-served and one get under served?
... I have no idea. If I get brave maybe I'll ask he Old Akronite himself:http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com/

Crossing central PA with Ohio plates

More traveling for The Radioman. It has been many long days and there were many long stretches of no mans land in PA. Many windmills, rest stops and podunk towns blissfully without rock n' roll. Little towns where you are immediately welcome but immediately identified as an outsider. Nobody spits in your food, but you are constantly watched. I'll stop here before I start sounding like William bradley It's a little early in the season for the college stations, lots of jazz, very few DJs. But the AM band was rich with the radio stations that belong to these towns.

There was little to talk about between Philly and Harrisburg, but about there things got interesting.
WRAW-AM 1340 out of Reading runs a killer 50s program called the "Doo-wop shop." Great stuff. http://www.1340wraw.com/main.html

WSKE 104.3 FM is normally a pretty dull commercial country hits station but on Sunday is was a cute litle specialty program: "Knee-deep in bluegrass." Possibly the best show on the station.

WWII-AM 720 I read is a religious talker but sunday was running some amazing gospel programming, I mean AMAZING. These ladies put Aretha to shame! http://www.720therock.com/

WWSM-AM 1510 runs country oldies dead pan dead sincere. Clearly local DJs, mispronouncing words, getting tongue tied... but the playlist is something you dont normally see this side of west Texas. Roy Acuff, Kittie Wells, Tex Carmen... just great. http://www.wwsm.us/

Then around Pittsburgh I caught WJAS-AM 1320 and Uncle Douggies Rock N' Roll Oldies Party. He was laying into some deep catalog Duane Eddy and only got beter from there. Funny thing about their signal though, you can actually hear this stion in the tunnels around town. I mean hundreds of feet inside a mountain even! I notice AM fade-out under an overpass. I cant really account for this...http://www.132owjas.com/

and 91.1 WRUW was running an R.L. Burnside retrospecitive that was very genuine, and very appropriate. It wasnt sappy at all, but truly professional and you still could tell DJ Chip of Woodchoppers Ball was a real fan. http://www.wruw.org/

FACT FOR THE DAY: Pittsburgh is named for the Prine Minister of England from that Era -William Pitt. It began as Fort bitt, then later Pitts-borough. You can guess the rest from there.

IF you EVER ned to know about radio in Pittsburgh.. check here: http://www.pbrtv.com/
Eric O'Brien knows all

Back on Tour

I'll be traveling for most of this month. Posting will be erratic but bear with me. I will hear much, take good notes and relay to you. Spend some time on phillytalk while I'm gone. http://www.phillytalk.com/

AN END FOR THE TEN-CODES

A big change for a different part of the radio dial...
Federal Emergency Management Agency has mandated the implementation of "NIMS" - the National Emergency Management System - by October 1 2005. This means, that police and other emergency services are required to cease using the "ten codes" on CB radio transmissions in favor of speaking plain english.
The purpose is to make sure messages are understood in emergency situations like earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and of course the rare terrorist attack. All recipients of federal preparedness funds must adopt and use NIMS. In short, while truckers may continue to say "10-4 good buddy" The police may not. 10-7 friends.

10-1 = Receiving poorly
10-2 = Receiving well
10-3 = Stop transmitting
10-4 = Message received

a fairly complete list here:http://home.att.net/~wizardoz/cbmw/10codes.html

****UPDATE****
10-CODES ARE OKAY AFTER ALL
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has changed his mind and won't require the abolition of 10-codes in everyday law enforcement communications as a condition of compliance with N.I.M.S. and eligibility for future federal grants. His announcement was received at the Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police with warm round of applause.
http://tinyurl.com/7mofz