The thread Robb has going on Jimmie Reed Jr got me thinking.

When you check out US R&B radio stn charts from the 60's, it soon becomes obvious that many major labels didn't really know how to get soul records much airplay. The likes of RCA and Uni / MCA had large promotional departments but little or no expertise with regard to the black audience. Their promo teams had built up strong ties with many Top 40 stn programme managers / DJs and so had the right connections to get a new 45 blanket playlisting on 'white' Top 40 stns. Back then, radio plays were almost always the way to national chart success. So, to have radio DJ's waiting for you to contact them with regard to new releases was a major plus.

While Chess, Motown, Atlantic, Stax, Amy / Mala / Bell, Modern, Scepter / Wand & many more did have the right guys / contacts in place to instantly get their new releases lots of plays, the major labels didn't.

There were exceptions though. Columbia did alright with their Okeh releases, the Minit stuff got decent airplays, Loma was almost the same (though Warner label stuff was mainly marketed to Top 40 stns not R&B stns. Many Mercury (& Fontana / Philips) soul releases also seemed to get lost when it came to black radio exposure. As Robb made mention, Jerry Butler was an exception, as to a lesser degree was Dee Dee Warwick (though having a more famous sister's 45's high on the R&B charts must have helped her releases). ABC also had a team dedicated to promoting their soul releases to R&B stns.

I guess the likes of the Okeh, Loma & ABC (maybe even Mercury) labels had their own dedicated promotional teams that maintained contact with jocks at R&B radio stns. Is much know about how these guys operated (those reaching out to R&B stns to get airplay) and how many of them there were (the US R&B stn network was massive with stns in almost every city / large town across the entire country.

OF COURSE, their were SOME advantages in a black act being signed to a major label. The budget assigned for their recording sessions would have been larger -- the best producers / arrangers would have been hired to oversee their sessions, etc. PLUS when they had a decent release, it would be marketed very well to Top 40 stations. So in the 'golden period' for soul product (mid to late 60's -- when many Top 40 stns were looking for new soul 45's to plug on air), a new soul single could even be 'broken' & go on to become a pop chart hit via plays on Top 40 stations.

Anyone here have knowledge of the workings of the promo teams at the likes of Okeh, Loma & the like ... AND how it compared to what those @ Chess, Motown, Stax were doing ?

Edited Wednesday at 08:223 days by Roburt

If you check the above Detroit area chart from a Top 40 stn, one 45 jumps straight out at you ..

The Sport 45 by the Sonics (Four Sonics actually) seems out of place. But the song had recently been a bit pop hit for Dusty Springfield & so a DJ at this pop stn must have thought it a good idea to play a locally cut version of the song & it must have caught on with the stn's audience (hence it gaining a high placing on their chart) ...

The Sport label was of course a Detroit black owned indie label & so wouldn't have had the means to market their 45 to many radio stns at all, never mind a top local Top 40 stn.

SO THERE WERE ALWAYS EXCEPTIONS TO THE NORMAL RULES ...

A black group who's 45 did comply with the usual 'way of working' back then -- though this was a bit later in early 1969 -- the Watts 103rd St Band.

Now this outfit made records that were 100% aimed at the black market -- members of the group went on to find a lot of success (Al McKay & James Gadson for instance). They had found their way to Warners via Bill Cosby (they backed him on his recordings & he was on Warners). Their big 45 hit was "Doing Your Thing" and this first broke on US radio. But it didn't break JUST on R&B radio stns, Top 40 stns were playlisting it as early as any R&B stns.

The first radio stns to get behind this 45 were WIBG (Philly - Top 40), WDAS (Philly - R&B), WYLD (NOla -- R&B), WRAW (Penn - Top 40), WEEX (Penn - Top 40) and WFIL (Philly - Top 40). So this single abviously was a major BREAK-OUT sound in the Philly & Pennsylvania area first and then it's popularity spread out across the States.

So the Warners promo team must have been mainly working it to Top 40's stns (though of course, they had the resources / money so the 45 would also have been sent out to every US R&B stn too).

Anyone know if the various Mercury labels would have had a combined promo team or separate ones for each label; Mercury, Phillips, Fontana, Smash ?

As they put out so much product & each label had it's own specialties, I'd guess it would have made more sense to have separate teams (though guys dealing with radio DJ's over a specific area would source them suitable 45's from all of the labels I guess).

Also, I've made no mention of United Artists / Liberty up till now. They weren't exactly one of the top majors but they were a big outfit that mainly dealt in pop / rock material (though they did have some major soul acts: Bobby Womack, Gene McDaniels, Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose, etc).

Edited Wednesday at 11:343 days by Roburt

10 hours ago, Roburt said:

Anyone know if the various Mercury labels would have had a combined promo team or separate ones for each label; Mercury, Phillips, Fontana, Smash ?

As they put out so much product & each label had it's own specialties, I'd guess it would have made more sense to have separate teams (though guys dealing with radio DJ's over a specific area would source them suitable 45's from all of the labels I guess).

Also, I've made no mention of United Artists / Liberty up till now. They weren't exactly one of the top majors but they were a big outfit that mainly dealt in pop / rock material (though they did have some major soul acts: Bobby Womack, Gene McDaniels, Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose, etc).

I'm almost certain that each Mercury subsidiary had its own promotional crew. You can add in Blue Rock and Limelight, as well. Mercury's VP of Promotion probably had different assistants for each of the different music genres to interface with each label who carried releases from each given style. So, that Director of Soul Music Promotion of Mercury Records Corp. would interface with the Promotion Boss of each of the subsidiaries' promotion crew leader, (Mercury, Blue Rock, Smash, Philips, Fontana, and Limelight (maybe Fontana and Limelight's leaders were just thrown into the meetings with Smash or Philips, as they had so many less releases in The Soul genre).

UA/Liberty/Imperial/Minit also probably had separate promotional crew chiefs for each subsidiary. But they probably had one less level of management over the subsidiary label' promotional crew chief.

10 hours ago, Robbk said:

UA/Liberty/Imperial/Minit also probably had separate promotional crew chiefs for each subsidiary. But they probably had one less level of management over the subsidiary label' promotional crew chief.

Johnny Rivers SOUL CITY label was first distributed by Liberty & then became part of Liberty (the 45's stating A PRODUCT OF LIBERTY RECORDS INC). I wonder if that label had it's own promotional guy/s too (or if Johhny or one of his staff carried out those tasks for the acts who had product out on the label).

Seems some labels would poach their 'promo guys' from other labels ... a good idea I guess as they'd already have many existing contacts with the right people at lots of radio stns ...