365 Days #111 - TM Productions - Tomorrow Radio (mp3s)

MP3:
TM Productions - Tomorrow Radio Drama (18:16)
TM Productions - Today TM (25:28)

Here's a promotional album that's not the least bit safe for work, unless you happen to be a radio program director at the end of the swinging 70s.

Texas-based TM Productions, responsible for ratings-boosting radio imaging packages for Chicago's WIND and San Diego's KFMB, put together this album as a calling card to promote their cutting-edge (by 1978 standards) services. To grab the attention of program directors, they created an original "drama," set in the year 1983. The story centers on struggling K9 Kiddie Radio as it prepares to launch a format change to Punk Country.

There's a gleeful, no-holds-barred quality to the comedy in the sketch, used no doubt in part to make sure nobody played it on the air. Even by 2007's liberal standards, you couldn't dream of airing this before midnight. The script and performances are tight, but the story jumps around a bit, and you'll need a listen or two to figure out who's who.

The opening narration succeeds in anticipating quite a few of the changes that have happened in radio even as the background music eerily anticipates Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack.  Country legend Charlie Pride even turns up on an original song.

Today TM is a narrated series of demos and scoped airchecks showing their imaging campaigns at work. Listen with care and you'll hear the death of freeform radio by catchy jingle.  Don't forget the importance of fusion and flow when it comes to making listeners tune in longer. Those jarring cuts between songs are murder on the old Arbitrons.

- Contributed by: Derek Gerry

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover

Media: 33 1/3 RPM 12" LP
Album: Tomorrow Radio
Label: TM Productions, Inc.
Catalog: TMPG 001
Credits: Conceived by Jim Long and George Burns; Written by Jim Long, George Burns, Roy C. Applegate, and Ira Miller; Directed by Jim Long; The Players: Ira Miller, Louis Arquette, Royce Applegate, John Mayer, Garrett Graham, Jack Hines, Dave Verdery, Tony Richland, Charlie Van Dyke, Bob Wilson, Mike Harrison, Don Hagen, Bob Gaskins, Jim Long, and George Burns; Post-production editing, mixing, MOOG and special effects: Ken Justiss; Special sound effects: Ron Harris; Recorded at Watermark Studios Lost Angles, Engineer Lee Hansen, and TM Productions Studios A&B, Engineer Danny Peterson; Original Music: Otis Conner and Bob Piper; Vocals: The TM Singers, Otis Conner, Charlie Pride
Date: 1977

Comments

[Listener Kliph]

I love this record and all 70s Radio promo LPs. I played selections from this album and a few other TM Productions LPs along with some Programmer's Digest and William B. Tanner Company stuff that all belongs to the same genre on my show. Just follow my web link and click on podcast #10.

[Just Kelly]

The theme is Vangelis, yes. It's from Tales of Heaven and Hell, I believe, and is better known as the Cosmos theme song.

Incidentally, I've had this recordign for some time, and many others, from a site called reelradio.com (no financial interest in this site; just a member). They got a lot of stuff along those lines--airchecks and such, though personally I gravitate to the jingle demos and humor stuff. Anyone interested in the death of free-form radio check out Nine! and its follow-up, Ninety-Nine!

[rich]

Another thing sampled by Negativland. They lifted the entire intro - narrated by Norman Rose (AKA The Voice of God) for their Advertising Secrets radio commission for New American Radio.
I love it. It reminds me of something by Firesign Theatre.

[Peter Katt]

Wonderful! I recorded these on tape in the late '70s, from the original album (and was thinking of submitting them here, but didn't have the album artwork). To this day I make jokes about "punk country" and "put yer boots, on, it's gonna get deep!" And this week didn't the Daily Show or Colbert Report make a joke about Spot, Dick and Jane? They got the timing wrong by only about 20 years...

[scottsnailham]

Well known among radio veterans...almost legendary, this is the first time I've actually seen the album.....recorded at Watermark in LA? Watermark was busier then I thought. Lee Hansen Engineered many of their projects including Casey Kasem's "American Top 40" "American Country Countdown" with Bob Kingsley and actually wrote a scifi radio drama that was produced around that time...

[Joe]

Well, they called the AT&T breakup.

[commodorejohn]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that "Muskrat Love" is present at about the 9:35 mark on Side 2.

[Bo]

Good to hear the great Garrett Graham as Biff. He played "Beef" in "Phantom of the Paradise" as well as great roles in "The Creature Wasn't Nice" and "Home Movies." Funny dude.

[Scott Mercer]

They called the AT&T Breakup, music being stored on computers, and satellite radio. Not too shabby. I do wish we had cars that drive themselves automatically though.

[Steve Miller]

Ran across this a couple years back, and was pleased to find it again -- complete and better quality. If you enjoyed "Tomorrow Radio," search out "Septic Singovers," a parody of the horrible early '70s concept which customized Top 40 hits by adding station calls as if they were part of the song lyrics. The trend died quickly, but thankfully lasted long enough for one Ken ("KG Jay") Justiss to really do a number on it.

[Patrick Hogan]

I worked on this glorified demo designed to impress at the 1977 R&R convention in Dallas, I'm the guy closing all the doors and doing all the running around SFX. The real talent behind this record and countless other productions was Ron Harris who's many late night hours gave this little demo it's flair as well as some very expensive writers. This was very pre-digital so lots and lots of overdubbing and editing ( with a razor blade ) went into it. Ken Justice was also very influential in it's production. The funny thing was when TM sold out and the new owners were content to trash can the masters ( except the one I saved ) they called me several years later asking to copy the only known surviving copy, mine; of course I was cooperative for creative posterity. I always thought the Kid Power Radio Mobile Abortion Clinic would come back to haunt us. It is good to see that after all these years people are still grabbin' for zork the rabbid pig.

Yo' Ron, if you see this get in touch, PTH

[Patrick Timothy Hogan]

One last addition to my previous comments. That wretched album art was from a photograph of a painting hanging in Ken the Production Managers office, inside joke.

[Ron Harris]

Wow! Blast from the past, indeed!
I was at TM from 1975-1978, and this was one of the biggest-scale projects we created. And yes, it was all analog production back then, but it came out great!
I appreciate the kind words from Pat Hogan (whom I hired to work for us the previous summer, and who went on to run the place!), but I have to give credit where it's due, and that's to Ken Justiss. He did most of the creative/assembly work on Tomorrow Radio; I did indeed supply/create the sound effects (with Pat's help, of course!). While the voice recording was done all over the country (Watermark Studios in L.A. for much of it), the actual assembly and mix was under the aegis of Ken Justiss at our Dallas studios on Regal Row. I still have, somewhere in my collection, the original 1/4" reel "dubbing master" of the final result, and a couple of the albums.
One other note: the painting on the cover was found by Jim Long while on vacation in Hawaii. He bought it from the artist and it hung proudly in his office. When he left the company, it went with him, but was unfortunately lost in a fire that destroyed much of Jim's collection.
Pat - give me a holler!
-- Ron

P.S. I grew up in West Caldwell, NJ, and WFMU was one of my favorite radio stations for stuff you couldn't find on WABC...!

[Bob Martin]

I worked for Bob Gaskins at WCZY-FM Detroit for several years in the late 70's, and thought he was the best program director I have ever worked with (He was the voice of "the old man" who owned the radio station on the LP)
It is amazing how many of the "future jokes" we all laughed at on that LP that have come true...and scary too.

[Account Deleted]

I was Program Director of my college station in San Francisco when "Tomorrow Radio" came out. We played it in class and a group of us even duplicated portions of it. The issue of people looking over one's shoulder was especially true. These days when you look over your shoulder, it's voice-tracking looking back....

[Jim Maney]

I worked at K-93 FM in Healdsburg, CA for a short time in 1980. We were a TM station using the Stereo Rock format. My boss, the Chief Engineer, let me make a cassette recording of the Tomorrow Radio/Today TM record. Something came over the teletype with regard to "I Wanna Whip Your Cow" and that started things. To make a long story short, I have heard the record that came out a few years later and would love to think I could stumble across it on the web.

Any Ideas?

Thanks,
Jim

[Michiko Ota Eyre]

Another thing they sort of got right was K-9 kiddie radio and a reference to a group called "Minneapolis St. Paul". If any remembers the old Children's Radio Network also known as "Radio Aahs", they were based out of Minneapolis. Too strange. "Tomorrow Radio" will always be a classic for radio people and radio/jingle lovers alike!

Michiko Ota
director
J1 Radio
http://j1fm.com

[Mark D]

You have NO Idea how happy I am to find this recording. I was in Broadcasting school in early 1979 and the school had a copy of "Tomorrow Radio" for the cart machine. I scheduled time in the school's "on-air" room just so I could "air" the show and I set my trusty cassette recorder next to the speaker, and recorded it just like it was on the radio. But my cassette is nearly worn out now from years of play. Now I can have a great new copy of it to listen to for many years to come.
My Hat is off to the entire crew that put the show together, It is wonderfully done and absolutely hilarious.
Amazing how the team called so many things correctly in the future.

Thanks so much for this digital copy!!!

[Sorcerer Mickey]

"That's ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS... to YOU,
IF you grab the RIGHT rabid dog!"