DETROIT FREE PRESS: WRIF ‘Dave Prince: How NOT to Advise’
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Above WYXZ related article is courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2018.Newspapers.com.
The above featured WXYZ article was ‘clipped,’ saved, and imaged from the credited source by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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DETROIT FREE PRESS: WXYZ-AM ‘Dave Prince Looks at His World’
(Above WXYZ related article is courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2016. Newspapers.com).
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We did all kinds of radio projects together; programmed radio stations; produced tons of radio shows to distribute around the world. One was called ‘90 Minutes With . . .’and, every week the show featured an artist or a theme.
I just found one of these shows: “90 Minutes with the 1950’s.” It is a musical tribute to that era, hosted by Dave Prince, consulted by oldies historian Jim Pewter, produced at the Kris Erik Stevens studio in LA, and written and produced by yours truly, Jim Hampton.
The seventies were the best of days for me in L.A. Very creative. Very lucrative. Very fun. By the way, check out the pictures. That’s Dave, and that’s me (with the beard) the way we looked back when, working together in the ’70s. And that’s Dave Prince in the photo below. Taken sometime during his stay, mid-late ’70s, while working with me in Los Angeles.
I hope you enjoy hearing ’90 Minutes with the 1950’s.’ Keep it here on Motor City Radio Flashbacks. More to come! — J. Hampton
STATION FORMAT RUMORED 2 YEARS IN WAIT; PD MAKE CHANGE IMMEDIATE
DETROIT — Exactly as rumor stated, WCAR here has switched to a rock format. The oddity about the format change and the rumor, however, is that the rumor dates back at least two years . . . . dates back in fact, to the day that Ken Draper signed a contract to consult the ultra-powered station. It had been a middle-of-the-road station since Draper took it under his wing; before that, it was more or less of a mishmash in programming.
The original intention according to program director Neil McIntyre, was to stick to an MOR format. The factors that precipitated the program change, in spite of previous intentions, was the failure of WKNR to make it in the market with a rock format. And, too, CKLW, a long-time powerhouse, was no longer connected with program consultant Bill Drake and, in fact, was being forced by government regulation, to program a large portion of Canadian product in its programming. Perhaps the key factor was the absence of Drake.
WCAR, with 50,000-watts during the day and 10,000-watts at night, is playing between 40 to 60 records; “never less than 40,” says McIntyre, plus a feature album a week. More that that, the station is the station is keying on album cuts and, for example, played six cuts of the new Blood, Sweat and Tears album.
“We’re playing album cuts as if they were singles,” McIntyre reiterated. He listed “Surrender” by Diana Ross from her new album, and, “Hello Groceries” by Chase from their LP. There were five LP cuts on the playlist last week. “Even if the cuts are not released as singles, we’ll stay with them a couple of weeks longer just for the sake of adding variety to the format,” McIntyre said.
All records are pre-selected by McIntyre and John Wellman, who works in the office of programming affiliated with the consulting firm operated by Ken Draper, Chuck Blore and John Rook. These are picked either Thursday or Friday and the new playlist is added to the air in afternoon drive time without fanfare. However, there is no set policy of adding new records (seven new singles were added last week) and new product will be put on the air immediately, if warranted. “We put ‘I Woke Up In Love This Morning’ by the Patridge Family on the air Saturday. By Wednesday it was the top requested tune of all the new records.”
WCAR has six direct request lines into the studio and the air personality “had better answer it,” McIntyre said. In the old format, the air personalities used to just rap with listeners; in the rock format, they take requests.
Air personalities pull their own music for their show within the limitations of the format. WCAR personalities include Ray Otis 6-10 a.m.; Dave Prince 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; Dan O’Shea 2-6 p.m.; Ed Busch 6-10 p.m.; Scott Regen 10 p.m.-2 a.m.; Warren Pierce 2-6 a.m. — the same staff almost as when WCAR was an MOR station (Regen joined the staff several weeks back).
Clay Proves Pull
The target audience of WCAR is the 15-35 age group. “Mostly, we’re an alternative to listeners. In want of good programming, many were going to the FM stations; now, we’ll be there.” The station will be a personality station and will be actively trying to break new records. “We have been playing the Tom Clay record (“What The World Needs Now Is Love”) for weeks, even when we were an MOR station. Prince mentioned on the air for anyone not able to find the record in their record store to call Motown Records. Al Valenti called us and pleaded for us to give listeners the name of a record store that had stock; he’d been bombarded with phone calls for the record. So, we know we’re already having an impact in the market. The leading Top 40 station in town puts on a couple of records a week. But as a challenger, we can set our own rules about new records.”
WCAR will soon be “beefing-up” its jingles package.
There will be some six-record sweep; the records will be segued. All records will be post-announced. McIntyre, a 14-year veteran in the radio business having worked in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York and previously program director at WOWO, Fort Wayne, Indiana, before landing at WCAR as program director, exclaimed “it’s nice to see people so excited about a radio station — from the girl at the switchboard to the news director, John Webster, a hell of a guy.” END
(Information and news source: Billboard; August 14, 1971).
From the MCRFB RADIO NOTEBOOK: 1957, 1959, 1961 and 1962
WKMH-AM
DETROIT (October 28, 1957) — DETROIT DISK BIZ SLOW: Echoing a national complaint of recording distributors in the industry, Robin Seymour, deejay-program director of WKMH, Detroit, reports that in recent weeks the best selling lists around the Motor City has been static, with fewer and fewer new records making their way onto the charts. Seymour opined that that poor economic conditions locally are to blame, but added the optimistic prediction that things should change soon, since Detroit record sales during fall and Christmas have topped each previous year for the past several holiday yule seasons. END.
DETROIT (July 20, 1959) — Robin Seymour, WKMH, Detroit, has launched a daily 15-minute segment (6:15 – 6:30 p.m.) featuring musical highlights from a different year each day, along with commentary about news events of each date. The segment is produced by Arlene Schubert, who is currently the Dearborn-based WKMH music librarian. END.
DETROIT (August 28, 1961) — Two new jocks have joined WKMH, Detroit. Bob Green, formerly with WGVA, Geneva, New York, has moved into the 8-10:45 p.m. time slot on WKMH. Ray Otis, ex-WHK, Cleveland, has taken over the outlet’s 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. across the-board-time slot and its Sunday noon to 4:00 p.m. time-frame. Bob Green will also act as WKMH’s production director. END.
DETROIT (September 11, 1961) — Plans are now on the drawing boards for deejay record hops to be run direct by local arenas, with evening jocks doing their shows direct from the spot and featuring guest recording talents. Records by the artists would be available for purchase as well by recording distributors’ rack-jobbers. The idea of deejay broadcasts from rink locations is not new. Only in recent weeks, Lee Alan, WKMH, Detroit, staged a successful teen dance at the Riverside Roller Arena in that city with such acts as Bob Beckham, Little Caesar and the Romans, also the Marvelettes and the Edsels present. END.
DETROIT (March 10, 1962) — A flock of stations around the country last August supported city drives to encourage teenagers to return to high school and reduce “drop-outs” which result when youngsters find summer employment and don’t want to go back to school in the fall. For example, Dave Prince, WKMH in Detroit, sponsored a “back to school” contest, asking teenagers to complete in 25 words or less the statement: “I’m going back to school this fall because . . . ” Winners received wrist watches and transistor radios. The response was so great that the Michigan Education Association plans to stage similar contests next year with WKMH and other Michigan radio stations. END.
DETROIT (March 31, 1962) — (Billboard Programming Panel) — Question: “Do you have special promotions or programming ideas which are designed to build better relationships with local schools and students?”
(Dave Prince, WKMH, Detroit) — ANSWER:
“Station WKMH deejays lead yells at the high schools each fall. We have our own WKMH cheerleader sweaters, megaphones, and a special series of school chants and yells, using the deejays’ names, station call-letters, etc. I also sponsor a “Back To School” contest at the radio station during the fall in co-operation with the Michigan Education Association, giving away 10 wrist watches to the best ten letters. The MEA will incorporate the idea throughout Michigan next fall.” END.
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A MCRFB Note: Information and news source: Billboard Magazine. All excerpts culled as was first published from the dated editions as noted above.
