Talk:RKO/Unique Records

Dubious Accuracy

Two major issues with this completely unsourced article pop out immediately:

• Having done extensive research on both RKO General and the Mutual Broadcasting System, I have never seen a single assertion anywhere but on this page and its duplicates that RKO took a controlling interest in Mutual "in an attempt to enhance" the position of Unique Records. Not one of a dozen published sources that cover the history of RKO and/or Mutual during this period suggest that Unique Records played any role at all in driving RKO's radio acquisitions. Note also that RKO did not directly purchase Mutual (as this article implies); rather, it acquired a controlling share of stock in the network as a result of a series of purchases of independent radio stations and regional webs over many years.
• The statement "To cement this relationship [sic], RKO created the radio program 'Studio X' to carry the Unique Records product. The result was a disaster" is completely unfounded. The RKO-owned WOR (AM) in New York created a show called "Music from Studio X" in 1956. As described by Bill Jaker, Frank Sulek, and Peter Kanze in The Airwaves of New York: Illustrated Histories of 156 AM Stations in the Metropolitan Area (Jeffferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1998), "the program was fed to Mutual, and it put WOR on top of the ratings in the New York market" (p. 155).

Given its major errors and complete lack of sourcing, this article should not be relied on as a source for any information.—DCGeist 20:42, 9 December 2006 (UTC)