Larry Finley

Who was Larry Finley?

Larry Finley was a late night broadcast pioneer as well a leader in the audiotape and videotape business.

Born and raised in Syracuse, New York, Finley became a nightclub manager in his hometown at age 18 before moving to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s and opening a chain of jewelry stores. In the 1940s, he became a business partner with musicians Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey in ownership of the Casino Gardens Ballroom in San Diego, where he also owned radio station KSDJ. He created his own TV production company, Finley Productions, Inc., the first such operation on the West Coast.

Finley produced and hosted radio and TV shows in Los Angeles, including The Larry Finley Show, broadcast nightly from his restaurant on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood; as well as Strictly Informal, Dinner At Eight, and Music is My Beat, the first TV shows to be kinescoped and aired by the Armed Forces Television Network to troops in Korea.

In the mid-1960s, Finley became President and CEO of the International Tape Cartridge Corporation. He acquired the audio tape rights from 57 record labels and became the largest provider of music entertainment on pre-recorded tape. In 1970, he founded the International Tape Association, which is now known as the International Recording Media Association, at a time when audio tape products were still finding their market.