590 MIGHTY MEMORY #532

PHOTO INDEX: WARM RADIO HARRY WEST HOLDING A RECORD.

THE RECORD GUYS

Tom McEntee died the other day . He was a former green Beret who served his country and I'm sure he had some interesting times and stories. As a returning vet, he rarely talked about his war service. However after the war, he entered the music field and was associated with ABC/Dot records. Like most record men of the 60s and 70s, he had an abundance of anecdotes and tales associated with this part of his life. Tom was the founder of the Country Radio Seminar which is now a blockbuster organization with a huge turnout at an annual affair in Nashville. He was Southeast editor of the now gone CASHBOX Magazine. To put this in perspective for our Forever 590 readers, Tom was the promotional guy who got the records to the radio stations. Back in the 60s and 70s, record companies would send representatives to various radio stations with promotional copies hoping that the station would add it to their playlist. The hundreds of songs not making the playlist were given away at radio station remotes and appearances. After hearing the song on the radio, radio execs hoped people would buy the song at the music store. WARM was one of the most visited stations in the country because of its ratings success. Stations like the MIGHTY 590 were frequent stops for lieutenants of music executive Tom McEntee. One of the songs McEntee was responsible for getting on the air was "Come Monday", a mellow tune that launched the career of one Mr. Jimmy Buffett. The song was of course played on WARM in the summer of 1974. Here's Jimmy Buffett talking about that song and how he did the video on it. Buffett was the singing star but it was a guy like Tom McEntee that made radio stations aware of Buffett's talent.