The Dot Records Thread

[Rudy]

I happen to like Richard Clayderman he was one of the last Easy Listening instrumentalists to receive Radio airplay before the Easy listening radio format Disappeared completely.

I had no money in that argument--that ongoing battle was between my mother and grandmother.

Somewhat amusing was the missed opportunity of witnessing the reaction of the secretary at our office one morning, when the easy listening station switched to a loud Top 40 format. I remember our radio even had a tiny sticker on the dial with the station's call letters on it. Most kids today probably don't even know how to use a tuner with a dial on it! I don't use mine anymore (we have no listenable local radio stations), but I put many hours on one of these:

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Somewhat amusing was the missed opportunity of witnessing the reaction of the secretary at our office one morning, when the easy listening station switched to a loud Top 40 format.

A few of those format switches from beautiful to either Top 40 or album rock happened in California.

The legendary KSAN, San Francisco had been classical KSFR until the flip to album rock on May 21, 1968.

Beautiful Music KWST, Los Angeles flipped to album rock on January 1, 1975.

Beautiful Music KFMB-FM, San Diego became Top 40 B-100 in March of 1975.

Most of those changes happened at midnight or at 6:00 a.m., but on October 16, 1982, Beautiful Music KFOG played Roger Whittaker's "The Last Farewell", went to the news at 11:58 a.m. and came out of it at high noon with The Stray Cats' "Rock This Town". Despite a week or so of Beautiful Music competitor KOIT advertising about the coming change to KFOG and how to find them, it still caught a lot of listeners off-guard.

The most egregious would have been the flip from Classical KFAC, Los Angeles to Rhythmic-leaning CHR 92.3 The Beat (KKBT) in 1989, but someone had the good sense to take the station semi-silent (a heartbeat sound effect, with snippets of the new music) for 23 hours before launching with Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side".

 

[Harry]

A lot of dentists in Philadelphia were shaken up when the company I worked for, Greater Media, nuked the long-time Classical format of WFLN-FM at 5 PM one afternoon and debuted the new MAX 95.7.



The classical record library was shipped to the Temple University radio station and split that station to classical during the day and jazz during the night.

 

[Rudy]

The same happened with our local classical station--went AC, I think. Long after I stopped listening to radio.

 

[Bobberman]

The stations I listened to over the years flipped formats continuously here are a few examples
KFMA 102.9 Jerome Twin falls idaho from beautiful music to Adult contemporary in 1977 later switched to top 40 rock KEZJ FM 95,7 Twin falls From Beautiful music to country in 1979 KTFI AM 1270 Twin Falls from MOR To country in 1977 and back to MOR In 1981 KBOI FM 97.9 from Beautiful music to country in 1985 and now known as KQFC and currently adult contemporary KHEZ FM 103.1 Caldwell- Boise from Easy Listening to Classic rock in 1992 and after a couple call sign changes is now 103.5 KSAS and top 40 and in Spokane KXLY FM 99.9 ( BRANDED FM 100) in 1992 switched from Easy listening to soft AC ( or continuous soft hits) until 2006 switched to album rock as the river 99.9 then finally flipping over to Country as Coyote country 999 these are only a small number of examples which I experienced but it just shows the constant changing tastes as well as audience and I suspect Corporate consolidation and other factors that killed the EZ/MOR type formats.and after all that is when my radio listening started to decrease incrementally today there's pretty much nothing worth listening to with some rare exceptions but there you are

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Really, the primary factor in the death of both Beautiful Music and MOR was the lack of new material. Labels started ditching the contracts of those artists in the 70s. The Beautiful Music syndicators that survived past that point were the ones that had the money to hire orchestras (often in Europe) to record new arrangements of popular music. And once the demographics became tough for the stations to sell, the price the syndicators had to ask to cover the arranging/recording expense was too high for the stations to hit their profit targets.

 

[Bobberman]

Really, the primary factor in the death of both Beautiful Music and MOR was the lack of new material. Labels started ditching the contracts of those artists in the 70s. The Beautiful Music syndicators that survived past that point were the ones that had the money to hire orchestras (often in Europe) to record new arrangements of popular music. And once the demographics became tough for the stations to sell, the price the syndicators had to ask to cover the arranging/recording expense was too high for the stations to hit their profit targets.

Very true sadly it was the ones who survived to the very end who had the money thankfully a lot of that music those syndicators had the exclusivity to it eventually became available publicly via Downloads and CDs ( examples Surrey House Music.In 2010 And 2011 Starborne productions from 2007 into the 20 teens And Mood music formerly known as Muzak and many many others) for those unusual younger kids like myself who enjoyed this music I can only speak for myself I now have at least 95% of what I heard on the radio between the 70s up to the Mid 90s and beyond there are always going to be a few missing songs and artists who haven't given clearance rights or whose master recordings were lost. destroyed or damaged beyond repair.or whatever technicalities and reasons is thankful for what I was able to acquire for my collection

 

[JOv2]

I'm a little late to this conversation, but I will just say that I am rather partial to Mr. Nimoy's albums. While not necessarily Grammy material, I prefer them over Shatner's in any case!

...that's like saying instead of "-1 stars", it gets "0 stars".

 

[JOv2]

 

[Moritat]

After seeing the bland best sellers on Dot's inner sleeves, I thought I'd post examples of some of the excellent jazz lps on the label. Unfortunately these fine lps were poorly promoted by Dot and are rarely seen or discussed.

 

[Moritat]

Here's another group of quality jazz lps on Dot

 

[JOv2]

Good stuff there, Moritat. I have the Allen LPs and the Word Jazz. Dori Howard is very talented; but the CD is too expensive. I have Jennie Smith's Columbia LP (and a Japanese CD re-issue as well). I'm not usually much on those soprano-esque voices, but there's something about hers that works for me. In the case of her Dot release both the CD and LP are too expensive; nevertheless, I'll have to hunt for an affordable copy. Thanks for the share.

 

[rockdoctor]

I was at a thrift store the other day and saw a Dot 78 rpm single. I do not remember the artist name but it was a heavy style record.

 

[3Favorites]

I can only recall having 3 Dot albums in my collection. And one of those I still listen to till this day. And I love it. The album is Patches by Browning Bryant. If you don't remember him, he was 13 years old when he made this record in 1969. He had a very capable voice for one so young and a distinctive sound. He appeared on many shows that year. Merv Griffin, Ed Sullivan and Mike Douglas (where he co-hosted for a week.) Some people said he sounded like Wayne Newton, although that was never my impression. Be that as may, Wayne Newton invited him to preform with him for 2 weeks in Las Vegas, which he did do. He was also a regular on the Kraft Music Hall. In 1970, he switched to RCA and released a second album: One Time in a Million. I have that and like it as well. A year or so later, he released a third album for Warner Bros. That third album is considered his career defining recording, although I didn't care for it so much at the time. It was so different than the other two. The third album was produced by Allen Toussaint. Years later Allen was asked which of the albums that he produced should have been a hit but wasn't. He thought a moment and said: "There was a young guy who sang really well, and just played enough guitar to accompany himself. That would be the one." He was talking about that third album.

Browning might not be your taste, but he was certainly mine. Unfortunately his career faded as fast as it started. I always hoped he would make more records again. But alas he never did. (Just a few private recordings.)

The two albums that I had were by Brian Hyland: Tragedy and Stay and Love me all summer.

 

[rockdoctor]

I can only recall having 3 Dot albums in my collection. And one of those I still listen to till this day. And I love it. The album is Patches by Browning Bryant. If you don't remember him, he was 13 years old when he made this record in 1969. He had a very capable voice for one so young and a distinctive sound. He appeared on many shows that year. Merv Griffin, Ed Sullivan and Mike Douglas (where he co-hosted for a week.) Some people said he sounded like Wayne Newton, although that was never my impression. Be that as may, Wayne Newton invited him to preform with him for 2 weeks in Las Vegas, which he did do. He was also a regular on the Kraft Music Hall. In 1970, he switched to RCA and released a second album: One Time in a Million. I have that and like it as well. A year or so later, he released a third album for Warner Bros. That third album is considered his career defining recording, although I didn't care for it so much at the time. It was so different than the other two. The third album was produced by Allen Toussaint. Years later Allen was asked which of the albums that he produced should have been a hit but wasn't. He thought a moment and said: "There was a young guy who sang really well, and just played enough guitar to accompany himself. That would be the one." He was talking about that third album.

Browning might not be your taste, but he was certainly mine. Unfortunately his career faded as fast as it started. I always hoped he would make more records again. But alas he never did. (Just a few private recordings.)

The two albums that I had were by Brian Hyland: Tragedy and Stay and Love me all summer.

I remember seeing Browning Bryant on one of the talk shows listed but I do not remember which one it was. I had seen his album in a Columbia Record Club ad but never heard anything on the radio or saw the album in any store.

 

[3Favorites]

I bought my album at JC Penney. We were visiting my Grandmother and we went to the mall. That only happened twice that I recall and this was one of those times. Whenever I went to the store, I always went right for the records. They knew where to find me! They had this album on display above the bins. I saw it and picked it up. Thought he's just a kid. Like I was so much older. I put it back, but then as we started to leave, I had second thoughts and ran back and bought it. After I heard it, I was glad I did.

 

[bob knack]

You can knock Welk, but he must have been a cash cow for Dot and his TV show, if I'm not mistaken, was number one in the time slot for many years.

 

[Harry]

Going from start to finish, here is the seasonal ratings finishes for LAWRENCE WELK vs any shows that beat it.
1955-1956 - WELK is not in the top 30, beaten in the first half-hour by PEOPLE ARE FUNNY.
1956-1957 - WELK is not in the top 30, but neither is any direct competition.
1957-1958 - WELK is not in the top 30, beaten by GALE STORM and HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.
1958-1959 - WELK is not in the top 30, beaten by HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL in the second half-hour.
1959-1960 - WELK is not in the top 30, beaten by MR. LUCKY and HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.
1960-1961 - WELK is not in the top 30, beaten by CHECKMATE and HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.
1961-1962 - WELK is not in the top 30, beaten by THE DEFENDERS and HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.
1962-1963 - WELK is not in the top 30, beaten by THE DEFENDERS and HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.
1963-1964 - WELK is not in the top 30, but neither is any of its Saturday direct competition.
1964-1965 - WELK was in the top 30, but was beaten by GILLIGAN'S ISLAND for the first half.
1965-1966 - WELK moved into the top 20 and was competitive with GET SMART, also in the top 20.
1966-1967 - WELK got into the top 10, beating GET SMART down to the top 30.
1967-1968 - WELK slips to top 30, beaten by MY THREE SONS.
1968-1969 - WELK stays in the top 30, still beaten by MY THREE SONS.
1969-1970 - WELK drops below the top 30, still beaten by MY THREE SONS.
1970-1971 - WELK is out of the top 30, beaten by MY THREE SONS, ADAM-12, and NBC MOVIES.

Looks like the its best years are from 1964 through about 1969, when it was a top 30 or top 20 show.