World Broadcasting System
World Broadcasting System, Inc., was an American recording service for the radio industry founded in 1929 by Percy L. Deutsch (1885–1968) and originally was based in New York.[1] The company recorded and, through its subsidiary, World Program Service, distributed discs to radio stations for broadcast. Its recordings were not sold to the public.
Ownership
Before being sold to George H. Buck, Jr. (born 1929), in 1971 — a jazz enthusiast who, since 1949, has run Jazzology Records — World Broadcasting Systems had changed owners several times.
Decca Records acquired it for $750,000 from Dutch in 1943 — a bargain price during the musicians strike.[2]
Frederick W. Ziv, Co. acquired World Broadcasting System, Inc., for $1.5 million on August 4, 1948, but later, sold it to a Philadelphia firm, which in turn sold it to Commercial Recording Corporation, a Dallas-based corporation founded in 1955 by Tom Merriman. CRC sold World Broadcasting Systems to George H. Buck in 1971.[3]
Historic recording artists
The collection includes recordings of Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Harry James, Xavier Cugat, The Dorsey Brothers, Casa Loma Orchestra, Lawrence Welk, Lionel Hampton, Peggy Lee, Mildred Bailey, Ernest Tubb, Red Foley, and Mel Torme.[3]
Other transcription services
References
- ^ American Popular Music and Its Business: The First Four Hundred Years; Vol. III, From 1900 to 1984, Russell Sanjek (1916–1986), Oxford University Press (1988) OCLC 300414899
- ^ Ernest Tubb: The Texas Troubadour, by Ronnie Pugh, Duke University Press, pg. 98 (1998) OCLC 34517556
- ^ a b World B'Cast Recordings Sold, by Ian Dove, Billboard, September 11, 1971, pps. 1 & 66