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torcan
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| Posted: 20 August 2009 at 12:07pm | IP Logged
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Just curious...I've read over the years that most labels had stopped producing promo 45s in favor of promo CD singles by mid-1989. However, in my collection I have a few promos from labels such as Arista, MCA and Capitol for tunes well into 1990 (in fact, some of the Capitols are from '91).
Did you continue to receive these at your station? Were you primarily CD single by then, or did promo 45s continue to trickle in for a while? If they weren't sent to radio, why do you think they did them still? Was it mainly for jukebox use? I know 1990 was a transitional year so maybe it took a while for labels to figure out what to do about the jukebox market.
There were some one-off promos from later in the '90s, such as Black Crowes "Remedy" and Wonders "That Thing You Do" (both of them even had picture sleeves), but I'm talking more of regular promo service from the labels.
Thank you :)
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KentT
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| Posted: 20 August 2009 at 1:04pm | IP Logged
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1991-1993 was the last straw for regular 45 DJ service for us. We did get a jukebox supplier to provide us with 45 single hits as long as we could get them (around 1998). We had CD players from 1984 onward but our owner preferred vinyl when possible.
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aaronk
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| Posted: 20 August 2009 at 1:06pm | IP Logged
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You were still playing vinyl on the air into the mid-90s?
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Jody Thornton
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| Posted: 21 August 2009 at 4:05am | IP Logged
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At AM 96 in Cambridge, Ontario we were playing gold selections straight off 45s until I left in November of 1991. They have switched from an AC/CHR hybrid to oldies-based AC that year, and continued to use vinyl Canadian oldies util 1997, when they ditched the format.
Mind you, that was an extreme rarity in the business, and even we played most of our music on the Denon CD-cart machines. I suspect most stations ditched vinyl in mid-1989. I know that stock 45s were around, albeit in limited numbers at Sam the Record Man, until March 1990. After that, I never saw them at the malls again.
Even cassette-singles bit the dust in Canada much earlier than in the US. In Canada, I didn't see them after 1994, whereas, I bought two cassette-singles in Buffalo, NY in 1997.
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Hykker
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| Posted: 21 August 2009 at 5:35am | IP Logged
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Jody Thornton wrote:
Mind you, that was an extreme rarity in the business, and even we played most of our music on the Denon CD-cart machines. I suspect most stations ditched vinyl in mid-1989. |
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I'm surprised you didn't dub the records to cart. By the late 80s, what promo copies were around seemed to be mostly styrene & cueburned quite easily. Some FMs had phase issues with carts (especially the old Fidelipacs), but that wouldn't be a problem for an AM.
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 21 August 2009 at 7:44am | IP Logged
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My college station had a healthy 45 service from Atlantic when I got there in 1986. There was a period of overlap around 1988 when we'd get promo 45s and/or CD singles from Atlantic. By 1990, the promo singles were completely gone.
When I was at 98PXY in 1990, we played all the music off carts. There were CD players in the studio, but were rarely used on-air - usually the problems were with the remote starts. At KRQ in 1993, we used the Denon CD-cart machines, with the actual promo singles, and a label-maker label on the front saying which track number to use. Those were pretty nice units - Denon had a great reputation for their CD players in the mid-'90s. To this day I still use my mid-'90s-era dual Denon 2000 CD player for live events.
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KentT
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| Posted: 20 December 2009 at 9:12am | IP Logged
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One of your big problems with carts was phase stability. Many cart machines had issues with it and phase stability was critical for proper Stereo/Mono compatibility. ITC and Pacific Recorders & Engineering had the best cart machines and BE had excellent ones then. Our owner was very audiophile and strove for the best sonics he could air.
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jimct
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| Posted: 23 December 2009 at 1:11am | IP Logged
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Going back to Torcan's original question, each week when I called in our playlist to Radio And Records, they would always ask a "Question Of The Week". It could be about anything related to current Top 40, with the best feedback to be featured in their next issue. One week, they asked me if we would miss promo 45s if they were discontinued. I'm pretty sure this was asked by them in early 1989. That was just about when most major labels were finally servicing us with Promo CD singles (I remember A&M/Atlantic leading the way there, with Mercury/Capitol among the last majors to still send us mostly promo 45s only. With audio technology changes like this, I'd say it historically takes everyone about a year or so to get onto the "same page." After all, there were different label presidents, different priorities, different promotional budgets, etc. By 1990, I would say that less than 25% of all new releases featured a promo 45, with almost always a promo CD single included as well. My memory tells me that WB was the best at still giving radio a 1990 vinyl/CD airplay choice.
Edited by jimct on 23 December 2009 at 1:12am
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Topic: When did Promo 45 service stop?
