ABC Records - History

History

ABC-Paramount (full name "American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters") -- the direct antecedent of the present-day American Broadcasting Company -- evolved from federal antitrust actions taken against the movie studios and broadcasting companies in the 1940s and early 1950s. As a result of a 1943 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) action against anti-competitive practices, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was forced to sell off its broadcast subsidiary the Blue Network, the sister network of NBC, and Blue was purchased by the American Broadcasting System, Inc. In 1953 American Broadcasting merged with United Paramount Theaters, the divested former exhibition/cinema division of Paramount Pictures. The newly merged corporation was chaired by former Paramount Theaters executive Leonard Goldenson and was originally headquartered at 1501 Broadway in New York City, above the Paramount Theater in Times Square.

In addition to producing records directly, ABC licensed finished masters from independent producers and purchased regionally-released records for national distribution. The corporate name of Am-Par Record Corporation was changed to ABC-Paramount Records, Inc. in 1962, and then to ABC Records, Inc. in 1967.

In 1965, Clark was promoted to vice-president in charge of AB-PT's non-broadcast operations and national sales manager Larry Newton was named ABC-Paramount president. The label was officially renamed ABC Records in 1966. They distributed Dunhill Records until this label was purchased under Newton to form ABC-Dunhill Records. They also distributed 20th Century Fox Records, Sire Records and UK-based Anchor Records. In 1970, ABC-Dunhill moved its headquarters to Los Angeles and Newton was promoted by ABC to vice-president in charge of ABC Pictures and Dunhill co-founder Jay Lasker was named president. Lasker left ABC to join Ariola America Records. In 1974, ABC switched British distribution from EMI to the EMI-distributed Anchor Records, allowing ABC recordings to be issued on the ABC label in the UK and Anchor records to be distributed by ABC on the Anchor label. As a cost cutting, but in retrospect ill-conceived move in the mid-1970s, ABC Records discarded their multitrack master tapes to save storage space. So when the affected recordings were reissued on compact discs in the 1980s and beyond, the CDs had to be mastered using the finished album masters which often had inferior sound. The record company's final president, Steve Diener, was named president in 1977 after serving as head of ABC Records' international division. Because the company was suffering financial problems, ABC Records was sold in 1979 to MCA Records, which discontinued the ABC label on March 5, 1979. The better selling albums in the ABC Records catalog were reissued on the MCA label.