James Conkling; Record Industry Pioneer

James B. Conkling, former director of the Voice of America and a recording executive who helped create the Grammy awards in music, has died. He was 83.

Conkling, who was former president of Columbia Records and founding president of Warner Bros. Records, died Sunday at Sutter Oaks Alzheimer’s Hospital in Sacramento. His family said he had suffered from the disease for several years.

President Ronald Reagan appointed Conkling to head Voice of America in June 1981. But he resigned only nine months later in frustration with “the way government activities work.” He had been under pressure from political conservatives to make the federal agency a more active propaganda machine, and was also buffeted by criticism from liberal elements.

Conkling had long before established himself in recording history. A jazz trumpeter, he started working for then-new Capitol Records in 1944, fresh out of Navy service in World War II. His first job was to produce a Stan Kenton album, and he went on to work with such artists as Nat King Cole, Jackie Gleason, Mel Torme, Bob Hope, Mel Blanc and even Bozo the Clown. He was Capitol’s first vice president.

In 1951, Conkling became president of Columbia Records, where he initiated the Columbia Record Club (now Columbia House) and helped introduce long-playing (LP) records. He also helped organize and served as president of the Record Industry Assn. of America.

In 1957, he joined four other record executives to found the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, which sponsors the Grammy awards. Conkling served as the group’s founding chairman and produced the first Grammy awards shows. In 1995, the Grammy’s MusiCares Division honored him with a lifetime achievement award and staged a fund-raising dinner for Alzheimer’s research.

Asked by Jack Warner to create Warner Bros. Records in 1958, Conkling served as the company’s first president and signed such recording artists as Bob Newhart, the Everly Brothers, Peter, Paul and Mary, John Raitt and Connie Stevens.

Always considered a recording industry wunderkind, Conkling retired at age 46 to devote his time to charity and public causes. He headed the Nat King Cole Cancer Foundation, helped set up a recording industry in China, was active in the NAACP and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church), where he served on the board of directors for its broadcast arm, Bonneville International Corp.

Conkling is survived by his wife of 55 years, Donna King Conkling; a son, Chris, of Saugus; four daughters, Candy Brand and Jamie Miller of Roseville, Calif., Xandra Albright of Mesa, Ariz., and Laurette Walton of Louisville, Ky.; a brother; three sisters; 23 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 11022 Riverside Drive, North Hollywood.