Larry raised his eyebrows. That was a very bold statement. “Really now?”
Mick nodded seriously. “It’s not quite of the Intemp genre,” he said. “It’s rock music, have no doubt about that, but it’s not heavy metal at all. Some of the stuff in there doesn’t even have electric guitar in it.”
“You’re putting me on,” Larry said.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Mick assured him. “Kingsley’s gone experimental. He’s come up with some pretty cool stuff. National thinks it will appeal to more than just the hard rock demo.”
“It sounds a bit risky. You understand that we do have to maintain our primary goal of keeping ears on our stations, right?”
“I understand,” Mick assured him. Again, they were discussing the unwritten rules and understandings of the relationship between record company, radio executive, and promotor. CRCC was obligated to promote the music as suggested if they wanted to keep receiving their funding from National. But if that music turned out to be unappealing to the music consumer and CRCC could show that people were actually turning their radios to other stations in large numbers when one of the songs they were being paid to promote was played, they were free to stop playing that song without penalty. This was exactly what had happened with Matt Tisdale’s tunes and Larry was undoubtedly thinking about that. “National does not expect you to lose advertising revenue if the tunes turn out to be unpopular. They just ask that you give them their fair shake and let the consumers and the listeners be the judge.”
“Fair enough,” Larry said with a shrug. He then picked up the Celia Valdez CD. The Struggle was the title of album. The cover showed a full color side profile shot of Valdez that had apparently been taken in the recording studio. Her dark hair was spilling across her shoulders and a pair of studio headphones—cans, as they were called—were covering her ears. Her hands were on the outer part of the earphones and her mouth was open, showing impossibly white teeth, as she sang into a ceiling mounted voice microphone. The side profile was the perfect angle to show the side swell of her left breast in a tight maroon sweater. Though Larry wasn’t really into that sort of thing, he had enough heterosexuality and artistic appreciation within him to recognize how alluring the shot made those fabulous boobs of hers look. Celia really was an attractive representation of femininity. The profile shot was the only part of the cover that was in color. Blended into the rest of the cover was a background, in black and white, of a grove of fruit trees in full blossom stretching off to the horizon. Rising above that horizon, also in black and white, were menacing looking thunderheads that seemed to threaten Valdez with their approach.
“Good photo effects on that cover, huh?” Mick asked.
Larry nodded with genuine appreciation. “I’m impressed,” he said. “It looks like she’s recording in the middle of a dark orchard and about to get hit by lightning, and that juicy tit of hers almost looks like you could reach out and touch it.”
“That’s exactly the effect they were going for.”
“How’s the music though?” Larry asked. “I seem to remember that La Diff’s last two albums were varying degrees of failure.”
Mick smiled. He had listened to The Struggle (the album, as well as the song) several times now, and though it didn’t happen often in his business dealings, he now spoke the complete truth. “This album is going to blow people away,” he said. “She has ten extremely solid cuts here that are going to appeal to the entire spectrum from pop to hard rock and across the entire teen to sixty-five range.”
Larry looked at him in disbelief. “You almost sound as if you believe that bullshit,” he said.
Mick’s expression did not change. “I’m not bullshitting, Larry,” he said. “This album is a once in a decade piece, I’m telling you. The combination of her voice, the lyrics, and the musical composition is just ... I can’t even describe it. You’ll see what I’m saying when you give it a listen.”
“If you say so,” Larry told him. “We’ll certainly give it enough airplay for the people to let their opinions be known. After that ... well ... as long as our ears on the other side of the airwaves aren’t turning the station whenever she comes on, we’ll keep it up.”
“I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about that,” Mick assured him. “Now ... how about we go over the specifics of how we ... uh ... that is National, wants these albums promoted?”
Larry gave a little frown. “Aren’t the suggestions written on the promo sheets like always?” he asked.
“They are. And for Primal Fire and Immaculate Conscription, I’ll just let you read those sheets and do your thing. With Valdez and Kingsley, however, the suggestions are a bit more than the normal play this and then play that in this demographic kind of thing. National wanted to make sure I went over the plan in detail with you so you can draft specific directions in your memos to your affiliate stations around the country.”
“All right,” Larry said with a sigh. “Lay it on me.”
“Okay” Mick said. “The albums are going to hit the shelves on Tuesday, the 14th of July. Naturally, National wants to start getting some exposure to the initial release cuts before that date to build up a little familiarity in advance.”
“Nothing unusual about that,” Larry said.
“No, but hang with me for a few. They want Valdez’s initial cut to be The Struggle, the title cut of the album, and Kingsley’s to be The Easy Way. They want both of them played across the entire eighteen to fifty-four demo, with heavy concentration on the morning and evening peaks. They want no other cuts from either album to be played at all until the initials start to catch and chart.”
“Assuming that happens,” Larry said.
“Assuming that happens,” Mick agreed. “Now, for Struggle, it will only be on the pops, and they want universal mentions of the artist name by your jocks whenever the cut is played, but only after it has played. They want no artist ID beforehand during the pre-release period.”
Larry raised his eyebrows up. “You want me to tell all of the DJs in sixty-plus stations not to say the artist before they spin Struggle?”
“Correct,” Mick confirmed. “That means the cut cannot be played at the beginning of a set or in the middle, only at the end. Until the CD reaches the shelves, artist name announced every single time after the song is over. Once the release date comes, you can start going back to the normal scheduling, but always have the jock say that Valdez is the artist until the cut starts to chart.”
“Okay,” Larry said slowly.
“Now for Easy,” Mick continued, “things are a bit more complex.”
“More complex than what you just told me?”
“Correct,” Mick said. “Easy is to be heavily played on both the hard rocks and the pops. On the hard rock stations, always announce Kingsley as the artist prior to playing the cut, never after. On the pop stations, however, use the same rule as Valdez. Put the cut at the end of a set and then announce artist consistently after it has played, never before. This is to be kept up, not just until the release date, but until the cut starts to chart.”
Larry was shaking his head. “I don’t understand the purpose of all this.”
Mick gave a shrug. “It seems the plan for Valdez and for Kingsley on the pops is to let the listeners hear the song and connect with it before they know who is singing it. This will hopefully avoid having station switch occur just on name alone. On the hard rocks, however, they want listeners to know that a new Jake Kingsley tune is about to be played. That way the Intemp fans will hang around and give the tune a listen just because it’s Jake Kingsley.”