‘Matter of timing’ - Sam Kaiser’s career in music industry carried him from Missouri to East and West Coasts

Sam Kaiser became involved in radio in the early 1970s after graduation from a high school in St. Louis. He later worked for KSHE before being hired by Atlantic Records. In 1986, he became the head of music programming of MTV and after briefly working for the Enigma record label, formed his own artist management company, MVP Entertainment. Courtesy of Sam Kaiser

Sam Kaiser was bitten by the music bug while growing up in St. Louis in the late 1960s, listening to album-oriented rock (AOR) on local stations and developing an interest in the radio industry. Inspired to become a rock ‘n’ roll disc jockey, this marked the beginning of a fascinating career that included working for Atlantic Records, MTV and eventually establishing his own artist management company on the West Coast.
         
​Graduating from high school in North County, St. Louis, in 1971, Kaiser briefly enrolled at St. Louis Community College, which afforded him the opportunity to study for and earn his radio license through the FCC. He then joined a group of young visionaries putting together a new school FM station.
         
“We got the station on the air in 1972 and that began my 5-year career in radio,” Kaiser recalled. “I helped with programming at the college station and then ended up going to work at KADI and KSHE-95 and really loved the medium. But,” he added, “it’s not what I envisioned doing for a career since you often had to move between stations every couple of years.”
         
Kaiser was hired by Atlantic Records in 1976 and worked for several months doing local-level promotions and was then “put on the road” for a couple of years to help support and promote bands on the Atlantic roster. The duties of this position were exciting and eye-opening as the 23-year-old was working with artists such as the Rolling Stones, Foreigner, Genesis and Led Zeppelin.”
         
“It was really a great opportunity because I can recall taking AC/DC out to play 300-to-500-seat clubs about the time they were really getting started in their careers,” Kaiser remarked. “Then, I was brought to the home office of Atlantic in New York in 1979 as the director of field operations, managing the activities of local and regional staff who were doing what I had been doing.”
         
Less than two years later, Kaiser was promoted to director of Pop Promotion, later becoming vice president of this division. By 1986, MTV, which had come on the air in 1981, was preparing to recruit a new team of leaders and managers.
         
He explained, “I joined in MTV in late 1986 as head of music programming. For about two years, my team and I worked with record labels and artists, not only thinking up big promotions, but conducting research to determine what music videos would be played and on what type of frequency or rotation.”
         
It was during this time that music videos by emerging bands like Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, and the Cult were growing in popularity. MTV’s business model maintained a tenuous balance since many of the music videos were somewhat risque, thus attracting younger audiences.

However, the company relied upon a small number of regional cable television operators and networks, all who were very sensitive to local community feedback. MTV was already considered a target due to the edginess of some of the music videos.
It was a very delicate balance to maintain that edge and credibility with audiences but not stepping over the line with content that might result in MTV being removed from a system channel lineup.  
         
The next stepping stone of his career onto which he leaped occurred in 1988, when Kaiser was hired by a startup company under the umbrella of MCA called UNI Records. The company was shut down after only nine months although he and his staff were beginning to experience success with such albums as “Copperhead Road” by Steve Earle.
         
Kaiser recalled, “I went to California in 1989 because Capital and EMI had purchased interest in the Enigma label. They hired me as senior VP to focus on promotion, marketing and to help evelop their artist roster. We had a great deal of latitude and during this time I worked with Shooting Star (Kansas City area) to release a best-of album and recorded the song and video for ‘Touch Me Tonight,’ which got quite a bit of radio play.”
           
By 1990, Kaiser had gained enough music industry experience that he felt it a good time to strike out on his own, forming MVP Entertainment. As the founder and president, he continues to do marketing, promotion, consulting and artist management, having worked with a diverse client base to include Richard Marx, Rod Stewart and the Doobie Brothers.
         
For a young visionary coming out of St. Louis in the 1970s, Kaiser realized he wanted to have a career that was in some fashion aligned with the music industry, but never dreamed where that winding path would take him. He currently lives in Santa Barbara, California, and still has family in the St. Louis area.
         
“There was a certain point where I became cognizant that something great was happening … because here I was, a 23-year-old on the road with the Rolling Stones!” he excitedly remarked. “A lot of it was a matter of timing and I was fortunate to have learned from a lot of the old school managers from the 1950s who had helped build the industry.”
         
He added, “And one thing that MTV did was give me access to all major artists, managers, and a huge cross-section of accomplished music and label executives. TV might not have been where I wanted to have a career but it was certainly part of the adventure.”
  
Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of “Movin’ On,” biography of the rock band Missouri. 

Kaiser, front row, wearing a brown jacket, is pictured in 1980 with members of the Kansas City area rock band Shooting Star and on-air talent from St. Louis’ KSHE-95 radio station. Courtesy of Sam Kaiser