The city of Cincinnati is prepared to formally recognize King Records’ place in the city’s cultural history with a historic marker, a partnership with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a King-oriented class or lecture series, a King Records Center on the campus of Xavier University and a prominent role in this year’s Cincinnati Entertainment Awards for Music (CEAs). City Councilman John Cranley, Bootsy Collins and others announced the plans at a news conference this morning at the former King Records site in Evanston.

[See photos from this morning here.]

Cranley read from a motion he introduced to City Council that asks for up to $10,000 in city funds to install a historic marker on the former King Records office/studio in Evanston to be unveiled on Nov. 23, with the remaining funds used to book a former King recording artist to perform at that night’s CEAs. This year is the 65th anniversary of the founding of King Records in Cincinnati.

The Rock Hall of Fame in Cleveland has agreed to construct, donate and maintain the historic marker, and if Cranley’s funding request is granted the Rock Hall president has agreed to attend the marker unveiling and the CEAs. The institution also will work to develop a class or lecture series on King Records at Cincinnati State.

Other newsworthy items from this morning:

• Xavier officials are looking into developing a King Records Center on campus, a history exhibition that also could be a working recording studio for use by students and the public.

• CityBeat Marketing and Promotions Manager Dan McCabe announced that the 12th annual CEAs for music will be the first event held at the reopened Emery Theater in Over-the-Rhine. The CEAs were the final public event at the Emery just before it closed in 1999.

There appears to have been a second small controversy over remarks delivered at the podium at Sunday night's Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. At least this time it didn't involve anyone's penis.

Before Mr. Rhythm Man, who spins stacks o' shellacks every Saturday night on WNKU (89.7 FM), presented the award for R&B/Funk, he offered his thoughts on the past and future of King Records, which was a major topic throughout the evening's event. Earlier in the day a historical marker had been unveiled at the former King studio and offices in Evanston, followed by a reception to celebrate a proposed new King studio and community center being developed by Xavier University, Ultrasuede owner John Curley and others.

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The long overdue appreciation of Cincinnati-based King Records gets another shot in the arm with the publication of Dayton-native Jon Hartley Fox’s King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records, a detailed look at the various personalities, including kingpin Syd Nathan, that made the studio such a culturally groundbreaking and creatively vital musical force.

For those who can’t wait for Fox’s appearance at the Books by the Banks festival at the Duke Energy Center on Saturday or at Shake It Records on Sunday, the author discussed the book with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air today. The show also included separate interviews with Bootsy Collins and former King staffer/Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, both of whom talk about their memories of King.

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The group behind last fall's successful effort to erect a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame historical marker at the former King Records studio is at it again. They're now hoping to memorialize Herzog Studios' contributions to local and national music history.

At a press conference downtown this morning, leaders of the Cincinnati Music Heritage Foundation announced plans for a marker at 811 Race St., where in the 1940s and ’50s Herzog Studios hosted recording sessions by Hank Williams, Patti Page, Ernest Tubbs, Flatt and Scruggs and other notable "Country & Western" acts.

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On Saturday, Brian Powers of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County — so instrumental in organizing that institution's ongoing tribute to the legacy of Cincinnati's King Records — put together and conducted one of the best King events yet, a panel discussion on Cowboy Copas & the Golden Age of Country Music.

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The New York Times published a story in the paper's arts section today about the history of Cincinnati-based King Records and those around town who have made it their mission to put the once-vital label back in the spotlight. The story mentions everyone from old-school King artists James Brown, Charlie Feathers and Nina Simone to current-day champions John Cranley, Elliott Ruther and Brian Powers.

RJ Smith, the author of the piece entitled "Rocking Cincinnati's R&B Cradle," was on hand for the King Records memorial back in mid-November, as well as the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, presented by the good peeps at CityBeat, later that night.

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William “Beau Dollar” Bowman, a Hamilton-born singer/drummer who recorded at King Records in the 1960s with both The Dapps and Beau Dollar & The Coins, has died in Cincinnati after an extended illness. Until recently, he had been living in Florida. He was 69. Information on funeral services is available at www.webb-noonan.com.

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Thanks to Paul Grein, who writes the "Chart Watch" blog for Yahoo, we now know that one of legendary Cincinnati-based King Records' impressive chart-topping records has been toppled. James Brown's King release Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal was the last mono-only release to make Billboard magazine's Top 10 until John Mellencamp's new No Better Than This, which recently hit No. 10 in its first week of release.

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Music Tonight: Fountain Square will be loaded with music today. At 5 p.m., the Cincinnati USA Music Heritage Foundation presents a tribute to “Train Kept A’ Rollin’,” a Cincinnati-recorded King Records single by Tiny Bradshaw that eventually became a standard for guitar-fueled Rock & Roll bands (ranking up there with “Louie, Louie” and “Smoke on the Water”) thanks to versions by The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and scores of others. Read Steve Rosen’s feature story on the song and today’s events at citybeat.com here. Be sure to scroll down to check out some of the more famous versions of the tune.

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Music Tonight: Lots of strong shows this evening to help usher in the weekend. Tonight’s free MidPoint Indie Summer concert on Fountain Square is headlined by one of Cincinnati’s best bands, Electro rockers Eat Sugar. Get a taste of the sweetness below in the band’s most recent music video (directed by ES drummer Greg Poneris) for the song “Clap Your Hands.” Solid local newcomers Starfox and Louisville Electronic Pop crew The Pass get things started.

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