From the MCRFB archive files:
THE TOP 35 HITS ON WXYZ ON THIS DATE IN 1966
WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey; Week no. 22 issued September 12, 1966 under Lee Alan, Program Director; WXYZ
(WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey for September 12, this date 1966; survey courtesy the Jim Heddle Collection. For the previous weekly WXYZ September 5, 1966 survey click here).
WXYZ Detroit Sound Survey No. 23: “Respect,” by the Rationals, this date in September 1966.
From the MCRFB notebook: 1977, 1979
and (2) 1981
WOMC-FM
DETROIT (March 5, 1977) — Dave Shafer is the new program director of WOMC-FM in Detroit. He has been an afternoon personality at the station since January 1976 and before that Shafer was an air personality and program director at WCAR-AM, Detroit. Oddly enough, he once was one of the Jack The Bellboys who worked at WJBK-AM in the old days, along with Tom Clay and others. Later, Shafer was a morning and afternoon disk jockey for eight years on CKLW-AM. Then he went to WYSL in Buffalo as program director, spent some later time at WYKC in Cleveland, then returned to do the morning show on CKLW in Detroit for 3 and a-half years. Shafer replaced Joe Taylor, who left to become program and general manager of WGAL in beautiful out-of-town Lancaster, Pennsylvania. END.
DETROIT (October 27, 1979) — Metromedia’s WOMC-FM has signed two of the Motor City’s top on-air personalities. Marc Avery has moved over from WJR-AM to handle morning drive and Tom Dean has left ABC’s talk station WXYZ-AM to move into an afternoon slot.
Avery, who will be on from 6 to 10 a.m., comes from more than eight years at WJR where he was host to his “Saturday Morning Confusion” show and more recently did the “Afternoon Music Hall.” He also had previously worked in Detroit as morning man at WJBK-AM and WXYZ. He succeeds Jim Davis.
Dean, before being a talk host on WXYZ, was host of the “Femme Forum” program on WDEE-AM. He succeeds Bob Charlton, who has left the station to pursue his own business. END.
DETROIT (August 1, 1981) — Bill Garcia has been hired away from WDRQ-FM Detroit to be program director at WOMC-FM. Garcia had been moving the Hot 100 formatted WDRQ into a more adult contemporary mode and into direct competition with Metromedia’s WOMC. Charter Broadcasting has WDRQ on the block. Garcia succeeds Dave Shafer, who’s moved over to WCZY-FM, which is running the syndicated Schulke II vocal-oriented Beautiful music format. END.
DETROIT (October 3, 1981) — Veteran Detroit broadcaster Dave Lockhart has joined the air staff at WOMC-FM hosting the morning drive program, 6-10 a.m., Monday through Saturday. Prior to his WOMC appointment, Lockhart spent 15 years at ABC’s WXYZ-AM Detroit, handling both music and news format. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard Magazine. All excerpts culled as was published from the dated editions noted above).
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1981
Is It Dinosaur Rock?
DETROIT — WLLZ-FM, Detroit’s “Rockin’ Best” was born in November, 1980. In the winter ’81 Arbitron book, it debuted at 9.2 share, second only to WJR-AM. Its secret is simple according to program director John Larson: “We play whatever listeners want.”
Owned by Doubleday & Co., the station employs a strategy developed by Bobby Hattrik, corporate vice-president of programming. The station make 800 to 1,000 phone calls a week, asking listeners what they want to hear. Larson says, “Songs they like, we play; songs they don’t like, we don’t play. It’s that simple. The listener request line gets about 500 calls a day.These requests clue Larson and music director Joe Urbiel to tunes they hadn’t thought of adding.
The playlist changes frequently, at least twice a week. The process is ongoing. Current hot numbers include “Tom Sawyer” by Rush, AC/DC’s “Problem Child,” Rainbow’s “No Release” and the new Moody Blues record.
Prior to WLLZ taking to the airwaves, the frequency was occupied by WBFG, a 50-kilowatt religious station. Doubleday also owns WDWB-AM-FM Minneapolis and St. Louis’ KWK-AM/WWWK-FM. These also employ listener-determined playlists. Larson says “This strategy mirrors local taste. Their playlists are not the same as WLLZ’s. In St. Louis, for example, they play more Southern music.”
Larson came to the station from Rockford, Illinois. In the course of seven years in radio, he developed a similar listener-determined playlist. “The station’s personality is the music,” he claims. “We have news, but news director Jeff Young spotlights stories the listeners consider important. “No blood and guts.”
Among the station’s many requests, Van Halen is a particular favorite. The Who, Boston, Bob Seger and Bad Company figure prominently. “Over-saturation causes an artist to go out of fashion. They come back, though its like eating chocolate cake every day. Eventually you get tired of even your favorites,” Larson says.
WLLZ hasn’t done any print advertising since it first broke into the market. Promotion concentrates on giving people things, especially money, because “it’s something everybody can use,” Larson continued. There are no contests involved. A station staffer roams the streets of Detroit, asking pedestrians and drivers with radios what station they’re tuned to. If the answer is WLLZ, the staffer hands the lucky listener $1,000. Understandably, the promotion is highly popular.
Larson reported little action with record companies, except a CBS album giveaway at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Ohio. The station co-promotes concerts with Brass Ring, recently Rainbow/Krocus, Pat Travers and REO. Two local retailers, Harmony House and Musicland, handed out WLLZ bumper stickers. “It helped them with trafficto be mentioned on the air,” Larson says.
For the 4th of July, Larson ran an eight-hour special program of Detroit’s “Rockin’ Best” (also the station’s motto), the 98 favorite songs reported by listeners. The special included a motorcycle and cash giveaway.
“Our goal is to be number one in the market. We feel counter-programming is pointless, so we don’t do it. We want to take the offensive — do your own thing and hope it works,” Larson says describing his philosophy. “We don’t try to play what other stations are playing. We may play something we feel may do well, whether its getting the airplay elsewhere or not. We were the first to play Donnie Iris’ ‘Ah, Leah’ and Touch‘s ‘Don’t You Know What Love Is?’
“We try to keep a balance, not just appeal to 18-year old males who drink a lot of beer. We were number two with women in the last book,” Larson says. To introduce listeners to unfamiliar music, the station airs Rated Eight, playing new songs from new bands. Silver Condor was one recent newcomer aired.
Source concerts, weekly interviews and Album Review, a play through of listener-requested albums are some of WLLZ’s special programming the station has bonded favorably with its listeners. Rock Wars, aired from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. weeknights, pits well-known musicians against each other in sometimes bizarre battle-of-the-bands that net 250 calls nightly.
WLLZ doesn’t play much home-grown Detroit music. “There’s not a lot of interest from local people in local music,” Larson explains. The call-in line also gets negative requests, including complaint from new wavers and minorities that their music is being neglected. Larson defends the station by saying, “The playlist is based completely on calls. If listeners haven’t said they want to hear it, we don’t play it.
“Dinosaur rock is a term that has been thrown at us. But oldies are making a comeback. We use common sense. You can’t test songs no one knows. But you can look for certain ingredients that make it. Good songs and bad songs are obvious to everyone. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; July 11, 1981)
From the MCRFB archive files:
THE TOP 35 HITS ON WXYZ ON THIS DATE IN 1966
WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey; Week no. 21 issued September 5, 1966 under Lee Alan, Program Director; WXYZ
(WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey for September 5, this date 1966; survey courtesy the Jim Heddle Collection. For the previous weekly WXYZ August 29, 1966 survey click here).
WXYZ Detroit Sound Survey No. 3: “Cherish,” by the Association, this date in September 1966.
From the MCRFB archived files:
THE TOP 35 HITS ON WXYZ ON THIS DATE IN 1966
WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey; Week no. 20 issued August 29, 1966 under Lee Alan, Program Director; WXYZ
(WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey for August 29, this date 1966; survey courtesy the Jim Heddle Collection. For the previous weekly WXYZ August 22, 1966 survey click here).
WXYZ Spotlight Sound Of The Week: “If You Can’t Say Anything Nice,” by Verdelle Smith, this date in August 1966.
From the MCRFB news archive: 1983
Holland Brothers Extend Rare Interview
Brian and Eddie Holland don’t talk a great deal. In more than 20 years as producers and writers, the can remember doing “maybe three or four interviews” — remarkable, considering the influence these gentleman have had on popular music.
Together with Lamont Dozier, they helped define the musical “Motown Sound.” What was an inspired hit-making formula for the Supremes, the Four Tops and many others has become a permanent part of our musical vocabulary. Daryl Hall and John Oates’ “Maneater,” for example, approximates the Holland/Dozier/Holland arrangement of the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love,” while Phil Collins has gone directly to the source for his current hit. Both these records have been top 10 pop hits this year, demonstrating the durability of a musical vision first forged in 1964.
Yet the Holland brothers are reluctant to dwell on the past. They’d rather talk about 8th Day, a five-member vocal group they have produced and signed to A&M Records. The original version of 8th Day recorded for the Hollands’ Invictus Records in the early 1970s.
“We don’t talk to the press often, because we’re basically background people,” says Eddie Holland. “But we’re genuinely excited about the group and this album.” Brian’s description of 8th Day‘s talent recall the Temptations. “We have five voices, each with its own particular style, which gives us an opportunity to use a lot of different vocal coloring and combinations.” When asked if 8th Day compared favorably to the Temptations, Eddie refused to be glib. “No, I couldn’t say that. The Temptations to me had, and still have, something quit special that I’ve never heard any other vocal group match. The quality of the voices and the way they could be played off each other made them especially interesting to work with.”
The Holland brothers and Dozier left Motown in the late 1960s in a flurry of lawsuits and acrimony. Today, Eddie says, “That was so long ago we can even remember what started it. It must have been a bunch of little things that just built up that were never quite taken care of at the time. Egos got in the way at some point, and it never was worked out. Our relationship with Motown now is fine.
“We use their Hitsville Studio in Los Angeles. We’re extremely happy with Jobete. They keep our music out there, and our income from our publishing just keeps increasing. We make more money from it today than we did 10 or 15 years ago. Jobete worked with us to do a co-publishing project with our Gold Forever Music on our old music as well as songs we’ve written more recently.”
About Berry Gordy, the Hollands have nothing but praise. “When we started, we were 17 or 18 years old, just kids really,” say Eddie. “Being a creative person himself, Berry could understand creative people and — this is important — could recognize talent in the raw. Some of the people at Motown had great talent and only needed a chance to grow. Others were just marginal talents that he stuck with.
According to legend, Motown’s music was ground out with a machine-like regularity of an assembly line. The Hollands agree that they were disciplined and worked quickly, but they say Motown meant “total freedom” to them. “It was a totally relaxed, creative environment and yes, very much like a family. We’d cut any time of the day or night. But we’d also sit down at Hitsville and play poker all night long.”
The famous trebley sound of Motown’s ’60s recordings was, according to Brian, more a matter of equipment than taste. “We’d listen to all those Stax records and other records of that period and try to get that same fat drum and bass sound,” he recalls. “When we’d hear our records through the speakers in the original Hitsville studio in Detroit, they’d have that same sound, too. But they wouldn’t record like that, though we’d hear them with a fatter sound through those particular speakers. But we didn’t complain. People seemed to like them.” END.
— NELSON GEORGE
(Information and news source: Billboard; February 26, 1983).
ADDENDUM: (Click each image above for larger view. Last three images click on twice for expanded view). This article first appeared in print in the Detroit News, Sunday Magazine, August 16, 1970. Written by News Television and Radio critic Frank Judge. Special thanks goes out to Jim Heddle for providing Motor City Radio Flashbacks with this Detroit News magazine featured article on WWJ-AM radio from 43 years ago!
From the MCRFB radio scrapbook: 1945
World’s First Radio Station Celebrates 25th Birthday
DETROIT, August 25 — A quarter century ago, commercial* radio broadcasting began. On August 20, 1920, the “billion year silence of the ether” was broken by WWJ, originally 8MK, The Detroit News radio station.
Many broadcasting “firsts” followed.
WWJ was America’s first commercial radio station to broadcast daily programs. First to broadcast election returns. First to broadcast World Series results. First to broadcast a complete symphony concert. First to organize a broadcasting orchestra.
Throughout 25 years of existence, WWJ has maintained its leadership in public service, entertainment and ethnic responsibility. Recently, it demonstrated its initiative by becoming the first station to ban transcribed announcements and transcribed singing commercials. And immediately after Pearl Harbor it eliminated middle commercials from newscasts.
Looking ahead, WWJ established a Frequency Modulation station — WENA — which has been in constant daily operation since May 9, 1941. Ten months ago an application was filed with the Federal Communications Commission for permission to construct a television station.
The pioneering spirit which actuated the establishment of America’s first commercial broadcasting station lives and thrives at WWJ after 25 years of broadcasting in the “public interest, convenience and necessity.” END.
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*WWJ acknowledges the pioneering research efforts of such scientists as Dr. Lee de Forest, Dr. Frank Conrad and others operating under experimental and amateur licenses.
WWJ OWNED AND OPERATED BY THE DETROIT NEWS (The Home Newspaper) 950 KILOCYCLES — 5000 WATTS
The GEORGE P. HOLLINGBERY COMPANY, National Representative; NBC BASIC NETWORK
(Information and news source: Billboard; August 25, 1945).