Radio & Records, the music industry bible founded by Bob Wilson in 1973, has ceased publication.
Publisher Howard Appelbaum told staff yesterday at the magazine would stop immediately and that all jobs were eliminated.Radio & Records was owned by VNU, the company that also owns Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter.
“R&R had a wonderful run and was "the music publication" of the 70s, 80s and 90s,” founder Bob Wilson tells Undercover News. “Unfortunately the several corporate owners didn't maintain the level of caring about the industry that is required, instead focusing on pulling $ out. The music and radio business has changed, the audience has changed and radio has lost much of its influence to the new technology. R&R just didn't keep up. R&R has gone the way of the physical music disc”.
Some editorial components of Radio & Records will be soaked up into Billboard.
Wilson published the first edition of Radio & Records on October 5, 1973. “I set it up with Bob & Tom Kardashian. Bob was OJ Simpson's lawyer in the famous trial. Tom was his brother, Bob said. “They invested $25,000 for 50% which returned them $3 million each just 6 years later”.
In 1973 he saw the window of opportunity for the new business model. “The major trades at the time, Billboard, Cashbox and Record World paid very little attention to radio,” he said. “Billboard only had a column each week by Claude Hall that was full of misspellings and incorrect info and the radio "tip sheets" like Gavin reported no news and only listed two songs added at each station. No-one was showing what was really going on at radio and also the mergence of album radio. It was not being covered at all”.
The response from the industry was immediate. “About 6 months into the first year there was a Bobby Poe convention at which some record exec stood up and asked the radio people "what publication was everyone paying attention to?" The answer astounded us all as 100% of the respondents said R&R. The advertising went crazy the next week and stayed that way for years”.
R&R then grew with the conventions. “The R&R conventions, they were truly amazing events,” he said. “Top notch speakers, sessions, food and entertainment. I do remember at one convention walking to the welcome cocktail party behind a couple of young small market radio guys and listening to one tell the other "wait till you see the food spread. You've never seen anything like it and the drinks are included". The Gavin and Billboard conventions used to serve mini hotdogs and charge for the drinks. R&R included everything in the low price”.
The death of R&R was also mourned by hit songwriter Diane Warren. Today on her Facebook page she posted, “"That is sad. I always framed my R+R charts. I always looked forward to those chart numbers. Sometimes..... R+R RIP".
