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? Window Cling Reverse Image 1996 Sheet Music Book
King Biscuit Flower Hour Show Music Commercial LP, CD & DVD-Audio Main Page
(Updated 09/14/15)
Quick Links:
KBFH/BBC RH Radio Show Reference Main Page
DIR/King Biscuit Flower Hour Radio Show Main Page
DIR/King Biscuit Flower Hour Radio Show Index
King Biscuit Flower Hour Commercial CD/DVD-A/LP Index
Radio Show Reference Images Page
Since the origination of DIR's King Biscuit Flower Hour Show, there have been a few efforts over the years to commercially release music performances from radio show archives. The following is a summary of the known companies, their periods of operation and specific details of their music businesses. See the link above for an index of all known commercial releases.
Overview/History
After having created and managed the fabulously successful King Biscuit Flower Hour syndicated series as one of DIR Broadcasting Corporation's stable of programs from its infancy in 1973, founder Bob Meyrowitz ventured into commercially releasing of some of the music from his extensive concert music library. The initial releases were a multi-disc 'best of' package issued on vinyl and CD. Subsequently DIR licensed additional tracks for a series of Best Of KBFH CDs issued in 1991. Prior to this, DIR had also helped produce a concert video for commercial release by Ronnie James Dio in 1984. Subsequently, Meyrowitz sold his interests to new ownership sometime in 1992.
With that, King Biscuit Flower Hour Records was formed in 1992 as a division of the King Biscuit Entertainment Group, with the intention of releasing live albums from the archives. Although licensing issues with the original artists prevented the release of many of the most popular artists featured on the program, dozens of recordings did see commercial release. These releases started with an initial group of 10 concert performances issued in 1995.
A couple of the unique aspects were that these CDs were able to release more than the standard 52 minutes of music (60 minutes less the average 8 minutes of commercials and DJ intros for each broadcast show) and therefore could offer concert tracks not previously heard on the radio series broadcasts.
Also, DIR had recorded many artists and performances that never were aired at all due to a sudden loss of popularity, licensing issues or it not being the best performance by the artist. So while these artist's recordings hadn't originally made the cut, now a number of them could finally be released for listener consumption.
In summary, of the roughly 60 different performances eventually released on CD, nearly 50% either have additional tracks or were never broadcast as part of the radio series.
King Biscuit Flower Hour Records did an initial series of releases from 1995 - 2002. This was followed by a re-mastered, reissue series that included a few new titles in 2003.
Another impact of business changes for King Biscuit Flower Hour Records was that over the years various production and distribution partnerships were maintained that resulted in various catalog number and art configurations of their releases. Some attempt has been made to list those known differences in the release index.
Additionally, many of the original radio series shows were actively bootlegged in both vinyl and CD formats.
It is known that the King Biscuit Flower Hour had not recorded any new concert material after late 1992 for their syndicated radio show broadcasts and therefore subsequent shows were simply repeats and re-edited shows from its extensive library. But, in mid-2000 the legendary Asbury Park night club The Stone Pony reopened, and in collaboration with the King Biscuit Entertainment Group, hosted a number of shows that were recorded for planned broadcast. The only two that subsequently were released were by Gary U.S. Bonds and Marshall Crenshaw. Neither of these shows ended up being broadcast as part of the radio series, but were only released on CD. [The Marshall Crenshaw show was also released in 2003 as a CD/DVD combo.] At the time, they had planned to record at least 30 new concerts during 2001 for future broadcast and several of those were to be done at the Stone Pony. Unfortunately, it appears that only these two shows ever got that far.
Then in early 2003, Silverline Records, a division of the 5.1 Entertainment Group, licensed the original master tapes and then re-mastered 34 DIR performances, including 3 that had never been previously issued. They re-mastered and mixed these in 5.1 surround sound and released them in DVD-Audio format. With this format release rollout, they had the opportunity to allow current era listeners to experience many of these original and historic quadraphonic broadcasts via a current era surround sound medium.
Sometime after 2005, Silverline Records and its parent company, 5.1 Entertainment Group, folded. The company's legacy seems to have been tarnished by the release of many poorly mastered releases, often attributed to trying to make a 5.1 surround recording by using inferior source master tapes, usually not suited for supporting surround sound capture.
On April 14, 2006 Wolfgang's Vault (owned by Bill Sagan) purchased the entire inventory of the 16,000 master tapes and other assets of the original DIR Corporation, which included King Biscuit Records.
Subsequently, WV re-established King Biscuit Records with the charter to internally manage the concert audio and video archives originating from The King Biscuit Flower Hour, Bill Graham Presents, Silver Eagle Cross Country and a growing number of other concert archives it acquired.
In 2009, WV licensed a two Lynyrd Skynyrd concert recordings to Geffen Records for release on CD. The second of these was the November 1975 Lynyrd Skynyrd concert at Cardiff, Wales which were the same tracks broadcast on the original King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show.
In roughly 2012, WV began producing a limited series of custom vinyl releases from its recordings inventory on its own label, called simply "Concert Vault". One of the first releases was the 2013 release of 6 tracks from an 11/1/78 Van Morrison concert at The Bottom Line in NYC.
King Biscuit Flower Hour Records
King Biscuit Flower Hour Records went through various management, corporate and distribution arrangement changes over its years of existence.
Corporate Ownerships, Managements And Distributors
Chronology Of Ownership Of King Biscuit Flower Hour Records
- was established 1986 and was a wholly owned division of the King Biscuit Entertainment Group until its purchase by Wolfgang's Vault in 04/14/06
- after its acquisition, WV re-established King Biscuit Records to manage the concert audio and video archives originating from The King Biscuit Flower Hour, Bill Graham Presents, Silver Eagle Cross Country and a growing number of other concert archives. It continues to be the current owner.
Corporate Management
Barry Ehrmann, then President of Phoenix Media Group, helped with the purchase of the King Biscuit archives in the mid-nineties, and also helped to negotiate with the bands and labels for release of the performances on CD’s.
Barry Ehrmann subsequently became President of King Biscuit Flower Hour Records 1/92 - 1/96. During his tenure he was responsible for the management of the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio archives, consisting of 20 years of live concert recordings from over 450 artists and the subsequent release of these concerts on CD. Mr. Ehrmann orchestrated the initial success of this label by securing rights to artists such as America, Deep Purple, Robin Trower, The Hollies, The Fixx, David Crosby and many others.
He also negotiated and arranged the eventual distribution of the record label through BMG Entertainment.
He reported that in 1982 the warehouse where these archived tapes were stored, burned down and all were lost. Fortunately, the 16 & 24 track master reels that were used to mix the discrete, 4 channel tapes that were distributed to subscribing radio stations, were stored in a different facility and he was able to use those and remix them for the CD releases. Therefore only the original discrete, 4 channel tape reels sent to the radio stations, and copies made by folks on their home recorders, contain the quad mix. None of the CD's issued are SQ encoded.
While the company had bought the master tapes of all the shows, getting the rights to release them commercially proved to be a separate battle. But with 450 artists and more than 1,000 performances on 16,000 reels of tape, the music resource was certainly there.
He summed up the challenge as “Basically it’s just a clearance process. We own the multi-track tapes and really nothing else - none of the underlying rights.?That meant getting approval from both the artist and the artist’s record companies, most of whom wanted to release their own albums and not have someone else put them together for them.
Ehrmann acknowledged that the inventory had numerous rarities that he would have loved to release including a 1980 Beach Boys concert where Brian Wilson participated for most of the show, a Black Sabbath “Sabotage?tour, a ?8 Peter Gabriel concert with guest Robert Fripp, David Bowie’s ?6 “Thin White Duke?tour and more.
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Other people who worked at King Biscuit Flower Hour Records included:
- Len Handler - VP/Creative 1996 -2001
- Amy Fritch - Graphic Designer 1996 - 1997
- Marc Metzler
After Ehrmann's departure, Steven Ship became President of the King Biscuit Entertainment Group, and was by proxy the President of King Biscuit Records from 1998- 2004
Finally, after Ship's departure, George Alexandrou became President of the King Biscuit Entertainment Group, and was by proxy the President of King Biscuit Records from 2004-2006. It was during his tenure that he managed the eventual sale of the group's assets to Wolfgang's Vault in early 2006.
Chronology Of Disc Producers/Distributors Of King Biscuit Flower Hour Records
- BMG (1992 - 95)
- Passport Distribution Inc. (4/95)
- Pinnacle Labels UK - to distribute King Biscuit Flower Hour recordings in CD in Europe (4/98)
- Koch International (8/98 -
- a production series (possibly a later year) was pressed by Disctronics in USA Plano, TX - this
? company did disc 'fill-in' (production capacity back-up) work for major labels in the mid-1980's
- also insert references state that certain CDs were mixed & mastered at Dolphin Studios Morfelden Germany
A good summary of King Biscuit Flower Hour radio shows and King Biscuit Flower Hour Records objectives was included in a CD insert with one of its early releases.
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Silverline Records
A Brief History Of Surround Sound Audio - Circa Late 1990's
The first commercial format of multi-channel, surround sound known as "quadraphonic", had unfortunately died by the late 1970's. It was not sufficiently embraced by the audio consuming public so as to weather the 'format wars' that disillusioned many. With that, the consumer market for surround sound audio was temporarily abandoned.
Subsequently, with the development of multi-channel surround sound being incorporated into commercial movie theatrical presentations in the late 1970's and early 1980's, the obvious technical leap was how to incorporate this sound element into consumer home movies, originally released on video tape and early CED and optical format video discs. These early movie releases were typically in stereo, though the 1980-1990's movies were now often being theatrically presented in Dolby Surround sound.
With the continued evolution of the home movie market and the first marketing of DVDs in 1995, consumer home theater was soon to change to a standard of 5.1 surround sound for both media and playback equipment, though other formats existed.
By the late 1990's, efforts were in progress to adapt the surround sound concept into a similar home music media format. This led to the development and introduction of the SACD and DVD-Audio disc media formats in 1999.
5.1 Entertainment Group & Silverline Records
The Silverline Record label was established in March of 2000 under the parent company, 5.1 Entertainment Group, which had itself developed from a company called Highway One Productions. 5.1 Entertainment Group specialized in audio production services for other companies up to that time.
With the creation of Silverline Records, its initial objective was to utilize the new DVD-Audio format to remix from original master recording tapes, classical and jazz recordings that they saw could benefit aurally from this new format. As part of their production plan, they intended to release a mix of both old and new titles.
In choosing to remix an older title, they looked for historically relevant pieces of music that could benefit from the 5.1 remixing process. That meant that they always attempted to use the multi-track masters from the original recording sessions. With newer titles, the location of the multi-tracks wasn’t as difficult. However, with these they didn’t have the benefit of hindsight to know which titles were going to hold up over time.
For additional appeal to consumers, they also utilized the capability of the DVD-A format to also include an artist photo gallery and a few performance video segments on some releases.
In March 2003 they announced that they would begin releasing music from the King Biscuit Flower Hour archives, on their "From The Front Row…Live" series in DVD-Audio format. Their press release of that time stated that they were releasing 40 titles in that series. Being able to license the use of the original multi-track masters allowed them to remix many of the original CD releases of King Biscuit Records, in 5.1 surround format on DVD-Audio media.
Using the original King Biscuit Flower Hour multi-track recording tapes, in theory gave Silverline the opportunity to re-mix these shows and take advantage of current 5.1 surround sound technologies, to produce a cleaner spatial separation than was possible within the late 70's SQ quadraphonic format, relative to broadcast encoding and decoding. This allowed for the release of numerous concerts that were originally broadcast in SQ quadraphonic between 1973 - 1978, to permit current era listeners to experience many of these original and historic radio broadcasts, via a current era surround sound technology.
Additionally, King Biscuit Flower Hour shows recorded, mixed and broadcast in stereo from 1980 - 2001 were now able to be remixed in 5.1 surround for DVD-Audio release. Also, three of these released performances were recorded by King Biscuit Flower Hour, but never aired as part of the syndicated radio show series, and therefore made their listening debut in surround sound on these DVD-Audio releases.
In total Silverline Records eventually released 34 King Biscuit Flower Hour/DIR shows in 2003. They then continued with other DVD-Audio releases of new music through the end of 2004. In late 2004 they transitioned their new release format to Dual-Disc media.
Sometime between 2005 and today, Silverline Records and their parent company, 5.1 Entertainment Group seem to have folded. The company's legacy seems to be tarnished by the release of many poorly mastered releases often attributed to trying to make a 5.1 surround recording by using inferior source master tapes, usually not suited for supporting surround sound capture.
As is also understood, Silverline would have lost further licensing and use rights to the KBFH shows, when Wolfgang's Vault acquired all rights to the master tapes in April 2006.
Corporate Ownerships, Managements And Distributors
Chronology Of Ownership Of Silverline Records
- wholly owned subsidiary of 5.1 Entertainment Group
Corporate Management
- Ken Caillat and Leo Rossi co-founded Highway One in 1992
- John Trickett became President and CEO, as Highway One morphed into 5.1 Entertainment Group in 1998
- Ken Caillat became President of 5.1 Digital Production Services
- Gary Lux joined as VP of Audio Production Services for movies
- Jeff Dean became President of Silverline Records in early 2001
Chronology Of Disc Producers/Distributors Of Silverline Records
- self produced and distributed
Business Addresses:
5.1 Entertainment
West Los Angeles, CA
Silverline Records
2231 S. Carmelina Avenue
West Los Angeles, CA 90064
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Concert Vault (Wolfgang's Vault) Records
A Brief History Of The Bill Graham Archives
Noted concert promoter Bill Graham had established his operations in San Francisco in the late 1960's. Later he operated both the legendary Fillmore West and East concert venues, along with Winterland. He closed both of the Fillmore locations and Winterland in 1971, as the concert business was changing.
He continued as a promoter of various events in other venues throughout the country, including the famous 07/28/73 Watkins Glen Summer Jam concert. He also was passionate about promoting various benefit concerts including Live Aid, A Conspiracy Of Hope and Human Rights Now for Amnesty International. At some point around 1980 his promotion operations became known as 'Bill Graham Presents'.
As part of his concert promotion work, Graham engaged many well known west coast artists and designers (Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin and others), in the creation of hundreds of classic psychedelic concert posters for his shows.
A little known fact at the time was that Graham created a personal archive of the unused posters, tickets, flyers, backstage passes, photographs, performer contracts and unsold t-shirts, buttons, programs and other items from his shows, and stored them in the basement of his offices.
Additionally, beginning in the late ?0s, Graham recorded thousands of performances on audio tape including some that were additionally filmed, the masters of which he also stored in the basement of the Bill Graham Presents headquarters.
Sadly, on10/25/91Bill Graham was killed in a helicopter accident while returning from a concert.
Following his death, his company, Bill Graham Presents (BGP), was taken over by a group of employees. Graham's sons remained a core part of the new management team. The new owners then sold the company to SFX Promotions, which in turn sold the company to Clear Channel Entertainment. The BGP staff did not embrace the Clear Channel name, and several members of the Graham staff eventually left the company.
In mid-2002, Clear Channel decided to sell its interests in the Bill Graham Presents archive.
Wolfgang's Vault And Concert Vault History
At that time, William 'Bill' Sagan, an entrepreneur from Minnesota, purchased the archive's assets plus all of its related intellectual property from Clear Channel for about $5,000,000. Sagan then subsequently used 26, 40 foot vans to move Graham's archive collection to a newly designed, 20,000 square foot, environmentally controlled, state-of-the-art warehouse in San Francisco.
This transaction gave Sagan possession of what turned out to be millions of original concert posters, handbills, postcards, backstage passes, tickets, vintage t-shirts, photography and photographic slides, SWAG, business contracts, and all of the intellectual property and copyrights associated with these remarkable assets. In addition, the acquisition was found to include more than 5,000 audio and video tapes recorded by Graham at concerts featuring Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor and many others. For over 30 years, from 1966 to 1999, the never-released recordings were captured on 1/4-inch reels, 2-inch reels, Beta tapes or digital analog tapes that were stored, though uncatalogued and collecting dust, in BGP's basement offices.
Sagan then began having his staff commence a multi-year project to sort through, catalog and preserve the massive collection. Subsequently, they began digitizing the audio and video assets for eventual presentation to the public online, with the creation of 'Wolfgang's Vault' and the associated 'Concert Vault' which was launched in late 2004.
Wolfgang's Vault Acquisition/Merger Of DIR Broadcasting Assets (Including KBFH)
Then in the spring of 2006, Sagan purchased the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio program audio archives and all of its associated intellectual property and copyrights. King Biscuit's extensive archive was then merged into the Concert Vault's already huge collection of live-concert recordings, and Vault Radio was initially the exclusive outlet for all KBFH audio.
The acquisition actually encompassed the entire DIR Broadcasting assets, which included not only the nationally-syndicated King Biscuit Flower Hour which in itself had amassed over 850 rock concerts, but also approximately 200 live interviews, almost 400 country music concerts, which the company recorded on its separate Silver Eagle program, and 150 comedy shows. As part of this asset merger, Wolfgang's Vault decided to utilize the acquired King Biscuit Records entity to manage the concert audio and video media of its combined archive holdings.
In addition to the purchase of the audio archives, Wolfgang's Vault acquired King Biscuit's New York City offices located at 350 7th Avenue.
With the absorption the DIR/KBFH archives into Wolfgang's Vault, for eventual online presentation, the legendary 16,000 reels of recordings were digitized, edited and somewhat 'sanitized' from what were known as the radio show broadcasts of the 1973 thru 2005. From a nostalgia vantage point, this had both good and not-so-good consequences.
On the one hand, with the hosting in their concert vault of recorded performances for online listening or download playing, WV was not restricted to the constraints of a typically 60 minute radio show, less 6-7 minutes of commercials and DJ intro and outros. Therefore the entire recorded show (or whatever portion still survived at the time of acquisition) could finally be made available to the listening public for the first time.
An obvious early example was from the very first KBFH show, which had included just one track from the performance of the then nearly unknown Bruce Springsteen at Max's Kansas City on 01/31/73. Springsteen fans have known for years that his three night stint of performances there were recorded and squirreled away in the DIR archives. Now WV has been able to release seven musical gems, in addition to "Bishop Danced" to the world.
That is only one example of the hundreds of extended performances that are now available. Plus, the archive includes many unique performances that were recorded, but were never broadcast. With this, WV has done a fantastic service to the music world by unveiling many lost artifacts that deserved to finally see the light of day. And for this, I believe that they are owed a debt of gratitude by music lovers everywhere.
From my humble, personal perspective as an original listener to this classic series, one downside to the presentation of these recordings is that the listener loses the feel of the original broadcast 'period', as these performances are sans the imbedded commercials and DJ intro and outros as they were presented on the radio programs. While I may be speaking as a "nostalgia purist", there is something lost relative to the broader context of their initial airings. If you have the opportunity to hear the original shows infused with 30 to 60 second commercial breaks for Pioneer quadraphonic receivers, Scotch Magnetic Tape, McClean's Toothpaste, Lee Jeans, Honda, Clearasil, Clairol Shampoo, TDK Recording Cassettes, Toyota and Johnson's Baby Shampoo, you will realize that these become part of the broader "WABAC machine" experience. [For those of you of the age to be unfamiliar with the above product names or the "WABAC machine", please follow the link.]
Then add to it the seemingly timeless voice of Bill Minkin, as the proverbial host who became the weekly MC of each Sunday night's musical presentation, and you have the perfect combination of music and ambience. He became your knowledgeable friend, who invited you to figuratively step into your radio and transport your ears and mind to the front row of that night's unique musical performance.
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Bill Minkin 1970's
Though I can't blame WV for the omission of these segments for their current day hosting purposes, to me and I'm sure others, it is a loss. I understand that from a marketing standpoint, the bigger purpose is in making this music accessible to future generations of listeners, and not the diminishing number of people who cherish the memories of the original broadcast of these classic performances. So I console myself with the satisfaction of knowing that these live shows continue to live on and will bring pleasure to new listeners, some 43+ years after their original recording and initial airing. Thanks for the commitment to the music Mr. Sagan!
Part of the challenge for WV, like King Biscuit Records, is that while 'owning' the master recordings for so many classic recordings, and owning certain rights to these recordings, in many cases others also have rights as well, including performers and song publishers. Therefore, WV can't make a concert available for download unless all rights have been properly cleared. This is one of the reasons why only a portion of their vast holdings are currently available online.
Another route of releasing portions of its holdings has been for WV to create an in-house record label called Concert Vault Records. Starting in 2012, it has released about a half dozen titles on this label. One of those is of an original KBFH show by Van Morrison from the Bottom Line in NYC on 11/01/78.
Additionally, with its holdings and limited rights, WV has the ability to pursue licensing agreements to allow commercial use of recordings from within its archives. Thus far relative to KBFH recordings, this has been limited to just one licensing agreement with Geffen Records which released in 2009, the November 1975 Lynyrd Skynyrd concert from Cardiff, Wales.
Whether WV decides to pursue additional licensing of these recordings to Geffen or other record producers, remains to be seen.
Current Business Addresses:
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Wolfgang's Vault - Archives & Merchandise Warehouse
San Francisco, CA
Concert
Vault - Online
Services Management
350 7th Ave, Suite 500
New York, NY 10001
Geffen Records
Corporate Ownership, Management And Distributors
David Geffen's music business career began when he established Asylum Records in 1971, after which it was bought by Warner Communications in 1972. He continued to work at Asylum until 1975, before a brief foray into movie film production that ended in 1978.
Then in 1980 he established Geffen Records which quickly became a very successful U.S. record company. He ran Geffen Records, which was distributed through Warner Brothers, and signed many then contemporary acts to the label including Donna Summer, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Quarterflash, Oxo, Asia, Wang Chung, Kylie Minogue, Sammy Hagar, Elton John, Irene Cara, Cher, Debbie Harry, Don Henley, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Jennifer Holliday, Whitesnake, The Stone Roses, Guns N' Roses, Tesla and Sonic Youth. Subsequently, he created a subsidiary label, DGC Records in 1990, which focused on more progressive rock and the bourgeoning grunge music genre.
Later in 1990 he sold the company to MCA Music Entertainment (later renamed Universal Music Group), which then handled its distribution, as he continued to run the company until leaving in 1995. Subsequently Universal Music Group acquired Polygram in 1999 and merged its holdings into the Interscope - Geffen - A&M Records label. It currently has its headquarters in NYC and is headed by Gee Roberson, who reports to John Janick, CEO of Interscope Records.