BarryT60
Well-Known Member
I tried my best to get SSS played on the two major country stations here in Nashville. They touched it a little on the lesser known station, but the big 98 didn't... I always felt if it could get some action in Nashville, other major markets like Dallas, Houston, etc... would jump on it. That SHOULD have been a number 1 country - with Two Sides as a follow-up. That was my hope.... alas - wasn't meant to be....By 1977-78, I know here in a medium market, that it was the music/program directors at the stations. The reps would come visit, and often a long 2 martini lunch. Lots of swag etc. They would come to the record store too when time permitted. They were all crazy! Medium markets were the labels best chance at breaking new music, before the major markets played some songs. The manager of my store before he was fired, was also the music director for 2 of the Top 40 AM stations here, one, then the other. Also worked at a new automated country station at that time. He put Carpenters on the charts and ABBA too, because he knew they were my favorite groups at the time. Passage sold little, but he still reported it as a best selling album for weeks. He played Calling Occupants a lot on one station, and then Sweet Sweet Smile on the new country station when it was released, in high rotation too. I believe it went to number 4 here, while the main country station didn’t play it at all. He had a lot of pull with the labels. Glad he was on my side back then. He would play songs he thought were hits before they were released as singles as well. Sometimes the labels would ask him to stop. He did it anyway. We broke Karma Chameleon before it was released in America. I took an import 12” single to another new FM station he was programming locally, and they put it on the air that afternoon, weeks before anyone else. It was huge. He’s still a programmer in Oregon. He and all the on air disc jockeys at the station received a gold record from Epic as a result. They hung one of them in the record store for a year as a thank you.
