By Ralph (209.240.198.62) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 11:56 am:

I received an e-mail from Kim Culhan who once worked at Artie Fields. I'm sure he has a few stories to relate to us along with anyone else who did business with this Detroit legend. Welcome to the forum Kim.

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 12:13 pm:

Thanks muchly Ralph.

I worked at Artie Fields Productions in the
early 70's. Ken Sands did some part-time work
there around this time.

Lots of great memories for me.. Artie's was
mainly a jingle house, though some great records
were cut there too.

Anyone remember the old place at 9430 Woodward
near W. Chigago ?

-kim

By STUBASS (206.135.204.2) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 03:24 pm:

KIM; IM SURE THAT I KNOW YOU. DID YOU DO ANY RADIO ENGINEERING WORK? I WAS A NEWSCASTER FOR WOMC AND WWWW FOR A TIME IN DETROIT. IF NOT, DID YOU WORK WITH CURTIS GADSON, RON SANDERS, AND THE REST OF US ON THE T.V. SPECIAL "THE SOUND OF NEW DETROIT? WHERE DO I KNOW YOU FROM? STU MILLER...AKA STUBASS

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 03:53 pm:

Hi Stu-
I was the chief engineer at WOMC from 11/79 to
8/86.
I know Curtis Gadson did a lot work with WDIV-TV
which is where I've been since leaving 'OMC.
Was not involved in the tv special though so maybe
we met at the radio station.
Was also the chief at WABX for a few years before
the WOMC run. -kim

By Ralph (209.240.198.62) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 03:56 pm:

Kim,
It seems you have a rather extensive technical background. Care to elaborate a little?

By STUBASS (206.135.204.2) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 04:23 pm:

KIM; NOW I REMEMBER. I WAS A "CUB" REPORTER AT OMC BEFORE GOING TO WWWW AS MORNING NEWS ANCHOR. I WORKED UNDER LARRY WEBB AT OMC. BILL GARCIA WAS PROGRAM DIRECTOR. MARC AVERY AND NICKY (MR. FREEBE) AM AND PM JOCKS. GOOD TO HEAR FROM YOU, AND GLAD YOU'RE DOING WELL. STU

By Millie (68.40.198.72) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 04:25 pm:

Hey Kim!
You and I were "CUBBY MATES" when I sold for WOMC in 1986! How have you been? Welcome to the forum...you're in for a lot of fun!

Now that I think about it, we weren't exactly roommates, more like neighbors...your office was across the walkway from mine!!

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 05:40 pm:

Hi Millie, I remember that, our offices were at the end of that little hallway. Wow..what a small world it is. Did read you were at CKLW now?

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 05:58 pm:

Ralph- I've worked in the recording/broadcasting business for about the past 30 years or so.

The summer after high school I worked at a small custom recording console company in the little town of Hudson, Ohio.

Dan Flickinger & Assoc. built a console for United Sound a couple years later, which was installed downstairs in the larger studio.
I was into ham radio as a kid so I learned quite a bit about electronics and how to build electronic equipment -I could solder pretty well too

Growing up in NE Ohio I loved that Motown Sound and the stations in Cleveland played it from the early 60's.

Then CKLW fired up and I rode around listening to the 50,000 watt sound of the Big 8 playing Motown constantly. WOW, what a SOUND they got on those records -I'd have it really cranked! It was heaven!

Back then I thought about what it might be like to actually work at Motown and help make that music. It was a dream but somehow I thought it might be possible.

Somehow I had to figure out a way to get up there..

cont'd...

-kim

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 06:46 pm:

Stu- I remember now thanks, those names place the timeframe exactly for me. Those WOMC days were good! -kim

By Millie (68.40.198.72) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 10:46 pm:

Hi Kim,
I work for CHUM Radio which owns CKLW, however, that station now targets the Windsor market only, so the stations I sell are 89X (altenative rock), CIDR 93.9 (Literock), and 580 Memories (CKWW). I can't believe how much time has passed...seems like yesterday in the hallowed halls of OMC! Hope all is well with you.

By acooolcat (211.72.121.66) on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 11:51 pm:

Hi Kim
I think Artie Fields rented his studio out to various people in Detroit - can you remember being involved with any specific productions for people like Armen Boladian, HDH or Eddie Wingate?
Best wishes,
Graham

By kim culhan (12.148.41.5) on Monday, November 04, 2002 - 10:09 am:

Hey cool-

I remember countless sessions with Armen and his associate Bernie Mendleson. Don't think HDH or Eddie Wingate worked there during this time.
A couple of sessions stand out:

Detroit Emerald Abe Tillmon did 'Set it Out' which may have remained in Armen's vault.

The other, Etta Jones (not James) did a very soulful 'Mama's Hands' which may also be residing nearby in the same vault.

These were produced around '73 with horns and strings in the Motown style. Gordon Staples was there with his strings, I don't remember how the horn players came to be there, prolly some of the same players who appeared on Motown sessions -no problem with availability due to scheduling conflicts with Motown at this point..

-kim

By acooolcat (210.201.192.203) on Tuesday, November 05, 2002 - 06:07 am:

Thanks Kim
I didn't think that Wingate or HDH worked at Artie's place - but just wanted to check as nothing surprises me anymore.
The name Etta Jones doesn't ring a bell with me - is/was she part of The Jones Girls?
What did you do before working for Artie Fields?
Thanks again, Graham

By M.McLeanTech (66.218.40.77) on Tuesday, November 05, 2002 - 07:25 am:

It blows my mind to read this thread: I remember the first time I ever heard of Artie Fields Productions. Someone told me that a fellow named Bob Bloom had some hot "Nuvistor" preamps over there at his studio on Woodward.

I went over to find out what this was all about. In those days, the RCA NUVISTOR was the last hold out in the hope that vacuum tube amplification technoligy could actually compete with "solid state," "Silicon Planer" technology, in the arena of state of the art audio ciruit design (or other circuit design, for that matter.

Of course, today, nobody even has a clue about this stuff. Trust me: Vacuum tube hype is bogus. Snake oil salesmen have always been around, and they are with us right now!

At any rate, I met Bob Bloom, who was the Engineer at Artie Fields Productions. He showed me his Nuvistor preamplifiers, and I was impressed. I was no less confused about this sort of thing then anyone else.

Before I knew it, Bob Bloom had left Artie, and set up shop on Wyoming Avenue. He was very agressive. I visited his shop. He had just purchased a top of the line TEKTRONIX type 547 Delaid Sweep 50 MHz, 7 nSecond rise time, oscilloscope. At the time (1969) this was a very bold move.

When I left Motown, in 1972, and went to work at Tektronix for half the pay, I had a 547 on my bench, and it was the last of the classic hog scopes. And it was by the far the finest! What a sweet box it was! Fine spot size (no cop out for a mesh tube, where the electrons are passed through the deflection plates at a lower volicity, and then rushed through a "screen door" toward the screen, with soft focus, due to the diffusing effects of the mush grid.

It used to piss me off to see how everything was stacked up in such a way that only the elete got to be elete, and just as soon as they got their elete product, the next thing you knew, they were getting rid of their beautiful equipment because it was "obsolite."

I heard storys about the use of oscilloscopes at the atomic tests in the 40's that would blow your mind.

They would line up 40 brand new Tektronix scopes, each of which cost at least $20,000. in todays money, and each of which were built with such astonishing workwomanship that unless you can see how those finatical engineers actually succeeded in getting those devoted, isolated ladies to build some of the most outragious, elegant classic electronic equipment, using respectful hand workmenship, you could never imagine how all this happened in Portland, Oregon in the period from 1946 to 1976.

Each time that they would use this bank of exquisite instruments to make a atom bomb test, they would at once gather up the units, which were contaminated with fallout, and bury them in the ground.

I got in on the tail end. After I left them to go to work at Gotham Audio Corporation, in New York City, Tektronix stopped being sentimental about the classic times of electronics. They had to! Do any of you on the forum pay any attention to the scene today, regarding high tech electronics?

Artie had Nuvistors, thanks to Bob Bloom. He went on to form Audio Designs and Manufacturing. For a while, they were a bright star. They saturated Glenn Glen Studios, right accross the street where I was working, at TODD-AO with their consoles, in 1979.

Imagine how I felt, to see Hollywood saturated with Bob Blooms consoles, as I sat and drunk beer outside the building, on my lunch hour.

Eventually, Bob Bloom faided away from the scene.

Today, the rat race of who has the hip studio, and the hip console, has reached the state of escalation where there is only one thing that makes it make sense:

When I was a in my teen age years, huge cars, with fancy features, ever higher powered engines, and body style features like fins, were so compelling a part of the desire package of the average person, that only sex and drugs could take their place among the young. This transition ripped the heart out of what I considered important about recording.

Once the garage studio became predominant, we were doomed, permanantly, to multiple sessions of "reinventing the wheel"

And the equipment sellers loved it!

I gotta go get drunk!

Mike McLean

By Davie Gordon (193.122.21.42) on Tuesday, November 05, 2002 - 07:54 am:

Graham,

re Etta Jones - no, she's nothing to do with the
Jones girls. She worked mainly in the jazz field
- I think I read she died about a year ago.

By Dennis Coffey (205.188.209.38) on Tuesday, November 05, 2002 - 12:48 pm:

Hi everyone. I had dinner with Artie and Ed Wolfrum and his wife Sue a few weeks ago. We shared a lot of old time stories and had a good time. Artie is still doing some things in the advertising business. I did a lot of work at his studio. Mike Theodore and I worked with Kris Peterson there.

Dennis

By acooolcat (61.222.95.58) on Friday, November 08, 2002 - 09:56 pm:

Thanks Davie.
Mike - It's nice to read your posts again. Can you remember if Bob Bloom had a retail shop on Wyoming, or was he working at another studio?
Thanks, Graham

By larry (12.141.160.25) on Friday, November 08, 2002 - 10:14 pm:

acooolcat,
Mike mentioned Bob setting up shop on Wyoming. Retail? mmhmm...

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Saturday, November 09, 2002 - 08:19 am:

Bob Bloom purchased a small defense-related manufacturing company from a mutual friend of ours about 5 years ago.

Among their products is a device using ultrasonic technology to measure the level of fuel in an M-1
tank fuel tank. Uh yeah thats tank tank..

I think its been about 12 years since Audio Designs ceased operations.

From time to time I've spotted Bob driving down Northwestern Highway in the morning. He can be spotted with his ham radio callsign plates ..as can I.

-kim

By acooolcat (211.72.121.66) on Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 11:54 pm:

Larry,
The word "shop" is British English for "store," but the phrase "set up shop" means he established a base, so I'm a little confused and wonder what he was doing on Wyoming.
Graham

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 07:26 pm:

EdW-

Any way Artie might join is here on the forum?

Read in another thread you had dinner with him on Friday; I'd really like to get in touch with him.

I worked there for a short time but the memories from those days really stand out.

-kim

By Ed Wolfrum (165.247.228.73) on Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 08:26 pm:

Hello Kim,

Are you here in Detroit Kim? Artie has a web site but is sort of afraid of the web and Sarah, his secretary is the recepient of anything.

I've told him about the thread but he just does not get on.

I'll let him know again and perhaps we can at least have put you in touch with him. I think he will be with the kids for Thanksgiving so I probably will not see him this Friday.

Ed

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 08:43 pm:

Ed-

Yes I'm in Detroit and work at wdiv.

Speaking of his kids, his son would visit the studio from time to time and I remember him as being a 'good kid'.

It would be interesting to hear what direction he took from those days.

-kim

By David Meikle (62.252.128.6) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 11:38 am:

Ed

I'd love to see a pic of Artie Fields.

Would you be able to post one?

David

By Millie (68.40.209.129) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 12:26 pm:

David,
I've had the pleasure of seeing Artie a couple of times over the past six months, and I can tell you that he looks great! He's eighty years old and looks a lot younger. His mind is as sharp as ever, and he just keeps on keeping on!

By Clay (66.73.183.219) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 12:54 pm:

Hi Guys,
I had the unique pleasure of hangin out with Artie,Ed ,Sue Wolfrum and Pree a few weeks back and it's amazing how much history is stored in this man's mind. Artie is quite a guy and although his health has not been the best as of late he still maintains a great spirit and love for the people and the industry that made him a Giant in the Jingles business. I listen to some of his stellar ideas and commercials for the Big 3 and many of the major companies here in Detroit and abroad and they are simply sensational.

There's only one Artie Fields and I'm glad I had a chance to meet him and work out of his studio as a young writer,producer with his artist Chris Petersen and my co-writer Rick Drapkin. I hope Artie will once again get the chance to create some of the clever commerical jingles we in the Motor City have enjoyed over the years. Get well Artie,we need you.

By M.McLeanTech (66.218.59.132) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 02:16 pm:

Refering to:

START PASTE IN

By acooolcat (61.222.95.58) on Friday, November 08, 2002 - 09:56 pm:


Thanks Davie.
Mike - It's nice to read your posts again. Can you remember if Bob Bloom had a retail shop on Wyoming, or was he working at another studio?
Thanks, Graham

END PASTE IN

When he had "set up shop" on Wyoming, I am fairly sure that the situation was that he had left Artie Fields Productions and established Audio Designs and Manufacturing Company on Wyoming Ave.

He was manufacturing mixer position modules which included a slide pot, an equalizer, and echo send pots. He also had a bus assign module call "Audex" which was unique. He started out hoping to sell the pieces to console builders, but before long he discovered that he had to combine the pieces into a finished console, if he wanted to fill the orders that came his way.

Bob must be in his late 60's by now. I am going to have to drop in to see him, next time I am in Detroit.

Mike McLean

By Millie (68.40.209.129) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 02:59 pm:

Hello Clay,
It was great seeing you again, and meeting Pree at the SITSOM premiere a couple of weeks ago.

Are you still in touch with Ricky Drapkin? The last time I saw him he was working with Simone Vitale at Lorio Ross...I think he was booking bands. We used to "hang out" (as friends) many, many years ago, and I'd love to talk with him again. Please tell him I said hello if you run into each other (my maiden name was Bostick). Thanks Clay.

By Ed Wolfrum (165.247.228.73) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 05:58 pm:

Kim,

Here is a shot of Artie on the Deck here this summer at our usual Friday night get together. This has been going on now for over 12 years.



Fridays has usually been a Fish day for Sue and I. Michigan is the place to catch it (which I love to do) or buy it. We sometimes have friends and family join us and if they would only listen we could solve all of the problems of the world.

I figure that by now Artie would have had enough fish to be officially Catholic.

Ed

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 06:09 pm:

Hi Ed-

That pic looks great.

His hair is much shorter now than it was.. hmm.. I guess mine is too

tnx
-kim

By larry (12.141.160.25) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 06:55 pm:

Ed,
Who's who in the pic?

By M.McLeanTech (66.218.41.27) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 06:59 pm:

Larry, Ed is on the left.

Ed, See what happens when you call yourself an old fart?

Mike McLean

By kim culhan (68.42.41.167) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 07:07 pm:

Does Artie record anything these days?

-kim

By Ralph (209.240.198.62) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 07:21 pm:

Great pic Ed.

By Ed Wolfrum (165.247.228.73) on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 08:35 pm:

Artie syndicates the "Best of the Class" series to about 70 TV stations and still write and produces for select clients.

He just did a series of CD greeting cards.

The year before last he did a new "Where the rubber meets the road" series for Firestone. They used it for a while and then after the "Ford Explorer" disaster pulled it. I guess the line took on a whole new meaning!!!

And yes Mike, we both know about getting older. You just cant stop it. Time is the measure of change...I don't want time to stop time because I would stop.

Ed

By acooolcat (211.72.121.66) on Monday, November 25, 2002 - 03:00 am:

Mike - thanks for your reply. One of the reasons I asked was that there were other recording studios on Wyoming and I thought that Bob might have been working at one of them. Thanks again.
Graham

By David Meikle (213.122.164.97) on Monday, November 25, 2002 - 03:39 am:

Thanks for a great photograph.

Much appreciated.

David

By Kris Peterson (68.32.81.180) on Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 07:43 pm:

Hey, Guys-

Artie Fields is in the house. He just hasn't said anything yet.

Kris Peterson

By douglasm (68.113.15.28) on Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 08:02 pm:

Artie...Kris.....
You asked me who my uncle at Ross Roy was after I mentioned him. Morgan Miller. You or Artie remember him?