January 9, 2023, Issue 840
In His Own Words: Bobby Young
The retiring Capitol/Nashville SVP/Promotion reflects on a career for which the descriptor “storied” is grossly inadequate. I moved to Nashville in ‘78 to write songs and drink. I thought, “What a way to make a living!” I already knew I was good, but it turned out I was really, really good ... at drinking. I met a lot of music folks because of that – many who are still close friends today. I eventually found a job delivering and setting up drum sets for session guys. I also started a company creating lead sheets for song publishers to Bobby Young use when registering copyrights. Door Knob Records’ Gene Kennedy, a lead sheet client, asked if I’d ever done promotion, to which I replied, “No, but I did sell vacuum cleaners.” He put me to work. We had top 10 records with a roster that included Peggy Sue – sister of Crystal Gayle and Loretta Lynn – and Jerry Wallace, who had some big hits. The first thing Gene taught me was before you get off the phone, last thing you say is, “Don’t forget to report my song.” Methodology has changed, but that philosophy is still true. Don’t let anyone, or yourself, forget the mission. I met and began developing relationships with Bruce Hinton, Bob Saporiti, Gene Hughes and Nick Hunter. They were early mentors and important to launching and expanding my first independent promotion company in 1981 after leaving Door Knob. I got to work and drink with legendary Country programmers, many now Hall of Famers: Tom Cat Reeder, Lonnie Bell, Billy Parker, Jack Wilkerson, Dale Eichor, Les Acree, Dene Hallam, Jay Phillips, John Hart and “King” Edward Smith IV among them. I built relationships quickly, found out I really liked these people and what they were doing, and what we could accomplish together. My first label experience was working for Frank Leffel at Mercury in 1987. When he told me to do an expense report, I put down three-tenths of a mile here, two miles there and a half-mile driving somewhere else. Frank said to me, “If I ever fucking see you do that again, Bobby, you’re fired.” (continued on page 8)
Country With A Stare Tour: Broken Bow’s Lainey Wilson (c) with KUPL/Portland’s Danny Dwyer (r) and wife Kim.
From Silver To Golden
Feb. 1, 1973, WBAP-FM/Dallas flipped from the low-rated “fine music” formatting to Country as “Silver Country Stereo” – complete with newly minted KSCS call letters. The year prior, then-Country sister WBAP-AM was the No. 2 station, behind only Top 40 KLIF-AM, and freshly appointed Station Mgr. Ted Norman felt the time was right to move WBAP-FM to compliment WBAP-AM’s personality-driven “Country Gold 820” brand. The inaugural iteration of KSCS aired a format Norman described as “country ballads and orchestrated versions of popular and standard country tunes.” In 1974, Country Radio Hall of Famer (CHoFer) Cathy Martindale applied for a Cathy job and was hired despite having no radio Martindale experience. “It was a back-announce, time
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