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In this Keener Contact News aircheck audio compilation — hear the voices of WKNR news reporters Bob Neil (1966); John Maher (1966); Eric Smith (1965); Lou Morton (1964); Phil Nye(1966); George Hunter (1965); Phil Nye (1968); Ed Mullen (1967)
For more on WKNR News director Phillip Nye, the WKNR News department, the voices, and the award-winning WKNR news staff, visit the ‘Contact News’ page at the official WKNR Keener 13 website — linkedHERE
WKNR NEWS DIRECTORPhilip Nye circa 1966 (Above photo courtesy and property of Scott Westerman, Steve Schram and keener13.com)
(Note: Re-post; updated; previously featured July 16, 2012)
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DETROIT. 50 YEARS AGO
“My Fellow Americans, we have endured a week, such as no nation should live through. A time of violence and tragedy.” — Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States
“I think the President of the United States, uh, played politics uh, in a period of tragedy and riot.” — George Romney, Governor of Michigan
“We made it very clear — we do not want more than our share and we are determined to settle for nothing less than our share.” — Walter Reuther, UAW President
“I deplore the actions of the UAW in forcing Ford into this situation. I am sorry that we do not have laws, that effectively prevent the use of this kind of bludgeon, against the public interest.” — Henry Ford II, Ford Motor Company
The WKNR Contact News album for 1967
DETROIT. 1967. The opening commentary you will hear is the voice of WKNR News Director Philip Nye —
“These are the sounds and voices of a year. As WKNR News present an electronic diary in 1967. A year marked by rioting, by a continuing war and growing protest, by a rise in crime and cost,and by tragedy and triumph. As with all years, there was good and bad. We shall recall both.”
. . .WKNR microphones was there.
Philip Nye WKNR KEENER CONTACT NEWS 1967(Play 43:43 audio)
DETROIT FREE PRESS Linwood and Hazelwood. July 23, 1967(click on image 2x for largest view)BY THE TIME DETROITERS awoke to this Sunday edition headline, a large swath of flames was intensifying at the north side of the city, spreading block-to-city-block. Rioting, looting began to spread throughout that part of Detroit with each passing hour.(click on image 2x for largest detailed read)
Sunday, July 23, 1967
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T H I S 1 9 6 7 W K N R N E W S N A R R A T I V E recalls many of the events which affected the city of Detroit. Of certain news events which impacted the lives of Detroiters marking the passing of 1967 moving forward into 1968. The stories, news, voices and sounds you will hear was electronically imprinted on recorded tape by the WKNR news staff who covered the stories. The sounds you will be hear was permanently preserved on vinyl records by the WKNR news department ending the year 1967. This news recording served as a marker of what took place in Detroit that year. Whether covering the news, inside or outside the boundaries of the city, the WKNR microphones was there. When it happened. As it happened. How it happened. This WKNR Contact News album will take you back to a time and place. This was 50 years ago. The city was Detroit.
Sunday evening,July 23, corner of Hazelwood and Dexter.(Click on image 2x for largest detailed view)
But the biggest story that placed the city on national and international news headlines — the riot that was the summer of 1967. The date set was July 23, to be exact. And the WKNR news department microphones was there when Philip Nye and his six-man news staff and the station’s two mobile units began picking up the story.
By early Monday morning more dramatic news began to intensify with every passing hour as “the story” began to unfold. The civil disturbance sparked with a toss of a single Molotov cocktail during the early morning hours on Sunday. The flashpoint was marked on 12th near Clairmount in the city’s near west side. The riot’s spark ignited during a Detroit police raid on a liquor establishment’s “blind pig.” By mid-afternoon, the rioting spread rapidly out of control. Spreading from block to city block. Looting, shootings, arson became widespread. Within 24 hours, the destruction and carnage would cover 129 square miles of the city. Detroit, the fifth largest metropolis in the United States, was up in flames.
With a single toss of a gasoline bomb (6:30 a.m.) Detroit erupts in flames. Sunday morning, July 23, 1967.(Click on image for larger view)
L I S T E N A G A I N T O T H E biggest Detroit news story of 1967. Listen as —
Governor Romney requested the federal government deploy federal troops immediately into Detroit; Presidential Assistant Cyrus Vance informed the city that troops were on the ground in Detroit; President Johnson addresses the nation, deploring “law and order have broken down in Detroit, Michigan.”. . . .
Philip Nye went on to record, that, “At it’s peak, the riots spread over fourteen-square miles of the city. A curfew was in effect, a complete ban placed on liquor sales, gasoline can be purchased only during certain hours and never in a container, offices, banks, schools, businesses, industries were closed down; the heart of Detroit was deserted. Deliveries were curtailed.Food ran short. All normal activities in the nation’s fifth-largest city was at a standstill… they said it couldn’t happen here, but it did.”
The Detroit Free Press headlines below provided a more grim reality —
THE DETROIT FREE PRESS Monday, July 24, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)THE DETROIT FREE PRESS Tuesday, July 25, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)THE DETROIT FREE PRESSWednesday, July 26, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)THE DETROIT FREE PRESS Thursday, July 27, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)THE DETROIT FREE PRESS Friday, July 28, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)THE DETROIT FREE PRESS Saturday, July 29, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)
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While the July ’67 civil disturbance overshadowed other local events and news for the year, Detroit had other issues the city found itself grappling with throughout 1967. WKNR Contact News covered these stories as well:
A 61-day strike between the UAW and the Ford Motor Company….
In July, the nation’s railroads were shut down by rail-machinists, affecting rail and transport commerce in Detroit….
Teamster Steel-haulers went on strike; spanning 8 states, including Michigan, lasting 9 weeks while inciting violence….
Detroit Federation of Teachers went on strike; teachers reached an agreement with the city two weeks into the new school year….
Contract discussions with the Detroit Officers Association and the city reach a stalled impasse, DPOA stop issuing traffic tickets….
The Teamsters Union strike both the Detroit newspapers over wages; The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press were still shut down due to the strike as of December 31, 1967….
WKNR Assistant News Director Eric Smith
And those were just several of the important news stories WKNR reported for Detroit in 1967. Headed by Philip Nye and assistant news director Eric Smith, WKNR Contact News was awarded five prestigious first-place honors — five different categories — for “news presentation par excellence” in 1966 by the Michigan Associated Press.
“…The hour’s catalog a year’s living; A year’s dying; a year’s luck. For WKNR News… this is Philip Nye, reporting.”
WKNR News Staff 1967: Mike O’Neill; News Director Philip Nye; Assistant News Director Erik Smith; (seated) John Maher; Dick Buller; Pat Kelly; Doug Fernlock
“A great tragedy has visited our city, and now our ability to face an awesome challenge is being tested. It is for us to meet the challenge with the same resolve and dedication for which we have been noted in the past. We must have a united determination torebuild our city into a kind of urban environment in which every citizen can say with dignity and self-respect that he is a Detroiter and proud of it. Like the legendary Phoenix, Detroit shall rise from its ashes.”
— Jerome P. Cavanagh, Mayor of Detroit; 1967
Uprising flashpoint. Where the police raid took place, 3:30 a.m., 9125 12th. Street. Sunday morning, July 23.(Detroit News)DETROIT Sunday, July 23, 1967 (AP Wire Photo)Click on image for largest view.The National Guard poised on Woodward Avenue, downtown Detroit. By July 26, 1967, Detroit was under imposed curfew and federal martial law. U.S. Army tanks armed with 50 cal. machine guns patrol the streets of Detroit, July 25, 1967.
‘KEENER CONTACT NEWS’
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For more on the Keener Contact News year-end albums, go to the left-sidebar menu column on this website and click WKNR Contact News. For everything on WKNR news, go to Scott Westerman’s WKNR tribute website atkeener13.com.
The YouTube video titled “Detroit Riots 1968,” while seeming erroneous, it was titled as such the year it was released. The footage is silent.
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ALSO| For a more comprehensive visual of the riots, watch this vintage 30 minute 1967 WXYZ-TV film segment on the Detroit civil disturbanceGO HERE.
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ALSO| For a more comprehensive review (link; detroit1967.org) on what took place 50 years ago on this day in Detroit, GO HERE.
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ALSO| The Detroit News Interactive feature FIVE DEADLY DAYS IN DETROIT is a informative review of Detroit’s week of infamy, covering the week beginning Sunday, July 23, 1967. This special report includes many photographs of the ’67 civil unrest. For more on this Detroit News timeline GO HERE.
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ALSO| From the DETROIT NEWS archives. 150 historic photos from the Detroit 1967 riot can be SEEN HERE.
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ALSO| From the Detroit Free Press. Detroit ’67. An interactive hour-by-hour timeline.GO HERE.
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ALSO| From the Detroit News archives. DETROIT 1967 interactive.GO HERE.
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NEW!| Six Days In July — Coverage Of the 1967 Detroit Riots. Aired on WWJ-TV (Channel 4; time 1:28:38), Sunday, July 30, 1967:
A MCRFB Note: click on above image for largest detailed view.
The Detroit News, Friday, November 22, 1963Presidential limousine under fire, 12:30 p.m. CST., Dallas, November 22, 1963.A Mrs. Daisy Fisher, of Detroit, pause, reflects on the JFK memorial displayed at the J. L. Hudson department store, downtown Detroit, Friday evening, November 22, 1963.(Photo source and caption: The Detroit News)The Detroit Free Press, Tuesday, November 26, 1963.
Official WKNR personality profile card for news director Philip Nye(Courtesy keener13.com)
WKNR CONTACT NEWS: ‘AN ELECTRONIC DIARY OF ONE YEAR’
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“These are the events of our time and of our place. WKNR News presents the sounds and voices of 1966. As they were gathered and reported by the WKNR news staff. For WKNR News this is Philip Nye.”
Official WKNR personality profile card for news director Philip Nye(Courtesy keener13.com)
WKNR CONTACT NEWS: ‘AN ELECTRONIC DIARY OF ONE YEAR’
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“… And so it went in ’68. An incredible year in an incredible age. There were many things we would change but we can’t. Those who lived through this time will remember. For WKNR News this is Philip Nye.”
F A M E D R A D I O A N D T V N E W S M A N G O N E A T 8 7
From Mike Austerman’sMichiguide.com; March 21, 2014
WKNR News Director Philip Nye
Philip Nye was the news director at the legendary WKNR AM 1310 Contact News in Dearborn/Detroit in the mid-1960’s working with names like Bill Bonds and Eric Smith. Phil made it to several of the Detroit Radio Reunions.
Nye passed away peacefully on March 20, 2014 at the age of 87. Born in Newark, Ohio on March 1, 1927, he was a proud graduate of Ohio State University where he studied theater and journalism. He had a long and distinguished career that included both radio and television. Mr. Nye worked actively as a broadcast journalist until the age of 86.
Along with his role as News Director of Keener 13 during it’s 1960’s heyday, other hightlights of Nye’s career include work as an investigative reporter and anchor for KTLA-TV in Los Angeles and most notably as News Director for WXYZ-TV where he built what was recognized as one of the best news teams in the country. He went on to head news departments at WABC in New York and KGO in San Francisco before joining ABC as Vice President of their owned and operated news division. He later became a partner in Burnham Broadcasting, managing television stations in Green Bay, WI, Bakersfield, CA and New Orleans, LA.
He was an avid reader and loved old movies, enjoyed cooking, playing golf and watching his beloved OSU Buckeyes play football. He is survived by his daughters Jo-Allison (Jeffry) Floyd, Kimberly McMahon, Tracey Millard and Cindy (Mark) Malin; eleven grandchildren Megan, Matthew, Tyler, Ryan, Colin, Christopher, Scott, Kelsey, Meredith, Allie and McKenna. And one great grandchild, Jayden. He was predeceased by his wife Joanne Phillips and daughter Pamela (Michael) McGillivary.
Most recently Phil lived in West Bloomfield and Shelby Township, Michigan and worked on local cable productions for Comcast.
Memorial visitation will take place at McCabe Funeral Home, 31950 West Twelve Mile, Farmington Hills, on Monday March 24 from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm with a memorial service at 1:00 pm. Memorial donations may be made to Special Olympics in Philip’s name.
There is a phenomenal amount of news, photos and airchecks covering Philip’s career on the Motor City Radio Flashbacks web site.
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