A TASTE OF RAINMAKERS:
LIONEL RIDENOUR
A street-team originator who has worked with some of the greatest execs and artists in the music world, veteran promo man Lionel Ridenour has been a trailblazer in R&B and hip-hop promotion. In 2013 he founded Anchor Promotions, the only Black-owned label services/promotion company in the country, for which he serves as CEO. Ridenour and his Anchor staff have played a crucial role in successes by both major and independent labels looking to attain a competitive edge in Black-music formats over the past decade.
You’re a lifelong promo man; was there anything in your youth that gave you a glimpse of what was to come?
I grew up in Ohio. As a kid, I was good at getting into request lines and scoring tickets. I figured out that the contests were not so random. The radio was always playing, and in the ‘70s my parents had tons of vinyl. My mom listened to a wide range of music, and my father was definitely more of a straight-ahead R&B fan. The Beatles, Sam Cooke, Isaac Hayes—there was always a good mix of music coming from them.
Speaking of my late parents, I have to give them a lot of thanks. They were educators, each with a PhD. A lot of that stuff that I did with my mother, whether it was flashcards, math or the more abstract lessons, all of it ended up helping me in a weird way with things like Mediabase. Those early lessons were useful in teaching me how to crunch the numbers and being able to see the different signals that are going on with a record.
Once you started discovering music for yourself, what caught your ear?
There was a record called “I Gotcha” by a guy named Joe Tex. I was in kindergarten, and I can remember really liking it. Then there was [Carl Douglas’] “Kung Fu Fighting.” That thing would come on and I would lose my fucking mind! Early Jackson 5 stuff was always good too. Those songs would come on and I’d be really happy. Even though I didn’t play any instruments, music was always present in my life growing up.
How did you make your way into the music business?
In 1984 I was in the food brokerage business. Pitching and selling to grocery executives gave me a sense of how to deal with people and how to make pitches that worked. I really thought my career was going to be in that business, but then my friend Doug Young had a record called “Sex Appeal” by an artist named Giorgio. Doug came to me and said, “Hey, man, I need your help. We just want to go out and get this thing bubbling in the clubs.” Along with a third partner named Jeff House, we went to clubs all over Southern California—Black clubs, white clubs. Sundays on Crenshaw Boulevard, we’d go everywhere with this thing. We didn’t know that people got paid to put records on the radio and that this was actually a job. We would just show up to the station and say, “Okay, we’re at record day. We got our one little record here. Will you play it?” Lo and behold, Power 106 and KJLH played it, and we built a groundswell in L.A.
How were you able to capitalize on that initial taste of success?
At the time we didn’t really know what we were doing, so we had a guy named Jonathan Clark who helped guide us. Through him we were able to get a deal at Motown for Giorgio. I remember going up to their office and in the parking lot I saw, Mercedes, Mercedes, BMW, Mercedes, Mercedes, Cadillac. I sat there thinking, “You’re telling me for the bullshit we’re running around and doing, these people are getting paid like this?” From there It was an easy decision. I knew what I was gonna do.
What was your first official gig?
Before I got my first gig, Jeff, Jonathan and I started our own label called Main Frame. We had a record by Dino, “Summer Girls.” We absolutely blew that record up and ended up signing Dino to 4th & B’way Records/Island. At this point, word on the street had gotten very big in L.A. about what we were doing. We hooked back up with Doug Young and he set up a meeting with Step Johnson, who was the head of the Urban department at Capitol Records. We were hired as the very first major-label in-house street team, and our first project was a recently signed MC Hammer.
What where those early days like?
The street team thing we’d been doing in L.A. we were now doing all over the country. Monday and Tuesday we’re in L.A. doing our thing and then also mailing our 12-inch records out to the hotel in whatever region or city where we’re going to later in the week. I would meet up with a regional rep, hit his market and see his club DJs. It gave me a chance, as a young guy, to meet a lot of programmers and compile a list of contacts.
During your Capitol days you also had a side hustle going with Steve Rifkind. What were you doing with him?
Steve took the work we did on the streets and gave it a name. He was able to monetize the concept of street teams. While we worked for Steve, we also looked at sales reports and called stores to see what was selling and what they needed. I was learning the sales side at the same time I’m promoting records.
How did you transition to radio promotion?
After I’d been working at Capitol for a couple of years, Step came to me and said, “The street-team thing has been great, but if you want to go further, you have to do radio. There’s a West Coast position that’s open. You don’t have to move—you can learn here.” I jumped in and became the West Coast Regional. I did that for about a year and a half, and then Hiriam Hicks presented me with an opportunity.
In those days Hiriam was managing New Edition while also starting a venture at Arista. He wanted a person in the building. He knew that Clive was looking for a national. Hiriam set up a meeting and I met Roy Lott and Clive at his bungalow. Clive starts pulling out the music. I’m sitting there listening to The Bodyguard soundtrack, Kenny G and TLC. I’m thinking, “This is probably the most amazing thing I’ve ever been a part of in my life.” I was blown away. And better than that, they were interested in me: They offered me a national promotion position and on January 1, 1993, I left L.A. and went to New York to start working for Arista Records.
Read the complete interview here.
