— MIKE JOSEPH —
A DETROIT TOP 40 RADIO PIONEER
___
Before there was Bill Drake, Ron Jacobs, Paul Drew in the mid-1960s, in the beginning of Top 40 radio in the 1950s there was Mike Joseph. In essence, before the KHJ phenomenon was to hit the radio top 40 industry in 1965, Joseph was the perennial radio programmer who birthed the shortened ’30 hits playlist’ in Buffalo’s WKBW in 1957.
Mike Joseph also transcended the short playlist concept here in Detroit when WKMH hired the legendary programmer in 1963. Under Mike Joseph, WKMH became the former on October 31, 1963 — becoming the new WKNR Radio 13 — short playlist and all — and the rest is Detroit radio history.
In the early 1980s, Mike Joseph would return back to Detroit. WJR and station owner Capital Cities Communications hired Joseph for program consultancy for its adult, easy-listening WJR-FM — turning it instead into a new and successful Top 40 powerhouse in the Motor City in 1982 with his ‘Hot Hits’ formula — the new FM WHYT 96.3.
A MCRFB VIEWING TIP
ON YOUR PC?To fully appreciate this Radio & Records feature click on image 2x and open to second window. Click image anytime to return to NORMAL image size.
Click your server’s back button to return to MCRFB home page.
On your mobile device? Tap on chart image. Open to second window. “Stretch” chart across your device screen to magnify for largest print view.
A MCRFB NOTE: This page/article was taken from a R&R (Radio & Records) special edition published in 1996. The magazine, ‘Bill Gavin’s Top 40’, was published twenty-three years ago in recognition of the 40th anniversary, birth of top 40 radio, 1956.
R.I.P. Mike Joseph.