THE VINYL RECORD NEARS EXTINCTION
Another icon of the 20th Century - the vinyl record - will edge one track closer to extirpation.The Universal Music
Group’s record-processing plant in Gloversville, New York will shut down in May 2005. It's a huge loss for everyone
concerned, 112 union workers will fail to keep their jobs.
Thus ends a record-making legacy that began in 1953. That was the year that Brunswick Radio Corporation of America
moved to Gloversville, a small town of 15,000, which was once well-known as the leather capital of the world. The end of vinyl
has been forecast since 1982, when compact discs hit the market. According to RIAA, in 1983, vinyl LPs collected $1.7 billion
in sales. By 2004, sales of vinyl LPs had dropped to $19 million.
In 1962, Brunswick joined Decca Records. This record plant pressed recordings by stars such as BUDDY HOLLY on Brunswick,
MARTY ROBBINS on Columbia, CONWAY TWITTY on MGM, DECCA and MCA, who were top attractions throughout America. By the way, in
case you didn't already know, TWITTY's birth name is HAROLD JENKINS, JR. HAROLD's brilliant sho-biz name came from road maps
- Conway, Arkansas and Twitty, Texas.
The merger of Brunswick and Decca fostered great success for Country music artists and propelled them into a huge
activity of magnetism. Other music genres were aptly represented, including the fabulous JACKIE WILSON on Brunswick.
In 1968, Decca merged with MCA Records, which further increased its position. The Brunswick plant generated vinyl
records for MCA until the 1990s. It was then and there that the record mill settled into a rocking and reeling aperture of
corporate keepers of the gate. French-based Vivendi Universal is the present lord and master of the old Brunswick record making
facility.
In its grandiose days, more than 600 employees toiled around the clock at the record producing mill. Universal
Music Group was one of the largest record manufacturing plants in the United States.
HANK ZINNER, who began at the record fabricating plant 38 years ago remarked, It's a heartbreaker. It hurts
because people are still buying records. It's just that the company we work for right now doesn't want to make them.
Nearly 50 years ago, VERONE HULBERT, found herself grooving the Rock of BILL HALEY
into 78 rpm records and she knew her world would never be the same. HULBERT commented recently, I remember my mother-in-law
telling me, 'Never start anything on a Friday. If you start something on a Friday, it never ends.' Well, the end is here
for the Universal Music Group’s record-forming plant in Gloversville, New York, because Friday, April 8, 2005, the machines
went idle.
JOE NICK PATOSKI (Wimberley TX) joenickp@yahoo.com Subject: Sir Doug Mr. Rose, Loved your SDQ column today. I've written extensively about Doug and Huey and retold
both the British makeover of the San Antone boys and the Wexler stories last Saturday in Winedale as part of the University
of Texas' Center for American History music symposium. My hour long talk was Doug Sahm as Metaphor for Texas Music (Whatever
That Is).
Then on Wednesday, I did a two hour Texas music presentation on the Glenn
Mitchell Show on KERA-FM, the NPR affiliate in Dallas Fort Worth. My focus there was on radio's impact on music in Texas.
I started out playing a snippet of Jim Lowe's Kats Karavan Show from WRR in 1961--the music program had a huge impact on players
including Steve Miller, Boz Scaggs, Delbert McClinton and Stevie and Jimmie Vaughan.
It also was the training ground for John Peel, the greatest radio broadcaster
in the history of Great Britain; Peel later worked at KLIF, which you may recall. I said that whatever people think of Dallas,
Peel's history shows that it was the epicenter of radio in Texas and the nation at one time.
I also played snippets from XERF, borrowed from Bill Crawford's Border
Radio book, which was hyped last week on Fresh Air.
And of course, I played Sir Doug, who is a hero of mine. For the last
four years of his life, he and I provided live play-by-play coverage of the championship game of the South By Southwest softball
tournament, which closes out the annual South By Southwest music conference in Austin. Turns out both Doug and I were huge
fans of the CBS TV baseball broadcasts of the late 50s and early 60s. Doug assumed the role of Dizzy Dean. I was Pee
Wee Reese.
A few last thoughts about Doug--he was the first hippie I knew who made
cowboy hats and cowboy boots cool, mainly because he was the real deal, not a poseur. Also, besides jump-starting the Austin
music scene by introducing Wexler to Willie Nelson, which begat Shotgun Willie and Phases & Stages, setting the
table for Red Headhead Stranger and Stardust, Doug's alliance with Clifford Antone, owner of Antone's Home of the Blues in
Austin, proved once and for all, he was the only cat who could play both honky tonk and low down blues with credibility. No
one, not even Willie, could do that. Plus, he introduced Flaco to the world. Keep remembering....Best, Joe Nick Patoski Wimberley
TX 78676 www.joenickp.com
ED GUERRERO (San Antonio, TX) edward-guerrero@sbcglobal.net Jim, Markets: Of all the cities that You have broadcast from did the demographics of the city's makeup contribute
to the style/type of interaction with your listeners?
Bloopers: You have mentioned lightly on some of them. Do You recall the most embarrassing? On this subject..
I heard of one which occurred prior to the intro of Shep Wooley's record "Purple People Eater". This happened at KONO's morning
DJ, Happy Herb, blurb one out i'll never forget. This was aired one very early morning back in 1960.he said "and now the Purple
P---R Eater" then there was complete silence as a matter of fact the station went off the air. All you could hear the spurious
RF of the adjacent AM stations for a looong time. After the 860 signal came alive i heard a news break! I don't recall Happy
Herb's full moniker, but i remember his surfacing as a PD on New Braunfuls KGNB years later.
Old KABC: Thanks to Bob Crowley i now know what the ABC stood for...Alamo
Broadcasting Co. He said the letters were carved on the front of the transmitter bldg..did you have a chance see them while
at KBAT and/or KKYX?
Shows Theme Song: Now a days you rarely hear of one. Is it a no no to
have them on? My favorite one was the music from "Im Looking Over for a Four Leaf Clover" by an Irishman named Bud Whaley.
I think he worked out of KMAC circa mid 40's. He DJ'd part time at the old Fredricksburg Drive-In Theater too. Very popular
then. He also tried politics, i don't recall for what or the outcome. Yea, he played the same song for his political rallies.
And his logo for his posters...SHAMROCKS! Of course..Regards, Ed G.San Antonio, Texas
Over the years, wondered what relationship the call letters KABC had with
680 kc in San Antonio, because don't believe it was ever affiliated with the ABC network in any capacity. BOB CROWLEY explained
that when he informed us that the Mission City's KABC stood for Alamo Broadcasting Company. Never noticed those letters carved
on the transmitter building's facade which BOB mentioned.
KBAT's transmitter building was one of the nicest I have ever seen. When you
entered, it appeared to take you back to the 1940s or early 1950s, but everything was pristine. The powerful transmitter was
in three or four stages with tall wide gray cabinets. There was an instrument panel console set-up with toggle switches similar
to what is in a DJ's control room studio, but was linked directly to the transmitter and faced the huge object only a few
feet away. Initial impression when you entered the large room was that of an old Flash Gordon movie. At first glance, you could visualize a one-person NASA
control center.
Jim Rose
Houston, Texas
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