from the MCRFB radio news scrapbook:
WWJ Pitches For Teenagers In New Airing
DETROIT — November 3, 1945. WWJ, encouraged by its recent move towards producing shows especially for the teen-age crowd, is embarking on an all-out effort to catch it’s listeners young. Back of the move, which which has obvious public service value in the attention given to the forgotten youngsters, is the sound commercial realization given of two factors:
1. Tastes of the youngster give direction to family buying habits and family listening habits as well.
2. Youngsters are going to be the adult audiences who will be vitally needed to build up Hooper ratings for the individual radio station within a very few years., and paying attention to their special wants now should pay off in establishing listening habits then.
Two more teenage shows have been added by WWJ to three programs set up to answer high school complaints that “radio has nothing especially for us.”
New programs are in a more serious vein than the original three fast-moving shows. One is an hour’s broadcast of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Young People’s Concerts, Saturday at 10 a.m., with a brief, informative commentary on the musical selections by Karl Krueger, director of the orchestra, or by Valter Poole, assistant conductor.
Another program is Musical Youth, Thursdays, at 1:15 p.m., put on in cooperation with the Detroit Public Schools. This is beamed to school rooms at WWJ audience alike each week, featuring different high school orchestras, bands, choruses or other outstanding musical groups of proved excellence. Concept behind this series is to acquaint Detroit with the type and quality of musical education offered in the schools, stressing a maximum of music with a minimum of continuity. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; November 10, 1945).
From the MCRFB radio news scrapbook:
WWJ vs KDKA: Who Was First? It All Depends
DETROIT — November 5, 1945. That old feud between KDKA, Pittsburgh, and WWJ, Detroit, concerning which one was the first on the air, flared up anew two weeks ago when KDKA , commemorating the radio twenty-fifth anniversary, decided to buy a page ad in the Pittsburgh Press, a Scripps-Howard paper. At that time The Press told the station that there were no space available.
Week later, WWJ, which is owned by Scripps-Howard interests, decided that it would take an ad dealing with its claim to being the nation’s oldest station. WWJ bought space in whole Scripps chain. Among the papers that carried it was The Pittsburgh Press. END.
Addendum: Today we are debuting a new flashback feature on MCRFB — Way-Back Detroit Radio Pages — on what had been said, what had been printed about Detroit radio during the ’40s and early-’50s. These articles are historic at best, it reflects in how radio was simply the best means of communicating and entertaining Detroiters at a time when radio reigned supreme during those golden years of early-radio broadcasting. More to come!
(Information and news source: Billboard; November 10, 1945).
