Week of June 26, 1983

Two Americans - including Maxie Anderson, one of three men who piloted the

first helium balloon across the Atlantic, die in a balloon crash in West Germany.

A 100-foot section of an interstate 95 bridge collapses

near Greenwich, Conn, hurling trucks and cars 70 feet

into the Mianus River. Three are dead and at least three

are critically injured. The three eastbound lanes of the

bridge dropped into the river at about 1:30am. Two

tractor-trailer trucks and two cars fell into the water.

The Supreme Court holds that a jail sentence may be

struck down as unconstitutional because it is too long for

the crime the defendant committed. Voting 5 to 4, the justices decided that a

South Dakota judge had violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “cruel and

unusual punishment” when he sentenced a 36-year-old alcoholic to life

imprisonment without parole as a repeat offender. Jerry Helm had been

convicted of seven nonviolent felony crimes, the final one involving a $100 bad

check that he said he passed while intoxicated.

U.S. Navy F-14 jet fighters intercept a pair of Libyan MIG-23 warplanes as the

Libyan planes approached an area where the U.S. carrier Eisenhower was

steaming. Officials say the MIG’s turned away and returned to their home bases

in Libya without any shooting.

Bestselling books -

The Little Drummer Girl - John Le Carre

Voice of the Heart - Barbara Taylor Bradford

Christine - Stephen King

Heartburn - Nora Ephron

Ancient Evenings - Norman Mailer

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

The Warlord - Malcolm Bosse

Mega trends: Ten New Directions transforming Our Lives -

John Naisbitt

In Search of Excellence: Lessons From America’s Best Run

Companies - Thomas J. Peters/Robert H. Waterman

Blue Highways - William Least Heat Moon

Our Lives - John Naisbitt

Creating Wealth - Robert G. Allen

Week of June 26, 1983

Books - Joel Whitburn publishes his “Billboard Book Of Top 40 Hits” for the first

time to the consumers. The book use to be available to radio stations and trades.

This week, after only four weeks, the book goes into its second printing after

selling 30,000 copies - the best ever for Whitburn. He says he hopes that it will

eventually sell 100,000 copies. His previous best seller was the 1978 version of

“Top Pop Artists & Singles” - which sold 12,000 copies. The Top-40 book sells for

$14.95.

Passing - Mary Livingstone (77),

widow and former stage partner of

comedian Jack Benny.

Passing - Walter O’Keefe, humorist,

lyricist and longtime emcee of radio’s

famed “Double or Nothing” quiz

show.

The St. Louis home of ragtime

composer and musician Scott Joplin

will be restored and operated as a museum. The residence is among 33 sties

associated with famous black Americans that have been designated by the

Interior Department as national historic landmarks.

Cable guru Ted Turner got “sick as hell” at a Playboy magazine interviewer

aboard an airplane, smashed his tape recorder, kicked his tape bag into the

cockpit door and then, swearing and shouting, stamped on the tapes.

In sports - The Seattle Mariners, who lost their last eight games, fire Manager

Rene Lachemann and name Del Crandall as his replacement. Crandall was

managing the Dodgers’ Albuquerque Dukes farm team.

Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn reaches a

decision to fine Dodgers reliever Steve Howe $57,000 -

believed to be the largest player fine so far. It represents

his pay for the 30 days he has been unavailable because

of drug therapy.

Television ratings -

Trapper John, MD - 19.2

The A-Team - 19.1

The Jeffersons - 18.1

Movie - The Princess and the Cabbie - 17.9

Week of June 26, 1983

Simon & Simon - 17.5

Hill Street Blues - 17.2

NBC Monday Night Movie - 17.0

Remington Steele - 16.8

60 Minutes - 16.1

On the Road - 16.1

Cagney & Lacey - 16.0

Knight Rider - 15.8

20/20 - 15.8

Cheers - 15.8

MASH - 15.7

Fantasy Island - 15.2

Magnum, PI - 15.2

Love Boat - 15.0

Hart to Hart - 15.0

Family Ties - 14.5

St Elsewhere - 14.3

Matt Houston - 14.0

Archie Bunker’s Place - 14.0

Eishied - 13.9

Our Times - 13.8

Wishman - 13.5

Gimmie a Break - 13.3

Movie - Loving - 13.3

Three’s Company - 12.8

Facts of Life - 12.4

Television - “Saturday Night Live” bares another movie star - this one Joe

Piscopo. He’ll play gangster Danny Vermin in “Johnny Dangerously” starring

Michael Keaton and Maureen Stapleton. “All these offers to do movies were

coming in, but I wanted to do something different. Outside of Eddie Murphy and

Billy Murray, I think some of the projects the other people have gotten involved

with have been really bad.” Piscopo says he has no plans to leave SNL.

Radio news - Rick Carroll - new-rock programmer

at KROQ-FM (106.7) in Pasadena-Los Angeles has

been so successful - he consults XTRA-FM (91X) in

San Diego and this week - adds a new station - KQAK

in San Francisco. Carroll’s format is called “All New

Music.” Rick Carroll and KROQ are usually the first in

commercial radio to play groups like “The Talking

Heads,” “Duran Duran,” “U2,” “A Flock Of Seagulls,”

“R.E.M,” “The Fix,” “Naked Eyes” and many more. In

Week of June 26, 1983

fact the format is credited for breaking many of these acts on commercial radio.

NBC says it is replacing SCTV

on Friday nights with “Friday

Night Videos.” The new series

premieres July 30 on NBC-TV

and simulcast on NBC’s “The

Source” radio network. Dick

Ebersol, producer of “Saturday

Night Live” is executive

producer. NBC pays labels

$1000 for a single showing of

each video. Says Ebersol - “The

main reason we’re paying is

because until now, the majority

of these videos have been

played on cable, which is non-regulated. There have been no dealings with the

unions and questionable practices with synchronization licenses. A network is

totally regulated and highly unionized. You have to go on the air clean, and to do

that we need the record companies to present us videos with certain obligations

filled. The fee we’re paying is for administration, to help them get their house in

order and allow us to get our show on the air.”

Nine public television stations end an 18-month experiment on running

commercials between programs. The experiment, which varied from running

mainstream TV commercials between programs to simply giving program

underwriters more on-air credit, was authorized by Congress in 1981. Only one

station - WQLN in Erie, PA failed to make money by selling ads. The station says

part of the problem though, was that it focused its energy on new management.

Record news - Motown Record Corp and MCA reach a long-term agreement for

MCA to distribute all of Motown’s recorded music products within the United

States. There’s a trend going on in the music business toward consolidation.

Warner Communications Inc and PolyGram are discussing some sort of

consolidation this week. Recently, RCA agreed to acquire 50% of Arista Records.

MCA and Motown each have an estimated 7% of the

current U.S. market for recorded music.

Movie news - The Three Stooges finally to get star on

the Hollywood Walk Of Fame - the ceremony is now

set for August 30th. Los Angeles disc jockey Gary

Owens was largely responsible for the campaign.

Week of June 26, 1983

Says Owens - “The whole thing started out as simply a fun thing to do, but then

gradually I realized just how popular the Three Stooges still are. Those 40-year

old films and shorts they made have produced laughter for several generations.

They’re timeless. I think for that alone, The Three Stooges deserve a star on the

Walk of Fame.” Owens called on his radio audience, plus DJ friends across the

country to drum-up support. “We ended up with 15,000 signatures from Stooges

fans. Of course, it helped quite a bit when, in the Stooges honor, we twisted the

noses of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce with a pair of pliers. Moe would

have been proud.”

In syndication on television - “The Ebony/Jet Celebrity Showcase” hosted by DJ

Tom Joyner.

Wednesday Night Television -

CBS - Archie Bunker’s Place, Movie

NBC - Real People, Facts of Life, Buffalo Bill, The News Is The News, Taxi

ABC - The Fall Guy, Tales of the Gold Monkey, Dynasty

PBS - Mark Russell Comedy Special, Grand Central, Special-Johnny Got His

Gun

Pop music this week 1983 -

FLASHDANCE...WHAT A FEELING - Irene Cara

LET’S DANCE - David Bowie

TIME (Clock Of The Heart) - Culture

Club

ELECTRIC AVENUE - Eddy Grant

BEAT IT - Michael Jackson

EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE - Police

ALWAYS SOMETHING THERE TO

REMIND ME - Naked Eyes

SHE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE -

Thomas Dolby

SHE’S A BEAUTY - Tubes

AFFAIR OF THE HEART - Rick

Springfield

FAMILY MAN - Daryl Hall & John

Oates

TOO SHY - Kajagoogoo

LITTLE RED CORVETTE - Prince

DON’T LET IT END - Styx

Week of June 26, 1983

NEVER GONNA LET YOU GO - Sergio Mendes

ALL THIS LOVE - DeBarge

OUR HOUSE - Madness

TRY AGAIN - Champaign

I’M STILL STANDING - Elton John

WANNA BE STARTIN’ SOMETHIN’ - Michael Jackson

MY LOVE - Lionel Richie

THE WOMAN IN YOU - Bee

Gees

COME DANCING - Kinks

FAITHFULLY - Journey

IS THERE SOMETHING I

SHOULD KNOW - Duran Duran

BABY JANE - Rod Stewart

THAT’S LOVE - Jim Capaldi

WE TWO - Little River Band

SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE

MONEY - Donna Summer

ROLL ME AWAY - Bob Seger &

Silver Bullet Band

OVERKILL - Men At Work

SWEET DREAMS (Are Made Of This) - Eurythmics

DON’T PAY THE FERRYMAN - Chris DeBurgh

1999 - Prince

STAND BACK - Stevie Nicks

SOLITAIRE - Laura Branigan

PHOTOGRAPH - Def Leppard

STRANGER IN MY HOUSE - Ronnie Milsap

THE CLOSER YOU GET - Alabama

INSIDE LOVE (So Personal) - George Benson

Playing on country radio stations -

Love Is On A Roll - Don Williams

Oh Baby Mine (I Get So Lonely) - The Statler Brothers

Highway 40 Blues - Ricky Skaggs

I.O.U. - Lee Greenwood

The Closer You Get - Alabama

In Times Like These - Barbara Mandrell

Week of June 26, 1983

Hot albums -

Synchronicity - The Police

Pyromania - Def Leppard

Keep It Up - Loverboy

The Wild Heart - Stevie Nicks

Caro - Men At Work

Eliminator - ZZ Top

State of Confusion - The Kinks

Is There Something I Should Know -

Duran Duran

War - U2

Listen - A Flock Of Seagulls

Cuts Like A Knife - Bryan Adams

Outside/Inside - The Tubes

Speaking In Tongues - Talking

Heads

Fake Friends - Joan Jett And The

Blackhawks

Information - Dave Edmunds

At the movies -

Trading Places - Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche,

Denholm Eilliott, Jamie Lee Curtis

Octopussy - Roger Moore as James Bond, Maud Adams, Louis Jourdan,

Kristina Wayborn, Kabir Bedi, Vijay Amritraj

Porky’s II, The Next Day

Tootsie - Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange

Return of the Jedi - Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee

Williams, Anthony Daniels

Flashdance - Jennifer Beals, Michael Nouri

Superman III - Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure,

Annette O’Toole, Annie Ross, Pamela Stephenson, Robert Vaughn, Margot

Kidder

Stroker Ace - Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Jim Nabors, Parker Stevenson, Loni

Anderson

Twilight Zone , The Movie - Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers,

John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan

Fanny & Alexander (A film by Ingmar Bergman) - Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve

Wargames - Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, Ally Sheedy

Yellowbeard - Graham Chapman, Peter Boyle, Cheech & Chong, Peter Cook,

Marty Feldman, Martin Hewitt, Michael Hordern, Eric Idle, Madeline Kahn, James

Mason, John Cleese