1959 ‘PAYOLA’: A DEEJAY’S EXPOSE, VIEWS OF TRADE

Motor City Radio Flashbacks logoFrom the MCRFB news archives: 1959

LIFE MAGAZINE (November 23, 1959)

 

 

 

 

 

” . . . . clear evidence of disk jockey bribery crops up.”

Edmond T. McKenzie, has worked in broadcasting in Detroit since 1937. His career, income and popularity had gone steadily upward until he quit bigtime radio in disgust some eight months ago. Here he tells what made him want to leave.

 

By ED MCKENZIE

Eight months ago I quit a $60,000-a-year disk jockey job on Detroit radio station WXYZ. I could not stand present-day “formula radio(See MCRFB: ‘Veteran DJ Ed McKenzie Quits On WXYZ’ March 16, 1959— its bad music, its incessant commercials in bad taste, its subservient to ratings and its pressure of payola. Because of the charts that are put together by numbers of music trade publications (Billboard; Cashbox) that rate the popularity of records, I had to play music on my program that I would never have played otherwise. And the charts are phony because of the most disgusting part of the radio industry — payola.

Ed McKenzie (Press photo; 1959)
Ed McKenzie (Press photo; 1959)

Payola really got started about 10 years ago. Until then the record business was controlled by the big companies by Decca, Columbia, RCA-Victor and Capitol. When the obscure little record companies started up and begin turning out offbeat records by unknown artists, they looked for a way to get their product distributed and played. The answer was payola: offering disk jockeys cash to play records they wouldn’t ordinarily play.

I never took payola because it was completely dishonest, but I was often approached by small companies who were having a tough time getting their stuff on the air. They would say, “Well, how much do you want to ride this record for the next three weeks?” They might offer $100 for a one week ride, which would have meant playing the record several times a day to make it popular.

Many disk jockeys are on the weekly payroll of five to ten record companies, which can mean a side income of $25,000 to $50,000 a year. The payment is by cash in an envelope. Phil Chess, co-owner of Chess, Checker and Argo Records, told me that when he called on certain disk jockeys to promote his records, the first question some jocks would ask was, “How many dead presidents are there for me?” Dead presidents means the president on bills. A $20 bill is a “Jackson.”

LIFE November 23, 1959
LIFE November 23, 1959

The small companies know that if it can score in a key record-selling city — Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland or Pittsburgh — it will score nationally. If an unknown artist on an obscure label makes some noise in one of these cities, the record sales are promptly published in the trade papers — Billboard, Cashbox, Variety. Other jockeys around the country sees these listings, and a chain-reaction is set off. The offbeat record becomes a money-making hit, all through payola.

Another way to rig the key cities is to fix the bestseller charts. I know many record production men who takes out a girl who works on the local chart. They give her a big time, wine her and dine her, buy her gifts, become very friendly. Then they get her to list their record, even if it isn’t a best seller.

It’s even worse in the big-time. Many music publishers tell me that to get a song played on one popular teenage program, they have to give the star 50% of the song. He wants either half the song or a half-interest in the recording artist before he will put it on his program. He rejects many songs because he can’t get a piece of the record.

Ed McKenzie, formerly "Jack The Bellboy" on WJBK, Detroit, early-1950s.
Ed McKenzie, formerly “Jack The Bellboy” on WJBK, Detroit, early-1950s. McKenzie’s famed “Jack The Bellboy” moniker he used while on WJBK was retained legal ownership of the the Storer-owned station, immediately after McKenzie left WJBK for WXYZ, early-1950s.

“Slicing up an artist” in this way oftens involve a jockey. A few years ago we had a case like this in Detroit when a New York song plugger, a nightclub owner and a local disk jockey sliced up Johnny Ray early in his career. They pushed and plugged him in Detroit until he became popular, but they never got their cut of Ray subsequent bug earnings. Johnny Ray didn’t dare come back to sing in Detroit until he bought back the club owner’s share of his contract.

Payola usually begins when a song plugger or publisher comes to town and takes the jockey out for dinner. The sky’s the limit on entertainment — drinks, girls, everything. There is always a big follow-up at Christmas. They flood you with liquor, TV sets, hi-fi sets, expensive luggage, big baskets of food, expensive watches, silk shirts, imported sweaters. The flow doesn’t stop after the holiday season. A record plugger once offered to install a bar in my basement. When one Detroit jock moved into a new home, his property was landscaped with hundreds of dollars worth evergreens and flowering shrubs and trees.

Once when I had tried to squelch a song plugger who was after me to play a certain tune, he mailed me a $100 government bond in my name. I was the only person who could cash it. I did cash it for $75, added $25 of my own in interest and mailed a $100 check to Leader Dog for the Blind. I mailed the donation receipt to the song plugger and said, “This is where your money went.” I never played his record.

Radio station managers are aware of all the bad practices of payola, but I guess they take the attitude that “the kid isn’t making much salary here, so if he can make a little on the side, God bless him.”

Bad as payola is, it isn’t the only thing an honest disk jockey has to fight. Between each record you are required to give two, three or four commercials. Even though I was paid a commission for each commercial I gave at WXYZ it bothered my conscience terribly. I knew that I was driving any intelligent listener away from radio with this drivel.

How could anyone bear to listen to this sort of thing? One answer was given by Leonard Goldenson, president of American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters. He said the ABC network was after one listener, the housewife just out of her teens. That is why you hear this so-called teenaged rock ‘n’ roll junk.

All of this — payola, ratings, the bad ratings, the obnoxious commercials — was far more than I could take, so last spring I quit formula radio. I have since joined a group of other radio mavericks at WQTE, a small daytime station station between Detroit – Monroe. On this station I feel like I can honestly entertain people without the excessive commercialism, and I don’t have to play any music unless I think it’s good. The station is only 500 watts — but it’s honest. END

william-b-williams-sitting-amid-the-8-000-records-a-dj-receives-each-year-from-record-companies.
New York City’s WILLIAM B. WILLIAMS sitting amid the 8,000 plus-records a radio disk jockey receives each year from record companies. (LIFE photo; November 23, 1959).

(Information and news source: LIFE; November 23, 1959).

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A DETROIT FREE PRESS RADIO GUIDE: JANUARY 8, 1957

Detroit Free PressDetroit Free Press Radio Guide 010657Detroit Free Press Tuesday, January 8, 1957

A MCRFB VIEWING TIP: To fully appreciate the 1957 Detroit Free Press radio listing above (and all the photos below) click on image 2x for largest detailed view.

Paul Winter was host to WXYZ's "Curtain Calls" radio show in 1956.
Paul Winter. WXYZ’s mid-morning personality on the popular “Curtain Calls” radio show, 1956.
WXYZ's Ed McKenzie in 1957. Was host on the "Record Matinee" show  during early-afternoons in 1956.
WXYZ’s Ed McKenzie in 1957. Radio 1270 host for “Record Matinee” in 1956. (All photos courtesy Greg Innis).
WXYZ's Jack Surrell was host on the nightly 'Top Of The Town' music show on 1270. Photo 1956.
WXYZ’s Jack Surrell was host on his nightly “Top Of The Town” music show. Photo 1956.

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VETERAN DJ ED MCKENZIE QUITS ON WXYZ . . . MARCH 16, 1959

Motor City Radio Flashbacks logo

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1959

McKENZIE BOWS OUT IN ‘FORMULA RADIO’ PROTEST

 

 

 


 

Capitol jazz artist Nat King Cole with Detroit radio personality Ed McKenzie on WXYZ radio, earlier in 1954. (Click image for larger view).
Capitol jazz artist Nat King Cole with Detroit radio personality Ed McKenzie on WXYZ radio, earlier in 1954. (Click image for larger view)

DETROIT — Veteran deejay Ed McKenzie resigned from station WXYZ here last week in protest of the station’s “formula radio” programming policy.

Rallying to his side was his long-time competitor and another Detroit veteran spinner, Robin Seymour, of WKMH, who came out strongly last week for McKenzie and against “formula radio.” Seymour stated that, “It’s a crime and a shame when one of the true deejays – one of the men who made the jockey a major factor in broadcasting – has to bow to the dictates of a program director.”

Although Seymour and McKenzie – two of Detroit’s key deejays – have vied for audience ratings for the past eleven years (they occupied the same afternoon time slot) Seymour said they remained friends – their friendship dating back to the time McKenzie gave Seymour his first radio job at WJBK here.

Seymour had asked McKenzie to appear on his WKMH show to discuss the whole formula radio situation and his reasons for leaving WXYZ. Seymour said they will explore the jockey’s need for freedom of programming and will discuss further on whether the advent of “formula radio” has anything to do with the fact that no new name deejay (other than Dick Clark) has come up from the ranks in recent years.

WKMH deejay Robin Seymour
WKMH deejay Robin Seymour

Seymour said his station, WKMH, is now the only major Detroit station operating on a non-formula programming policy. The outlet did adopt a non-rock and roll format last year, but Seymour said the management dropped the policy last January, and put record programming back in the deejay’s hands. As a result, the jock said WKMH’s ratings are already showing a small rating climb – the first rating increase for the station in some time.

The WXYZ “formula” (featuring the Top 40 singles was adopted by the station about a years ago, and WXYZ vice-president in charge of radio, Hal Neal, opined “Our interpretation of radio is that it is a step moving forward.”

WXYZ's Ed McKenzie interviews jazz great Anita O'Day on his WXYZ radio show in the mid-1950s
WXYZ’s Ed McKenzie interviews jazz great Anita O’Day on his WXYZ radio show sometime in the mid-1950s (click image for larger view)

McKenzie on the other hand expressed his opinion that this “formula” did not jibe with his interpretation of radio as “being intimate and friendly.” He stated that his ratings were dropping since the “formula” policy had gone into effect and that he would sooner “dig ditches or sell hot dogs” than go back to formula radio “because I can’t do something I don’t believe in.”

The radio station disagreed with use of McKenzie’s bird calls on the air and his “on the air” comments on office typing and the programming. The station also found themselves in disagreement with McKenzie about their new policy to boost the station on his programs, which the jockey termed “unnecessary.”

McKenzie’s 3 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. spot is being taken over by Mickey Shorr, who will have another replacement for his own Night Train program. Reportedly making between $60,000 and $80,000 a year in his 29th year with radio, McKenzie was Jack The Bellboy at WJBK before he changed to WXYZ radio in 1952. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; March 16, 1959)


WXYZ's Ed McKenzie with his friend, WKMH's Robin Seymour in the late 1950s.
WXYZ’s Ed McKenzie with his friend, WKMH’s Robin Seymour in the late 1950s.


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