K-Tel Records forgotten hotel chain and abandoned headquarters in Winnipeg, Canada
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- Did you know K-Tel -- yes, the company that sold all those compilation records - also had a small chain of K-Tel Motor Inns in Winnipeg, Canada? Seriously. And some are still standing today. In this video, I will talk about those quirky inns, and show you what became of them. I will also show you what the K-Tel International headquarters looks like nowadays. It's pretty sad...
Check it out.. The Rise and Fall of K-Tel: • The rise and fall of K...
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Videos shot live on location near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Another great video. I enjoyed it immensely.
Thank you.
Frank
Very interesting,,thanks for taking the time to research this....I like most collect them old K-tel records,,,love the history
Thanks man. I love digging into rock, and music, history.
Had quite a few K-Tel cassettes as a kid back in the 80's. I still see used 70's and 80's K-Tel vinyl on occasion in shops. And K-Tel actually put out some really good compilations on CD back in the 90's, I still have a few of those to this day!
Great video Frank!!
It's interesting and usually sad to see what became of things from our past 😕
Keep on spinning 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Great video brings back so many memories of growing up keep on spinning 😛🤘
Enjoyed that. Thanks.
Thanks!
So cool loved the video great job Frank .
Thanks Landon. Have a good week.
Frank
Awesome video brother. So interesting
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the history lesson, Frank.
You are very welcome. Thank you for watching, Bob!
Wow...K-Tel had a lot more history than I was ever aware of! Super cool!
Thanks! I find this sort of stuff pretty interesting.
Frank
Nice video Frank. It's always cool going back to places that have so much history. Sadly where I live there's not a lot of historical building. They just tear them down to build condos or whatever. Hardy anything is repurposed.
That's they way it is... so many things get torn down... Sad.
Oooo right up my alley
What a great trip down memory lane. I remember back around '88 seeing Chocolate Bunnies From Hell at the Osborne Village Inn (The Zoo). It was a great time.
Glad you enjoyed it
this is awesome and I never knew this about k tel but I am not surprised cause Phil had his hat in everything
thanks man!!
Very cool. Those were some sketchy looking hotels. The kind that your find bodies under the bed when you check in
The kind of hotel where afterward you shake out all your clothes and luggage in the front yard before bringing them into the house.
Absolutely. The larger hotel (the Viscount Gort) is actually pretty nice -- we stayed there probably a decade ago. The other 2... not for me...
frank...i loved this...i never knew that the purveyors of such classics as the double vinyl 'heavy metal' were also hotel owners...i wish i had a chance to stay at one of them...that would be a cool story...hope the family are well...stay cool...stay spinnin'...peace...rocky
Honestly, I didn't know all this either until I started digging in. We stayed at the larger one (the Viscount Got) prob 10 years ago when we visited Winnipeg (before we moved back). It was pretty nice. The other 2 hotels... not so much. Cheers man!
I'm gonna have to check my photos. I could swear when I first went there. The sign was still on the building. And then maybe a few weeks later, it was gone. Like it was the buildings last breath.
That is so cool. I would love to get that Ktel logo from inside the building that I saw on the back wall when you looked inside there. That would be awesome
Me too man. I wonder what they do with that stuff?
@@Channel33RPM Call the agent who handles leasing at that building and make an offer : Jayden Wittenberg at
Royal LePage Prime
Our family had a bunch of K-Tel music releases. Ronco too, remember them? I'd like to hunt down a few. I believe K-Tel used a plant using Quiex virgin vinyl at one point. Hold your records up to light to see if you have any!
We got K-Tel records in Australia. And cassettes. I assume we got 8-Tracks as well, because the Australian EMI hits compilation "Explosive Hits '75" was released on 8-Track. And to this day, only ever finding them all second hand, I still joke about "The K-Tel 2:22 Edit" where all songs are shortened to 2 minutes and 22 seconds so they can fit 20 hits on one record. The newest compilation I've seen was a two record or cassette set called "Wired" from 1981 with 36 songs on it. It was a great set!
Sad to hear the company's downfall. K-Tel brings back many happy memories music wise. How we laughed at some of their TV advertised products that rarely worked as they were meant to.
Absolutely. Yet people kept buying the stuff. Shows just how good the marketing was.
I really don't know anybody in the day, that did not have something they bought from k-tel, had a few of the items in my house. The record sorter I had, problem is, it just flopped over when it got to the end and was heavier at that end. Fun stuff, the TV ads were quirky, but interesting to watch.
The Plaza Inn on Sherbrook St. in Winnipeg was originally the Champ's Motor Inn. It was built by Winnipeg's restaurant king, Oscar Grubert, the man who brought Kentucky Fried Chicken to Winnipeg. Grubert also owned the Champ's Auto Serve drive in, Grubee's, The Palomino Club, and Mother Tucker's Food Experience, among others.
A few of those great K-tel record commercials (not many) were voiced by Boyd Kozak, who was a disc jockey and colleague ( at the same station, 630 CKRC) of the late, great Mr. Washington.
I did not know that. Thank you for the information.
Frank
I would have been so tempted to break into that building....lol
No doubt!!!! It was pretty quiet around there too ... :). But there were lots of alarm signs.
I can't help but wonder if Ronco (we always called it Roncho LOL) had a a chain of supermarkets? Thanks for the info, I never knew this about KTel.
Ronco-Mart!
Damn ! That was too short ! Just as I was settling down to enjoy the next 30 minutes, it ended !
Good to know. I will have to make some longer ones.
Frank
If you come to Minnetonka Minnesota, you can take a spin down K-Tel Drive. It's lined with non-descript warehouse/office buildings that, on Google Earth, look to be largely vacant. I wish I could tell which buildings were actually occupied by K-Tel.
I will have to check it out on Google Earth! I have been to Minneapolis many times, but with COVID, and the land border still closed, it looks like it will be awhile before I am back...
Interestingly K-Tel International set up their US operation in the closest big US city to Winnipeg, Minneapolis Minnesota. There is still a K-Tel Drive in the western suburb of Hopkins. Because many of us on these record forums/RUclips channels like to kvetch about the price of records these days I wanted to point out that a new K-Tel sampler record in 1977 was USD 5.99. That's USD 26.21 when adjusted for inflation today.
Interesting how the inflation works out. I use the late 60s as my benchmark as that’s when I first started buying records. At that time, I paid $3.77 + tax = $4.00. That also works out to today’s price of approx $27. I don’t buy vinyl anymore but I keep that figure in mind when RUclipsrs or commenters talk about the current price of vinyl.
I have heard about K-Tel Drive. Very cool!!!
@@jjquinn2004 A lot of people don't consider inflation when they look at those old prices. A Big Mac at McDonald's is actually cheaper today then when it was introduced in the late 1960s.
Very interesting stuff Frank! You really did your homework on this video thank you for the trouble you put into making this it was very enjoyable.... I would have never guessed they had hotels at one time. I wonder if they had a gift shop in the hotel lobby selling their products? Great video Frank
Thank you Rod!
Good example of what in marketing they call “brand extension”. Low budget music extending into low budget motels. They could have extended further into that cheap wine we bought for under a buck back then, e.g. Thunderbird or Ripple/Tingle!
Absolutely... the wine thing would have worked too, I bet.
I remember some commercals on TV whne I was younger but didn't know they were a Canadian company.. How about a history of the record stores in your town? That could be interesting.
I need that record selector! 😂
Me too! I have been trying to track one down for a future video, but they are not easy to come by (and expensive on eBay, once shipping is factored in).
Wow never knew, sounds like that guy had big dreams. He made alot of money for awhile so my hat is off to him.
Wait... KTEL had a chain of hotels? Now this I gotta see.
Yes!!! Hope you dig the video!
@@Channel33RPM oh, I'm 💯 that I'm gonna dig it.
The K-Tel Boss Has A Mobster Look !
K-Tell was so LowFi , Great highschool Party Records , In retrospect K-Tell is damn cool
LowFi... absolutely. But as a kid, they did introduce me to some new music.
@@Channel33RPM ME TOO !! How I Discovered KC and the Sunshine Band + many many others . K-Tell was a large part of recorded Rock / Pop History .
Sent US down that path to Hell ,
thank you K-Tell
I love these videos and you constantly remembering a bygone era. Kinda creepy how the headquaters still had all that stuff in there after all these years. Would be interesting to see if you could get in and just document the relics that remain. Maybe the property owner or holding company would let you look. Now you've peeked my interest
I remember MGM Movies had their own airline which I flew back in the 1980's. Not uncommon for these businesses to venture into other avenues of revenue using a brand name.
Korean "Chaebols" are notorious for doing this. You can go into a store and pick up a Samsung tv, kitchenware and freakin toothbrush
didn't know K-tel were here.... was just searching "Abandoned Winnipeg":P
I miss K-Tel :(
Even if just for the commercials! My oldest daughter was asking about K-Tel the other day (she has some old records hanging on her wall as decorations, as one of them has a K-Tel label).
@@Channel33RPM I actually have some old K-Tel records in my collection that I got from yard, garage and online box sales! I was even able to find one that my brother had when I was little! It brought back some great memories! :)
Hello Frank Landry Can I Ask You A Question How Many CDS Do You Own In Your Collection?
You can still see the shadow of where the sign used to be in the last clip. There is a bank building near me that has been turned into flats that still has the discolouration from where the old sign was. It was removed almost 20 years ago now!
Hey Frank, that was great vid and a good look into the past. I owned the K-Tel classic hits of 73 which was bought for me on my 5th birthday. Your research is aways sooo good !! How about a video on Ronco next - they made the record vacum, which was supposed to clean your records and keep them static free haha. keep on spinning !!
I will definitely keep that in mind. Thanks Graham!
I wonder if someone still has there products, not the records, but the record holders or tape cases or 8track holders.
I have been trying to track down a Record Selector. It's not as easy as I had hoped, lol.
Being a self-proclaimed K-tell geek,I loved this video! I'll have to put seeing these locations on my retirement travel bucket list!
Thanks for the FUN video Frank!!!
Thanks for watching!
Frank imagine if at 4:33 when you flashed your camera in there you saw stacks and stacks of K-Tel records on the floor and on the shelves? 😲 You would have been beside yourself... I know I would have !! 😁😂
Haha, absolutely! I would be trying to find a way in :)
You definitely conjured up a lot of memories. I remember the K-Tel ads so vividly and to this day I still own a handful of K-Tel vinyl compilations my mom bought for me when we went shopping at Woolco. Keep up the good work!! Love these nostalgic trips back in time.
Woolco! I do miss that place. My wife worked at a Woolco in high school. I am glad you liked the video.
Frank
One of the few K-Tel CDs I have is called "The Battle Of The Bands - The Best of the 60's Garage Bands". It's GREAT! The title describes it perfectly and it's a lot better than Lenny Kaye's original "Nuggets" compilation. It's from 1988 & listed on Discogs.
I have two Litter CDs that were put out by K-tel in the 80s.
@@cameronzywina906 Cool! I think I had the $100 Fine K-Tel CD at one point but I sold it and got some more recent reissues of the Litter albums. Wish I'd kept the K-Tel.
I only spent one night in Winnipeg, but it was at the Holiday Inn Airport West location. lol what’s with the mosquitoes?
Some years are bad, for sure. There are no mosquitoes this year :).
@@Channel33RPM thank goodness! They were so bad they picked me up by my shirt and threw me out of the hotel bar! At least, that’s what I think happened…
Hey wouldn't it be nice concept for now "Spotify hotels". :D
mr. Finglish (Bäd English Recs)
Haha! Doesn't have the same ring to it, though :)
Cheers my friend,
Frank
Oooooo this video sounds super interesting! I cant wait to watch it :)
Thanks!!! I had so much fun putting this one together (and learned a new new things). Cheers!
Interesting, would like to see more.
Ah🤔.. Remember K-Tel infer commercials of the 70's but never purchased any products... Thank goodness!! 😉
At Christmas time everyone on our street and everyone i knew got all kinds of K-Tel products and records.
Oh Canada, oh Frank. Canada has a greater good of contributions to the world than uh, this. Can’t think of any right now, kidding, but there better be. Reminding you I lived in Alberta 4 separate times in my post high school daze. Even if it’s not music related dig up some others. Like Chapters, CTV, Radio Shack Canada etc. not to mention Canadian Beer! Thx.
Way, way off topic but I think you featured some Mofi-like innersleeves a few months ago. I bought some and really liked them but I can't find my email and I can't remember the company's name. They were Canadian. Any help would be appreciated.
For sure... VinylStorageSolutions.ca
@@Channel33RPM Thanks!
And that is the weekly forecast. Now let's go to Frank in the field. What say you, Frank?
Cloudy, rainy, and a good chance of buying more records ... :)
The Zoo. Went to the beer store there on the last day. The line was huge. Another hotel down the street from here The Sherbrook (previously The Westminster) was one of these K-Tel hotels. The owner of this one was also the owner of a hotel in sort of nearby Kenora, Ontario.
I can still hear the mini pop kidz screeching bad songs during a commercial break from back in the early 2000’s
You know you're getting old when you're old enough to see the heyday of the so-called relics of a bygone era.
LOL... too true...
Frank, I'm sure there is a support group for your K-Tel obsession....lol
I am sure there is one out there, lol! Personally, I own one or 2 K-Tel records at this point. That said, the first K-Tel vid I did was my most popular video of all time, with about 250k views, and I love the music history stuff, so it was a no-brainer to do another. Cheers!
That would be like finding out that Rough Trade had a series of gay bars!😄😄😄
Like really?!?!?!🤔
No, not to my knowledge but it is a certain term in the gay community.😉👍🌈
@Brian Williams
Yeah. They had and have some great bands on there.
Bob who? This joker *NEVER* voiced the Australian ads for K-Tel, or as we originally knew it, Majestic Records! Our ads were voiced by nondescript Australian voice-over announcers.
No need to be rude Neil. He specifically said Canada and the USA.
@@Channel33RPM I wasn't out to be rude, but I don't like seeing America, or even Canada assuming they speak for the whole world. In any case, the albums issued in Australia often included Australian talent, like Johnny Farnham, Little River Band, John J. Francis, Sherbert, Jamie Redfern, etc, through the 1970s. One German LP I got hold of, *"Good Morning America"* had Kevin Johnson's original recording of *Rock & Roll(I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life)*, but instead of crediting Festival or Tempo, which held mechanical copyright before passing to Festival Australia, K-Tel gave the credit for the recording, and music publishing, to some insignificant American label called Mainstream. That particular song was first recorded at the A.T.A. studios in Sydney and was first issued by Tempo on the Good Thyme label in 1973. In 1975 the Good Thyme label was passed to Festival when the song was reissued, then the song was reissued on the Infinity label, using the same catalogue number as per the Good Thyme reissue.
I don't think any assumptions were made. He said he was the voice of K-Tel for Canada and the USA.
@@neilforbes416 ktel albums were just albums not so special about them
@@top40researcher31 I'm not saying they were. But K-Tel lost credibility with me when they started using *NON-AUTHENTIC* versions of songs in their compilations.