Obituary

[MC]

In my local paper was an obituary for a William Waytena. Name rang a bell... sure enough he's the Bill Waytena who rescued RA Moog and moved it from Trumansburg to Buffalo in 1970.

[Kevin Lightner]

A bit more info from his own site:

http://www.billwaytena.com/great-inventor/

Actual obit:

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/ ... r-20140102

[thealien666]

I jumped when I read in the obituary:"...and helped design the Minimoog..."

I don't know who wrote that, but that's not true. He had hired a couple of engineers to design the Musonics Sonic V that he later tried to popularize by adding the name Moog to it, after having bought the failing R.A. Moog company and merging it with his own MuSonics, later only keeping the name Moog Music. He had nothing to do in the design of the Minimoog, which already existed before he bought the company.

He was a businessman, buying distressed companies, pumping them up and selling them for a profit.
He did manage to bring Moog Music back from an almost bankrupt company to a very succesful one and sell it for big bucks to Norlin.

Bob Moog wrote, along with Connor Freff Cochran, about Bill Waytena in the article "The rise and fall of Moog music, shuffle off to Buffalo", included in Mark Vail's Vintage Synthesizers book.

R.I.P. Bill Waytena.

[MC]

Yeah I smirked when I read that bit about the minimoog. I knew the story from the Freff interview.

[BrianK]

Yes, this just happened a few weeks ago when I was back East digging deeper into Moog history. Sad, as I'd always wanted to ask him about his side. There IS more to know than has been told, will be writing up some things for public consumption soon...

[thealien666]

Is there really so much more to say about mister Waytena and Moog Music ?

He had a company called muSonics, Gene Zumcheck (there's a name you haven't seen often in Moog stories), a bright engineer at RA Moog, wasn't getting along with Bob Moog and left the company and was hired by Bill at his company to design the Sonic V. Later on, RA Moog was on the verge of bankruptcy and Bill saw a business opportunity and bought the company for the cost of its debts, a quarter of a million dollars. Meanwhile the Sonic V wasn't selling and Bill knew why, it needed a recognizable name: Moog.
After he moved the newly acquired company it into an old abandoned gelatin factory in Buffalo to expand it at low cost, he decided to merge the two companies into Moog Music. After a successful run of selling Minimoogs, thanks to the efforts of Dave Van Koevering that was later fired by the same Bill Waytena because he felt that Dave wouldn't be perceived as an asset to a potential buyer, he sold the company to Norlin Industries for a lot of money, and a $5000 a month retainer, using questionable selling tactics to a rather naïve buyer ending up having a stock of 1400 Minimoogs on their hands to try to sell. Shortly after, in 1973, Norlin had enough of him and bought him off with $50K a year for ten years, according to Bill himself.

So, after saving RA Moog from extinction and making it profitable again, and ending selling it to a big corporation for big bucks, he then he moved on to other things.

All of the above was gathered from Gordon Reid, and Bob Moog himself who was there and wrote at length about it.

[misterpete]

I don't have a Radar Detector myself but who doesn't love a little RADAR LOVE!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf53Pg2AkdY

[thealien666]

Funny how the word "Disco" is seen everywhere, when this is clearly Rock and Roll ?
And also funny to see mics used, but the sound is from the studio soundtrack and the singer is lip-syncing ?
And also funny to see that people don't seem to enjoy being there (it probably sounded like loud crap with the sound of the drums and the sound of the recording together in the studio ).

Anyway, it's always a great song. I just love the sound of that Ludwig drumkit ! And, is that a Nord Lead organ to the left of the drummer ? (just kidding, I know it's a Fender Contempo Combo Organ)
Thanks for the link Pete.

[CZ Rider]

I just love the sound of that Ludwig drumkit !

I caught that too. Must have just been stage props they were playing. That drummer always had those chrome double bass Fibes drums. Now they had a sound. The bass player was missing his old Danelectro too. Great band though, and Moontan was an awesome album. Got to see them in 1974 during that "Radar Love" time period.

Wonder what the synthesizer would be like today if R A Moog had gone under and only sold those first 210 Trumansburg Mini's? Certainly would be different if not for Bill Waytena.

[BrianK]

Is there really so much more to say about mister Waytena and Moog Music ?

He had a company called muSonics, Gene Zumcheck (there's a name you haven't seen often in Moog stories), a bright engineer at RA Moog, wasn't getting along with Bob Moog and left the company and was hired by Bill at his company to design the Sonic V. Later on, RA Moog was on the verge of bankruptcy and Bill saw a business opportunity and bought the company for the cost of its debts, a quarter of a million dollars. Meanwhile the Sonic V wasn't selling and Bill knew why, it needed a recognizable name: Moog.
After he moved the newly acquired company it into an old abandoned gelatin factory in Buffalo to expand it at low cost, he decided to merge the two companies into Moog Music. After a successful run of selling Minimoogs, thanks to the efforts of Dave Van Koevering that was later fired by the same Bill Waytena because he felt that Dave wouldn't be perceived as an asset to a potential buyer, he sold the company to Norlin Industries for a lot of money, and a $5000 a month retainer, using questionable selling tactics to a rather naïve buyer ending up having a stock of 1400 Minimoogs on their hands to try to sell. Shortly after, in 1973, Norlin had enough of him and bought him off with $50K a year for ten years, according to Bill himself.

So, after saving RA Moog from extinction and making it profitable again, and ending selling it to a big corporation for big bucks, he then he moved on to other things.

All of the above was gathered from Gordon Reid, and Bob Moog himself who was there and wrote at length about it.

That's sort of the story, but not complete and accurate, there are major details missing. So maybe there IS more to say then? I know from seeing him write about it, that Bob Moog disagreed STRONGLY with what Gordon Reid had put forth and was going to write in to complain, but never got around to it. I do know Gene myself (I have even stayed at his house), and his version of the story is quite different, too; he disagrees with what has been written about it.

Which is why I hoped to talk to Bill Waytena. However, there are others who were there, all have stories - and they are all being collected to make history more accurate, not an "open and shut case". It always grows and changes. Digging deep into Moog history is my favorite subject and I'm constantly amazed by the inaccuracies and myths that get repeated. Hopefully someday things will clear up quite a bit more.

[MC]

Maybe Roger Luther of moogarchives.com can provide something to the Zumcheck/Waytena story... I know where he lives.

[EricK]

If you are penning a monograph, please let me get an advance copy.

[BrianK]

Maybe Roger Luther of moogarchives.com can provide something to the Zumcheck/Waytena story... I know where he lives.

I've already been there, Yes, there is always more, I just don't know why anyone would not want to know more... and I'm always digging deeper to find out what we don't know.

When i did my Beatles recording book (16 years) there were tons of well-accepted things that were completely overturned (what console they used, engineers wearing white coats) with just a careful look. To date, no one has gone very in-depth into electronic music history. Tom Rhea's dissertation is a wonderful summary of important instruments, I keep encouraging him to get deeper. Reyn Widenaar did a deep dissertation on the Telharmonium, but no one has it. There is a documentary about Buchla being done, but I think films generally have bullet points and little depth - consider I Dream of Wires, which really made some poor choices.