This article was sent by bmail (that's batmail) from Granny Creech. A note that said Read it or Else was attached to it by a rusty paper clip. So…
What is a radio spot?
Well, back in the day when Granny Creech was just a young little thing, movie studios used to offer to movie theaters a vinyl record containing advertisements for the movie they were exhibiting. They first were issued on 10” 78 rpm records, then later 12” 33 1/3 rpm records or 7” 45 rpm records. The advertisements, or “spots”, usually varied in length, from 10 seconds up to one minute, leaving time at the end for a local announcer to “tag” the spot: “Now showing at the Rialto Theater.” Some records contained multiples of each time length.
When the theater manager received the record, they contacted their sales representative at the local radio station. The rep then designed a “package” of airplay. For example, they might sell the theater a package of 50 time slots over the course of a few days or a week for “x” amount of dollars. The spots would be played throughout the days, in between songs and other commercials, on a predetermined schedule, with emphasis placed on “drive time” (when motorists were in their car going to and from work), and weekends. The number of spots played per day usually increased as the start date of the movie drew near.
Spots produced for the movie varied greatly in terms of production value and complexity. Often, as was the case in the city where your Granny grew up, the local radio station produced original spots based on info provided by the theater manager. In some instances, the locally-produced spots were better than the studio-issued spots. Locally produced spots were the norm for drive-ins that showed three or more features per night.
Sadly, most spot records were discarded after the movie left the area. There was no longer any need for them. Some were saved by disc jockeys or theater personnel, but for the most part, that unique segment of movie promotion history was lost forever. However, some Monsterkids had the foresight to use their reel-to-reel tape recorders to record the spots live off the air.
The spots presented here in Granny Creech’s Radio Spot Crypt are some of my favorites. Some are better than others, but they all take me back to a simpler time, a time when listening to your favorite Top 40 radio station allowed you to hear of an exciting movie coming to your favorite theater. I’ve collected them from many places over many years. The names of the sites and the contributors have long-since been forgotten, but my thanks go out to those who shared my interest in them and preserved them for us to enjoy today.
Listen…
