Drake-Chenault

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Drake-Chenault Enterprises (originally American Independent Radio Inc.) was a radio syndication company that specialized in automation on FM radio stations. The company was founded in the late-1960s by radio programmer and deejay Bill Drake, and his business partner, Lester Eugene Chenault. Drake-Chenault was the predecessor of Jones Radio Networks with its syndicated satellite-delivered formats.

History

Early on in the 1940s and '50s, F.M. radio stations begin to gradually spring up over the country, generally alongside a parent A.M. station. Most stations, especially in medium and smaller markets held their F.M. licence by simulcasting the programming of the A.M. parent. In major markets there was enough of a potential audience to justify a separate board operator to broadcast a separate format. Most of the time it was of an "easy listening" variety, best described as "beautiful music." The format lent itself to being background music in offices and in retail establishments. In fact, when there was a stand alone F.M. licence issued, many times during the 1950s it was to a retail establishment who simply wanted to bring its own background music services to their retail outlets.

In the 1960s, though, it became evident that the future listening habits of the public were changing. Those once small audiences of those heritage F.M. stations, began to grow. Music was splintering into different formats. Top 40 was spining off album rock, vintage top 40 (oldies), soul (urban) and adult contemporary. Many of these specialized formats were popping up on those F.M. stations in the major markets, so it was only time before those formats spread into the medium markets. It was nearing the end of the golden era of top 40. The audience was changing and the high personality, over commercialization of the A.M.s and the need to appeal to these niche markets with the interference free F.M. stations become a natural way for stations keep audience.

Sales material from them stated their "formats are designed to be run on standard automation equipment readily available from several manufactures. A basic system sufficient to run the complete formats, 24-hours a day, can be purchased for as little as $18,000 or leased for as little as $425 a month."

Automation equipment of the time consisted of reel to reel tape players, and cartridge tape players. Reel to reel machines held 7", 10.5", or 14" reels of tape and Drake Chenault was one of (eventually) many providers of taped music, and coherent play schedules. A simple system might have three reels. A contemporary format might play categories like "currents", "recurrents", and oldies. An easy listening station usually alternated reels of entire segments ("Matched Flow" tapes).

James Kefford, the man who would become the Company's President, joined the firm in 1973 and teamed up with the automation suppliers to visit radio station owners and detail the benefits of using the automation system and the Drake Chenault programmers. Soon other sales people were added and the Drake Chenault client list grew to 300, with many of the consulted stations number one in their markets.

This base of clientele led Drake Chenault to respond to the death of Elvis Presley with a three hour radio show that was produced and delivered to stations all over the country within days. Bill Drake and Gene Chenault tapped their young salesman Jim Kefford to spearhead the next growth phase for the Company.

Documentaries

In 1978, Drake-Chenault released and syndicated an all-new, 52-hour edition of the definitive rock documentary, The History of Rock & Roll, a concept originally created by Ron Jacobs and Bill Drake at KHJ in 1969. The new version, researched, written and formatted by Gary Theroux, was narrated by Drake and produced by Theroux, Drake and chief engineer Mark Ford. Its most famous feature: the final hour, which showcased a montage of every chart-topping hit from 1956 to 1977 in sequence. That montage inspired a whole series of later medley hits by everyone from Elvis Presley to The Beatles, Stars on 45 to Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers. The landmark "rockumentary" debuted as a weekend marathon broadcast over more than 800 foreign and domestic stations and went on to win Billboard magazine's "Top Special Program of The Year" award. It also sparked Theroux to write the book "The Top Ten: 1956-Present," which reveals the sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes outrageous but always insightful stories behind the ten biggest hit records of each year since 1956.

Drake-Chenault also produced the multi-part hour-long series "The Golden Years" and "The Golden Years of Country" as well as Mark Elliot's "Weekly Top 30" (from 1980 to 1982) and its successor, Charlie Van Dyke's "Weekly Music Magazine".