From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1960
Detroit’s Tom Clay Suggests Single Broadcast Day Themed With Music’s Past; Day’s Events
DETROIT — Tom Clay, WQTE, Detroit, suggest that stations utilize a program idea he calls “Flashback.”
He writes: “You turn back the pages of time . . . say October 27, 1944. For one whole day you broadcast as you would have on that day. Your copy department writes hypothetical commercials or — better yet — you local sponsors turn back their prices to that day.
For info as to and events of the date check your local library (one week prior date chosen). Find out what movies were playing, info on sugar, rationing stamps, car pools, etc. Your news and sports of that particular date should be pre-recorded.
If you want some fantastic news inserts get the album ‘Hear It Now,’ with talks by the late F.D.R., etc. Your jocks should read requests from the boys overseas . . . play the music that was popular then. You’ll get a kick out of playing a record by Frank Sinatra and quipping: ‘Just a fad with the kids. He’ll never last.’
On my show, during ‘Flashback,’ I read off lists of names of boys who were killed in action. Then I said: ‘I wonder how soon we will forget — 5, 10 or 15 years from now? Our switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree.” END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; October 31, 1960)
ADDENDUM: A previous MCRFB June 2, 2012 post on Tom Clay, ‘CLAY LEAVES WQTE-AM POST September 26, 1960 has been updated. To view update (see post Addendum), go here.
