
By Mike Kinosian
RadioInfo
Managing Editor/West Coast Bureau Chief
Universally attributed to the Chinese philosopher Confucius, there is marvelous credence to the adage, âFind a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.â
Highly engaging, tireless, self-described radio âgeekâ Barry Scott is among the fortunate attaining such blissful satisfaction.
Boasting an encyclopedia-like mind of classic hits-oldies trivia, Scott has been the one-man band brains behind the weekly, three-hour âLost 45sâ and its daily short-form feature companion.
Some might equal the level of passion he or she has for their job, but it is inconceivable the zeal for their professional endeavors would exceed that of this fiercely loyal graduate of Bostonâs Emerson College.
Emerging Star
Being an on-air personality is the lone career aspiration Scott had ever since he was five years old. In a highly familiar backdrop for those who would later attain their ambition of gaining employment in the medium, the Hartford native tucked a transistor radio under his pillow, as he gleefully dialed in AM stations from such locales as New York City (WABC and WNBC), Chicago (WLS), Windsor-Detroit (CKLW), and Louisville (WHAS). âI would write down the stations I heard and how far away they were,â recounts Scott, who followed the national top 40 list, as well as the Dick McDonough-hosted Friday countdown on Hartfordâs WDRC-AM. âI memorized them and I guess I was grooming myself to be what I am today.â
Renowned for its broadcasting department, Emerson College was the perfect fit for Scott. âI have run into many people who have graduated from Emerson with degrees in radio or television and I am almost positive that relationships I made there have gotten me jobs and opportunities,â he remarks.
Landing his first radio experience at campus facility WERS, Scottâs debut shift was Sunday mornings from 4:00 am â 8:00 am and by formulating what would become âThe Lost 45s,â he garnered national press. By the time he graduated in 1986, he had an impressive portfolio for doing something unique.
Compatible Mix
Music from the 1970s had all but disappeared from radio, Scott contends, by the mid-1980s. âSeveral songs â such as Elton Johnâs âCrocodile Rockâ â never went away, but virtually the entire decade of music was gone.â
That was what he turned his attention to and â by and large â it remains the focus. âWhere it used it be 1965 â 1984, it is now one mid-1960s song an hour right through the 1980s,â explains Scott, who plays songs he never imagined he would by artists such as New Kids on the Block, Debbie Gibson, and Michael Penn.
Upon graduation from college, Scott was hired (in March 1986) by Bostonâs WZLX, where he worked in the marketing/promotions department. âThe idea was to make WZLX a heritage station in Boston,â he points out. âI worked on the show a little bit and program director Gary Guthrie put it on the air for two hours on Sunday nights. The response was just tremendous.â
After a seven-year WZLX run, Scott was hired by the then-program director of Boston hot AC WBMX âMix 98.5,â Greg Strassell. âI have worked with many good people and Greg is one of my favorites,â Scott enthuses of the Clear Channel programming executive. âHe paid me enough as a specialty person to work just that one show, as well as to do a club night. That got me away from promotions and marketing where you can [easily suffer from] job burnout. Bless anyone who has been in radio promotions/marketing for more than a decade.â
Carly and Cat
Syndication of âThe Lost 45sâ in that general timeframe was done by Cold Spring, New York-based Small Planet Radio, which evolved into American View. âThey hired Ollie North for too much money and went down the tubes,â Scott muses. âI went to WODS âOldies 103.3Ⲡâ also working with Greg â and I was there for 11 years.â
Doing the show âby myself foreverâ through his Get Lost Productions, Scott has attempted syndication âquite a few timesâ and he comments, âWe had some pretty good success in the 1990s.â
Immediately following WODSâ June 2012 format flip from âOldies 103.3âł to CHR as âAmp Radio,â Scott was contacted by cross-town WROR, and âThe Lost 45sâ has been on the Greater Media classic hits outlet ever since. âFellow Emerson alum/program director Ken West and Buzz Knight have kept âThe Lost 45sâ alive during a particularly bad time in radio and enabled me to use their facilities to syndicate.â
It remains appointment listening for a fervently devoted fan base on approximately two-dozen other affiliates including classic hits KJCM near Oklahoma City; adult contemporary WORG close to Columbia, South Carolina; and WPNC near the Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville, North Carolina market.
Most clients clear the three-hour weekend show, as well as the weekday feature, which might be teased thusly: Coming up next, Carly Simon talks about a song inspired by one of her boyfriends â and it is not James Taylor. After a commercial break, the singer relates the story of how she was waiting for Cat Stevens for a date and he was late. âShe was worried about how her hair looked and she began writing âAnticipation,ââ Scott states. âI had heard the âYouâre So Vainâ story a trillion times, but not that one.â
Having already completed more than 860 interviews â which have yielded in excess of 10,000 audio snippets â Scott has tried to talk with virtually anyone whose top 40 hit he would play. âStories told by the artists themselves are exciting,â he asserts. âI learn things from the artists every single time I interview them. Even after all these years â that is still exciting for me.â
Interview King
Serendipitously, someone possessing special personal significance accounted for Scottâs very first âLost 45sâ interview. âI woke up on my 11th birthday and there was a snow jacket, a goldfish tank, and a 45 of Terry Jacksâ âSeasons in the Sun,ââ he fondly remembers. âI thought that song was pure poetry. When I hear the first few notes, it brings me back to when I was 11.â
Conversely, he has heard âLyinâ Eyesâ by the Eagles just about every year since the song was released (it peaked at #2 in 1975) yet Scott maintains, âIt does not have one memory â it has many. What makes this show special is that it flashes you right back to something like an aquarium.â
On the back of a Poppy Family album was a fan club address for Terry Jacks, and the member forwarded Scottâs note to the singer; Terry Jacks and his then-wife Susan Jacks were lead singers of the early-1970s group. âNot only did I get a call from Terry and interview him, I brought him into Boston where he did a show for 1,000 listeners,â Scott declares. âYou could have heard a pin drop when he sang âSeasons in the Sunâ.â
Ever persistent, it took an astounding 10 years for Scott to arrange interviews with Art Garfunkel and Carole King. The latter does not do much media interplay, but as a supporter of Massachusetts Senator John Kerryâs 2004 presidential bid, the esteemed singer-songwriter â forever linked to âTapestryâ â was in Scottâs backyard and consented to a chat.
Regarding Paul Simonâs singing partner, the difficulty in arranging an interview was â according to Scott â âsimply with his management.â
Halfway through their conversation, Garfunkel questioned Scott about why it took so long for the two of them to hook up. âHe said what we were talking about was interesting,â Scott proudly reflects. âHe had to leave but asked to re-schedule a second part. Garfunkelâs solo, âAll I Knowâ is one of my favorite songs of all time.â
Once he is able to track down an artist and arrange an interview, Scott does investigative work to unearth something enlightening and not common knowledge. Case in point: Garfunkel has a comet named after him. âIt has a red tail and someone thought of him with his red hair. I mentioned it to him and even he did not know it. From that moment on, he was âmine.ââ
Call Me
Just as Scott was exiting from the shower one day, his phone rang. There was a bad connection and as he fumbled to both dry himself off and to find a pen, he asked who was calling. The female voice on the other end said, âWhy, this is Ms. Aretha Franklin.â Even years later, Scott is still dumbfounded by it. âShe picked up the phone and called me herself. When I asked why she did that, she responded with the immortal words âWhen you want something done correctly, you do it yourself.ââ
Notwithstanding Debby Booneâs âYou Light up My Lifeâ was one of the 1970sâ biggest songs, program directors universally tend to abhor it. âDebby did not know that Kacey Cisykâs original movie version of the song peaked at #96,â Scott notes. âShe asked me how I knew something like that and when I said I look at the charts, she called me a geek. I told her that I was proud to be called that by Debby Boone.â
Studying Oprah Winfreyâs interviewing style and technique, Scott discovered the daytime TV icon would typically begin with an unusual tidbit. âThe guest would realize that she did some research,â he remarks. âOther times, it is making them feel at ease right away. I am a kid when I speak to some of these artists and I smile from ear to ear.â
Smooth As Silk
During a mid-1980s âReg Strikes Backâ listening party, Elton John posed for a picture with Scott, who mentioned his âLost 45sâ program. âElton said he loves that kind of stuff,â Scott recounts. âHe asked which songs of his I played and I said âNobody Wins,â Sartorial Eloquence,â âEgo,â and several others. He has collected every record that has made the chart in England. We talked about a bunch of songs and his eyes lit up. I asked if he would be on the show so we could talk about songs other than âCrocodile Rock.â He agreed, but his management refused. They said he did not have the time. Neil Diamond is a similar example where the management company has said there is not enough time in his schedule for an interview.â
Many artists who Scott does manage to secure though, such as Totoâs David Paich, are keenly aware of the program and are appreciative that the music historian is keeping their music alive. âListeners can hear âAfricaâ and âRosannaâ to death, but Toto had a boatload of songs â such as â99Ⲡâ that you do not hear anymore,â Scott explains. âWhen David Paich heard that I concentrate on things like that, he was very excited. The same is true for songs he wrote for or with other artists.â
Not long ago, Scott played Boz Scaggsâ âItâs Over,â the first top 40 hit (#38 in 1976) from the monumental âSilk Degreesâ album. âIt is a great R&B-tinged tune. There is no room for anyone else to play it â but there should be. Someone has to play âBreakdown Dead Ahead,â a very cool top 15 Boz Scaggs tune. âLido Shuffleâ is undoubtedly a cool song too, but when âBreakdown Dead Aheadâ came on the radio, I would crank it. âLowdownâ [#1 in 1976] is not the Boz Scaggs song I play.â
Attentive Audience
Flabbergasted at the ardent manner in which his audience listens to his show, Scott admits that they will catch a minor mistake here and there. âI will sometimes get a chart position or a year wrong but audience loyalty is probably the most you can ask for in a specialty show,â he opines. âUnlike that of most other shows, my audience is inter-generational â it includes parents and kids. I constantly get emails from parents who are stuck in the car. They will hear a song we play that brings a smile to their face; kids in the backseat think it is a cool song, too. There are many examples of how parents bond with their kids with these songs. Parents have an intimacy for these songs and they like sharing the experience with their children.â
What constitutes a âLost 45âł does change but original staples were âbubblegumâ artists, one-hit wonders, and 1970s acts who had numerous chart success such as Cher, Barry Manilow, Olivia Newton-John, Helen Reddy, and Tony Orlando & Dawn. âFleetwood Mac has them and Elton John has a bunch of them,â Scott stresses. âIt is virtually anything that made the top 40 that other stations do not play. There is only one mid-1960s song an hour and it tends to make people smile. That is what it was guaranteed to do back then, as well. This show is designed to make people happy.â
Featured annually is Scottâs âTop 100 Lost 45s.â In one of the first years of that list, âDancing Queenâ by ABBA was on top. âNo one else was playing it,â he proclaims. âAnother year, it was âEscape â The Pina Colada Songâ [Rupert Holmes].â
Thus, certain tunes can come in and out. Blue Swedeâs version of âHooked on a Feelingâ (B.J. Thomas took it to #5 in 1969) was a core song but was lowered in rotation a bit after it was used on a commercial. Nevertheless, Scott rationalizes, âIt sure does âsoundâ like a âlost 45,â so I definitely would not avoid playing it. Some songs are not the original single versions â they are vastly different. âThinking of Youâ by Kenny Loggins & Jim Messina was a top 20 hit in 1973, but the mix on the âgreatest hitsâ album is totally different from the single, and it might even be a re-recording.â
Quintessential âLost 45âł Is a Delight
Pertaining to the show, there are no personal favorites for Scott, who emphasizes that âThe Lost 45sâ is not about what he likes.
Creating, hosting, and producing the show â as well as conceptualizing themes â are the easy components of his daily/weekly routine. âTalking with program directors to try to get this show on their radio stationâ is the hardest aspect, fumes Scott. âI will be on hold and can hear a liner that says the station plays âthe greatest hits of the 1970s and 1980s,â followed by something like âBlack Waterâ by the Doobie Brothers. The flipside to that record was âAnother Park, Another Sunday,â and I would much rather hear that.â
To ask a program director in that scenario if the station plays âAnother Park, Another Sundayâ will almost surely lead to a negative response, leading Scott to launch into many other songs that are part of his program. âThey may wrinkle their nose at a title like âChevy Vanâ by Sammy Johns,â he jokes. âIn addition, many classic hits stations have turned their backs on R&B. I grew up listening to rock stations in the 1970s when Stevie Wonder, Tower of Power, and Earth, Wind & Fire were all part of that format. Classic hits stations with the slogan âThe Greatest Hits of the 1970s and 1980sâ are doing their audience a total disservice by only playing 5% of those hits.â
Rules do exist on his program, so it is not exactly an anything-goes arrangement. Most records aired in the three-hour weekend feature had to have made the top 40. âI kind of draw the line at that,â Scott points out, although just about every âLost 45sâ program highlights a âthey should have been hitsâ category, which is gauged by the number of requests he has received over the last 28 years. âThat ranges from Angelâs âThe Winter Songâ â which you either know or you do not â to Barry Manilowâs âYouâre Looking Hot Tonight,â a thumping disco tune.â
Listener requests â which can be made on the programâs website â are, in fact, the only form of research Scott utilizes. âI get a ton of them and I save all of them,â he comments. âListeners can write about their favorite songs, favorite artists, and I include all of that into a spreadsheet. I know some songs â including âThe Night Chicago Diedâ by Paper Lace, âLife is a Rock but the Radio Rolled Meâ by Reunion, and âRun Joey Runâ by David Geddes â are not going away on my show. I have watched research tests and I have seen research song lists. Some songs that I have seen work have not tested well for one reason or another. âFat Bottomed Girlsâ by Queen supposedly did not test well, yet when I hear it come on in clubs, people raise their fists to it as if it is âBohemian Rhapsody.â There has to be some room for gut; knowledge of your audience; and not total reliance on the 300 best-testing records.â
Founder of the band Boston, Tom Scholz, is a âLost 45sâ partisan and Scott wondered if Scholz has any âlostâ tunes that he likes. âHe said a few and I asked him about âAfternoon Delight.â After taking a pause, he said he hates that song. The reason is that Boston lost the âBest New Artistâ Grammy award that year to Starland Vocal Band. It is a classic moment for me to play the leader of Boston saying how much he hates âAfternoon Delightâ into that song. To me, that is having fun with the song for the audience. âAfternoon Delightâ might not test well, but it has been in âAnchormanâ and âAnchorman2.â It has become ubiquitous even if people do make fun of it. That song though is not going to go away because it is unique, interesting, and unusual â it is the quintessential âLost 45.ââ
High-Profile Name That Tune
For at least part of the time Scott worked at WZLX, Cook Inlet Radio Partners owned the property; Dan Mason was Cook Inletâs president and, of course, is now president/chief executive officer of the stationâs current parent company â CBS Radio. âWhen he breezed into town, he would go into the studio with me and guess songs such as the DeFranco Familyâs âHeartbeat â Itâs a Lovebeatâ [#3 in 1973] within three seconds,â Scott remembers. âDan Mason was an on-air talent in the 1970s and he loved those songs. That was fun for me.â
Marginal records that managed to crack the top 40 â or as Scott labels them âcrappyâ ones â donât get much attention on the show. âI will play them only once simply because they made the top 40. I want to expose listeners to the fact it was a top 40 hit.â
Higher rotation songs â such as âI Think I Love Youâ â #1 for the Partridge Family in 1970 â come up several times a year. âSome people forget that the Osmond Brothers wrote three songs in particular that rock â âHold Her Tight,â âDown by the Lazy River,â and âCrazy Horses,ââ Scott emphasizes. âI almost find it to be my job to remind listeners that the Osmond Brothers rocked. âCrazy Horsesâ has not been heard since 1972 when it peaked at #14. Part of the show is an education process.â
Other rare rule exceptions can surface, especially if an artist has a unique story. âMost people are not aware that the original version of âSaving All My Love for Youâ was done by Marilyn McCoo [of The Fifth Dimension fame and not by Whitney Houston],â Scott notes. âHearing McCoo talk about it makes that song kind of special to me. That part of history needs to be shared. People sometimes forget there is a coolness factor to the past. It is how you sell and present it that makes it work â or not work.â
Dwindling Decade
Specific era groupings for âThe Lost 45sâ are 1970 â 1974; 1975 â 1979; 1980 â 1984; and 1985 â 1989. Played once per hour is the aforementioned mid-1960s category, which includes titles such as The Cowsillsâ âThe Rain, The Park, & Other Thingsâ (#2 in 1967) but as Scott observes, âThe 1960s music is definitely shrinking. There are three songs an hour from 1970 â 1974, four from 1975 â 1979, three from 1980 â 1984, and two from 1985 â 1989.â
There is an interview clip in every segment and after Scott enters each one in a spreadsheet, he does not play it again for a while. âWith so many interviews and so many songs, you do not have to repeat,â he reasons. âI can actually thank classic hits and oldies stations for having such limited playlists because it allows me to play so much.â
Although it could probably be argued that the entire three-hour program is comprised of a series of âoh-wows,â each specific show has one such scheduled song, with Ringo Starrâs 1972 âBack off Boogalooâ being an example from a recent airing. âIt supposedly is Ringo intervening between Paul McCartney and John Lennon to have them cool their fighting,â Scott explains.
Another is âThe Other Womanâ by Ray Parker Jr., which was preceded by a sound bite from an SNL âWeekend Updateâ segment. Instead of complaining about losing a âGhostbustersâ-related lawsuit, the âWUâ punch line was that Parker should just write another song; however, as Scott points out, âRay Parker Jr. had many other hits. I played that audio into âThe Other Womanâ and that is what makes it special.â
Undercover Reality
From the time Scott debuted âThe Lost 45sâ 28 years ago this month, it is his contention that the era of specialty shows such as his has decreased dramatically. âThey were created for really one reason â to be âspecial.â It lets your station play something that is fun, and different. Perhaps, you can have a new audience sample your station. You probably could not produce a show like this locally because you do not have the content. I do not know anyone else who has an interview or a production library as large as this one. I have approximately 27,000 clips.â
Albeit that other syndicated long-form programming of this genre is available, Scott is nonetheless confident that he is without true competitors because, âNo one else does what I do. No one talked with Alan OâDay and then played part of the interview before going into the late singerâs 1977 #1 hit âUndercover Angel.â He was a great friend and he told me that some âBible-beltâ stations banned that song because they thought it was dirty. He truly wrote it as a sweet, innocent song about dreaming of someone you could love. No one else plays a song like âBreak My Strideâ by Matthew Wilder very often.â
Further differentiation is that Scott makes Rick Springfield and Leo Sayer â rather than the Eagles â core artists. âI love the Eaglesâ âHotel Californiaâ and have read every note about it, but I probably bought Leo Sayerâs âEndless Flightâ album on the same day,â he theorizes. âIt is not about repetition, it is more about songs that are missing. This show allows any station that says it plays the greatest hits of that era to have a place once a week for artists such as Laura Branigan. My biggest competition is the lack of open-minded program directors who are afraid of losing their jobs. They are so timid that they just want to play the same songs over and over.â
Similar to the instance involving âThe Other Woman,â another way in which Scott meticulously incorporates audio involves the mid-1970s CBS-TV show âRhodaâ starring Valerie Harper who continued her role from âThe Mary Tyler Moore Show.â The MTM spinoff was supposedly set in New York City. In one âRhodaâ episode, Scott heard âCarlton the Doormanâ (Lorenzo Music) talking about the fact it was raining and that Rhodaâs mother (Nancy Walker as Ida Morgenstern) was creating puddles. As a result, Scott saved the audio and used it to lead into âAnother Rainy Day in New York Cityâ by Chicago. âI can access the clips by color, weather, a name, or whatever,â he reveals. âThere are so many cultural references in todayâs shows.â
Under his breath, Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan on Showtimeâs âDexterâ made a Bananarama reference (âThis is going to be a âCruel Summerââ) and Scott underscores, âClips like that are so cool to play before certain songs. That is why this show is different.â
Laudable Principles
A myriad of memorable moments linger for Scott, with a 1990s AIDS benefit concert being especially noteworthy. Among the headliners for the event were The Captain & Tennille. âHoward Greenfield was a co-writer of their hit âLove Will Keep Us Togetherâ and he died of AIDS,â Scott states. Others appearing on that fundraiser were Mark Lindsay, Tony DeFranco, Bobby âBorisâ Pickett, the Cowsills, and Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods.
Whereas some in the industry invoke the word âstableâ to describe its condition, Scott does not equate that to being âhealthy.â Since his adulation for the medium extends to when he was five years old, his desire is that it should be better than stable. âPart of that healthiness will come from kicking it,â he suggests. âHopefully, the future is bright for radio â but â those in charge must wake up a bit. They have to realize that there are so many other methods to hear product. Even my mom streams online. She knows how to type in the Righteous Brothers and create her own station. Even under the context of a specialty show, you cannot just continue to play it safe. You must start to have fun and provide listeners with an experience that will occasionally keep them away from other entertainment platforms. I do not know why some program directors are so scared to play certifiably huge number one records. When people hear Olivia Newton-Johnâs âLetâs Get Physical,â they smile and remember the video. I do not know of one person who has a negative opinion of the artist. She is beautiful, her songs were cool, and there are tons of them. Still though, I do not know of one classic hits or oldies station that plays âLetâs Get Physical.â That part is a shame.â
Nearly signed by a major syndicator a while back, Scottâs practically done-deal for âThe Lost 45sâ hit an unexpected snag. âThey seemed excited and they knew there was a hole in the market,â he acknowledges. âWe were just about to sign when I got a call from someone at the company who asked if it would be a problem if I didnât play any Barry Manilow songs. That was my big chance, but I immediately said it would be a concern because Manilow had about 40 top 40 hits from the 1970s/1980s. If I agreed to that, I wondered where they would go next. I thought about groups such as ABBA, Air Supply, and The Captain & Tennille.â
Consequently, the deal was over because Scott would not cave. âSome might think that I am inflexible, but thatâs not it,â he maintains. âI know the product and there has to be room for these artists. I might be able to get past the PD, but then there is a brand manager or a consultant. The program director will sheepishly come back and say he or she has been over-ruled. It makes me angry at radio. It makes me realize that programmers are either not getting it, or they are too scared at losing their jobs. I donât know what can be done to wake them up, but that is what needs to go away. It has to be about the fun â and this show is fun.â
Straightforward, Simple Request
Commercial inventory for âThe Lost 45sâ is provided via Compass Media and Benztown â everything else comes directly from Scott, who summarizes the 28-year (and counting) experience as a labor of love.
Through it, he has published a book (âWe Had Joy, We Had Funâ â an obvious homage to Terry Jacksâ âSeasons in the Sunâ); released two CDs (âBarry Scott Presents the Lost 45s of the 70s and 80sâ); and filmed a TV pilot about the show. âAs we progress, get more stations, create more revenue as we have been doing, Compass and Benztown might help with affiliation work. I create, host, produce, distribute the audio for the daily and weekly show myself. I cannot say that I have ever become ârichâ but this is the music I grew up listening to and I enjoy doing the show. If this were to stop tomorrow, I would be thankful I got so many years out of it. I would like to think that all the time I put into it, all the interviews I have done, and the clips I have edited have been worthwhile. The only negative has been chatting with close-minded programmers, who do not realize they can have fun on their stations for three hours a week. That really is all we ask.â