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This list is selected each week by WXYZ Radio reports of records sales gathered from leading record outlets in the Detroit area and other sources available to WXYZ.
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A special THANK YOU to Larry Good, of Saline, MI., for generously contributing this featured WXYZ chart — December 22, 1964 — to Motor City Radio Flashbacks
The above WXYZ chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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NEW! A special THANK YOU to David Carson for his WXYZ Fred Wolf audio contribution!
David is the renowned historian and noted authority on Detroit radio. He authored the quintessential book on the subject ever published, ‘Rockin’ Down the Dial: The Detroit Sound of Radio’.
“A must for any fan of Detroit radio. ‘Rockin’ Down the Dial’ is an easy read and for people like me, there are lots of pictures.” –Dick Purtan, WOMC
His book was published by Momentum Books, Ltd., Troy, MI., in the year 2000. While his book is out-of-print, it is listed on eBay and on Amazon. David Carson resides today in Tennessee. Thanks again, David! 🙂
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Audio recording was digitally enhanced by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
This list is selected each week by WXYZ Radio from reports of record sales gathered from leading record outlets in the Detroit area and other sources available to WXYZ.
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The above WXYZ chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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A special thank you to Jim Heddle of Tuscon, Arizona, for having contributed the above WXYZ 1270 playlist chart featured for the site’s archives.
ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE? Tap over chart image. Open to second window. “Stretch” chart across your device screen to magnify for large detailed view.
ON YOUR PC? Click on chart image 2x for largest detailed print view.
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This list is selected each week by WXYZ Radio reports of records sales gathered from leading record outlets in the Detroit area and other sources available to WXYZ.
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A special THANK YOU to Larry Good, of Saline, MI., for contributing this featured WXYZ chart — October 13, 1964 — to Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
The above WXYZ chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
This list is selected each week by WXYZ Radio from reports of record sales gathered from leading record outlets in the Detroit area and other sources available to WXYZ.
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The above WXYZ chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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A special thank you to Jim Heddle of Tuscon, Arizona, for having contributed the above WXYZ 1270 playlist chart featured for the site’s archives.
ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE? Tap over chart image. Open to second window. “Stretch” chart across your device screen to magnify for large detailed view.
ON YOUR PC? Click on chart image 2x for largest detailed print view.
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Above article/advertisement courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2022. Newspapers.com
The above featured Detroit Free Press article was digitally re-imaged by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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Missed any of our previous ‘Detroit Radio Back-Pages‘ features? GO HERE
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On September 15, 2022, Detroit Public TV debuted their newest television production. It is a documentary commemorating and the extraordinary life and times of long-time Detroit radio legend and morning personality, Dick Purtan.
Titled ‘Detroit Remember When: A Tribute to Dick Purtan‘, DPTV.org tagged the hour-long film with this disclaimer . . . .
“The special documentary highlights Purtan’s life on and off the air, told through audio and video clips, archival film and interviews with Purtan, his family, friends and colleagues. The 60-minute documentary film features some of the most memorable moments from Purtan’s top-rated morning show, his successful radio career and consistent community outreach.”
If you missed viewing the PBS film this past weekend, ‘Detroit Remembers When: A Tribute to Dick Purtan‘ is currently still available for your viewing, courtesy of Detroit Public Television, HERE.
More of this PBS Dick Purtan television special, from the DPTV website . . . .
“Fans of Detroit radio can celebrate the life and extraordinary career of Dick Purtan in a televised remembrance of his legendary journey as a radio personality and community philanthropist, to premiere on DPTV Sept. 15 at 9 p.m. as part of a “Detroit Remember When” segment. This special documentary highlights Purtan’s life on and off the air, told through audio and video clips, archival film and interviews with Purtan, his family, friends and colleagues.
The 60-minute documentary film features some of the most memorable moments from Purtan’s top-rated morning show, including his infamous “Put-on Calls,” where he entertained generations of Detroiters with a whimsical mix of radio satire, one liners and dead pans delivered to his audience each day along with his “Purtan’s People” ensemble cast and crew.
“In addition to his successful radio career, the film looks back on Purtan’s community outreach on behalf of the many charities he supported and the ways he used his position of influence behind the microphone to help the less fortunate.”
Congratulations, Dick Purtan!
And thank you. For all those wonderful memories and humor you shared with us on the radio dial throughout the decades’ past . . . those special D. P. moments on the radio your Detroit listeners and fans could never, ever forget. 🙂
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Motor City Radio Flashbacks is in search of anything audio relating Eddie Chase, renown Detroit radio legend in the 1940s and 1950s on WXYZ and CKLW.
His granddaughter, Kathleen Thompson (resides in Anchorage, Alaska), and for the benefit of her immediate family as well, has reached out to this site for any audio recordings of Eddie Chase on the radio, which may include his top-rated WXYZ show program, Make Believe Ballroom. Material we have yet to find and add into our Detroit radio archive.
If there is someone out there who may possibly have a recording of this Detroit radio treasure, please contact me at (copy and paste):
motorcityradioflashbacks65@gmail.com
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This list is selected each week by WXYZ Radio from reports of record sales gathered from leading record outlets in the Detroit area and other sources available to WXYZ.
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The above WXYZ chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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A special thank you to Jim Heddle of Tuscon, Arizona, for providing this WXYZ 1270 playlist chart from July 1966 to our Motor City Radio Flashbacks archives.
ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE? Tap over chart image. Open to second window. “Stretch” chart across your device screen to magnify for large detailed view.
ON YOUR PC? Click on chart image 2x for largest detailed print view.
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This list is selected each week by WXYZ Radio from reports of record sales gathered from leading record outlets in the Detroit area and other sources available to WXYZ.
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The above WXYZ chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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A special thank you to Jim Heddle of Tuscon, Arizona, for having provided this WXYZ 1270 playlist chart from 1966 to the Motor City Radio Flashbacks archives.
ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE? Tap over chart image. Open to second window. “Stretch” chart across your device screen to magnify for large detailed view.
ON YOUR PC? Click on chart image 2x for largest detailed print view.
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In my first book, ‘Turn Your Radio On’, there is a photo from the Detroit News referencing how I was able to play the part of The Lone Ranger.
It was all arranged by the late Dick Osgood who was a wonderful friend, Emmy Award Winning Radio icon, and a giant in the early days at WXYZ. One of the three performances we did was recorded with Dick giving a brief history of radio and introducing the cast of the performance. You’ll recognize some of the names.
With an introduction by yours truly, this is the only recording in existence and deserves to be preserved. Most of the cast are now in Heaven, including a bit player, Detroit’s most popular radio and television weatherman, Sonny Eliot.
In adding further to the Lone Ranger legacy, in 1986, Lee Alan wrote to a feature columnist with the Detroit News:
“My childhood hero was The Lone Ranger, but before Clayton Moore. As a boy growing up in Detroit I listened to The Lone Ranger as it was done live from WXYZ on the radio. My Lone Ranger in those days (actually the name was Brace) was Bruce Beemer. His deep, resonant voice created a vivid mental picture of my hero.
In 1965, I shared an office at WXYZ with my dear and recently deceased friend, Joel Sebastian. I heard a voice from the hallway. And there he stood . . . 60 plus years of age — looking just like I always thought he would. I nervously introduced myself. He shook my hand, and with the other . . . he gave me a silver bullet. Five days later he died.
“In 1985, at the national convention of the ‘Friends Of Old-Time Radio,’ the Lone Ranger was recreated by the original cast. They asked me to go and play Brace Beemer’s part. For 30 minutes I was surrounded by all the thundering hoof beats from out of the past and realized my boyhood dream. I was the Lone Ranger . . .”
“I retired from radio in 1970 and opened my ad agency about 16 years ago,” said Alan. “The horn and ashtray are locked up in a vault, along with photos and film clips of my radio days. But nothing means more to me than that silver bullet. That and the fact that I actually became the Lone Ranger . . . if only for a little while.”
Alan also added, “The cast members, when I had the wonderful opportunity to play Brace Beemer’s part as the Lone Ranger before a live audience of a thousand people, included Fred Foy who was the show’s announcer, Dick Osgood, Rube Weiss as Tonto and, the show’s actual director on WXYZ, Chuck Livingstone.
When it was over a small elderly lady approached me and said: “I closed my eyes and it was him . . . I heard his voice. It was him.”
The lady was Leta Beemer, widow of Brace Beemer. My “Lone Ranger.” She saw the “pictures” that only radio can produce.
Lee Alan | March 15, 2022
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A special Thank You to Lee Alan for recently providing his special audio presentation of The Lone Ranger for this page on Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
Produced and created by Lee Alan
