Category: WKMH

VETERAN DJ ED MCKENZIE QUITS ON WXYZ . . . MARCH 16, 1959

Motor City Radio Flashbacks logo

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1959

McKENZIE BOWS OUT IN ‘FORMULA RADIO’ PROTEST

 

 

 

 

Capitol jazz artist Nat King Cole with Detroit radio personality Ed McKenzie on WXYZ radio, earlier in 1954. (Click image for larger view).
Capitol jazz artist Nat King Cole with Detroit radio personality Ed McKenzie on WXYZ radio, earlier in 1954. (Click image for larger view)

DETROIT — Veteran deejay Ed McKenzie resigned from station WXYZ here last week in protest of the station’s “formula radio” programming policy.

Rallying to his side was his long-time competitor and another Detroit veteran spinner, Robin Seymour, of WKMH, who came out strongly last week for McKenzie and against “formula radio.” Seymour stated that, “It’s a crime and a shame when one of the true deejays – one of the men who made the jockey a major factor in broadcasting – has to bow to the dictates of a program director.”

Although Seymour and McKenzie – two of Detroit’s key deejays – have vied for audience ratings for the past eleven years (they occupied the same afternoon time slot) Seymour said they remained friends – their friendship dating back to the time McKenzie gave Seymour his first radio job at WJBK here.

Seymour had asked McKenzie to appear on his WKMH show to discuss the whole formula radio situation and his reasons for leaving WXYZ. Seymour said they will explore the jockey’s need for freedom of programming and will discuss further on whether the advent of “formula radio” has anything to do with the fact that no new name deejay (other than Dick Clark) has come up from the ranks in recent years.

WKMH deejay Robin Seymour
WKMH deejay Robin Seymour

Seymour said his station, WKMH, is now the only major Detroit station operating on a non-formula programming policy. The outlet did adopt a non-rock and roll format last year, but Seymour said the management dropped the policy last January, and put record programming back in the deejay’s hands. As a result, the jock said WKMH’s ratings are already showing a small rating climb – the first rating increase for the station in some time.

The WXYZ “formula” (featuring the Top 40 singles was adopted by the station about a years ago, and WXYZ vice-president in charge of radio, Hal Neal, opined “Our interpretation of radio is that it is a step moving forward.”

WXYZ's Ed McKenzie interviews jazz great Anita O'Day on his WXYZ radio show in the mid-1950s
WXYZ’s Ed McKenzie interviews jazz great Anita O’Day on his WXYZ radio show sometime in the mid-1950s (click image for larger view)

McKenzie on the other hand expressed his opinion that this “formula” did not jibe with his interpretation of radio as “being intimate and friendly.” He stated that his ratings were dropping since the “formula” policy had gone into effect and that he would sooner “dig ditches or sell hot dogs” than go back to formula radio “because I can’t do something I don’t believe in.”

The radio station disagreed with use of McKenzie’s bird calls on the air and his “on the air” comments on office typing and the programming. The station also found themselves in disagreement with McKenzie about their new policy to boost the station on his programs, which the jockey termed “unnecessary.”

McKenzie’s 3 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. spot is being taken over by Mickey Shorr, who will have another replacement for his own Night Train program. Reportedly making between $60,000 and $80,000 a year in his 29th year with radio, McKenzie was Jack The Bellboy at WJBK before he changed to WXYZ radio in 1952. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; March 16, 1959)

WXYZ's Ed McKenzie with his friend, WKMH's Robin Seymour in the late 1950s.
WXYZ’s Ed McKenzie with his friend, WKMH’s Robin Seymour in the late 1950s.

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DAVID PRINGLE? NO. IT’S DAVE PRINCE . . . AUGUST 14, 1961

A MCRFB news brief:

HERE’S A PRINCE ALA PRINGLE . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW YORK — When BMW (Billboard Music World) goofed twice in succession and switched captions on photos on disk jockeys Bill Williams (WNEW, here) and Jerry Marshall (WMGM, here) appearing in the paper’s Programming Panel feature, it was facetiously suggested that the jocks be good sports and consider exchanging names.

Michigan deejay David Pringle took us at our word and is doing just that. The jock was also a victim of a BMW goof, when his photo appeared in a panel feature identifying him as “David Prince.”

Pringle, who moved from WPAG, Ann Arbor, Mi., to WKMH, Detroit, (in the 7-11:30 p.m. time-slot), August 2, writes: Because of a goof in Billboard, I will be using the air name Dave Prince. They gave me a tag a while back in a misprint and it sounded so much better than Pringle — more adaptable to jingles, etc., that I’ve decided to use it!” END.

Dave Prince and WKMH jocks in 1961

 

(Information and news source: Billboard; August 14, 1961).

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WAY-BACK DETROIT RADIO PAGES: WKMH . . . AUGUST 6, 1949

From the MCRFB radio news scrapbook:

Bob Seymour of WKMH, one of three local radio jocks, opens Hit Tune Party for Detroiters

 

 

 

 

 

DETROIT, July 30 — The first Hit Tune Party of the season was held Sunday, July 24, at the Eastwood Gardens, Eastwood Park, by the Michigan Automatic Phonograph Owners Association (MAPOA). The event drew a crowd of between five and six thousand teenagers, one of the biggest turnouts in the history of the organization.

Gene Krupa and his orchestra played for the event, offering an afternoon of dancing. Tunes picked as “candidates” for the hit tune selection were featured. Winner was Someday, as recorded by Vaughn Monroe on Victor. The number will be the hit tune of August here, and will be placed in the No. 1 position on all juke boxes in the Detroit area. A second-number to be co-featured will be selected later, according to Roy W. Clason, MAPOA business manager.

Billboard, August 6, 1949

Three disk jockeys made personal appearances and assisted in handling the program for the evening. They were Bob Seymour, WKMH, Dearborn; Doc Lemon, WJR, and Johnny Slagle, WXYZ, both of Detroit. Clason acted as master of ceremonies.

A personal appearance was made by Frankie Mullec, Continental Records artist, whose new number Tell Me A Story was also played. Plans for a Hit Tune Party for August, with another name band to be featured, are now being made, according to Clason. END.

 

(Information and news source: Billboard; August 6, 1949).

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WKMH-AM ‘CRUISIN’ 1956′ WITH ROBIN SEYMOUR

From the MCRFB vinyl archives:

CRUISIN’ 1956  Increase Records (1970)

 

 

 

 

 

Cruisin’ 1956 was released in June, 1970

ORIGINAL LP COVER NOTES

By Jerry Hopkins

 

 

 

The CRUISIN’ history of rock and roll radio begins in 1956, one of the most exciting years in “pop” history, and to take us down this memory lane (with a beat) is Robin Seymour of WKMH, which was, when he joined it, a little-known station In Dearborn, Michigan. Robin came to the suburban Detroit station from the Armed Forces Radio Network and he brought with him a voice that mixed the warm, confidential tone of an intimate friend with the slick disc jockey rap we all know today, a blend which made him a natural for housewives and teenagers alike.

WKMH’s Robin Seymour

Robin never had any particular ethnic identification or allegiance but the “Bobbin’ with Robin Show” quickly found its audience, as he constructed a bright, orderly program that featured (almost exclusively) the records listed on the sales charts printed by the music press. He also was among the first of the nation’s deejays to ask his listeners what they thought about new records, and hosted some of the earliest sock hops and commercial tie-ins with local record stores. In 1953 he was named “Disc Jockey of the Year” by Billboard, the music trade magazine. The following year he was given the same title by another publication, Hit Parader.

1956: President Eisenhower underwent an operation to relieve blockage of the small intestine due to ileitis, but physicians said he would be physically fit to run for re-election. Scientists said radiation was a peril to the future of humanity, Egypt seized the Suez Canal and the United Nations established the first international police force on the Sinai Peninsula. The first trans-Atlantic telephone cable system went into effect. The Hungarians revolted. Six Marine recruits were marched into a stream at Parris Island and drowned. The Andrea Doria sank off the coast of Massachusetts. And Elvis Presley and the spread of rock and roll nearly pushed everything else in this list of news stories right out of the conversation.

This was the year Elvis recorded Heartbreak Hotel, Don’t Be Cruel, Hound Dog and perhaps half a dozen other million-selling songs . The first of these (Hotel) appeared in the number one position the end of April and that song or another by Elvis occupied the same lofty spot twenty-five of the year’s remaining thirty-six weeks.

1956 was the year “rock ‘n’ roll” became an angry epithet, blamed by psychiatrists and religious leaders (not to mention thousands of parents) for the rise in juvenile delinquency; some even said it was all a part of some Communist plot. Elvis and his pack of noisy imitators were called obscene and there were real riots at dozens of concerts. There were non-rockers on the record charts, to be sure, but it was Carl Perkins’ Blue Suede Shoes and Bill Haley’s Alligator that became a part of the New Culture, not Gogi Grant’s Wayward Wind and Morris Stoloff’s Picnic. The war babies had come to teen-age.

Most adults in ’56 thought it was a fad and that “it” would go away. Most radio listeners believed otherwise. There were a number of rock giants on the popular music charts in 1956 and many had made their abrupt and rhythmic appearances there after serving an apprenticeship in the ghetto called rhythm and blues.

That’s what 1956 was: the teen-age 1776. There’d been rumblings earlier, but this year all the lines were drawn.

 

— Jerry Hopkins

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4D4Lf6z0HY

Crusin’ series conceived and produced by Ron Jacobs

Recreating one of his old radio shows from 1956 is Robin Seymour, who then was with WKMH in Dearborn, Michigan. He had come to this suburban Detroit station from Armed Forces Radio and soon his warm, confidential tone had won him teenagers and housewives alike. His BOBBIN’ WITH ROBIN show was the reason BILLBOARD named him Disc Jockey of the Year in 1953, and HIT PARADER magazine did the same in 1954. Today he’s in television and concert promotion in Detroit. For this album, Robin Seymour was the first of the seven disc jockeys in the CRUISIN’ series selected as the best living representatives of Fifties and Sixties radio from seven top American radio cities.

(Cruisin’ LP series notes by producer Ron Jacobs, for Increase Records; 1970).

And today, a Robin Seymour video message from 2010 . . . .

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’60S RADIO JINGLES: RICHARD H. ULLMAN TOPS IN 1963 . . . APRIL 27, 1963

From the MCRFB news archive: 1963

Peter Frank Is King Of The Jingle; Richard H. Ullman, Inc., Includes Client WKMH-AM Detroit

 

 

 

 

HOLLYWOOD — One of the most perplexing problems facing radio station management is how to come up with and perpetuate a distinctive “sound”. . . one which will set his station apart from the others.

This problem is particularly acute in the multiple-station market where there are several stations programming the same type of music.

During the past decade radio stations have been mushrooming by the hundreds with no apparent slowdown — until the most recent FCC freeze.

The result of this uncontrolled “growth” to cite just a few examples are: Portland, Oregon — the 28th radio market with 11 metropolitan outlets, and Denver, Colorado — the 26th radio market with 16 AM metropolitan outlets.

The newcomers to a market were the first to implement their programming and promotion with jingles on a large scale. The custom-made jingle packages soon became “the thing” for the driving rock and roller seeking to make its niche with a Top 40 sound in their respective market.

Today, jingles are virtually being used by every radio station — no matter what the format or operation is to facilitate in attaining that all-elusive distinctive radio “sound. One of the people greatly responsible for the overall acceptance of radio jungles is Peter Frank, president of Richard H. Ullman, Inc., a “senior-statesman” of radio station services and musical sales messages in advertisement and commercials.

Richard H. Ullman, Inc., boasts providing the industry’s most complete service to stations and advertisers. Their “Ullmanac” of sound numbers 40 different packages ranging in price — according to type and market size — from $360 to $31,000.

The Ullman station services are categorized under four main packages: “Big Sound,” “Dimensional,” “Formatic,” and “SOP!” Offered within these four groups are production and programming aids such as “Calendar Girl,” 365 musical jingles giving the exact date, day and month with a musical pad for time and temperature — all personalized with the station’s call letters; “City Songs,” a salute to the station’s city or town with a specially written song, words and music included. Also made available is printed sheet music of the city song with the station’s call letters emblazoned thereon along with a 45 record — featuring an instrumental and vocal version — in a color sleeve with the lyrics printed on the back.

Even More

And there’s more: “The Exciters,” “Golden Era,” (a compilation of take-offs with emphasis drawn on the “big band” sound), “Happy Holidays,” “Hip” (top tunes intros, based on Billboard’s “Hot 100”), “Indelible ID’s,” . . . just to name a few.

Peter Frank’s organization has available a series of 15 personalized musical productions designed for the promotion of the “softer sell” broadcaster. Another series entitled “Velvet Touch” is programmed in stereo for FM-stereo band operations.

“You’ve got to keep ahead on the trends in this exciting business to be successful,” says Peter Frank.

Frank’s organization in Hollywood, Dallas and New York keeps ahead with a concept called “Telstar.” Of primary importance these days are the country and western formatted stations; Ullman also provides of their product  in a C&W service package for them as well.

Among the many new services in the organization featured is Ullman’s acquisition of world-wide distribution rights to Gordon McLendon’s “The Old Scotsman’s Scrapbook,” a total of 316 five-minute vignettes featuring an actual recording of a history-making event, speech or statement.

Demand Up

“There has been an increasing demand form our subscribers for help in how best to utilize the production and programming aids we sell them. This year we’ve added a broadcasting and consulting division,” Frank remarked.

In a business complicated with many varied formulas for pricing, the station manager and program director is frequently shaken by the jingle jungle.

Frank is adamant in his criticism of the fly-by-nighters that have invaded the field and has, in his terms, created a plethora of confusion in who would best represent a client’s interest in any given market.

“Untold damage has been done to the many legitimate jingle producers by some sellers of radio and musical jingles who establish prices and make deals that run from the sublime to the ridiculous. Extremely few businesses can have their products so loosely and variably priced. I can list a dozen ‘here-today-gone-tomorrow’  operations. . . one-shot, no follow-up people that would only take their money and not be heard from again,” Frank stressed.

Frank, whose motto is “Caveat Emptor” (let The Buyer Beware) is sure of the product turned out guaranteed by his producers in the studios here, also elsewhere in New York and in Dallas, while naming Bill Bell and Will Scott under the management of Morton J. Wagner. Meanwhile, Frank invites the buyer to check around. Ultimately, he will expect they’ll eventually will choose Richard H. Ullman, Inc., a division of the Peter Frank Organization. End

(Information and news source: Billboard; April 27, 1963).

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VETERAN DETROIT DEEJAY BARS ELVIS . . . SEPTEMBER 1, 1956

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1956

WKMH’s Robin Seymour Refused Presley Plays On Show

 

 

 

 

DETROIT — When it comes to Elvis Presley, deejays are saying plenty about him these days, but one thing they evidently can’t do is ignore him. WKMH Program Director and air personality Robin Seymour in Detroit, for instance, recently took a stand against playing Elvis Presley recordings on his show, following the singer’s controversial appearance on Milton Berle’s television program.

WKMH Robin Seymour, 1956.

However, after receiving over 500 letters from teenagers who threaten to boycott his show, Seymour wrote an open letter to his erstwhile fans, which appeared on the front-page article of a Detroit newspaper, under “Teen Life.” In the article, Seymour explained that, “now that Presley was keeping his gyrations under wraps,” (as Presley demonstrated recently with an appearance the Steve Allen Show) the rock ‘n’ roll artist was persona grata on Seymour’s program once again. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; September 1, 1956)

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DETROIT HEATS UP FOUR-WAY RADIO WAR… NOVEMBER 16, 1963

From the MCRFB news archives:

FROM WKMH TO WKNR, FOUR-WAY BATTLE HEATS UP RADIO DIALS ACROSS DETROIT

 

 

 

 

 

DETROIT — A four-way battle is shaping up in this market with the immediate changeover in programming at WKMH.

The Dearborn-based 5,000 watter has introduced a new set of calls, WKNR, several new deejays, and a radical switch from the soft sound in music to a “30 plus 1” format. Detroit will be one of the few markets where severe competition is taking place among three or more pop music stations.

1310 WKMH logo circa 1962.

The Knorr-owned radio outlet has been under the programming consulting of Mike Joseph for many months. Soft standards have been the path for more than a year. WKMH (now WKNR) was once the major pop music outlet in the market. Today a major fight is now developing between the new WKNR, RKO radio’s 50,000 watter, CKLW, WJBK, Storer-owned “teen’s swinger” radio, and WXYZ, the ABC-owned pop-rater on the 1270 radio dial in Detroit. Recently CKLW had added Tom Clay in the afternoon-evening drive to help accentuate CKLW’s positive pop sound.

Mort Crowley, a KHJ defector, broadcasts 5 to 9 a.m., followed by the former-WKMH mainstay Robin Seymour in the 9 to 12 p.m. time slot. Jim Sanders is handling the noon to 3 p.m. shift, and Gary  Stevens will be hosting  the 3 to 7 p.m. segment. Bob Green will deejay from 7 to 12 a.m., while Bill Phillips will hold down the fort all night long until 5 a.m. END.

 

(Information and news source: Billboard; November 16, 1963).

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AIRCHECKS LIBRARY: THE ‘HISTORY OF DETROIT RADIO’

Everyone who is anyone in the radio biz knows “Radio’s Best Friend.” Art Vuolo is literally the video archivist of the broadcasting profession. VuoloVideo.com is a must-visit site for both aspiring and accomplished broadcasters who want to watch the best of the best in action.

But before Art perfected his video artistry, he was a key chronicler of Detroit radio history. His 12 hour magnum opus, ‘The History of Detroit Radio’ became an instant classic when it first aired on WDRQ. 

According to WDRQ programmer Don Barrett, he commissioned Art Vuolo to produce the ‘History of Detroit Radio’ which aired the weekend prior WDRQ’s official new format launch (formerly WDEE) in June, 1971. The documentary was narrated by WDRQ morning news anchor Richard Mock.

The still program stands up as one of the best radio documentaries ever made. It’s one of hundreds upon hundreds of audio treasures in our Motor City Radio Flashback Aircheck Library.

 

History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.01.mp3
History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.02.mp3
History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.03.mp3
History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.04.mp3
History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.05.mp3
History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.06.mp3
History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.07.mp3
History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.08.mp3
History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.09.mp3
History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.10.mp3
History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.11.mp3
History.Of.Detroit.Radio.Chapter.12.mp3

 

 

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