----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Biel" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 2:07 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Living Presence promo copies
> Tom Fine wrote:
>> Hi Roger:
>>
>> Come to think of it, I've seen mono albums with a PROMOTIONAL COPY
>> sticker on the sleeve but not with a white or green label or any sort
>> of different label. I think the whole concept of "for broadcast use
>> only" records came along with stereo FM.
>
> I can assure you that the concept of broadcast promo copies came along
> long before then, but how they were marked differed with different
> companies. They may not have special labels, but the distribution of
> radio promo copies was in place for the entire microgroove era. In the
> 78-L there has been a lot of questions of when marked broadcast promo
> records began, and 1947 seems to be a sure thing but some might have
> been done in 46. Debate on whether Capitol or RCA was first is the main
> question, with Decca being not too far behind. There were special
> labels on these, and Decca did a lot of them on vinyl starting around
> 49. Shortly after 1950 RCA started using ultra thin sharp-edged vinyl
> pressings for their Special Preview discs, and Mercury promo copies were
> also pressed on this material. In 1972 I went to a garage sale around
> Evanston where they were selling about 500 of these thin Mercury promo
> 78s that a college newspaper record reviewer had saved from his 3 or so
> years, and I bought about 50.
>
> But I don't recall seeing promo label classical 78s, although I have a
> lot of classical albums that had been from radio stations. I have white
> label Columbia LPs both pop and classical from the early 50s but I don't
> recall seeing RCA pressings that early with promo labels on LP either
> pop or classical although I have many that were from radio stations.
> There were some special RCA promo LP series, but some of those records
> were for public distribution as well, such as the SP series. I have
> some early Capitol LPs with white or yellow rubber stamping on the
> groove area denoting the records as store demo copies, but I doubt there
> were radio copies like this! There are some yellow label Capitol promo
> LPs starting around 54 or 55.
>
>> The stations were really harsh on record companies that couldn't
>> provide quiet vinyl. So, promo runs were done on the best biscuits in
>> the plant. At least that was how it was explained to me.
>>
>> -- Tom Fine
>>
>
> This was done especially in the case of 45s, especially the ones pressed
> by Columbia which mainly used styrene for store copies. Styrene is very
> quiet for the first couple of playings -- especially when compared with
> the crap vinyl usually used for 45s -- but develops cue-burn VERY
> quickly. RCA Victor was using crap vinyl for a lot of their LPs in the
> 60s and since Mercury was doing a lot of pressing at RCA, the use of
> higher quality vinyl for promo copies as well as classical records in
> general was probably insisted on. Red Seal, Original Cast, and Vintage
> Series pressings usually used good vinyl, but the regular black label
> Victors for a lot of the 60s was on vinyl that inherently noisy. I can
> tell which is which by just looking at them. For all its faults,
> Dynaflex was a blessedly quiet alternative.
>
I have a Mercury "picture" promo pressed by Vogue: 1946?47?
Steven C. Barr
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