Jim Long (born Timothy John Moynihan; February 7, 1943 – May 30, 2022) was an American entrepreneur, who worked in the broadcast music industry.
At various times, he also held ownership interest in 19 radio and TV stations throughout the U.S. His record label, Honest Entertainment, produced Grammy-nominated albums.
After high school, Long worked at Walgreens Drug Stores, while taking courses in broadcasting, to fulfill his goal of becoming a D.J./radio announcer.
Honorably discharged, he returned to civilian life to pursue a career in broadcasting, where he put his talents as a writer and producer to work.
Jim Long was the first to: Beginning in 1961, Long worked as an announcer, producer and program manager at radio stations in Keene (WKBK), Dover (WTSN) and Manchester (WFEA), NH; Westfield (WDEW) and Southbridge (WESO), Massachusetts; Waterbury, Connecticut (WWCO); Springfield, Vermont (WCFR); Bangor, Maine (WGUY); Messina (WSTS), Malone (WICY), Utica (WRUN) and Syracuse (WOLF) New York; Orlando, Florida (WKIS); and Indianapolis (WIBC), Indiana.
In early 1967, after a year as Program Director of WIBC/Indianapolis, the 24-year-old Long was given the opportunity to move to Texas by composer Tom Merriman who was working at Dallas-based Commercial Recording Corporation (CRC).
Called “Phase 2”, “The Propellants” and “The Winning Score”, these programs were quickly adopted by top stations including KILT Houston, WCFL Chicago and KHJ Los Angeles.
(“Someplace Special”, “Rhythm of the City”, “You”, “Where You Belong” and “Where Your Friends Are”) These image campaigns increased ratings at stations like WCOL Columbus, KRFC San Francisco, KHJ Los Angeles, and WIBG in Philadelphia.
Long and Merriman (who both became multi-millionaires in the deal) continued in their roles with TM, but sought to buy back the company in 1976 when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began an investigation into Buckley's business affairs, accusing him and several members of the Starr Broadcasting board of directors of fraud and misuse of shareholder's funds.
[21][22][23] Long founded FirstCom in 1980 to provide broadcasters with a new level of promotion, music production services, and high-end creative ideas, using emerging technologies.
He called his new commercial services library “The Creative Department” and was considered a pioneer in his use of market research to develop audience share and increase profitability – resulting in a series of syndicated promotions, sales training programs (Sales Performance System), and high quality music production libraries, unsurpassed in the industry, at that time.
Long had reinvented the company to look beyond radio at the broader arena of domestic and international copyrights/music publishing, exploring audio-visual and digital technologies not yet widely used by business.
[29] In 1990, Long founded OneMusic [30] in Del Mar, California, and created yet another innovative music library, increasingly used in radio, television (e.g., Saturday Night Live), and film production (e.g., the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind).
Honest Entertainment opened offices in Nashville in 1994 and became known for its niche marketing of Irish artists, including Foster & Allen, Daniel O’Donnell, and Ronan Hardiman, the composer for Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance extravaganza.
Honest also had its own roster of singer/songwriters, including Kate Wallace for whom Long produced the first “CD Plus” for a new artist marketing campaign, providing biographical audio as well as music video and behind the scenes footage (a new technology format, now familiar on DVD).
Many bands and singers have licensed their music to movies through CMC, including Owen Chaim, Ronjii, Michael Kisur, The John D'Agostino Band, Curtis Marolt, Erin Reign, Attila, Ron Esposito, Thomas David Grant, Ellery, Shock of Pleasure, Christopher Welch, Kate Booye, Jon Estep, Juvon Taylor, Andy Bianco and Christopher Jon Winston.