Remember Cash Box

Before revisionist writing such as Geoff Boucher’s (“A Decade of Playing It Strictly by the Numbers,” June 9) completely eradicates the notion that a music trade magazine other than Billboard was once printed, I’d like to take small, nay, minuscule umbrage with his lack of acknowledgment of Cash Box’s efforts toward the tracking of singles and albums.

While, admittedly, the chart production department had become as dysfunctional and irrelevant as the staff of “WKRP in Cincinnati” by the time I arrived as editor, in its prime (the moniker “Cash Box” comes from the early days of the jukebox) the publication was as much required reading for the music biz as Daily Variety is to the entertainment industry at large today. The creation of “race” charts, now better known as R&B; charts, and the term “with a bullet,” denoting a strong sales or airplay spike, were just some of its contributions to the record industry lexicon. Many respected writers graced the masthead during its existence, and I’m sure most every record label head that has since been put out to pasture would have his or her own stories to tell about its legendary publisher, the late George Albert.

It’s just for the record: Shaky history shouldn’t mean incomplete.

RICH NIECIECKI

Manhattan Beach