Music and Records - The First Career

My music career probably began in college when I worked at Dr. Jive's Record Store, when I would be home in Columbus. I normally worked in the mall store, however on Saturday I would work with the owner's wife and the store manager (I cannot remember his name) at the downtown store. Now the downtown store was very narrow and deep and the clientele was 99% black and Saturday's sales were 99% 45's. From the time that we opened till we closed, there would be a line that snaked around thru the store and sometimes out the door onto the sidewalk. The 45's were kept in racks behind the counter and there was a turntable and a couple of cash registers on the counter. We had a printed sheet of the current sellers which customers would pick up when they entered the store and during the time it took them to get to the counter, they would know what they wanted. A customer would call out number 7, I would get the record out of the number 7 slot and put it on the turntable so that the customer could hear that it was the right record. Now the owner would buy a 200-500 of a new single say by James Brown and we kept that on the turntable which played during the selections by the customers - (the tonearm never rested). So they would hear what ever this single was probably 20 times (few seconds at a time) and normally would add this to their selections. All in all it was a trip.

During college, I was the college rep for two different talent agencies out of North Carolina and this was how I made my decision to pursue band management or working for a talent agency as a career.

However, upon graduation it was only a matter of time before I would have to go in the army since Vietnam was going full swing. Needing a job, James Waters, a friend (I bought records from James at Clark's during my years at Emory), got me a job with Southland Distributors working for Gwen Kesler. Gwen was known as one of the premier movers and shakers in the Atlanta music business as well as around the country.  It was ironic that I started with Southland, as they distributed Atlantic and Stax records. Both labels were home of the southern style of soul music that I had learned to love in college. My record career all started by accident with my first job as inventory clerk. A couple of months later, I was moved over to the one stop by Southland's owner - Gerald Friedman and became the unofficial general manager (I was the youngest person there). This job lasted three months until I had to go into the service.

In 1971, I returned from the army and became the tape buyer at Southland (the distributor and the one stop had been merged). So for about 18 months, I bought all the 8 track tapes. During this time, a position came up at one of the major label distributors and I applied. This was my first time that I did not get the job. I remember an older salesman from RCA telling me, "not to worry, that everything works out for the best." This was probably the best advice I have ever received.

Shortly afterward, Larry King the promotion man for Southland became the Atlantic records local promotion man and Gwen asked if I would be interested in doing promotion - needless to say, I was thrilled. During my 3 years of promotion, I am very proud of the fact that I was influential in breaking a number of records including:

Charlie Daniels Band - Uneasy Rider, South's Gonna Do it
Gladys Knight and the Pips - Midnight Train to Georgia
Stories - Brother Louie
Curtis Mayfield - Freddie's Dead and Superfly
Stylistics - You Make Me Feel Brand New
Ray Stevens - The Streak

There were some others, but these are the records that stand out in my memory. My proudest is "You Make Me Feel Brand New" by the Stylistics. Avco records had released "Rock n' Roll Baby" and Kal Rudman on page 2 or 3 told the story of Tom Bell and Linda Creed in his Friday Morning Quarterback. Tom Bell was the producer and songwriter for the Stylistics and the Spinners. Linda Creed wrote the lyrics. The story goes that when Tom Bell was visiting New York, he went to a club in the Village and heard Linda Creed reading her poetry on stage. He was so taken that he offered to take her back to Philadelphia and give her a job as a lyricist. One problem, she was underage. So Tom (remember he is Black) visited her parents to ask their approval, (they are white and upper - middleclass). They admitted that they had lost Linda years ago to drugs and if he could straighten her out - more power to him.

Tom and Linda returned to Philly where they began writing a string of hits for the Stylistics, Spinners and others. Linda got off drugs and the lyrics to "You Make Me Feel Brand New" was a thank you to Tom Bell. Upon reading this, I called Bud Katzel, General Manager of Avco to see when it would be released as a single. Bud informed me that Hugo and Luigi did not want to pay Tom Bell what he wanted to produce another Stylistics album and did not want to release any more singles off this one. But, he told me that if I could get front page of Gavin (a radio/records report) from airplay off the album he could get it released. Well, I was a man on a mission. I got about 6 good stations to play the song - it hit front page of Gavin and the rest is history.

One of my favorite remembrances was going up to WFOM to see Jim Davenport "The Bear" at the Monday music meeting. I told him that I would like him to listen to a song off an album - and he says, "one - I don't play songs off albums, two, I don't play crossover (R&B records that were played on Top 40 Radio) records unless I absolutely have to. Well, I told him the story and he played the record - and added it to the play list that week.  FOM was a key breakout station in those days and I am confident that he was a major factor in the Gavin front page listing. - So ends the story.

After Southland, I went to work for Ed Dejoy at Chess/Janus records as regional promotion. Only problem with this job was that we did not have any hits. Then I went to work for Buddah as Atlanta promotion and in less than a year, Eddie called to see if I was still interested in National Marketing for Janus. I was 30 and thrilled to be moving to LA in a national position (5 years ahead of my schedule). Only problem, I hated LA - so after 2 years moved back to Atlanta and went to work for Gwen Kesler as her General Manager (she now owned her on Distributor/One Stop - Tara Records and Tape). Gwen and I did not see eye to eye and so I quit for greener pastures (little did I realize that a recession had started and that no one was moving around).

After being out of work for about 4 months, I took a regional marketing position with Polydor Records in Chicago. Moved the family up in November and in March I was let go along with 2,000 others. I decided that at the age of 34, if I did not have a national position (did not want to live in New York or LA) - that my days were numbered. The older  I became the more precarious I would be to losing a job to a young and rising person. So I decided to stay in Chicago and change careers.

So began the second career - Nameplates

However, I met a lot of people that I truly liked and to this day have very fond memories:

Wade Conklin - one of my best friends, we worked Buddah records together (he was the regional).
John Leader - another best friend, he was the music director at WQXI,
Ed Dejoy - another best friend, he was President of Janus
Jeff Winter - music director WQXI-FM, we just started contacting each other again
James Waters - Clarks, Tara, still a good friend - got me my first record job.
Gwen Kesler - Southland & Tara Records & Tape
Charlie Daniels - whenever I see Charlie, he will give me a hug, I have a great deal of respect for him.
Tim Bird "The Birdman"
Jim Davenport - owner WFOM (deceased)
Bill Sherrard - PD WQXI
Pete Owen - WFOM
Frank Lewis - Program Director - WERC
Gary Mitchell - Program Director - WABB
Jerry Rogers - Program Director - WSGA
Scotty Andrews - Program Director - WIGO (deceased)
Lee Stamp - Program Director - WABB-FM
Larry Stevens - WHHY
Lanny West - WHHY
John Shomby - WERC, 98Q
JJ Jackson - WQXI
John Long - WHBQ
Mike Mitchell - KSMB-FM
Randy Reeves - WCGQ
Ron McKay - WKIX
Bill Hard - WQDR-FM and The Hard Report
Dave Walton - WKDA-FM
John Randolph - WAKY
Wayne Bernard - (now known as Charlie Chase) - WNOX, WMAK
Norman Hunter - Record Bar
Bob Lenihan - The Gator (deceased)
Bud Katzel - Avco Records (deceased)
Chuck Reichenback - Janus Records
Barry Resnick - Chess Records
Stan Hoffman - Chess Records
Bucky Reingold - Buddah Records
Bob Patton - King Records
Buz Cason - Publisher
Fred Traub - Record Bar
Marv Bornstein - A&M Studios
Charlie Minor - A&M Records (deceased)
Danny Davenport - Warner Brothers Records
Al Monet - A&M Records
Mark Damon - WMAK
Ed Mendell - Dr. Jive (deceased)
Billy Long - Leader of the King Bees - (deceased)

I know that I have forgotten someone - but hey, I'm old. Even though the music business as a career did not advance me to where I am now - I will always have fond memories and I am glad that I was a part of it.

Steve Begor - thebopper

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