A television-marketing company
Telmak Teleproducts was established in 1980 by a consortium of 15 regional television companies as a direct-marketing business selling recorded music, kitchenware and other consumer products. Its record operation commenced in January 1981 under chief executive David Hammer, the former general manager of K-tel’s product division in Australia. It was, in effect, a breakaway from K-tel, created by people already familiar with the lucrative business of selling records and general merchandise through intensive television advertising.
The television companies’ interest in Telmak extended beyond any prospective profit from the products themselves. The venture also provided them with a means of converting otherwise underused advertising time—particularly during quieter viewing periods—into retail and mail-order sales. With its shareholders controlling, or enjoying privileged access to, regional television airtime, Telmak could advertise its products with a frequency that would have been prohibitively expensive for many conventional record companies.
Les Hodge, formerly an A&R, label and product manager with EMI (Australia), served as Telmak’s general manager during its formative period. Les brought extensive record-industry experience to the new company, while David understood the particular mechanics of television marketing: selecting a product with broad popular appeal, supporting it with an immediately memorable commercial and placing it before a large audience as frequently as possible.
The combination was formidable. David understood K-tel’s television-selling techniques; Les understood conventional record-company product management, licensing and repertoire; and Telmak’s shareholders provided access to the advertising capacity required to sell the resulting packages.
The commercials belonged unmistakably to the television-marketing culture of the period. They were direct, repetitive and deliberately difficult to ignore. Records were presented as exceptional-value packages containing one familiar song after another, frequently accompanied by emphatic voice-overs, rapidly changing song excerpts and prominently displayed prices. The advertisements could be loud and cheesy, but they were often highly effective.
An extraordinary beginning
Telmak’s record business expanded with remarkable speed. In March 1981, only a short time after commencing operations, the company was reported to have achieved turnover exceeding $1 million.
Its access to television airtime allowed it to offer repertoire owners approximately $1.50 for every album sold or, alternatively, to negotiate profit-sharing arrangements. Les explained that Telmak was interested in marketing recordings that conventional record companies might not consider sufficiently commercial to promote themselves.
This did not necessarily mean obscure music. Much of the repertoire was by well-known performers, but it frequently consisted of older recordings, neglected catalogue material or collections that did not coincide with a current hit single. Telmak’s contribution was to give that material a new identity and create demand through packaging and television exposure.
One of its earliest successes was Dolly Parton’s A Real Country Dolly. The 18-track compilation reportedly contained material that had not previously been released in Australia. Despite the absence of a current hit, it was said to have sold approximately 60,000 copies at $7.99.
The success of A Real Country Dolly neatly demonstrated Telmak’s original strategy: obtain overlooked or underexploited recordings by a familiar performer, assemble them into an attractive themed package, advertise the album heavily and create a market that did not depend upon contemporary radio airplay.
Licensing and repackaging
Telmak initially concentrated on licensing and repackaging recordings by established artists such as Dolly Parton, The Animals and The Rolling Stones. Rather than building a large roster of contemporary recording artists, it assembled greatest-hits sets, historical collections and themed compilations designed to appeal to broad sections of the public.
Australian rock historian Glenn A. Baker assisted with a number of Telmak projects, sometimes working with Les Hodge to locate recordings, select tracks, assemble compilations or prepare sleeve material. The similarities between some Telmak compilations and Glenn’s own releases on the Raven label were therefore more than coincidental. Both drew upon overlooked catalogue recordings and presented them to new audiences with informed sequencing and contextual material.
The Telmak catalogue quickly became remarkably diverse. It encompassed country music, rock and roll, middle-of-the-road instrumentals, classical packages, vintage radio, comedy, children’s material, nostalgia collections and multi-artist compilations. Its releases were generally made available on both LP and cassette, reflecting the rapidly growing importance of the cassette market during the early 1980s.
Telmak also released locally recorded material. The Bushwackers’ Beneath the Southern Cross, issued in 1981, was one such example. Its catalogue was therefore not limited to recycled international recordings but included Australian performers and locally assembled productions alongside its imported and licensed material.
More than a record company
The word “Teleproducts” was significant. Although its record releases were highly visible, Telmak was a broader television-merchandising company rather than simply an independent record label.
Its products included cookware and household goods as well as prerecorded audio and video material. Among its best-known non-music products was a “dry-fry convection oven pan with lid”, which later became the subject of substantial litigation against Coles Myer.
Telmak also explored opportunities beyond Australia. During 1985, it applied to register the Telmak name in the United States for recorded-media products and an extensive range of cookware. A Telmak Teleproducts operation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was also credited as the publisher of Alfonso’s Breakin’ & Poppin’ Book, associated with American actor and dancer Alfonso Ribeiro. The precise corporate relationship between the Australian and Florida operations remains unclear, but the activity indicates an attempt to extend the Telmak brand internationally.
The company’s principal documented Australian premises during its most visible period were at 84–94 Mullens Street, Balmain NSW 2041. Some contemporary records abbreviated the address to simply 84 Mullens Street.
Collapse after rapid growth
Strong turnover did not guarantee financial stability. Television-marketed products required significant expenditure on licensing, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and advertising before the full proceeds of retail sales were received. Large quantities of stock often had to be manufactured in anticipation of demand, leaving the marketer exposed if a campaign performed below expectations.
Telmak’s rapid expansion across music and unrelated consumer products may also have placed pressure on its finances. Its business was highly dependent upon selecting products that would generate a sufficiently strong and immediate response to cover the costs of production and fulfilment.
Despite its spectacular beginning, Telmak went into voluntary liquidation in March 1982 with debts reportedly exceeding $2 million, and receivers were appointed. Contemporary trade reporting described it as second only to K-tel in the Australian television-merchandising field at the time of its collapse.
The reversal was extraordinary. In a little over a year, Telmak had progressed from celebrating its first $1 million in turnover to becoming insolvent. No single definitive explanation has emerged, but its failure illustrated the inherent risks of television merchandising: rapid expansion, expensive stock commitments, uncertain consumer demand and a heavy dependence upon the success of individual campaigns.
Trafalgar’s rescue
Telmak did not disappear. In December 1982, control of the business was acquired by Trafalgar Financial Corporation, an Australian investment company with interests in films, real estate and household commodities. Contemporary reporting placed the purchase price at approximately $1 million.
Under the rescue arrangement, creditors reportedly received an initial payment of 50 cents in the dollar, with the outstanding balance intended to be paid over approximately two years. David Hammer remained at the head of the revived operation.
The Telmak name and TMAK catalogue series continued, allowing the reconstructed company to appear to consumers as a continuation of the original business. By June 1983, trade reports were already describing Telmak as having “bounced back”.
Several releases demonstrated the strength of its recovery. The double album The Wonderful Wireless, assembled from historic Australian radio material, reportedly sold more than 40,000 copies. Songs of the Protest Era reached the top ten in Sydney and Melbourne and was reported as achieving gold status, while the two-record Themes and Dreams package was reported as double gold.
Telmak was also enjoying sales with collections featuring The Turtles, Annette Funicello, The Mamas & The Papas, Bing Crosby, Frankie Laine and Sacha Distel. David said that the company had traded its way out of receivership quickly and was attempting to restore normal relationships with Australian record companies while continuing to acquire repertoire internationally.
Laser Records and Gene Pierson
During its revived period, Telmak developed a particularly important association with Gene Pierson’s Laser Records Pty Ltd, whose productions were sometimes credited to Laser Productions. Born Giancarlo Salvestrin, Gene had previously enjoyed modest success as a pop singer in New Zealand and Australia. His regional New Zealand hits included 'Love, Love, Love' and 'You Got to Me', while his psychedelic 1970 recording of 'Reach Out' became a minor Australian hit. After his recording career largely ended in 1971, he worked in music journalism, television, promotion, artist management and record production before becoming closely associated with Laser Records.
Laser predated Telmak and had been publicly identified with Gene since at least 1978. Operating as an independent label, production company and holder of master-recording rights, it supplied Telmak with licensed recordings and completed productions. The relationship therefore placed Laser principally on the creative and licensing side, while Telmak provided television advertising, packaging, marketing and distribution.
The precise arrangement varied between releases. Sincerely Yours—Gladys Moncrieff, for example, was described as licensed from Laser Records and marketed and distributed by Telmak. Australian TV’s Greatest Hits credited the phonographic copyright in its recordings to Laser while identifying Telmak as marketer. Bible Heroes was produced for Telmak, with Laser named as the record company and Gene serving as production co-ordinator.
The Wonderful Wireless—The Ads was described as a Baker/Laser Records production, reflecting Glenn A. Baker’s historical and compilation work in association with Gene’s production company. The later nostalgia collection You Must Remember This credited both recording and sleeve copyright to Laser while Telmak handled marketing and distribution.
Laser provided Telmak with the creative and production functions that it did not necessarily maintain in-house. Gene’s speciality—novelty recordings, nostalgia, familiar songs, television themes and easily explained concept albums—was particularly well suited to Telmak’s advertising model.
Beatle Barkers
The most memorable result of the Telmak–Laser relationship was Beatle Barkers, released in Australia in 1983.
Devised by Gene Pierson and created with engineer and musician Roy Nicolson, the album presented Lennon–McCartney compositions recreated using barking dogs, supported by other animal noises and instrumental accompaniment. It was issued under the name The Woofers and Tweeters Ensemble.
After the recordings were completed, the project was licensed to Telmak, which released and promoted it in Australia. The concept was ideally suited to television marketing. It was novel, immediately understandable and could be demonstrated within seconds in a commercial. The album attracted international attention and became one of the strangest entries in the enormous catalogue of Beatles-related recordings.
The move into “sound-alikes”
By approximately 1984, Telmak increasingly turned to “sound-alike” packages containing newly recorded versions of contemporary hits performed by session singers and musicians rather than the artists responsible for the original hit recordings.
Titles such as Chartbusters ’84, Street Beat ’84, Dance Club ’84, Unreal! and the later Chart Sounds offered collections of familiar current songs at considerably less than the cost of equivalent compilations featuring original recordings. Many were two-record sets sold for the price of a conventional single album—or less.
The recordings were not simply traditional cover versions presented in a different style. Producers generally attempted to reproduce the hit recording as closely as possible, selecting singers whose voices resembled those of the original performers and using synthesisers, emulators and other studio techniques to imitate the arrangements and production.
This approach solved an increasingly difficult commercial problem. Major record companies were becoming reluctant to license recent hit recordings for heavily discounted television compilations. Telmak could instead obtain replacement masters from specialist overseas producers without negotiating for the original recordings.
The company could therefore assemble and release a collection of current songs quickly—sometimes before the major companies had completed the complicated negotiations required to issue an equivalent compilation featuring the original performers.
Telmak’s low prices and extensive television exposure gave it an advantage, but the approach attracted criticism from within the record industry. Although disclaimers sometimes appeared on the packaging, they were not always prominent. Buyers attracted by familiar song titles and performances deliberately made to resemble the hits could assume they were purchasing the original recordings.
Chart Sounds and the CBS challenge
The controversy culminated in 1987 with Telmak’s Chart Sounds: 16 Hit Songs No. 1. The collection included sound-alike versions of such contemporary hits as 'The Final Countdown', 'Walk Like an Egyptian', 'You Keep Me Hanging On', 'Word Up' and 'I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)'.
Telmak obtained the replacement master recordings from Countdown Music in West Germany and Coombe Music in Britain. Both companies specialised in producing versions of currently popular songs performed by musicians other than the original artists.
The Telmak album carried a recommended retail price of $9.99. By comparison, the competing 87 Hits Out compilation—containing original recordings licensed from CBS, RCA, WEA and PolyGram—was priced at $14.99.
CBS Records Australia and several related companies commenced proceedings in the Federal Court. Mindbangles Inc., associated with The Bangles, joined the action because the Telmak album contained versions of 'Walk Like an Egyptian' and 'Walking Down Your Street'.
The case raised three principal issues: whether Telmak’s promotion was misleading or deceptive, whether it amounted to passing off, and whether the sound-alike recordings infringed copyright in the original recordings.
The Court did not accept that an independently performed sound-alike automatically copied the original sound recording. Copyright in a sound recording protected the actual recorded sounds embodied in that recording. A separately created performance did not become a copy merely because its producers deliberately attempted to imitate the original. Copyright in the underlying music and lyrics was a separate matter and remained subject to the applicable licensing arrangements.
The packaging and advertising created a different problem. On 8 May 1987, the Court made interlocutory orders preventing Telmak from selling or advertising Chart Sounds unless the following words appeared prominently on the front of the LP sleeve and the visible cassette insert:
NOT RECORDED BY THE ORIGINAL ARTISTS
The same warning was required on promotional posters. Television advertisements had to announce at both the beginning and the end that the songs were not recordings by the original artists. Telmak was also required to maintain accounts of its stock, sales and profits while the proceedings continued.
The Court did not prohibit the album outright. Contemporary reports indicated that Telmak responded by placing the required warning stickers on existing stock and continuing to sell it. The wider dispute was eventually settled rather than proceeding to a final determination.
The case nevertheless became an important Australian authority. It helped establish the distinction between independently recreating the sound of a performance and copying the actual sounds embodied in an existing recording. It also demonstrated that even when a sound-alike did not infringe the original recording copyright, its packaging and advertising could still amount to misleading or deceptive conduct.
Other legal battles
The CBS action was not Telmak’s only contribution to Australian intellectual-property and consumer law.
In Telmak Teleproducts Australia Pty Ltd v Bond International Pty Ltd, decided in 1986, Telmak and associated parties pursued claims arising from the alleged copying of a television commercial. The proceedings considered what constitutes a copy of a cinematograph film and the distinction between copying the actual visual and sound content of a film and merely adopting its underlying advertising idea or format.
Telmak was also involved in significant litigation against Coles Myer over the packaging and promotion of its dry-fry convection oven pan. Coles Myer marketed a competing pan using similar descriptive wording and presentation. The dispute concerned passing off and misleading or deceptive conduct under the Trade Practices Act.
Telmak ultimately succeeded before the Full Federal Court. In December 1989, the High Court refused Coles Myer special leave to appeal, leaving the Full Federal Court’s decision in Telmak’s favour standing.
Together, the Bond International, CBS and Coles Myer proceedings reflected the breadth of Telmak’s operations. They also demonstrated how heavily the company depended upon product concepts, packaging and television promotion—commercial assets that were not always easily protected under conventional copyright law.
Historic Sessions
Telmak’s most important conventional Beatles release appeared before either Beatle Barkers or the sound-alike controversy.
In August 1982, the company issued Historic Sessions, the second significant Australian release of the Beatles’ December 1962 performances at Hamburg’s Star-Club.
Licensed from the New York-based Double H Licensing Corporation, the two-record set broadly followed the expanded British edition issued by Audiofidelity Enterprises in 1981. The Australian version was housed in a gatefold sleeve similar to its British counterpart, although without the embossing used on the British package.
The local edition also contained additional material. Interviews with John Lennon and Ringo Starr were included, while Glenn A. Baker supplied additional photographs and material for the inner gatefold. The result was more than a straightforward pressing of an imported compilation: Telmak adapted the existing package for Australian buyers and gave it additional collector appeal.
Historic Sessions became a familiar sight in service stations and department stores across Australia, proving particularly popular on the car-convenient cassette format. For many listeners, it provided an inexpensive introduction to the rough but historically important recordings of the Beatles performing in Hamburg shortly before achieving worldwide fame.
It remained the only conventional Beatles album released in Australia on the Telmak label.
Later years and corporate end
Telmak remained a visible television marketer into the later 1980s, although its involvement in recorded music appears to have declined after 1988.
By 1993, however, it was gone from our screens forever. Its four United States trademark registrations were cancelled during 1992, suggesting that its international ambitions did not develop into a permanent American operation. More significantly, Telmak’s principal operating company, Telmak Teleproducts (Australia) Pty Ltd, was dissolved in May 1993.
Telmak’s legacy
Telmak never possessed the artist roster, recording infrastructure or long-term stability of Australia’s major record companies. Its historical importance lay elsewhere.
It was a broadcaster-backed attempt to transform underused television airtime into product sales. It became one of Australia’s most serious challengers to K-tel and created an outlet for repertoire that conventional record companies were unwilling to promote themselves. It also became a major purveyor of nostalgia, novelty records, budget compilations and television-friendly consumer products.
Its history captured several distinctive strands of the 1980s market: licensed catalogue recordings, Australian productions, novelty concepts, cassettes aimed at non-specialist retailers and re-recorded current hits sold at aggressively low prices.
The company’s relationship with Glenn A. Baker and Gene Pierson also showed how independent researchers, compilers and production companies could work with a television marketer to create products outside the conventional major-label system. Glenn supplied historical knowledge and access to neglected repertoire; Gene and Laser developed or controlled specialist productions; and Telmak supplied the marketing, distribution and television exposure.
Telmak’s sound-alike albums ultimately gave it a significance beyond record collecting. The CBS proceedings helped clarify that copyright in a sound recording protected the actual recorded sounds, while consumer law could still intervene when packaging or advertising obscured the fact that a product contained replacement performers.
Today, Telmak is remembered principally through its unmistakably 1980s television commercials, cheaply priced compilations and unusual releases such as Beatle Barkers. For Australian Beatles collectors, however, its most important legacy remains Historic Sessions: a locally adapted and widely marketed edition of the Star-Club recordings that brought together historical curiosity, commercial opportunism and the distinctive television-selling culture of its time.
