This election, I could do this.
Job mistakes if this race couldn't be hired this store president hastab immunity is changing by them minute.
What came out today fifty.
Five krs the talk station Ato six here at Pick five KRCD talk station. By the time, I swishing you a very happy Friday. Been looking forward to this all morning since I saw him on the rundown. David Junks his name, is the first CEO of Universal Music in Moscow, and for a decade he promoted international artists in Russia. You know the stars Mariah Carey, Elton, John You, Two, Sting, Banjoe,
just to name a handful. He was Vice President Eastern Europe at Universal Music back in two thousand and three, opened the first Universal Music office in Kiv, Ukraine, developed music real reality shows for Ukrainian TV, and is a founding member of the Russian Music Industry Association and the US Ambassador's Task Force on Intellectual Property Rights. Author he is David Junk, author of Rock and the Kremlin, My incredible true story of gangsters, oligarchs and pop stars in
Putin's Russia. David, it's great to have you on the program this morning.
Good Morning, Brian. It's an honor to be invited on. I appreciate it.
I just I'm a huge, huge music fan. I just love music. I'm jealous of your life in the music industry, and I guess you got to see it. And I don't want to call it demise. I know there's still music being made out there, but the entire landscape of the music industry has been so radically changed since the advent of the Internet and music sharing. But this predates all that, doesn't.
It, Yes, it does. This is when compact discs were the number one cherrier for music, and then prior to that, obviously in Russia it was mainly Vinyl that they boot legged in from Eastern Europe. So this predates modern technology for sure.
Well, and I've seen you know, articles, those reviews, political analysis of maybe how in some of the reasons why the Berlin Wall fell, which is the metaphor for the Soviet Union collapsing. But the Western influence seeped its way into the Iron Curtain for years and years. You know, VHS tapes were snuck in with Western content. It was under high demand. I remember the old days talking about how they loved Levi's jeans, remember that sneaking those in.
So what was the mood like when you got there, because it seemed from the outsider's perspective, and you know, we won the Cold War, it seems like it was a pretty exciting time for the people. Was it optimistic?
What?
What? What was it like?
It was amazing, Brian. It was one of the great moments of the of the century for sure, when when the Berlin Wall came down and and and the Soviet Union collapsed, and people like me went over there to help Russians transition from communism and command economy principles to market and supply and demand and capitalism. It was. It was really the peak of US Russia relations, and a lot of people went to Russia to help in finance, oil and gas exploration, things like that. I went and
helped develop their music industry. So it was totally different from a lot of other folks. But but what I did had a lasting impact, just as much as any other assistance Americans provided to the Russians after the end of the Cold War.
Well, it seems to me you had a pretty much built in, almost guaranteed demand for this content.
Oh sure, I mean, for for a long time. For decades, Russians have been listening to Western music, just you know, hiding from the censors, right, They would sneak in these albums, you know, when someone visited Eastern Europe, one person would bring back an album they would hide, and then they would make copies of it at a house party and share it. And and and that was the original counterfeit
pirating of music right there. But but but they loved it, and and and they they devoured Rolling Stones, Beatles, Pink Floyd albums, now Motown. Funny enough was allowed in the Soviet sensors would allow music because they liked songs, you know, showcasing inner city strife in America. It was good for the Soviet ideology to show, you know, and Marvin Gay saying about what's going on, you know, the Russians loved that.
Bobby Woomack, yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes, all right, well, well so that that's what happened.
But then, but then when Western music came in the modern era, they devoured it. They were ready for it, they were hungry for it. And I was there to bring the best of American pop and rock and hip hop music to the Russians.
And of course, first CEO Universal Music in Moscow. You brought a corporate presence and organized money making ability with a team in place. How did you navigate and deal with the political sort of post fall chaos. I just get this impression. As soon as the structure of the Soviet Union's and all of these mobsters, gangsters and oligars just rushed to fill in the void on that they
see you making profit outside Western entity making profit. I gotta imagine you got you know the shakedown number done to you?
Or am I wrong? Well? You know, it's interesting because there was no proper music industry when I got there. You know, there was no real ideas of royalty payments to artists or songwriter rights, copyrights, none of that. None of that was that's here too, and it all had to be built from scratch. But the biggest obstacle Brian was the Russian mafia had moved in so fast that they had controlled They took control of ninety percent of the music industry by the time I got there, Oh jeez.
And they yeah, they were manufacturing these counterfeit CDs that they were selling for a dollar two dollars and on the black market, and you could have Elton John's greatest hits plus his new record, plus anything else you wanted for Melton John. They would just put it on one seat,
you know. They would cherry pick all the great songs and and and put it out there, and and and and they would export that music also to UH to Europe and China, and they would use the money UH to to fund terrorism and and sex trafficking and drugs trafficking. So it was a really terrible situation when I got there.
Well, how did you wrestle that one to law and order or did you?
Well, we did have success. We that we definitely were able to put pressure on the Kremlin to finally do something about it because they were you know, the Russians weren't taking uh they weren't considering the possibilities of their own music industry. I I I used to always use Abba in Sweden as a great example. I would say, you know, Abba, you know, Sweden sells more Abba records than it does Volvo cars or anything else, and and
so could Russia, you know. And it's a great tax base, it'll bring bring money, it'll create an industry, jobs, et cetera. And and that was my Mantra. I was constantly reinforcing that. But the biggest step we took was I met with the US ambassador in Moscow and asked and pleaded with him honestly to do something about the situation. And he uh, he persuaded George Bush to block Russia from entering the World Trade Organization until they did something about music piracy.
And and that's and that really worked. That definitely had an impact.
Wow, it's you were in a sort of a help me, help you environment in that that particular.
Situation exactly exactly, and in a vibrant music industry is very good for any economy, but especially one transitioning out of out of communism.
Well, of course it's good for the soul.
I mean, what brings people together better than music, You know, it's uplifting or sometimes maybe it's not, but the idea that you can embrace something and uh and and especially when you've been so void of a presence that has been out in the rest of the world for so long, I just imagine what it was like just being there and being flooded with all of this new material. Just again, I go back to the sort of the exciting environment
that I perceived it was. You also helped develop local Russian talent while you were there, didn't you.
I did, and that's very important for a record company, not just to bring in Elton John and Brian Adams and Metallic, but also to sign and develop local talent. And what I did is I found a few artists that I could actually sell abroad too, So I was selling Russian music throughout the world, as far away as
Brazil to Japan, Australia to New Zealand. And of course the biggest goal of all was I always wanted to be the first record American record executive to bring a Russian band to the United States, and I did that. So that was the biggest thing for me, is to bring Russian music to the US.
Well, Rock in the Kremlin my incredible true story of gangsters, olig archs and pop stars and Putin's Russia the name of the book. My guest today, David Johnk's story career in the music business.
Did it end?
I mean, I guess we saw that we've seen the direction, we've just gone to authoritarianism, and we thought this was going to be maybe a democratic reality in Russia. They might end up being a great trading partner or friends, who knows. I mean, hell, in the aftermath of World War Two, you didn't really necessarily think that Germany be a long term trading partner. Look what happened Japan, the same thing. But what of the Soviet Union post Cold War?
It's really tragic, right. My wife's father was one of those there with Boris Yeltsen in the early nineties when he was up on the tank. Oh yeah, clamoring for democracy in the end of the Soviet Union, and there was so much hope for democracy and a future, a really bright future for Russia. You know, the Russians have one of the highest literacy rates in the world, to some of the smartest people in the world. It really could have been a tremendous thing for their economy to
keep growing. But because of well, Boris Jelsen was quite drunk all the time, and yes he was, and and and then there was a Chechen War, a war in Chech that was really causing a lot of problems for Russian So that that led to the ascendancy of Putin into the Kremlin and things have never been the same since. And that that put Russia on the authoritarian track.
Uh, does.
Is there still a presence of Universal music in Moscow in Russia these days?
No, there's not, unfortunately, uh well, but but it's proper. With the war and the invasion, Western companies have moved out, Record companies have moved out, and Universal have definitely moved out. There's still a hip hop industry there that I played a role in creating twenty five years ago when we brought in Eminem and Doctor Dre and Snoop Dogg. That really led to the to the development of a local
hip hop artist community and and bry My. My hope is it's that community of young people that will eventually lead Rushia to better days and perhaps they'll take back the country from the Kremlin somedays.
How about that.
It's amazing what music can do to change the country and the landscape. Saw it in the late sixties, without question, Well real quick before we part. Comedy David Johnes loved the conversation. The book's going to be a great read for my listeners. You can get it on my blog page fifty five Caresey dot com. Rockin the Kremlin? What's your perception? And I brought it up at the outset, But what's your perception of the modern music industry.
Is it even an industry anymore?
Given that, Hell, when I was going to laugh at this, when I was a kid, the one of the neatest things that was available at music stores they had a little cassette. It was a four track recording studio. Miniature things, so you could put four tracks on a cassette tape and record at home and even over dub at home. Now I know modern you can get a ninety seven track or whatever, an unlimited number of track computer software you can download online and just do all the layering
with separate tracks. It's just it's home based music. I don't need a pretty auction studio anymore. I can just put my own music online. What's this done to the music industry? And is it still an industry? If I may put it that way, David, I have.
Mixed feelings about that. I'm old school. I I come from the era of the supergroups, you know, Journey, Rush, Pink Floyd, you know the reb Zeppeline and I and I honestly believe bands like that are not going to happen in today's modern industry because there's not people gatekeepers like I was trying to develop them, but also having to to not release every single record that comes out from somebody's you know computer, right, That's that's what happens
now is all music is out there. There's there's no gatekeepers, there's no filters. You just get everything. And some people like that. Some people like it that there's thousands, thousands and thousands of more songs per year released than there ever was in the seventies or eighties. But I think we've lost that that super group mentality, you know, where we'll really appreciate artist artistry of a really great band or a really great artist, and they sell millions of
records instead of thousands of records. So I think it's I don't like it myself, but I have two sons who make music themselves and put it put it on the internet, so you know, it's a generational thing.
It really is. Well, I'm in your camp, David. I think you and I sound like we're roughly got around the same age. You mentioned a lot of the bands that I like and grew up with, so I have a sense of appreciation for where you're coming from. David johnk author of Rocking the Kremlin, My Incredible True Story of Gangsters, Oligarchson and pop stars and Putin's Rush. You get a fifty five Karsey dot Com. David, it's been a real enjoyable conversation. I know we're all gonna love the book.
Thank you, Brian, it's been a real great talking to you. Really really grateful for it.
My pleasure, sir, My pleasure. Good luck with all the sales.
Eight nineteen fifty five Ksity Toxation, Jeff, hang on, buddy, I'll take your call.
Hang on.
It's like I said eight nineteen, and it's time for color electric for residential electric projects called Colin.
You can do it.
I do it all the time, anytime I have electrical project. My default number is of course calling Electric Andrew, calling the team that added since for twenty five years, celebrating twenty five years of successful business serving the greater Cincinnati community properly. And that's with great residential electric work at a fantastic price, with excellent customer service. What more could you want? They enjoy an A plus with a better
business bureau. Any work they do for you, from the smallest to the largest wiring project comes with a ten year wiring warranty and I installed all the canlights in my ceilings in my home because I didn't have them when the house was built, and I really regret that. But why didn't I get them sooner? Because you're walking around, you're dark, and it's like, I don't like to rely on the floor. Lamb canlights and they have modern can
lights solutions that are fantastic. I love the LED cans and I never thought I would utter those words in my life, that they're fantastic. Modern LEDs is just wonderful.
Plus there's all kinds of LED solutions out there, and you can get the true incandescent glow now from the Long Lasting Energy Efficient l E ed S just one of the solutions they have for you at Collin Calling at five one three two two seven four one one two five one three two two seven four one one two online Cullen c U, l L E and Cullen Electriccincinnati dot com fifty five k r C