How did you first break into the busi- ness and tell me a bit about working for Atlantic. After leaving school I bounced around in odd jobs, then in 1965 Mac Davis, the Liberty Records regional promotion man hired me to sell their new line of 4 and 8 track tapes. Un- fortunately at the time no one had 4 or 8 track tape players, or had heard of 4 or 8 track tapes! This was a dead end job and along with Liberty’s corny LA music and nasty people I got an attitude and was fired. Fortunately for me Gwen Kessler the
sales manager at Southland Music knew of the tough job I’d had and hired me as sales assistant. Southland mostly sold R & B, Gospel and Blues records and while employed there I had the opportunity to meet many gi- ants in the music business; Neil Bogart, Joe Galkin, Jerry Wexler. And artists; Lonnie Mack, Roy Orbison, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge and I became friends with famous radio DJ’s of the day including Herb Lance and WLAC’s Big John R. A year or so later, F & F record distrib-
utors in Charlotte called Gwen asking for a recommendation for a vacant promotion job and Gwen recommended me. I’d learned much while at Southland from Larry King their promotion man and I wanted to make my own mark in North and South Carolina. First thing was to coordinate the way F& F promoted stations and I started an in-house sales chart “The Carolina Record Report”. Sales increased and we broke many hit records for Atlantic Records, Warner Brother, Monument, Bang and others. On weekends I put on live shows using
local bands who’d recorded their own records, I’d promote their records to stations and together we co-sponsored shows. While doing these shows I accidentally discovered a local band called the O’Kasions and their new Beach Music single “I’m a Girl Watcher” it was my first gold record
Dickey Betts, Wooley and Frank Fenter. (Photo Courtesy Robin Duner-Fenter)
When and why did you leave Atlantic? ne day in Miami Atlantic’s legendary pro- ducer Tom Dowd called and invited me to sit in on a session he was doing with Eric Clap- ton at Criteria Studios. Driving there I could never have imagined what was in store. That night in the studio with Tom Dowd, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman and Bobby Whitlock while they created some of the most iconic music of all time is a memory that will stay with me forever. When Atlantic released the newly titled
Derek and the Dominos album, getting it radio airplay was the top priority. However, in the months that followed we were unsuc- cessful getting airplay for almost a year. At that time AM stations dominated all markets and wouldn’t play albums and even refused to
Dick Kline Atlantic Records regional promo man saw what I’d done at F& F and hired me to promote Atlantic records in the Midwest and Southeasta and I relocated to Cincinnati. I had a home office but spent most of my time flying around the 13 state territory. This was before the interstate highway system and many times I’d put 1500 miles a week over two-lane blacktop roads and stop at every radio tower along the way to promote At- lantic’s records.
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