Hi Gang:It has been quite a journey for me through the exciting world of music as a "jock" who "played the hits" for much of my career. From the early days of Bill Drake ("And the Hits Just Keep on Comin") at WRKO in Boston, to the era of Disco and WXKS-FM's legendary imprint on a generation, to my life as a medium market program director at WGUY-FM in Bangor and WDRC-FM ("Big D 103) in Hartford. This was long before my close friendship with Colonel Oliver North, Dick Cavett, Jerry Williams, Doug Stephan, Michael Harrison and Mort Downey Jr in the world of "talk radio". Let's return to those "thrilling days of yesteryear", with the tight playlists , energetic delivery, entertaining jingles, instantly recognized stagings , ever present rotary contest games ... but mostly let's return to a time when radio was fun for the listener and for those of us lucky enough to be in the industry. It has often been said that radio is the only industry where most jocks operate on a secured credit card and money has always been an issue with most of those I have met in the business. But it was fun and satisfying to be on the air and play, "Number One Then and Number One Now" , take a break for "20/20 News" listen to a "Double Golden" and give a listener a chance to win "Twin Camaros" or "Win Their Weight in Gold". But, that was then, and now is now, and in this day of "Clear Channel" and "Infinity" and cookie cutter broadcast outlets, $500 million dollar paydays for Howard Stern, and a huge debt load for XM Radio and Sirius it appears much of the creativity in Radio has been replaced by a unnatural worship of the mighty dollar. The quality, well researched and creative programming has now been replaced with block programming and constant sales pitches flood the airways, and in most cases are embarrassingly poor. Digital editors now improve the air sound , so they claim, but a dedicated engineer with a razor blade and a Revox could accomplish about the same. Dick Clark is sidelined with a medical condition, Casey Casem and Ric Dees have been replaced by Ryan Seacrest, Wolfman Jack, Robert W. Armstrong, The Real Don Steele, and Gordon McClendon are gone, Westwood One has been sold and the state of radio is pretty poor. But one thing remains constant and unchanged, Don Graham is still "on the scene with the record machine". Years before I moved to Los Angeles, Don was an important force in music radio and he was certainly known to me. He has been with Tower Records, Warner Brothers Records, A&M Records, Cream Records, Blue Thumb Records, United Artists Records, Midget Productions, and Don Graham Promotions.
Today he is still going strong with Progressive Music Marketing and his familiar signature line, "Thanks". Don has promoted just about every major Top Forty hit in the last 40 years including the Warner Brothers Stable of actors (Robert Conrad; Ed Byrnes; Connie Stevens) to CCR; Diana Ross; The Rolling Stones; Rod Stewart; James Darren; Little Peggy March; Diana Krall; Burt Bacharach, Herb Alpert, Ike & Tina Turner; Frank Stallone; Michael Buble; Sally Kellerman; Monica Mancini; Bobby Darin and dozens of others. His big breakthrough came with The Tijuana Brass and "Lonely Bull" while he was with Herb Alpert & Jerry Moss at A&M in 1962. Don is a three time winner of Bill Gavin's ("The Gavin Report") "National Promotion Man of the Year and two time winner of Billboard's "National Promotion Man of the Year".
When it came time for me to move to Los Angeles 10 years ago, I finally got the opportunity to meet the man who caused so much ruckus in the radio music world for so many years. Today Don promotes mostly Standard artists with as much enthusiasm and intensity as he did for all of his unbelievable stable of stars. His latest client is Joey McIntyre and "Talk to Me" and the promotion is just as intense and solid as with "Lonely Bull" so many years ago.
I am proud to say that Don has become a very close friend and has introduced me to many icons of the entertainment world, Rod Stewart, James Darren, Ike Turner, Gary Owens, Don Pitts, Chuck Southcott, Joey McIntyre, Chick Atkins, Don Ho (Don's beautiful wife Robin was a singer with the Hawaiian legend and they actually were married in the Aloha state), Wink Martindale, Johnny Crawford, "Rockin' Joe Smith, Joel Dorn (now the "voice of CRN Digital Talk"), Buzz Curtis ("Post Records - More to Come"), Manhattan Transfer, Sally Kellerman, Mike Stoller, Paul Drew and many others.
He's the man who was Bill Drake's roommate and was actually present for the first meeting of Drake and the late Gene Chenault ("Drake Chenault"), helped Bob Smith ("Wolfman Jack") land that great role in "American Graffiti", shared the "hotel room from hell" with Charlie Barrett ("The Amazing Race). He has promoted most major hit records of the last forty years including Robert Conrad's "Ballin' the Jack" , Connie Stevens, "Sixteen Reasons" and Herb Alpert's entire catalog of hits. The kid from San Francisco who "could never get a real job" is as strong as ever at 70 with his machine gun delivery and high intensity promotion. He prefers fax to email, handwriting to computers and always gets the client played! Go get 'em Don!
Jack
