Chicago Radio Union History – CFM

[Ken Gustafson]

Chicago radio may have been unique for the use of “record turners”. Record turners were members of the Chicago Federation of musicians who operated turntables in Chicago union stations from the 1940s into the 1960s. Major stations had studio orchestras that employed union musicians. The union opposed recorded music and did not allow members to record. President James Caesar Petrillo required the stations to employ musicians to operate turntables. In the ‘60s cartridge tape replaced turntables but they continued at WGN into the 80’s. The quips that Wally Phillips dropped into his show must have been played by a record turner.

Question: Was Chicago the only market with record turners?

Here is a link to more.
http://durenberger.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/ASCAP-CHICAGO-SCHNEIDER.pdf

 

[TheBigA]

The union opposed recorded music and did not allow members to record.

Maybe only in Chicago. Otherwise you wouldn't have all the lawsuits filed by musicians against radio stations, most notably Paul Whiteman vs. WNEW. It was that 1937 landmark case that made it possible for radio stations to play recorded music without fear of lawsuit. Whiteman recorded for RCA and the label was part of the lawsuit. He also had a radio deal with NBC, whose parent company owned RCA Records. WNEW was an independent NYC radio station that played Whiteman records at the same time that his NBC radio show was on the air. If you watched the Ken Burns country music documentary, it talked about the Carter Family, who recorded for RCA, but also had performance contracts with radio stations. So it was possible to be a member of the AFM and have a recording contract. Certainly Hank Williams was a member of the union, where he performed on the Louisiana Hayride, and he recorded for MGM. Same with Bing Crosby, who recorded for Columbia, and had a long running radio show.

What you're saying may be one of the reasons why the WLS barn-dance went away. If they could only use musicians that didn't have recording deals, the musicians were less well known to competing shows in other cities. It may also be a reason why Chicago-based labels didn't grow as large as labels based in NYC.

As for record turners in other markets, I know that in NYC, some union engineers were paid an additional fee for a "needle drop." That may have only been the case at certain stations. I don't see any mention of record turners in the books about WINS or other NYC radio stations that played music in the 40s and 50s, and it didn't come up in the Whiteman case.