Launching a label

Sonobeat formally launched in May 1967 after months of planning and preparation. At the time, co-founders Bill Josey Sr. and Bill Josey Jr. worked at Austin’s KAZZ-FMKAZZ-FM was the second FM station licensed to the Austin, Texas, market, commencing broadcast in October 1957 on 95.5 MHz. Sonobeat co-founders Bill Josey Sr. and Bill Josey Jr. both worked at KAZZ from fall 1964 to January 1968, Bill Sr. initially serving as commercial sales manager and then as station manager and Bill Jr., using the air name “Rim Kelley”, as a deejay and later as program director. KAZZ was sold to country station KOKE-AM in January 1968, its staff pink-slipped and its call letters changed to KOKE-FM. KAZZ’s frequency, 95.5 MHz, is now assigned to KKMJ-FM in Austin. and, during the first months of the year, commissioned KAZZ’s chief engineer Bill Curtis to build a six input portable stereo mixer. Curtis designed audio circuits for the mixer using field effect transistors (“FETs”), which were inexpensive and easy to assemble into microphone preamplifiers. FETs also used so little current that the mixer was powered by flashlight batteries. The prototype mixer was housed in a small wooden box that Bill Sr. built. A stainless steel faceplate mounted on the front of the box held the volume and pan control knobs. The homebrew mixer was an inexpensive alternative to the very costly professional mixers then on the market.

At Sonobeat’s nascent stage at the beginning of 1967, even while Curtis was building the mixer and Bill Sr. and Bill Jr. were deciding on a name for their venture, there were many other threshold decisions the Joseys made. Among the earliest was that they would release all their 45 RPM singles in stereo. A few large national labels, led by 45 RPM format inventor RCA, had flirted with stereo singles beginning in 1957 but by the early ’60s had abandoned them since stereo hi-fi enthusiasts had shifted their interest to the 33-1/3 RPM long play format. But the Joseys believed stereo releases would distinguish their label from others in a way that would attract radio stations, reviewers, and consumers to recordings by a tiny regional record company that otherwise likely would be overlooked or ignored. As a result of following through on that decision from its very first release, Sonobeat was widely acknowledged for pioneering the mono-compatible stereo 45 format.

Record industry practice through the end of the 1960s was to release nearly all 45 RPM singles in monaural (even the Beatles singles were released only in monaural) because 45s were predominantly played on AM radio stations, technically incapable of broadcasting in stereo and whose turntables therefore were outfitted with monaural cartridges and needles. The geometry of the monaural cartridges and needles resulted in skipping and permanent damage to the groove walls of stereo records. The record industry relied on the marketing power of AM radio airplay to push sales, so there was no point in sending an AM station a stereo single it would be reluctant or refuse to play. Although all FM stations technically could broadcast in stereo, many, including KAZZ-FM, broadcast only in monaural but nonetheless had stereo turntable equipment since they played music from both mono and stereo LPs. Indeed, well into the ’70s no significant percentage of the target audience for 45 RPM singles – pre-teens and teens – had stereo record players, and even in the late ’60s only one in ten rock ’n’ roll LPs was released in stereo. Further aggravating those challenging statistics, stereo recording, mastering, and pressing added significant additional studio and manufacturing costs. Nonetheless, the Joseys were undeterred, convinced stereo singles would be the wave of the future and would help differentiate Sonobeat as a progressive, visionary label. Since Sonobeat didn’t release its singles in both stereo and mono versions, there is no basis to compare whether releasing its singles only in stereo provided any real sales and marketing advantage to the label and, in retrospect, it may have been nothing more than an expensive experiment.

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The challenge of stereo singles

Beginning in 1966, when they first began planning their record company, the Joseys began researching stereo recording and mastering techniques, learning that stereo cutting heads – which create the lacquer masters from which the metal record stamping plates are made – distort with sustained high frequencies, and sustained high-energy low frequencies cause adjacent grooves to run into each other, in turn causing the turntable needle to skip or jump. In rock music in particular, constant high-intensity high and low frequencies – mostly lead guitars, cymbals, bass guitar, and kick drum – are primal elements, each creating stereo mastering challenges when the lacquers are cut. One technique to reduce these distortion issues is to master the lacquers at half speed, effectively cutting the frequency spectrum in half to provide the cutting head “breathing room”. Another technique is to center bass and kick drums, where they can be mixed at lower volumes and still be clearly heard on playback. Centering low frequencies also prevents phase distortion and reduces groove skipping when stereo singles are played on monaural turntables. During the ’60s, most 45 RPM singles were pressed on cheap, low-grade polystyrene. Stereo singles had to be pressed on tougher, smoother, and more expensive virgin vinyl in order to reduce groove damage from diamond-shaped mono record player needles (stereo needles are elliptical, a design that “rides” instead of gouges the groove walls).

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Naming the company

Then there was the matter of naming the new company. Bill Jr. contributed the name that finally stuck, Sonobeat, combining an adaptation of the Latin word for sound, sonus, with a fundamental element of music, the beat. With the name in place, Bill Jr. designed the logo and record center label, laying them out by hand on Bristol board using self-adhesive film laminate textures and a combination of cut-out and dry transfer lettersets. The Joseys had seen hundreds of label designs at KAZZ-FM and wanted something distinctively different, so the final Sonobeat label design featured an unusual background pattern they’d seen on no other label. The font selected for the Sonobeat logo was Calypso, created in 1958 by French designer Roger Excoffon, and was hand set at 36 points from dry transfer sheets (Letraset’s LG1201 Letragraphica series). The singular ribbon-like font was chosen because it resembled 3D letters formed from audio tape.

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The Sonobeat label background pattern was Letratone LT134, generally described as a coquille shell screentone, and was printed in a mustardy yellow for all of Sonobeat’s 1967 releases. Powell Offset Services at 2004 South First Street in Austin printed the label blanks – containing just the background pattern, logo, and standard information around the label edges – which were shipped to the record pressing plant where they were overprinted with song title, artist, running time, and other release-specific information. Sonobeat also had Powell print special “PROMO COPY” labels for free copies Sonobeat distributed to radio stations and reviewers. After the first two or three singles, though, Sonobeat abandoned the pre-printed promo labels and simply rubber stamped “PROMO COPY” and a (to mark the “A” side) on the center labels of the freebies.

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First sessions

Once Bill Curtis completed the 6-input stereo mixer, it was put to the acid test – use in actual recording sessions. Besides finding bands to record, the Joseys had to find facilities to use for recording, since they didn’t have the resources to lease and outfit a permanent recording studio. This problem was solved conceptually by looking to KAZZ-FM’s live remote broadcasts from Austin nightclubs for inspiration: record “on location”. The first known Sonobeat sessions were recordings of several rock bands, including the Sweetarts, performing over the course of several evenings at Club Saracen in downtown Austin. These recordings were distorted, a combination of mixer circuit overload and Bill Jr.’s lack of experience as a recording engineer, and suffered from overpowering background noise, since the sessions were recorded before live audiences. Following the Club Saracen sessions, Bill Curtis made adjustments to the portable mixer’s input circuits. After Curtis was satisfied with the adjustments, Bill Sr. arranged to record Austin rock quintet Leo and the Prophets, whose manager he knew and whose single Tilt-A-Whirl on Austin’s short-lived Totem label Bill Jr. had been playing on his KAZZ-FM radio program. The two Bills (Josey Jr. and Curtis) held the Prophets recording session – another practice run – on July 1, 1967, at Lake Austin Inn, where the band frequently performed. But these recordings also were sonically thin and distorted. Once more, Curtis took the portable mixer back to the drawing board, this time redesigning its circuits. While Curtis was revising the mixer’s circuitry, the Joseys lined up a cluster of recording sessions with three distinctively different acts, and when the reworked mixer was finished, they started fresh with Leo and the Prophets, this time recording the band at Swingers Club in north Austin and adding vocal overdubs at the KAZZ-FM studios a few days later. The Joseys approached this session with the Prophets differently: they felt ready to launch Sonobeat Records and intended that the Prophets’ recordings would comprise the label’s first single release. Even though the quality of the new recordings was significantly better than the first round with the Prophets, the band had only one solid tune and couldn’t come up with a complete second song for the “B” side, so the Prophets’ tapes were shelved, and the Joseys moved on to the second act they’d lined up.

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Throughout the ’60s, the Lee Arlano Trio was a regular on the jazz and dinner club circuit throughout the U.S. southwest, and The Club Seville at the Sheraton Crest Inn in downtown Austin was one of the trio’s regular tour stops. During a KAZZ-FM live remote broadcast from The Club Seville, the trio made a solid impression on Bill Sr. Lee Arlano, his brother Andy, and Sam Poni were formally-trained musicians, seasoned performers, and played pop standards and jazz favorites that included many of Bill Sr.’s favorites. Through Club Seville manager Don Dean, an avid supporter of KAZZ’s live broadcasts, Bill Sr. arranged to record the Lee Arlano Trio at the club on an afternoon when it was closed to the public.

To make sure there were no disrupting technical issues with the stereo mixer, Bill Curtis participated in the sessions as co-engineer, soldering iron in hand. The first session was completed with only minor technical difficulties (the soldering iron came in handy for some quick fixes to the little mixer) and, over a two day period, yielded over a dozen tracks including backing tracks for potential vocals by other Club Seville regulars.

Bill Jr. had hosted a live broadcast of the Sweetarts, one of Austin’s hottest party and nightclub rock bands, on a KAZZ-FM remote from Club Saracen in downtown Austin, and the ’Tarts had participated in Sonobeat’s first Club Saracen stereo recordings in May. A year earlier, in 1966, Bill Jr. played the Sweetarts’ Vandan label single So Many Times on his KAZZ-FM top 40 program and saw the group perform at the Austin Aqua Festival Battle of the Bands, but he was truly impressed with the ’Tarts tight, professional performances at Club Saracen that garnered enthusiastic reactions from the audience. The Sweetarts were the third act scheduled to record with Sonobeat in July ’67, for which the Joseys returned to Swingers Club in north Austin. The session yielded the instrumental backing tracks for A Picture of Me and Without You, both Sweetarts’ originals and both solid rock tunes. A few days after the instrumental session, the vocals and additional percussion were overdubbed at KAZZ-FM’s studios in downtown Austin.

After completing the three sets of sessions, and dissatisfied with the dynamic range of the ElectroVoice 665 microphones used in the sessions, Bill Curtis convinced Bill Sr. to buy a pair of high quality used Thompson Stanford-Omega vacuum tube condenser microphones to augment the ElectroVoice 665 mikes. However, within only weeks after purchasing the Stanford-Omega mikes, one developed an unrepairable ground-fault hum (and was non-returnable for a purchase price refund), so the remaining Stanford-Omega was used primarily to record vocal overdubs in future recording sessions.

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Picture sleeves

Another early decision the Joseys made was to release as many singles as commercially justified with custom picture sleeves. The custom sleeves served the dual marketing purposes of distinguishing Sonobeat’s 45 RPM singles from others packaged in plain or generic sleeves and boosting the recognition value of the local talent Sonobeat recorded. Sonobeat’s first picture sleeve was for the Sweetarts’ A Picture of Me. Bill Jr. designed the sleeve using a publicity photo the band supplied. Powell Offset Services in south Austin printed the sleeves. The second picture sleeve was for Don Dean’s pop vocal Night Life and featured a high contrast black and white photo of Don.

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Choosing a vinyl pressing plant

Even before the Prophets, Arlano, and Sweetarts recording sessions, Bill Sr. had begun interviewing vinyl record mastering and pressing facilities – the list of candidates was assembled from ads appearing in trade magazines Billboard and Cash Box – all over the U.S. by phone, asking about their facilities and getting price quotes. He finally selected Houston Records, Inc., because it provided half-speed mastering (one way to improve stereo separation and fidelity), could press the records on high quality vinyl, and was reasonably priced. Houston Records also was convenient, just 160 miles from Austin. Bill Sr. drove the Arlano and Sweetarts master tapes, blank record labels, and 1,000 copies of the Sweetarts’ picture sleeve (the Joseys didn’t believe a picture sleeve was necessary for the Lee Arlano Trio’s jazz single) to Houston. The test pressings were disappointing, with less fidelity and stereo separation than the master tapes. But the Joseys wanted to get the records to market and ordered manufacturing of 1,000 copies of each single. Meanwhile, Bill Sr. sent the Sweetarts’ master tape to highly respected but far more expensive Fine Recording in New York, that mastered new lacquers using its high end custom equipment, which it then sent to Houston Records for test pressings. When the Joseys compared the test pressings, they were surprised to find no noticeable sonic difference between the two, so they decided to stick with Houston Records, at least for the short run.

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Finishing up 1967

Following the Sweetarts and Arlano Trio releases in September ’67, Sonobeat completed the year with stereo single releases by Don Dean and rock band Lavender Hill Express. It was financially beneficial to Sonobeat’s launch that the Arlano Trio and Don Dean singles were sold at The Club Seville, where both artists regularly performed and had a built-in audience of affluent potential record buyers.

Although Sonobeat decided to self-release to record retailers in Austin and Central Texas, it was too difficult for the Joseys to cover all of Texas and the surrounding states. Bill Sr. initially engaged an independent distributor, who worked out of his home in Austin, to help, but by the end of the year, Sonobeat began to distribute regionally through jobbers H. W. Daily Company in Houston, Santone Record Sales in San Antonio, and Jay Kay Distributing Company in Dallas. Bill Sr. chose these distributors in particular because they could get Sonobeat singles placed not only in record stores but in commercial juke boxes throughout Texas.

By autumn ’67, Sonobeat had made a few waves regionally and garnered positive reviews for the Sweetarts and Lee Arlano Trio singles in the music industry trade journal Cash Box. Cash Box even ran a short piece on Sonobeat’s aggressive release plans in October, although those plans would prove to be a bit too aggressive as Sonobeat entered 1968.

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