WMMS Director Remembers Tusk

[michelej1]

The program director and operations manager of WMMS wrote a book about his experiences with Cleveland Rock Radio.

http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/27/buzzed

This is what he says about Tusk:

The leak of a Rod Stewart album so upset Russ Thyret, the head of Warner Records, that he stopped service of all Warner product to WMMS. The embargo ended after a few days, when he made a rare trip from L.A. to meet with us. We refused to reveal our source but agreed to be more considerate. At least for a while.

The same company was furious at WMMS when we broke Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album as an exclusive, early in the fall of 1979. That one came on cassette, from a friend in New York. To ensure its delivery, I had to buy a seat for it on a commercial flight. I was a nervous wreck waiting for it at the airport - once again on a Friday night - and drove it to WMMS, where Denny Sanders immediately put it on the air. We played one cut every half hour, inserting "WMMS exclusive" in case anyone tried to tape it. Warner was upset because Fleetwood Mac was their most important act at that time, and they worried about Tusk being a somewhat experimental double album which sounded nothing like its predecessor, the multi-platinum Rumours.

[David]

Originally Posted by michelej1

The same company was furious at WMMS when we broke Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album as an exclusive, early in the fall of 1979. That one came on cassette, from a friend in New York. To ensure its delivery, I had to buy a seat for it on a commercial flight. I was a nervous wreck waiting for it at the airport - once again on a Friday night - and drove it to WMMS, where Denny Sanders immediately put it on the air. We played one cut every half hour, inserting "WMMS exclusive" in case anyone tried to tape it.

What disingenuousness! "in case anyone tried to tape it"!!
Those were weird days. I remember Jim Ladd previewing Rock a Little on air (whatever station he worked for at the time) but he yapped up a storm during the beginnings & endings of each track, because he of course knew that otherwise tapes would be bootlegged. Of course, in the case of Jim Ladd, who was so close to Stevie & sympathetic to her career, one wonders whether Ladd might not have been actually encouraged to preview it by Modern. WMMS sounds like a rogue station. Wasn't it also that station which played Cathouse Blues on the air ... WHILE Stevie was on the phone with one of its DJs? Brave, reckless rogues ....

[carrie721]

oh how i long for the good ol' days of WMMS. now they're owned by ****ing clear channel.