Retail, Distribution Half -Hour and Saw 25 Or 30 of Those Rocks Sold

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'75 -'76 Season Don Kirshner's Rock Concert (26 shows) went past the department selling those rocks. I stood there a Retail, Distribution half -hour and saw 25 or 30 of those rocks sold. And every time 1975 Don Kirshner's Rock Awards one sold my stomach was turning, because downstairs they Continued from page SF -14 were selling Cat Stevens and Elton John for $3.66." The biggest news for Eric -Mainland over the past year was slated for the spring. Bullock's Northern California sites in- The Donnie and Marie Osmond Special its expansion into the Los Angeles market where it now han- clude Salinas and Monterey as well as Santa Cruz, and in the dles U.A. /Blue Note, Kama -Sutra /Buddah and Casablanca/ immediate Bay Area he has outlets in both Berkeley and San Oasis as well as a dozen lesser labels. "We were 69% over our Francisco. The San Francisco store, located in the heart of projections for last year," syas Bramy, "but when those pro- downtown, is easily the biggest classical /opera outlet in the jections were made we were not in L.A. So we're doing ex- city. The whole main floor there is classics and 50% of the tremely well and expect to continue doing well." Bramy points store's total sales are classics. That doesn't mean the other to his firm's promptness as a reason for the good business: doesn't sell," says Odyssey's Janice Towne. "We .stock it all "82.6% of our orders were shipped the same day and received and we sell it all. We're strongly oriented toward exposing un- the next, and 12.7% were shipped the following day, and familiar or forgotten music. We were ahead of our time with those figures include shipping to San Diego." Bramy's ideal is music that's now becoming more favored, like reggae." The of working toward "the concept of trying to have the same la- San Francisco market is very challenging, she says, "not just bel at both ends of the state." because of the strength of the competition but because it's a Besides the firms like Eric, ARS and PRT, the San very responsive market." bigger Francisco market boasts a score of other distributors and one - The Wherehouse chain is headquartered in Southern Cali- stops. Some of them, like Direct, Mighty Fine, and Record fornia, but has 24 stores in Northern California, with 15 stores Merchandising are well -known in their own right; some, like in the Bay Area. All are administered out of a San Mateo of- Old Barn and Rhythm Research, specialize in jazz, blues, folk fice, where Wayne Hibner is the general manager. The most and ethnic; and as befits a city like San Francisco, there are recent Bay Area store came to Pleasant Hill last June. They distributors specializing in Chinese and Latin music. The en- have opened seven stores in the past three years. tire Bay Area, of course, is laced with small retail outlets cater- Discount Records, the CBS -owned chain, has six stores in ing to a specific clientele. Gramophone specializes in disco the area, although the most recent development in that chain music. Cavalli's has Italian records, the Kinokuniya Book was the dropping of the Berkeley store, which Odyssey took Store has Japanese records, the Mandala Folk Dance Center over, as part of the CBS hope to sell the chain. has very ethnic stuff, Discolandia and Musica Latina special- The newest entry in the retail sweepstakes is the Jax stores, ize in Latin music while Libreria La Latina is even more spe- an offshoot of the All Record Service one -stop /Pacific Rec- cific, advertising "Central American Top Hits." Kingston Rec- ords and Tapes distributor which have their home base in ords is an excellent reggae shop. Rather Ripped Records has downtown Oakland. The business began with the one -stop, developed a loyal clientele of imported English rock fans, for distribution was added in October 1974. Those have done well whom they throw mailing -list -only parties. The trade in used enough that now Mike Paikos, Bob Sarenpa and new partner records is fat, with stores like Aquarius in the City and Ras - /America /Elvin Bishop/ Sandy Skeie have gone into retailing. The Jax stores, all The Allman Brothers putin's and Moe's in Berkeley very active. Edison's Dream in opened with the past year, are in shopping centers in Oak- Oakland offers old 45's. And the entire Bay Area is still an ex- land, Redding and Chico, And Sarenpa says a minimum of cellent market for bootlegs with several stores offering unau- Vicki Carr/Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen/ three more will be added in 1976, with one of those going into thorized live concert recordings to the zealous fans. San Francisco. "The Oakland store," he says, "is already the In addition to the independent distributors, of course, are biggest soul singles account in the Bay Area. I think we'll have Bangladesh The Crusaders/ the majors. WEA, RCA, Capitol, Columbia, Phonodisc, ABC, The Concert for / a major chain within two years." The exisiting stores range MCA and London all maintain branch offices in the City by the from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet in size, and the projected Bay. ones will range from two to four thousand. The stores carry The /Graham Central Station /Al Kooper/ Eagles jewelry, posters, sunglasses, and other paraphernalia as well as records and tapes. Loggins and Messina /Buddy Miles/ Sarenpa reports that ARS, the one -stop, "is about 25% Radio Formats ahead of same period last year" and that PRT, the distributor- Continued from page SF -21 ship, "is doing fantastic." PRT began with a staff or two The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band/ The Ozark Mountain Daredevils/ people and now has eight, and they are handling about 30 la- clined sound that caters substantially to the car crowd of bels, of which the main ones are TK, 20th Century, Groove Santa Clara county. Merchant, and CTI Mainstream. The PRT territory covers Until a couple years ago, KDIA -AM of Oakland ruled the Poco/ The Rolling Stones / Rod Stewart and The Faces/ seven states, including Alaska and Hawaii. large black radio -listening audience. No less than three differ- Sarenpa, who was here with Mercurywhen they opened ent stations have encroached on their territory since, causing their local office at the height of the psychedelic boom, prob- KDIA to continue its dominance only with a few changes. Steven Stills /Sly Stone /The Marshal I Tucker Band / ably knows the area as well as anyone. "It's a more solid in- Nevertheless, stations like Berkeley's KRE- AM /FM, the dustry now," he says. "Everybody up here has become more Peninsula's KSOL -FM, and KSFX, an ABC -affiliate now playing professional. From the standpoints of pricing and advertising disco /soul music with good results, have carved their niche in Tower of Power/Joe Walsh / Bil I Withers /TheZaire Festival San Francisco and L.A. have got to be the two most aggressive the Bay Area. KSOL and KRE both reach more specialized au- markets in the coutnry. We have the strongest group of retail diences, with KRE appealing especially to Berkeley with a de- and wholesale merchandisers we've ever had. The chains are cidedly hip mix of r&b and progressive jazz. According to Kil- doing well and the good independents are doing well also. On martin, some records played on KDIA, KSFX, and KSOL at the plus side we have some of the most innovative and imagi- once can sell nearly as well as hits on KFRC or KSAN. native retailers around and the wholesalers have had to keep Ethnic folk music and avant -garde jazz can be heard with pace to function. The bad side is the fact that they've de- relative frequency on KPOO -FM, Poor People's Radio, and stroyed price structure with $3.59 and $3.66 sales. They're KPFA -FM, the local Pacifica listener- sponsored station. Pat RECORD PLANT trying to give product away to develop more volume. But it Henry's KJAZ -FM continues to roll along, programming a doesn't sell any more product, it just cuts everybody's prof- tasty mix of '50s, '60s and '70s jazz and Latin, making it the Los Angeles Sausalito its." only pure jazz station in the Bay Area. (213) 653 0240 (415) 332 -6100 Al Bramy, who heads up Eric -Mainland, by far the largest True, KMPX -FM, recently purchased by film director Francis SAUSALITO, 8456 WEST 3RD STREET 2200 BRIDGEWAY, independent distributorship in the Bay Area, agrees. "I find it Ford Coppola, plays jazz and pop oldies of the Big Band era, L.A., CALIFORNIA 90048 CALIFORNIA 94965 hard to reconcile the prostitution of list prices in the industry. but K106 -FM, KFRC's FM side, plays rock oldies, and that My pet peeve over these past Christmas holidays was that pet does not make it a rock station. Neither would KLPK -AM, San rock that was topping the charts at $4, while our own product Jose's leader in the AM oldies field, be considered a rock sta-

was going for $3.66. I was out shopping at Christmas and tion with its emphasis on MOR- oldies and current.