Shad O’Shea became part of the Fraternity legend by buying the label from Harry Carlson for $25,000 back in 1975. “You don’t buy a legend for $1.98,” he added.

Shad O'Shea
A former top-rated DJ in the Sixties, O’Shea recorded a number of novelty singles on the Fraternity label under such dubious nom de plumes as Gonzales Bonaparte, Hy Bush and the Wild Cranberries, and Shad O’Shea and the McHamburger Helpers – local vanity projects that help keep the label alive until it faded away in the 1980s. He also ran his own independent studio in the Cincinnati area and recorded artists for a number of other labels.
O’Shea felt it was his responsibility to put some life back into pop music. “Rock and roll today is no fun,” he said back in 1982, when various hair bands were taking themselves way too seriously on the fledgling MTV network. “It’s overproduced and too sophisticated – people just don’t get excited and stomp their feet anymore. I’ll take those old records any day. They were fun, invigorating, innocuous and, above all, exciting.”
The success of King and Fraternity records was directly based on that excitement, which is undeniable when you listen to the singles cut in Cincinnati by Lonnie Mack, Bobby Bare, Little Willie John, James Brown and many others.