From the MCRFB news archive: 1971
High In Demand, Former Detroit Radio Jock Consigns His ’60s Narrative Over To Motown Records
LOS ANGELES — Tom Clay, the former Detroit radio personality now free-lancing in this area, this week turned over his produced master, Tom Clay’s, “What The World Need Now Is Love,” to Motown Records, with Dick Sherman, West Coast sales director for the firm. Sherman assured Clay free records so Clay could satisfy a previously-made deal with listeners who wrote in, while spiking high demand for copies. Clay stated he had 17,000 written requests for freebie disks, when he withdrew the offer June 1.
Clay prepared for his two-week vacation-fill slot over KGBS, local radio station here, by doing an eight-minute production, which he felt expressed his philosophy on the contemporary world situation. The recorded production interwove music and news events in Clay’s narration with special emphasis Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Senator Robert Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy. Clay played his recorded production once on his first day at KGBS on May 22. He was off Sunday but when he returned on May 24, disk jockeys on KGBS over the weekend told him of repeated requests. The deal is one of the label’s rare master purchases.
Dave Bell, Motown’s West Coast promotions chief, went into the studio June 1 and recut the entire production cutting the time from over 8 minutes to 6 minutes and 20 minutes. Motown is rushing the record for national release. END
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Information and news source: Billboard; June 12, 1971
