Re: [ARSCLIST] 16" transcription player on ebay

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi David:

Wow, those words about Crosby -- dem is fightin' words over on the Ampex list! Good thing you're 
kidding ;)

On the Bill Cosby show, some of the early bits were very funny but it got less funny as time went 
on. I think Cosby lost interest or something. He had a sidekick, not sure who it was, who played a 
"reporter" named "Snooping Sneakers" in recurring bits which were funny enough in the day but are 
particularly funny today given the cable news world.

But the best thing about the Bill Cosby Show was the tremendous array of Coca-Cola commercials. Coke 
was the sole (soul) sponsor and since the show was aimed at urban AM radio, they loaded it up with 
R&B and rock stars of the day. We're talking Coke commercials from, just to name a few: Aretha 
Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, the Bee Gees, Lulu, the 5th Dimension, etc. Little Milton also 
did a Coke commercial but I don't think it was used on the Cosby program. Most of the commercials 
were done wherever the artist was recording at the time and then finished off by Coke's ad agency. I 
think Cosby was recorded out on the west coast but I might be wrong about that. The program was 
assembled, edited and duplicated at Fine Recording. From what I was told, most radio station wanted 
full-track reels each week but there were definitely 12" and 16" LPs (on vinyl with microgrooves) 
pressed too.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 10:08 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] 16" transcription player on ebay


> For sure? Didn't know that! Crosby of course was responsible for the decline and fall of 
> civilization as we know it, i.e. the death of live radio.
>
> I'm kidding, OK?
>
> dl
>
> Tom Fine wrote:
> > No, no. Bill Cosby, Cos. This was 1967-68 era, not back in Bing Crosby's heyday.
> >
> > Again, Doug's original post said 16" LP -- _LP_ -- which I take to be a whole different animal 
> > from a 16" _transcription_ .
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 9:36 PM
> > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] 16" transcription player on ebay
> >
> >
> > > Tom Fine wrote:
> > > > Hi Doug:
> > > >
> > > > This was a common way of distributing serialized radio programs at one time. The Bill Cosby 
> > > > Radio Program, for one, was put together and duplicated at my father's studio and radio 
> > > > stations could be on the list for either a weekly reel of tape or a weekly 16" LP record.
> > >
> > > Man, I knew the Cos was old but not THAT old! I think Tom means Bing Crosby.
> > >
> > > dl