Radio Doesn't Request Requests Anymore in the country NEW YORK -Radio request lines are not what they used to There is a lot of variation in how program directors use One of the most successful programmers KWK -AM /WWWK -FM in St. L be. Once the backbone of Top 40 excitement, request lines are request lines, but practically no one permits these call -ins to day, Bobby Hattrik of for now an often important ingredient of radio research. have a direct and immediate effect on what is being played on shuns request lines as being even too unsophisticated Gone are the days when a listener would call his favorite Top the station, a Billboard survey reveals. search. a he says. "Vs do 40 station with a request and within a short time hear not only Why? Because group calling is not only teen, it is particularly "Request lines provide too small universe." our artists." Using a next -d the record but a playback of his conversation with the DJ. young teens, a group most stations don't want to attract today. call -outs to test our music and Today, probably most request lines are run by AOR stations. Some programmers also fear unscrupulous competition will dialing method (picking numbers at random from the pl une digit of the last unit of the pl one If a listener asks for a record not on a station's playlist, it simply call up asking for stiff records or a promotion person will load book and moving to the next week. I- rom won't get played. If he asks for a record on the playlist, it will up the requests for a specific record. (These things have hap- number), Hattrik makes an estimated 800 calls a page 25) come up shortly in the rotation of records anyway. pened in the past.) (Continued on 0:07ZZZZGR37ZD 27ELAMAF.81 08120 MONTY GREENLY 3740 ELM NEWSPAPER LONG BEACH , CA 9C807 July 5, 1980 $3.0C (U.S.) A Billboard Publication The International Music-oar Record -Tape Newsweekly West Germany Eyes Tax Certron Hikes Ad For On Sales Of Blank Tape Dealers Nixed By Labels; By WOLFGANG SPAHR By JIM McCULLAUGH 20% the product BONN -The West German government is here reveal that German Justice Dept. experts LOS ANGELES -Blank tape manufacturer imum co -op allowance of of planning the introduction of a blank tape levy are now working on the necessary changes in Certron is upping its advertising allowances to purchased. by the end of this year. the country's copyright law. Signs are that con- retailers as a direct response to those record Of this allowance. he continues, up,- n proof to The record industry here has been pressing sumers will have to pay between 30 to 50 cents firms which have denied or will deny those of advertising, at least half must be ut lized I. The music retailer for a blank tape mix to augment the hardware more per tape. dealers ad assistance on joint LP and blank promote Certron Ferex may, if he elects, use the remaining half to ad- levy introduced in 1966. With the equipment Blank tape sales in Germany are currently tape advertisements. Certron is the first known by record companies that market near saturation, it has long been appar- running around 150 million units per year. with a program. vertise any product blank tape supplier such so tong as ent that the $2 hardware fee went only a small three times the figure for prerecorded cas- have eliminated co -op allowances ad- way towards compensating the disk industry's settes. For the remainder of the year, according to "proof of advertising" shows that sudi an is Ferex losses from home taping. Only a few weeks ago, a resolution signed by the firm's president Ed Gamson, Certron will, vertisement appeared in the same ad on,wge 54) Members of the Social Democratic Party (Continued on page 64) on its new Ferex I music tape, provide a max- I was heralced. (Continued Video Spurs SEPT. 23 -26 RCA, PRT L.A. Forum For Gospel British Tie LOS ANGELES -Billboard pre- This story prepared by Peter Jones sents its first Gospel Music Confer- in London and Adam White in New ence Sept. 23 -26 at the Sheraton York. Universal Hotel here. The confer- NEW YORK -The promise and ence will focus on the relationship potential of the video market in Brit- between the gospel and secular mu- ain. for both tapes and disks, is sic industries. thought to be a major factor in the "This is an all- encompassing con- deal which unites RCA Records vention that will bring the gospel U.K. and Precision Records & Tapes and secular industries together," (previously known as Pye) in a joint says Bill Moran, the conference venture here. coordinator. "The purpose is to as- Ownership of the new company, sist the gospel music industry in which is to be named RCA Records/ terms of what is needed for it to PRT, is 51% with RCA, 49% with As- spread into the secular market and sociated Communications Corp., to aid the secular market in terms Only a handful of singers can devas as listeners with the cla s, and ease. eon Huff rs Here To Create Music ... his forthcoming album on Phila- is dies it with power, charm and tbs knowledge delphia International Records. Having collaborated with Kenneth Gamble parent of Precision. of what gospel music presenting. of CANDI STATON. Candi that it can't be done much better, as en past hits like "Yourryt Hearts Run on over 100 hits, Huff debuts as an artist with his own composed and pro- The deal is subject to approval by "It is going to be heavily involved Free" and the new LP, Candi Staten (BSK 3428). Produced by Jimmy duced album. The eight songs include the single "Tight Money" (ZS9- both parents' boards of directors, with secular and gospel on every Simpson and Candi Staton. Sports the single, "Looking For Love" (WBS 3109), and features Teddy Pendergrass, Stevie Wonder, McFadden & and "certain other conditions," not level." 49240). On Warner Bros. Records & Tapes. (cdvertisemen0 Whitehead, lean Cam, The O'Jays and more. Here To Create Music marks disclosed. An advisory board comprised of one of the most creative moments in music history. (Advertisement) (Continued on page 8) (Continued on page 44) (Acallnalemore) STEPHANIE MILLS EDWIN STARR LEON HAYWOOD "GENE CHANDLER '80" "Sweet Sensation" "Stronger Than You Think I "Naturally" N- Put Your Mon N Where The Heat [5 Celel a' á co Black h c O o TAS Month Pith fV 20th Centtt -Frx co Chi -Sol! r. of N- ,M 0 , ,a,. .eo. INC by RCA II ecords 1 Manufactured and Distributed www.americanradiohistory.com 10th Anniversary All American Talent International Ltd. 888 Seventh Avenue New York, N.Y. 1(1(119 www.americanradiohistory.com 3 General News AFM Pay For Video Software Up In Air By RICHARD M. NUSSER NEW YORK -Negotiations be- tween the American Federation of Musicians and the recording indus- try regarding video software produc- tions are snagged on the issue of whether videocassettes and disks should be separated from cable and pay television usage so far as wages and royalty payments are con- cerned. So says Victor Fuentealba, the 30.000- member union's president who recently won reelection to his second three -year term. Billboard photo by David Ra. ter In an interview Wednesday (25), SWING TIME -The venerable Benny Goodman and his new singing trio, Rare Silk, bring the Swing Era into the 1980s during the Playboy Jazz Festival at Fuentealba explained the back- the Hollywood Bowl. Complete coverage begins on page 29. ground of the initial round of nego- tiations held in late April with an in- dustry committee attempting to arrive at a formula governing future 87 Presley Cuts In $69.95 Limited Package productions for home video (Bill- NEW YORK -RCA Records' Aron Presley," will be limited to a The album will carry a suggested Australia, the Presley legend is par- board, May 10, 1980). limited run of 250.000 numbered total of 250,000 copies in LP, cassette list price of $69.95, with a cost to ticularly strong. "What the musicians want is a fair copies of an eight -LP package pay- and 8 -track configurations. U.S. accounts of $39.60, with an an- "Elvis Aron Presley," produc session fee." he says, "and to partici- ing tribute to the 25th anniversary of RCA plans to market about ticipated equivalent pricing for Joan Dear}, of RCA's West Co ist pate in some way in royalties on the Elvis Presley's signing with the label 150.000 of the LP version, and ap- overseas markets. Naturally, dis- a &r staff with the cooperation of product. will be offered for sale to accounts proximately 50.000 of the LP ver- counting will cut the retail price. (Continued on page .'3) "Initially we were talking about on a "first- come -first- served" basis sion, and approximately 50,000 each An RCA spokesman insists that product that was solely for home upon simultaneous global release in of the cassette and 8 -track versions. use, as phonograph records are used August. Presley signed with Victor The tape counterparts, each package sales will be on a "first-come-first- today," he continues. But the com- Nov. 15, 1955. holding four tapes, will be housed in served" basis, but he also indicates WTFM-FM's panies said that market wasn't large In addition, the label has taken a box similar to the LP release so as that some system of country alloca- enough .to absorb production costs the unusual step of manufacturing to contain photos and a 20 -page tions would be devised for foreign HARD ROCK so they wanted the right to use that and duplicating the set at a single booklet.