From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1959
McKENZIE BOWS OUT IN ‘FORMULA RADIO’ PROTEST
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.
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.”
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)
Ed McKenzie of course is long passed away, but what a marvelous Radio, and Televison personality he was for WXYZ-TV at the old Maccabees Building in Detroit, Michigan. How well I recall his ‘Saturday Dance Party’ where he presented everyone from ‘The Four Preps, Roy Hamilton, Della Reese, Lavern Baker, and yours truly in my very first televison commercial, ED invited me onto his Television show to participate in a Verner’s Ginger Ale Commercial as a taster, ‘On Air’. I was 11 years old. He was Pre Dick Clark and he helped to shape and form popular music broadcasting in Detroit in such a way that it set a nationwide pattern for simular Radio/television shows, he and Soupy Sales were instrumental in elevating African American artists to prominence long before it became fashionable to do so. A very unselfish man of the mass media.
Frank Charles Dodson,
Author of ‘Wednesday’s Child’,
Xlibris Publishers.
I remember as a little girl seeing my father on the Ed McKenzie show. Their group were known as the Sheiks. I have been trying to get a tape of that show can you help me. sincerely yours, Marian
Just curious but did you ever find a tape of the Ed MacKenzie show that featured your father as one of the Sheiks?
Ed McKenzie retired to his hometown of Flushing, Michigan where he was born and went to school. I was a councilman and later mayor. I met him at a public meeting and recognized him immediately. I grew up in Highland Park in the 1950’s. I tried to never miss one of his shows.
Ed was truly a gifted and spectacular fellow. One of the most creative people I have ever known. He had it all…brains and talent and a monumental personality.
He spent his final years creating videos of his beloved home town. They are brilliant documents and are located in the archives of the Flint Public Library.
I have been trying for years to get a copy to no avail.
I just stumbled across this website, and thought I’d comment. I’m Ed’s son.
It is unlikely that there is any copy of that show in existence. Those shows were done “live” before the existence of videotape. They did make “kinescopes” of some shows in that era,
but those were primarily dramas or comedies……..
Hi Mike, thank you for your above comments you shared on the Motor City Radio Flashbacks website. We have been searching audio — anything of Ed McKenzie — and I would like to take this opportunity at this time, by any chance, do you have recordings of your legendary father when he was on Detroit radio you may be willing in sharing with the website? We are always in search of new material here, and we would love to have your father’s voice archived here as well, as we have nothing on Ed McKenzie, only audio comments by Ed McKenzie heard on our History of Detroit Radio program we have archived on site. Mike, thanks again, we hope to hear from you in regards.
Jim Feliciano
Curator/Motor City Radio Flashbacks
email: motorcityradioflashbacks65@gmail.com
Hi Jim,
I’m sorry, but I’m not aware of any recordings from that era, unless you could find something on an oldies music website. They sometimes contain intros or chatter from an original radio broadcast of a song. I think a woman named Marilyn Bond collected some things from early Detroit radio for a book she did, but I don’t know if she had any audio material. There is a short film clip on YouTube where Ed simply introduces himself, among a bunch of other DJs from that era. It is dated as 1951, when he was still at WJBK and used the name “Jack the Bellboy.”
Hi Mike, thank you so kindly for your reply. As I said, I will continue looking for anything audio of Ed McKenzie, as we would enjoying ‘preserving’ his legendary Detroit radio voice on site. Someone out there must have a recording of your dad in their collection and we hope that it was surface here one day. I will check out that You Tube (if I can find it) video of your dad saying greetings along with other great radio voices from Detroit. Thank you again, glad you were able to find the website as well. Go to Categories on the site’s menu page and scroll down to — Ed McKenzie — and you can see what we have archived there of your father, as to date. Hope this finds you well, sincerely, Jim Feliciano
Hi Jim,
In your quest for audio material, I thought I’d mention a couple other stations he did shows for in the early 60’s. Perhaps there exists some audio somewhere. (However, these programs didn’t run a long time….maybe a year or two).After he left WXYZ, he was contacted by a few others who offered shows that allowed a bit more freedom. He did programs for WHFI (FM), WQTE, and WOMC (FM). I believe the later two were recorded (from a studio he built in our home in Bloomfield Township). But the show he did on WHFI was done from their studio which occupied the corner of a garage sized building where their transmitter was located in a Troy field. He was there mostly by himself, and occasionally had to perform engineering duties, when there were technical problems. Of course that is how he got into the radio business……he was originally a radio engineer at WJBK. He ended up doing announcing duties when there were manpower shortages during WWII.
Hi Mike, thank you so much for sharing information about your father — a Detroit broadcasting radio and television legend. Hopefully, we share diligently wait with patience on site, we will be contacted in the near future sometime by someone out there who may have some Ed McKenzie recordings somewhere in their collection they may be willing to share for this site.
Hi Mike, talk about a blast from the past, good reading about your Dad. We lost touch when you all moved from Harlow…those were the days!
I’m going to be 78 in March !i remember being invited to dance with my brotherStanley white!! I think often of those dancememories we danced on Bud Davies also!! I was curious if anyone out there may have photos of the dance parties!!!it would really be wonderful as mybrotherStan passed away. Thanks
I remember dancing on the show with a friend from Regina High school in Harper Woods. That was in 1958. I was there, when Ike and Tina were on the show. I also remember when Sammie Davis Junior was on the show. We had some fun times.