Eight Track Flashback

Well, we are now well into summer and it’s been a while since I’ve done a post. However, there is a new installment so to speak in my Radio Biography in the “about” section where I chronicle the five years I spent at on the air at WDNC from 1976 to 1982 doing a show with similarities to 8 Track Flashback.
This week we count down the top 18 R&B chart records from July 1959. Whereas 1956 and 1957 witnessed R&B music invading the Pop chart, the melting pot phenomenon (or just better marketing and payola) continued with lots of Pop and “Rock and Roll” (not really, but that’s what folks considered it at the time) crossing over to the R&B charts. A lot of familiar names and tunes which are certainly a mixed bag in terms of standing the test of time. Judge for yourself, I have the playlist posted above.
An interesting item I found while doing research was an article in “Billboard” from 1960, reporting how the FCC requiring radio stations to stop accepting free records from the record companies had sent the radio business into a tizzy. Later the order was rescinded. An interesting parallel to the situtation now when those same record companies that send out recordings for free to be played on the air to promote their artists now want radio stations (including WNCU) to pay by play for the music we play on the air. This pending legislation may have a dramatic effect on what you hear on the air, including 8 Track Flashback, if the record companies prevail. For me personally it may be more a matter of doing all the paperwork to document sources for all the material I play. There are arguments back and forth about fairness to performers, but since the distribution would be through the record companies, I question the process given the record companies shabby treatment of the artists in terms of royalties in the past. We shall see what develops.