A Tale From The Radio World

Originally posted June 12, 2009

It’s one of two things: Either I have the worst summer cold on record (okay, it would technically be a late spring cold), or something in our yard has developed a new and extremely allergenic pollen. Whichever it is I have been sneezing and sniffling for the last couple of days, and my head feels as if someone has stuffed wet rags inside it.

I don’t much care which of the two is the truth (or if in fact, the truth is a third option I’ve not considered). I just want it to stop. For one thing, it makes it hard to think. And if I can’t think, I can’t write, at least not without more of a struggle than usual. So I’m going to take the easy way out today. Yah Shure, caithiseach and I had a tri-cornered round of correspondence this week, sharing a few tunes and our thoughts on those tunes. Along the way, Yah Shure provided me with a single edit of one of my favorite 1970 records, an edit I’d likely not heard in thirty years.

That will show up here tomorrow as a Saturday Single.

He also tossed our way an interesting single from his years as a DJ at St. Cloud’s WJON, the radio station just down Lincoln Avenue from our place. That single’s tale begins, loosely, with memories from his time at WMMR, a student radio station at the University of Minnesota that had much the same purpose as did KVSC at St. Cloud State. I’ll let Yah Shure tell the tale from there:

My music director predecessor at the U’s WMMR was in town last weekend. Of course, we had to dig out some of the Wimmer goodies from the late ’60s and beyond. He mentioned a song I’d missed, which was the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest winner, “Ding-A-Dong” by Teach-In. I downloaded it for a listen, and having discovered that the act was from the Netherlands.

“Late At Night” by Maywood had been a number one hit in the Netherlands in July of 1980 on EMI Records. It took its dear, sweet time before finally washing ashore here, via the tiny L.A.-based Cream label. To the best of my knowledge, Cream Records never had a hit, although the group Snail put out a decent album and single. The label’s logo resembled a collision between a “got milk?” ad gone awry and the Sherwin-Williams logo. Yes, it’s that awful. Have a look.

Maywood consisted of two sisters from Harlingen: Alie and Edith de Vries (aka Alice May and Caren Wood) and their sound was right up ABBA Avenue. The “Late At Night” single arrived at WJON on March 30, 1981, and the then-chief announcer promptly tossed it into the reject pile.

You-know-who regularly trolled the vinyl graveyard, and that “An EMI-Holland Recording” notation on the bottom of the Cream label warranted an immediate audition. I thought the record was perfect for WJON, where all things ABBA and Boney M had worked wonders for several years. But those days had been under a different PD/MD, who knew the market well. I did manage to play “Late At Night” once on WJON as part of a special show, along with a handful of other new releases with a bit of a retro feel that were not headed for the regular playlist. It turned out to be my swan song to St. Cloud, as I departed for Oklahoma City a few days later.

Needless to say, Cream Records couldn’t deliver the goods. Even if WJON had added the record, it would have almost certainly been for naught. As I’d learned during my days at Heilicher Brothers, the independent distributors rarely took chances on new, unproven labels. They’d been stiffed too many times in the past when it came to getting credit for unsold returns from such fly-by-night outfits, so they wouldn’t even consider buying any product. That, in turn, meant no stock in the stores, and no sales meant no airplay. What a shame. “Late At Night” was a great record and catchy as hell. Most of Maywood’s EMI output is no longer in print.

And here’s the record:

“Late At Night” by Maywood, Cream 8142 (1981)
5.78 MB mp3 at 320 kbps

(I’m not sure if I need to, but I’ll note for anyone who needs it that PD/MD is, I believe, radio shorthand for Program Director/Music Director.)