• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Alan Freed!!

Alan freed when is some one gonna make a good movie about him and Payola...American Hot wax and the made for TV Alan greed movies weren't very good...I really enjoyed "Caddilac Records" a couple of years ago.
 
melan8tr said:
Alan freed when is some one gonna make a good movie about him and Payola...American Hot wax and the made for TV Alan greed movies weren't very good...I really enjoyed "Caddilac Records" a couple of years ago.
Click to expand...

The problem with "Cadillac Records" was they made it seem as though Etta James was the biggest star at (Chess) at the time, when we all know it was Chuck Berry. Of course for Hollywood's purposes they had Beyonce in the title roll so it was easily understandable to change the story.
 
radioman148 said:
melan8tr said:
Alan freed when is some one gonna make a good movie about him and Payola...American Hot wax and the made for TV Alan greed movies weren't very good...I really enjoyed "Caddilac Records" a couple of years ago.
Click to expand...

The problem with "Cadillac Records" was they made it seem as though Etta James was the biggest star at (Chess) at the time, when we all know it was Chuck Berry. Of course for Hollywood's purposes they had Beyonce in the title roll so it was easily understandable to change the story.
Click to expand...

Try telling Etta that.....I was impressed with the whole cast...Jeffery Wright is one of the really fine actors, as well as Adrian Brody, Mos Def was great as Chuck Berry and Columbus short super as Little walter..and the beauty is, I believe the entire cast did their own singing.
 
melan8tr said:
Alan freed when is some one gonna make a good movie about him and Payola...American Hot wax and the made for TV Alan greed movies weren't very good...I really enjoyed "Caddilac Records" a couple of years ago.
Click to expand...

Period pieces about 50's and early 60's things fail. They mostly appeal to geezers, and don't have much nostalgia value for younger generations.

Witness: Pan Am and Vegas on TV in the last two seasons.

Alan Freed is not even a cult hero. He was just a criminal who stole time from radio stations for his own gain.
 
David...frankly, I'm surprised that someone who runs one of the most valuable, best-organized historical broadcast sites ever (your own americanradiohistory.com) feels that way about historical content elsewhere. The term "geezers" and the one-off judgement about historical value are odd and dissmissive.
I'm 59...where do I fit in in your scheme of things?

Could you please elaborate?
 
The King Bee said:
David...frankly, I'm surprised that someone who runs one of the most valuable, best-organized historical broadcast sites ever (your own americanradiohistory.com) feels that way about historical content elsewhere. Could you elaborate?
Click to expand...

Freed took an opportunity and turned it to larceny.

I have little regard for scofflaws. I side with Amstrong and not Sarnoff, the FCC and not Don Burden. And those are judgments based on history.

I listened to Freed on WJW before he went to New York. I did not idolize him, but I liked the way he introduced new music and new styles to a conservative town. I felt defrauded when I later read in Broadcasting that he had been indicted and convicted of payola; it made everything I had heard somewhat less valuable and made me feel I had wasted my time on a crook.

I felt the same way about voting for Richard Nixon, too. :-[


("Geezer", like "gringo", is a term totally dependent on context for meaning.)
 
To each their own about Freed...I agree with you about Sarnoff (I fully side with Dr. Armstrong and don't get me started about Tricky-uh, President Nixon!)

I just thought that, given your evident training in historical research, you wouldn't toss anyone else's interpretation of a historical period in the rubbish as you seem to have with the 1950-1963 period.
 
The King Bee said:
I just thought that, given your evident training in historical research, you wouldn't toss anyone else's interpretation of a historical period in the rubbish as you seem to have with the 1950-1963 period.
Click to expand...

Freed didn't make history, he manipulated it. And his window was very narrow and affected, really, just two markets... Cleveland (with Acron, where he started, being Cleveland's farm team) and New York.

Top 40 existed as a full-fleged format at the time Freed started his night-time show on WAKR. That station was not a Top 40 at the time... it was a rather traditional station with a specialty show as a replacement for the network fare that had been knocked off by TV. Despite the hyperbole, there is no evidence that it had other than a small but devoted following.

WJW in the mid-to-late-50's was pretty much a network style block programmed operation, with Freed the odd-man-out with his strange music at night. He got some audience, part no doubt due to the fact that the R&B station, WJMO 1540, was a daytimer so the huge black population had no other even remotely appealing program at night.

His New York experience ended with a stint on WABC prior to its becoming a full Top 40 station where he was, again, somewhat of a niche purveyor.

Suggesting that Freed was the mover and shaker some say he was in the rock 'n roll world discounts the considerable number of Top 40 stations that were playing the music, perhaps with less daring and adventure, all across the US all day long.

I find more of the opportunist than of talent in Freed.

I'd give more credit to Bill Stewart, Todd, Gordon and even, later in the decade, Bill Gavin, for the development of Top 40 and its ability to assimilate many new music trends.
 
"Cadillac Records" was good, but did slant towards Etta James too much! David? Blah blah blah, blah blah, blah blah blah. Blah Blah Blah. Freed was a leader and legend in our business.
 
radioman148 said:
1250WTAE said:
"Cadillac Records" was good, but did slant towards Etta James too much! Freed was a leader and legend in our business.
Click to expand...

Agree on both!
Click to expand...

I have to say "thanks" for bringing up this movie. I ordered it and will see it this week.

Any other movies about 50's and 60's pop worth viewing (Other than La Bamba and the Buddy Holly Story...)?
 
1250WTAE said:
Freed was a leader and legend in our business.
Click to expand...

So our leaders steal from their employers (that is the definition of Payola)? And a legend is a person who couldn't hold a job as a night jock and was the first person convicted of a payola related crime?

A guy stuck up the 7-11 down the highway from me a couple of days ago. Should we declare him to be a leader and a legend, too?
 
DavidEduardo said:
The King Bee said:
I just thought that, given your evident training in historical research, you wouldn't toss anyone else's interpretation of a historical period in the rubbish as you seem to have with the 1950-1963 period.
Click to expand...

Freed didn't make history, he manipulated it. And his window was very narrow and affected, really, just two markets... Cleveland (with Acron, where he started, being Cleveland's farm team) and New York.

Top 40 existed as a full-fleged format at the time Freed started his night-time show on WAKR. That station was not a Top 40 at the time... it was a rather traditional station with a specialty show as a replacement for the network fare that had been knocked off by TV. Despite the hyperbole, there is no evidence that it had other than a small but devoted following.

WJW in the mid-to-late-50's was pretty much a network style block programmed operation, with Freed the odd-man-out with his strange music at night. He got some audience, part no doubt due to the fact that the R&B station, WJMO 1540, was a daytimer so the huge black population had no other even remotely appealing program at night.

His New York experience ended with a stint on WABC prior to its becoming a full Top 40 station where he was, again, somewhat of a niche purveyor.

Suggesting that Freed was the mover and shaker some say he was in the rock 'n roll world discounts the considerable number of Top 40 stations that were playing the music, perhaps with less daring and adventure, all across the US all day long.

I find more of the opportunist than of talent in Freed.

I'd give more credit to Bill Stewart, Todd, Gordon and even, later in the decade, Bill Gavin, for the development of Top 40 and its ability to assimilate many new music trends.
Click to expand...

TIO much? Oh, and BTW David, we're all sinners.

ixnay
 
1250WTAE said:
He's not my pet idol. But he was an innovator, and the fall guy for payola. He took the fall for people like Dick Clark.
Click to expand...

There was never any indictable evidence found on Clark. And our judicial system is based on "Innocent until proven guilty".

Freed tarnished the image of radio and of the newly-prominent profession of disk jockey.
 
BS! Read the books David. Read the books. Dick Clark was guilty as hell, and lied. Freed took the fall. God, you act like you know everything.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom