gr8oldies said:
We used to drive the PD crazy by aimlessly circling ads. ;D
Goodbye R&R, you served radio well. I'll raise a glass tonight in memory.
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We used to drive the PD crazy by aimlessly circling ads. ;D
Goodbye R&R, you served radio well. I'll raise a glass tonight in memory.
Question
How are the radio fans going to get their information on radio ratings and end of the year charts?
Can anyone help me?
How are the radio fans going to get their information on radio ratings and end of the year charts?
Can anyone help me?
mredindc said:
What's your point? Recompense? OK, they'll have to reimburse any early registrants that decide they don't want to go to the NAB now that R&R is out. R&R and NAB sorta combined their exhibitions a while ago, so it's still on.
BTW, If you'd never been to an R&R convention, but were planning on it - well, yes, you missed a truly cool experience - though not nearly as much so as in the past. Same-Same the old Anti-Muscolo get togethers (RIP Don).
Maybe they'll make it an NAB/Billboard conference. Yawn. Last BB Convention I went to was in Toronto - I think Claude Hall was still alive! (...and I'm dating myself).
There's always Conclave.
I don't know about later years, but in the 80s often the magazine came with a premium...the latest 45, or once the book "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".
At least one WKRP episode featured an R&R reporter interviewing Andy Travis. Believe it was the one where Les gets put in jail in the carp suit.
At least one WKRP episode featured an R&R reporter interviewing Andy Travis. Believe it was the one where Les gets put in jail in the carp suit.
S
searadiofreak
Guest
henry said:
Wow, breaking news on KNX. I guess I'm not totally surprised by that, since it was an L.A. based publication.
Those under the age of 30 or 35 probably don't realize how important R&R was to the radio (and record) industry. There was a time when being an R&R reporter literally meant the difference of being #1 in the market or #8. The "reporter" status was gold, and R&R held all the power. Oh, and I attended some great R&R conventions, definitely top-flight meetings.
The other interesting thing about R&R, which has been addressed in this thread, is the job listings. If memory serves, the job ads used to be free for stations placing the ad. There was a time, probably in the 1980's, when R&R was THE place to look for job listings in radio. They sometimes ran scores and scores of ads. In recent years, that dropped to a handful or two at most. (Of course, they started charging for those ads years ago. AllAccess is still free, and has become the new place to place job listings. I know this site also runs listings, so I should point that out since I am using their site to express this.)
Bottom line: R&R was the gold standard, the bible, THE place to go to find out about our industry. It is a sad day. But times change. I'll wrap this up with one memory: asking my P.D. to see the R&R because there was an interesting article on a station that I wanted to read. You know that wasn't the real reason! Come on, anyone in radio can relate to this, right?
gr8oldies said:
Oh, man - you just hit my memory spot. It's possible I sold that package to the advertiser - either the publisher or the studio. You say it was the book, but it might have been the VHS. Either me, HM, JG or BO - maybe even DK (not likely ;<). Those who knew, know the initials. We did a bunch of that premium stuff in the mid-'80s. Had a hell of a good sales staff (no offense to the most recent folks). It was a big deal to get your product in the hands of the most important programmers in the US.
But the big commission check came when we sold one to the entire data base under "R&R Promotions." "Honey, we're eatin' out tonight!"
We'd package the insert with an ad (or several) then the advertiser would also pay for the additional postage and shrink wrap. Some went just to reporters in a certain format(s), some to all reporters.
HM sold a bunch to the studios, I did a few, too ("Blue Velvet" for sure). A new video release was big bux and he was connected - still is and probably lurking around the corner here somewhere...
The idea was, the jox would pass it around and talk abut it on air. We would also work out promotions with the stations. Get a thousand copies and guarantee them like 15 of the top 50 markets for a weekend giveaway. Our reporters (as has been mentioned) would do almost anything for R&R. It's hard to imagine how huge the newspaper was back then.
We didn't just report radio, in many ways we ran it.
Those days passed with decreased record sales, delivery methods, no budgets and, of course, the advent of the 'net.
Thanks for the memory, gr8oldies.
Amazing. The website is gone already, and I just looked at it this AM.
How sad, I can't tell you how many times I got behind locked doors for just a peek at R&R. It had everything that was going on in radio inside those pages. I wanted to read about it all!
Doesn't it seem like now that we're in a new century just about everything in the 20th century is getting swept away?
Doesn't it seem like now that we're in a new century just about everything in the 20th century is getting swept away?
Billboard was the bible of the 60's - thru about the late 80's, early 90's when it came too determined what was hot, what was played, and what was a hit. When 45's went into oblivion, R&R became the disciple over Billboard magazine on what was followed. How it was played. what was a radio hit. Until this day.
Unfortunately , when something gets too big or threatening, the bigger guy will buy it up or out, and eventually dissolve it. Example....E-Bay buys Half.com....wanted to cut it to pieces...but do to protest, they decide to cut the site in a bigger half, just for CD's, Videos, and Books. Not the same . Sobe drinks. Five years back, it was one of the fastest selling soft drinks taking a small stable chunk out of the establish beverage companies. Pepsi buys it, it still around, but they control it. Probably doesn't taste as good.
Same as Steel Beer....I don't drink, but a quiet growing seller...so Miller buys it.... and controls that.
Sirius buys XM.....is it the same, depends, alot of minuses then pluses....but they don't care, where else are you gonna go for satellite? DMX? If Clear Channel was aloud to buy every signal on the dial in every market....I wouldn't be surprised , no matter how broke they get from doing it...they still would.
There are other examples....but the name of the game in this world today..is control. It desn't matter if you go broke or Chapter 11. We just saw it again today when a growing more viable magazine over the last 15 years gets bought out...it will dissolve. If Radio Insight buys out Radio Info....you know..... the rest of the story.
Unfortunately , when something gets too big or threatening, the bigger guy will buy it up or out, and eventually dissolve it. Example....E-Bay buys Half.com....wanted to cut it to pieces...but do to protest, they decide to cut the site in a bigger half, just for CD's, Videos, and Books. Not the same . Sobe drinks. Five years back, it was one of the fastest selling soft drinks taking a small stable chunk out of the establish beverage companies. Pepsi buys it, it still around, but they control it. Probably doesn't taste as good.
Same as Steel Beer....I don't drink, but a quiet growing seller...so Miller buys it.... and controls that.
Sirius buys XM.....is it the same, depends, alot of minuses then pluses....but they don't care, where else are you gonna go for satellite? DMX? If Clear Channel was aloud to buy every signal on the dial in every market....I wouldn't be surprised , no matter how broke they get from doing it...they still would.
There are other examples....but the name of the game in this world today..is control. It desn't matter if you go broke or Chapter 11. We just saw it again today when a growing more viable magazine over the last 15 years gets bought out...it will dissolve. If Radio Insight buys out Radio Info....you know..... the rest of the story.
I subscribed to R&R throughout the 80s. I looked forward to every Friday. When the envelope arrived my heart would beat in excitement. I would read every word, every article, every chart. It was the single best thing in life at the time. My co-workers and even jocks at other stations would call me so I could read the ads to them. There were pages of "opportunities" back then.
"Billboard was the bible of the 60's - thru about the late 80's, early 90's when it came too determined what was hot"
I would say Billboard was it to about the late 70s. Everyone I knew in radio by the early 1980s considered the R & R charts far more important than Billboard when it came to the radio side.
Billboard remained important to the retail end and to the general public and to music collector geeks like myself.
Because of the long history of Billboard and Joel Whitburn's books based on the Billboard charts, I consider Billboard to be the standard and a song is only a #1 if it was #1 in Billboard.
But from a radio programming perspective, R & R charts ruled in the 1980s.
I would say Billboard was it to about the late 70s. Everyone I knew in radio by the early 1980s considered the R & R charts far more important than Billboard when it came to the radio side.
Billboard remained important to the retail end and to the general public and to music collector geeks like myself.
Because of the long history of Billboard and Joel Whitburn's books based on the Billboard charts, I consider Billboard to be the standard and a song is only a #1 if it was #1 in Billboard.
But from a radio programming perspective, R & R charts ruled in the 1980s.
Starbucks said:
Sorry, but no.
In the last 10 years, the usage of BDS and then MediaBase has made much of the music data previously found in R&R too little and too late. And the news is on All Access and here and on the Radio Ink and RBR sites and emails.
Gavin, Radio & Records, the FMQB and the Hamilton Report became the main sources of music data and format news in the early 70's. When I was programming an AC and a Top 40 in Birmingham in '72, it was not Billboard we looked at. Billboard was the music industry source, but not the radio bible entering the 70's.
Your assumptions are off by several decades.
S
searadiofreak
Guest
DavidEduardo said:
Yes, I agree. Mediabase replaced R&R as the "chart to look at" sometime in the early part of this decade. There is no comparison in my mind. The ability to customize and "panelize" your report on this site is unmatched by anyone else in 2009.
quoting back to you David....your right about the other sources, but I was just comparing Billboard to R&R. But still alot of small and medium market country and CHR pretty much followed Billboard in the 70's. I can remember when the bullets started stopping for a song....so did the heavy or less airplay. when the song would continue to decline ...there was much less to no airplay relating to the performance of the Billboard magazine charts. When I was in radio in the 80's...pretty much the playlists were mostly influenced on what was happening or relating to to the Billboard top 40 or CW charts.
The BDS and sound scan, yes they were a week ahead, but most stations unless you were with WLS or WABC didn't subscribe to them. If most stations did, they didn't let us look at it or hid it.
The BDS and sound scan, yes they were a week ahead, but most stations unless you were with WLS or WABC didn't subscribe to them. If most stations did, they didn't let us look at it or hid it.
M
mediadude
Guest
R&R has been a part of my radio life since the very beginning. In fact, I can't imagine being in a radio station without seeing a copy lying around! A very sad day - although I guess other publications that I started my career with have disappeared- Broadcasting Magazine comes to mind.
Thank you to all the R&R staffers over the years who made this publication the icon that it is. Perhaps a memorial R&R party at the Fall NAB celebrating all their hard work for us would be appropriate.
Thank you to all the R&R staffers over the years who made this publication the icon that it is. Perhaps a memorial R&R party at the Fall NAB celebrating all their hard work for us would be appropriate.
My earliest memory of R&R was an issue with a grinning Wolfman Jack in a great big front page photo, and a young lady with her boobies out...
http://www.oidar.com/WOLFCVRSM.JPG
This was a magazine with its hear to the ground.
We get older and sadly bury those we thought were eternal...
R&R RIP
Kind Regards,
David
http://www.oidar.com/WOLFCVRSM.JPG
This was a magazine with its hear to the ground.
We get older and sadly bury those we thought were eternal...
R&R RIP
Kind Regards,
David
I'd first heard about Radio & Records back in 1988 via the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, and Casey Kasem's then-new show, Casey's Top 40. I was already familiar with Billboard Magazine thanks to its mentioned on American Top 40 and America's Top 10.
The first time I'd actually found an issue was at a Tower Records in Tel Aviv. It was a joy to go through all the radio playlists - Billboard had stopped publishing radio playlists at the very end of 1992 (doe to sister publication Airplay Monitor). It was also a much bigger selection of radio playlists - Billboard usually just focused on Top 40 radio (which was always my favorite) whereas with Radio & Records I'd see playlists for CHRs in the Top 50-60 markets as well as Hot ACs, Modern Rockers, Rhythmics, Urbans, Active Rock, etc. The articles were also a great joy to go through.
By 1995 it was getting easier for me to find R&R as I remember finding it at a Borders in downtown Chicago, and at a newstand in downtown Nashville. In 1999 I even ran across it at a newstand at the central train station in Munich, Germany.
R.I.P. Radio & Records, you will be missed.
The first time I'd actually found an issue was at a Tower Records in Tel Aviv. It was a joy to go through all the radio playlists - Billboard had stopped publishing radio playlists at the very end of 1992 (doe to sister publication Airplay Monitor). It was also a much bigger selection of radio playlists - Billboard usually just focused on Top 40 radio (which was always my favorite) whereas with Radio & Records I'd see playlists for CHRs in the Top 50-60 markets as well as Hot ACs, Modern Rockers, Rhythmics, Urbans, Active Rock, etc. The articles were also a great joy to go through.
By 1995 it was getting easier for me to find R&R as I remember finding it at a Borders in downtown Chicago, and at a newstand in downtown Nashville. In 1999 I even ran across it at a newstand at the central train station in Munich, Germany.
R.I.P. Radio & Records, you will be missed.
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