Larry Chambers
“Well, John started Ecko Records in 1994.We had cut a song on Ollie Nightingale, “I’ll Drink Your Bath-water Baby”. At that present time, he was working with another record label and John had the record Ollie. Yet, he couldn’t get anyone to take the record. So, John called me and said, “Well Larry, I’m going to put the record out myself. So, come on and join me. We’ll put the song out and we’ll call it, ‘Ecko Records’.” I thought about and agreed to join him. That’s how we began 25 years ago.”
We went through what every record company goes through to get up off the ground. Finance, number 1. Promotion…and most of all Distribution. It wasn’t long before we got all those things intact. The first cd like I said was Ollie Nightingale and it did pretty good. After that we came out with Charles Wilson, Bill Coday, Barbara Carr, Rufus Thomas…so the roster began to build from there. So, the obstacles were the same obstacles that everyone goes through in order to get a business off of the ground. Even if you were selling marbles or water.
I’ve been in this business for over 50 years, so I’ve seen many many changes. I would say dealing with the markets and radio. Radio has made tremendous changes over the last 50 years. The biggest is when the FCC allowed multiple companies to come in and buy up markets. Previous to that you were only allowed maybe 1 or 2 stations in each market. The FCC changes that during the Ronald Regan administration. Collin Powell, Jr. at that time was the head of the FCC. They allowed the large conglomerates to buy up major markets. In which was hurtful for particularly small companies or someone just getting started in this business. That means they control markets. For example, Memphis….Clear Channel and iHeartMedia. When they came into the Memphis market, they bought up 6 radio stations and 2 television stations. Same thing in Atlanta, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles. Cumulus, Clear Channel, Fox all came in because they’re the largest ones in the United States. So, they bought up the markets, which placed us in a precarious situation because they found that we didn’t fit the format. The stations that were playing us ended up being bought out and that put us in a position where we could no longer get the airplay we were getting. Soul-Blues music isn’t any different from when it was playing in 1965. It’s still Soul Music, the name has changed, but the product is still the same. That’s the biggest change that I’ve seen.
We’re working on projects all of the time. Ecko Records has Gospel acts and 6 Soul-Blues acts. We’re wrapping up this year due to holiday season. If you’re not already in the majority of the radio systems, then you’re not going to get added. So, it will be just sitting there and resubmit your product. Due to the fact it may be deleted out of their system. On the drawing board, we have many projects coming within the next few months. We two, Gospel and Soul-Blues, acts releasing in October 2019.
The next generation should prepare for modern technology and computer media. Those are number 1 and 2 for the next generation. Nothing compares to what we dealt with until now because it was more manual. Technology is constantly changing and it’s even difficult for the media to keep up with. I think they have a better chance due to the fact their millenniums coming into this market. They must stay focus, understand how media works, and understand modern technology that’s taking place right. It looks good for them in the future.
