CKLW TOP 30 HITS TABULATED BY LOCAL RETAIL SALES AND NATIONAL RADIO AIRPLAY
CKLW TOP 30 HITS* Hugo Montenegro *CKLW (No. 05) 05/07/68
CKLW TOP 30 HITS* Robert John *CKLW (No. 16) 05/07/68
CKLW TOP 30 HITS* Gene Pitney *CKLW (No. 30) 05/07/68
CKLW TOP 30 HITS TABULATED BY LOCAL RETAIL SALES AND NATIONAL RADIO AIRPLAY
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Army Air Show Sold In Detroit; One Newspaper Plus Every Detroit Radio Station Breaks Records for 20-Day Military Shindig
DETROIT (July 1, 1944) — The consistent, but most important use of radio by the army was the major factor in building an all-time record attendance for the Army Air Show. Turnstile clicked 2,100,000 in the 20 days ended Sunday (June 25). Show was sponsored by The Detroit Times and received general space there, naturally, but as The Times itself commented, it was just “not publicized” by the other newspapers. Practically all credit therefore for the large attendance goes to radio.
Pvt. (film actor) John Payne in Army uniform, 1943.
The show, staged five miles from town at the municipal airport, had a mile of exhibits under tent of Detroit-made (military) war products. Covered stage at the center of midway was used for on-the-ground shows and for the series of programs aired.
The Army Air Show set a record of three shows fed to national networks, three fed to regional networks and 52 local stations shows. Originating stations for the network shows were WXYZ, feeding the Blue and the Michigan Radio Net, and, WWJ, feeding the NBC-RED.
Local stations taking the shows were WJLB, WJBK, WJR, and CKLW. One show each was also fed to WTOL, Toledo, and to WCAR and WHK, Cleveland.
How Variety Shows Pull Best
Most consistent air show were Victory Varieties, opening five days in advance of the show on WJLB and broadcast through the entire run of the show. Program was variety with patriotic angles. Features of this, as of every practically show aired, was a combination of standard radio entertainment, with the casts of the radio station making the daily trip, via police escort, to the exhibit.
Billboard, July 8, 1944
Among guest artists were Lt. William Holden and Pvt. John Payne, Hollywood stars; “Skeets” Gallagher, Benny Baker, and Gloria Humphrey, of Good Night, Ladies; Russell Swann, noted magician, and Norman H. Birnkrant, general counsel for the National Association of Theatrical Agents.
Numerous shows were not broadcast because of lack of air time. These were broadcast over the show’s P.A. system to all tents.
Reopening of the shows, which was closed four days because of a blow-down of fourteen big tents, was plugged by 35 spot announcements over various local stations.
Top accolades for the success of the radio program go to two former radio men, Lt. Col. J. Gordon Lloyd, and Staff Sgt. Arthur Sutton, assigned to the public relations office of the Sixth Service Command, Detroit Command, Detroit office. Lloyd was formerly account executive at WJZ, Blue Network, New York. Sutton was formerly production man and continuity writer at CKLW, WXYZ and WWJ, Detroit. END
(Information and news source, The Billboard; July 8, 1944).
ARMY’S AIR DISPLAY AGAIN SHOW DETROIT AS WEEK-END TOWN
DETROIT (July 1, 1944) — The Army Air Show, which featured a mile of tent exhibits of war products made in Detroit, closed a twenty-day span Sunday with attendance of 2, 100,000. Admission was free, but a check was made by General Motors and Ford Motor Company, principal exhibitors.
Sunday crowd reached about 300,000, second only to the opening Sunday, June 4, when it hit about 500,000. Mid-week attendance was down.
The factor points to a moral to shows playing in Detroit for the duration at least. The Motor City has become a 100 per cent weekend town, with amusements generally starving about four days a week, followed by turn-away crowds on weekends. END
(Information and news source, The Billboard; July 8, 1944).
8-Track Sales at Royal Radio Rises Through Detroit Radio Ads
DETROIT — “The Stereo 8 is still just a baby,” said Mrs. Lowell Bennett of Royal Radio in Royal Oak, a Detroit suburb. Mrs. Bennett, who with her husband and another partner, Harry Showers, has been selling 4- and 8-track stereo cartridges for the past year-and-a-half.
Sale of the stereo 8 cartridge has completely overwhelmed the sale of 4-track tapes at the store. But the total cartridge business at Royal Radio is still a small percentage of the total business. They also sell stereo tape players for car and home, radios, televisions, intercoms, car radios and record players, and other electronic equipment.
AN EARLY 1966 Ford Motor Company dealership notice promoting their new automobile 8-track cartridge player. (Click on image 2x for largest view).
The store sells an average of 400 8-track cartridges a week and at present has over 1,000 tapes in stock. Mrs. Bennett says they are constantly building up their inventory. Their bookkeeping indicates their inventory that they haven’t been hurt at all by carrying a large inventory.
The biggest selling tapes are Herb Alpert,Frank Sinatra and semi-classical music, Mrs. Bennett said. This reflects the buyers. “It’s not the real young people who buys tapes,” said Mrs. Bennett. The people who buy the most of our tapes are past 21.”
In her opinion, teenagers are still buying 45 rpm records since they can get the one song they want for less money than a tape cartridge costs.
The store has found radio advertising to be quite effective. They buy about 25 to 30 one-minute spots per week although all are not for the tapes exclusively. Currently they are advertising on WOMC, an FM station; WXYZ, easy listening; WEXL, the only country station covering the Detroit market. They have also used CKLW, a top 40 station.
Mrs. Bennett has discovered that WEXL is one of the best stations for the store’s advertising. The station has a “country club” and members entitles them to a 10% discount at Royal Radio. These listeners buys a lot of tapes, mostly country music, at the store.
Royal also advertises in the Royal Oak Daily Tribune with lists of tapes available and special 10% off sales.
In their ads Royal does not list their 4-track stereo tape cartridges since they are not interested in building up that business. Mrs. Bennett feels that eventually that 8-track will completely replace 4-track.
To promote the sales of stereo-8 cartridges the store works closely with automobile dealers in the area. They contact the dealers to let them know what the store carries. In some cases, local dealers did not know about the cartridges. The store also sells stereo-8 cartridges wholesale to the automobile dealers who stock them in their showrooms.
Mrs. Bennett believes that the tape cartridge market language is something that needs developing. At present the store can special order them, but she thinks more work needs to go into building up a market for them.
As far as the total stereo-8 cartridge scene goes, Mrs. Bennett said, “We’re working very hard to develop this part of our business because there is good potential there.” END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; July 1, 1967)
A MCRFB NOTE: Check out our WXYZ-AM BACK ON THE RADIO WITH: JIM HAMPTON (July 27, 1966) featured today — as an audio attachment added with this ‘Royal Radio’ post on Motor City Radio Flashbacks. You’ll note the show was sponsored by none other than ROYAL RADIO “The House of Modern Sound” on WXYZ 1270 — it’s summertime with Jimmy Hampton on the radio with “The Detroit Sound,” 1966!
THE VACANT BUILDING as it stands that was formerly Royal Radio. Property situated at 612 N. Main Street (between 11 and 12 Mile Rd.), Royal Oak, Michigan.(Click on image for larger detailed view).
CKLW TOP 30 HITS TABULATED BY LOCAL RETAIL SALES AND NATIONAL RADIO AIRPLAY
CKLW TOP 30 HITS* America *CKLW (No. 02) 03/20/72
CKLW TOP 30 HITS TABULATED BY LOCAL RETAIL SALES AND NATIONAL RADIO AIRPLAY
CKLW TOP 30 HITS* War *CKLW (No. 07) 03/20/72
A MCRFB VIEWING TIP: To fully appreciate this CKLW RADIO 800 March 20, 1972 chart feature click on image 2x and open to second window. Click image anytime to return to NORMAL image size.
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