The above rouge’s gallery of characters, including yours truly, was a panel discussion among those providing programming content or consultancy services to radio stations across the United States. It was held at the 3rd Musexpo International conference in Miami, Florida, as reported in Billboard magazine on November 19, 1977.
A Broadcaster’s Lament
And this article’s “Broadcaster’s lament” would appear to be from an interview at the same conference. At this point later in the 1970s, the major U.S. record companies had pretty much stopped releasing recordings of instrumental arrangements of popular songs.
Since one of the most notable conductor-arrangers whose performances were heard on some of those “foreign recordings” referenced by me in this “lament” story was Norrie Paramor, I’ll share a funny incident involving his name which occurred at WJIB in Boston.
In the first months following WJIB’s launch on September 15th, 1967, the main activity was to keep the music playing 24/7, and doing so without airing any commercials, there was no need for a full-time secretary. Instead, we had a series of part-timers from an agency. One of those was a mature, reasonably refined lady. One day, when I handed her a music playlist to type up, she looked at the names and, spotting Norrie’s name … out loud, she proclaimed that “no one could possibly have that name.” Why? While it’s a term seldom heard in this modern age, in days of old a woman who was in an illicit love affair with a man, especially a married one, was considered to be his “paramour.” Our lady just felt it wasn’t a name used as a family name!
More Radio Trivia
As I continue to sort through my radio industry archive collection, I found one more from that same period, the December 3, 1977, issue of Billboard … this is from the Vox Jox column written by the magazine’s radio editor, Claude Hall. Since he mentioned our WRFM dial card pedestal cup, I can’t resist showing Claude’s piece and the cup:
And, if not familiar with radio history, you most likely assumed that Larry Lujack was an all-star Chicago personality from when the Top 40 music format reigned supreme on AM radio stations across the land, the 1960s, and 70s.
Frances and the Trinket
Radio stations certainly have a long history of receiving calls of all sorts from their listeners … most would be considered down to earth and simply seeking information, whether sensical or not. Then there’d be an occasional call from an individual who was a little wacky! This was definitely the case with Frances, and it’s a story that spans a good decade:
Date-wise … early in 1970 — the location was New York City, the station was WRFM … when we began receiving telephone calls from a woman named Frances Kizer, begging us to stop playing a particular song.
The reason? It had been encoded with a subliminal message designed to drive her insane — these calls would come every few days, most every time the song played. Mind you, these were instrumental arrangements, not the original vocal version. All I remember it was a popular hit of the 1960s … but I cannot recall the title.
No, it was not “Goin’ Out of My Head.” Often the calls would come to me as … even though I was the G.M., I was also programming the music!
I had been with the station less than a year at this point, and we had been playing the song for months. However, what had changed is that WRFM had just blasted into the Top 10 in the Arbitron ratings … whereas it had been a #23 also-ran just months earlier — proving that when you have the right product and the word-of-mouth gets rolling … you can see dramatic results!
Eventually the calls stopped coming to me — I’m not sure if she stopped calling or if the receptionist was directing them elsewhere or just taking messages.
The next time I had direct contact with Miss Kizer was when I was at a broadcasters’ convention in Los Angeles — the phone rang in my hotel room at about 7 A-M … it was Frances — somehow, under some guise, she had gotten a secretary to tell her where I was. This was at least a few years later … we had launched the Bonneville programming syndication and consultancy and I was no longer involved with the station on a day-to-day basis, although it was still my musical programming being aired.
Then, nearly a decade passes … I received a notice, requiring an appearance in the New York City small-claims court. While I had no station affiliation, she had my name and that’s what appeared on her court claim. As the station was owned by Bonneville International Corporation, their corporate New York attorney would be there and handle things … yet, I had to show up.
What was the claim? At some unspecified date she had delivered “a trinket” to WRFM at 485 Madison Avenue … which she called a peace offering! I never knew if this meant she still was hoping the station would stop playing the song … or whether she wanted to be friends.
Anyway, on the specified evening, a limo picked me up at my home in Bergen County, New Jersey … we got to the courtroom, I was met by our attorney … who said, “sit in the back, don’t say a word, I’ll handle.”
As soon as her case was called and she began to speak, you knew where this was going … Frances began by giving the judge advice on how he could have better handled the previous case!
When they got to her case, all she could tell the judge was that at some time she had delivered a “trinket” — which she couldn’t describe — to the radio station, but had no idea if she spoke with a specific person or simply left with the receptionist … all she could say was she wanted it back!
Our attorney reported he had talked with station personnel … no one had any recollection of such an item or encounter. Case closed … the judge had heard enough!
Whether the case was fully closed in Frances’s mind, or the station ever heard from her further, I do not know. . . hopefully, she did get some help or find some peace at some point.
And that’s the story, Folks, from the 1970s. Glad I could share this radio history trivia with you. Thanks for reading!
I'll take 2 of those mugs
Interesting memories are fun to recall. So nice to receive your musings. DICK DIXON
Thanks & my best to you, Dick!