THIS DAY IN POP MUSIC HISTORY
1980: At 11:07 PM EST, former Beatle John Lennon is murdered in New York by a deranged fan just outside the Dakota Hotel, New York City. Lennon is shot in his chest, back and left arm and is pronounced dead thirty minutes later.
Earlier that day, the killer had met Lennon outside the Dakota and had him sign a copy of his latest album, Double Fantasy.
(source: oldies.about.com)
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1972
TM Productions Scaling Beyond Jingles Horizon; See Expansion Programming Radio Market Shares
DALLAS — It comes to a great shock to many to learn that T-M (for Tom Merriman) Productions of Dallas, is owned by the famous-articulate conservative, William F. Buckley, Jr.
It surprises even more to learn that this great I-D pioneer and jingle giant is devoting many hours of its efforts into programming, and is becoming a leader in its field.
Back at the beginning, Merriman got into the jingle business. That was in 1955. At that time, he and Bill Meeks (president of the rival PAMS) were working for the Mc Clendon station (in Dallas), and they made jingles together for the Liberty Network. It was something of a simultaneous idea to go on their own.
Merriman first formed the Commercial Recording Corporation, which he later sold, and formed Tom Merriman, Inc. He retained it until a year ago when it was sold to Star Broadcasting, Inc., owned by Buckley. But the company continues to function as in the past, with management left as the same.
T-M services about 600 stations each year with station I-D’s for the most part, with its staff of 25. Merriman still does most of the writing. Others are management, singers and sales personnel. All instrumentation is done in Los Angeles.
Business isn’t bad at all. The last year’s gross was $1,362,000. Considering the competition, it’s an indicator it’s pretty strong.
But Jim Long, who joined forces with Merriman a few years ago, and is executive vice president of T-M, has started some new moves. He has form T-M Programming, Inc. And he is president of this division.
Already this outlet is programming 30 important stations around the nation, all in the field of Easy Listening. But Long is about to move in the rock aspect. Two of the T-M studios in Dallas are set up strictly for this programming service. There are four studios in all.
Long feels that the real future is in broadcasting, and in programming for broadcasting. So he has devised an ambitious and somewhat complicated program of carrying this out.
He also has what he calls a Custom Commercial Service, with 150 clients for whom pre-recorded commercials have been done. He utilizes these to carry out a training program for stations which use his service. Basically, one of his people go in and meet with the sales staff, explaining in detail how the service works. They conduct seminars on custom commercials. The sales force may call in prospective clients to attend the seminars. The custom commercials are then played, and can be applied to a specific product or dealer (used-car sales, filling stations, ad infinitum), and the custom commercial is then made ready for air play.
While Merriman does most of the creative work with the I-D’s (he writes virtually all of them, produces, and does just about everything else), Long works on the other phase of the operation. He is quietly taking over, and fast becoming one of the leading programmers everywhere.
Chances are he’ll be calling on you. He feels he can get potential new clients fully automated, save a lot of money, and improve programming to boot. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; August 19, 1972)
CKLW TOP 30 HITS TABULATED BY LOCAL RETAIL SALES AND NATIONAL RADIO AIRPLAY
CKLW BIG 30 HITS * Michael Jackson * CKLW (No. 02) 11/21/71
CKLW BIG 30 HITS * Chi-Lites * CKLW (No. 03) 11/21/71
CKLW BIG 30 HITS * Staple Singers * CKLW (No. 04) 11/21/71
CKLW BIG 30 HITS * Bobby Womack * CKLW (No. 05) 11/21/71
CKLW BIG 30 HITS * Donnie Elbert * CKLW (No. 06) 11/21/71
CKLW BIG 30 HITS * Neil Diamond * CKLW (No. 07) 11/21/71
CKLW BIG 30 HITS * Stylistics * CKLW (No. 08) 11/21/71MCRFB.COM has every song selection on this CKLW playlist archived in it’s music library. All SEVENTEEN featured song titles randomly were selected for your listening enjoyment, here.
CKLW BIG HITBOUNDS * Jonathan Edwards * CKLW 11/21/71
These were the records you bought. Many went on to become some of the most popular singles heard played on AM and FM STEREO radio, November of ’71, including stations WKNR, WXYZ, CKLW, (the new) WDRQ-FM, Detroit.
For our previous feature, THE BILLBOARD HOT 100, for November, 1971, GO HERE.
From the MCRFB news archives: 1967
Philco-Ford to Kick Off Hip Pocket Records, HP Portable Radio-Phonograph
PHILADELPHIA — Philco-Ford Corporation will kick off the promotion this fall of its new 45- r.p.m. Hip Pocket (HP) Records and mini radio-phonographs with a four-page, four-color ad insert in six trade papers and magazines. HPs will be featured in a separate consumer magazine campaign.
Hip Pocket Records, with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of 69 cents, will have a best selling popular song on each side. They are flexible, wafer thin, pure vinyl and are only 3 7/8 inches in diameter.
Philco-Ford is featuring the records in combination with a solid-state radio-phonograph (Model 1376) weighing less than two pounds and listed at $24.95. Model 1376 has a six-transistor radio and a two-speed, single-play phonograph. It is battery-powered and AC adaptable.
The four-page advertisement will appear in Home Furnishings, Merchandising Week, Cash Box, Record World and Billboard.
Martin Grill, consumer spokesman for Philco-Ford, said the consumer magazine schedule promoting Hip Pocket Records will include full page advertisements in black and white in the November issues of American Girl, Co-ed, Ingenue, Scholastic Roto and Seventeen; and in the December issue of Teen.
The advertising campaigns will be backed up by major sales promotion and publicity efforts in prime markets, Grill said. END
(Information and news source: Billboard; October 21, 1967).
PHILCO-FORD CORP. * “A Girl Like You” * HIP-POCKET RECORDS 1967
PHILCO-FORD CORP. * “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long” * HIP-POCKET RECORDS 1967
IN RETROSPECT: A DAY OF TRAGEDY * Philip Nye / Ed Mullen * WKNR NEWS (11/22/64)
___
A SPECIAL THANK YOU goes out to Bob Green for sharing this 1964 historic, one-year commemorative, WKNR Contact News JFK assassination presentation with Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
A MCRFB Note: click on above image for largest detailed view.
At approximately 1:36 p.m., (12:36 p.m., CST; Dallas time), Don Gardiner of ABC News (New York) first broke the airways with this news bulletin over the ABC Radio Network (WXYZ; Detroit).
Almost immediately following the ABC reports, the CBS (WJR; Detroit) and NBC (WWJ; Detroit) radio networks broke in with bulletins approximately 1:38 p.m. EST. The Mutual Broadcasting System (WKNR; Detroit) began picking up the news feed out of Dallas, breaking programming with flash bulletins on its affiliates nationwide, four-minutes later, time approximately 1:40 p.m., Detroit local time.
By 2:00 p.m., with the exception of WJLB (due to pre-paid per hour-block programming), every station on the dial would suspend all commercial programming in Detroit, and would remain under the news control of the three major networks out of New York during those four days, November 22-25, 1963.
A MCRFB VIEWING TIP: ON YOUR PC? To fully appreciate this Billboard Hot 100 November 23, 1963 chart feature click on image 2x and open to second window. Click image anytime to return to NORMAL image size.
(Click your server’s back button to return to MCRFB home page)
On your mobile device? Tap on image. Open to second window. “Stretch” chart across your device screen to magnify for largest print view.
These were the records played on the radio prior, and after, that tragic four-day week-end in November, 1963.
Many went on to become some of the most popular singles heard played on AM Top 40 radio, November 1963, on WKNR, WJBK, CKLW, WXYZ and conservative album-oriented, easy-listening WJR in Detroit.
(Tracks listed for this 11/23/63 chart feature randomly selected by the author)
