Category: Flashbacks
FLASHBACK MOTOR CITY HAPPENINGS ’71 . . . MARCH 20, 1971
From the MCRFB news archive: 1971
Music Happenings In and Around Detroit Town, 1971
DETROIT — Producer Jack Richardson, who has worked with RCA’s Guess Who out of Toronto and most recently with Bizarre’s Alice Cooper, is recording in Chicago with Mitch Ryder and his band, Detroit. A new single and album will be out. The finished product will be mixed in Toronto. Ryder follows the sessions with his first tour in six months, covering most of the northwest from April 13 to 25.
Ted Nugent, lead guitarist of Polydor’s Amboy Dukes, married in Florida. He spent his honeymoon touring radio stations in the south talking about the group’s latest album, ‘Survival Of The Fittest.’ Nugent and the Amboy Dukes and Brownsville Station will work together at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in Los Angeles April 21 through 25. It marks the West Coast debut of both groups, although the Amboy Dukes have been there with different personnel and a different show . . . New Jersey’s Wadsworth Mansion, now booked out of Diversified Management Agency in Detroit presently taping ‘The Dating Game,’ ‘American Bandstand’ and other TV shows on the West Coast. The group starts touring March 12 going through North Carolina, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas and into Canada April 16, 17, 18 for dates and TV shots.
Ike and Tina Turner plan to work on a new album June 1-10 following a two-week stint in Las Vegas. That’s to be followed by 15 one-nighters. They’ll be on the Pearl Baily show Saturday, March 20 . . . Damnation will head into their Cleveland studios for their third United Artist album . . . . Alice Cooper, along with Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes and Brownsville Station, goes to Pittsburgh March 31, Atlanta April 1, Miami April 2 and 3, ten one-nighters to Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Tampa, Jackson, Memphis, Little Rock and winding up at Orlando, Florida April 11. The second-half tour of the 20-day tour is not completed as yet. The swing is booked out of DMA in Detroit . . . . The Stooges begin recording their third Elektra LP Monday, March 22 in Los Angeles. The working title for the album is ‘Big Time Bum.’ The group, featuring Iggy, has taken time off from recording and touring to prepare an entirely new act, to be debuted sometime in April . . . .
Local favorites Sunday Funnies will have their first album out for Rare Earth Records. Andrew Oldham, discoverer and early producer of the Rolling Stones, produced the album. The album was recorded in the Motown studios in Detroit.
. . . Jam Band, led by pianist Mike Quatro, took to the stage at the Roostertail as part of the Pop Cycles series put on to help bring young people closer to classical music . . . . Janus’ Teegarden & Van Winkle are working in their home studios for an early April single release. A second Janus album will follow. . . . Savage Grace will come home to Detroit after living in Los Angeles for six months will they worked on their second album with Reprise. A May tour is planned for the group through DMA, to coincide with the release of the album . . . .
Windsor’s CKLW are currently into their concert promotion field. Their first venture, with Three Dog Night, sold out within five days of tickets going on sale. It took place at the University of Detroit. The next CKLW announcement is expected to be a Steppenwolf – Alice Cooper show for Detroit’s Olympia April 17. . . . The Supremes are playing a rare local engagement at Windsor’s Elmwood Casino. END
(Information and news source: Billboard; March 20, 1971).
WXYZ-AM 1270 * THE DETROIT SOUND SURVEY * AUGUST 8, 1966
From the MCRFB archived files:
THE TOP 35 HITS ON WXYZ ON THIS DATE IN 1966
WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey; Week no. 17 issued August 8, 1966 under Lee Alan, Program Director; WXYZ
(WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey for August 8, this date 1966; survey courtesy the Jim Heddle Collection. For the previous weekly WXYZ August 1, 1966 survey click here).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88N8L7WX7-c
WXYZ Detroit Sound Survey No. 15: “That’s Enough,” by Rosco Robinson, this date in August 1966.
WTWR MAKES BIG SWITCH OVER TO COUNTRY . . . MAY 1, 1982
From the MCRFB news archive: 1982
Plug Pulled on Todd Wallace’s Hot 100 Format at WTWR-FM
DETROIT — Bill Ward, new president of Golden West’s radio division, has pulled the plug on Todd Wallace’s Hot 100 format at WTWR-FM here 15-weeks after its introduction, to take the station into a country format and market an AM-FM Country combination along with WCXI-AM.
John Risher, AM general manager, who takes over the helm for both stations, says the new format will be introduced Monday (May 3) and will share no simulcast hours with WCXI. While each station will have a slightly different approach to country — the AM will be more information, the FM will be more music — Golden West has applied to change the FM call letters to WCXI-FM.
The changes does not mean that the Wallace consulted format did not succeed — the station moved to a 3.5 share in the winter Arbitron, up from 3.0 in the fall when the station was playing oldies — but it represents a concern on the part of Golden West management that the company must consolidate its position. “This is an expensive market to do business in,” says Risher. “We’ve moved into a protective situation for our country format in this market.”
WCXI was seen as a long-range disadvantage to WWWW-FM, which last year switch switched to country and, until the latest Arbitron, was beating WCXI — by as much as a 5.6 share to 3.0 in the fall Arbitron.
Risher points to his new program director Larry Patton as making the difference. WCXI moved up to a 4.1 in the winter book, from 3.4 in the fall. Patton will now program both the AM and FM. WTWR program director Steve Schram is leaving the station. Patton arrived at WCXI in February from WCUZ-AM-FM Grad Rapids, Michigan.
Risher says Patton has given more discipline to the AM’er and made the playlist “much tighter.” He is expected to do the same thing with the FM. Risher says, “We weeded out the non-hits. We cut our library by 1,500 records. We’ve brightened the sound.”
There are several changes in the jock lineup, too, affecting Michael Kelly and Tom Lawrence. Other jocks are being hired, but Risher declined to disclose their identity at press time because not all have informed their present employers.
WTWR general manager Victor Ives will leave the station to return to his native California and an expected post on the Golden West corporate staff. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; May 1, 1982).
SATURDAY NIGHT BEECH-NUT SHOW WITH DICK CLARK
The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show was Dick Clark’s second attempt at a prime time show. His first, a prime-time version of American Bandstand, ran only 13 weeks. The Beechnut Show was much more successful lasting almost 3 years.
The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beechnut Show was broadcast live Saturday nights from the Little Theatre in New York City. Every weekend, Dick Clark commuted from Philadelphia to NYC to do the “Beechnut” show. There was actually two shows done each Saturday. The first was a rehearsal show where the artists could sketch out their performances and Clark could line everything up. This would have a different audience then the second show which was the one that was televised.
Beechnut Gum was actually picked up as a sponsor for the third episode to the conclusion of the show’s run. The artists that appeared usually “lip-synched” to their records. Very few actually performed live.
This is the only show to be able to make the claim of having Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper as guests (though on different episodes). All three were killed together in a plane crash on February 3, 1959.
Amazingly, Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson, two of the biggest stars of the period, never appeared on the show. The first show aired on February 2, 1958 with guests Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Willis, Johnny Ray and the Royal Teens. The final show aired on September 10, 1960. MORE . . . .
Addendum: For our first four initial video posting of ‘Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show with Dick Clark,’ on MCRFB (May 10, 2013), go here.
Above information provided by TV.com. For the complete 1958-1960 Dick Clark Beech Nut Show summary and artist-appearance listing for every show, go here to TV.com.
Motor City Radio Flashbacks will be showcasing many of these *rare* Dick Clark video presentations here on this website from time to time. In this second installment, we present four video classics (below) from the Dick Clark Beech-Nut show as was first broadcast on national television during that memorable late-’50s rock and roll era:
Conway Twitty (January 17, 1959). Everly Brothers (July 09, 1960). Little Anthony & The Imperials (January 02, 1960). Annette Funicello (January 13, 1960).
WHAT IS CANADIAN CONTENT? CKLW PLAYS OUT ANSWER . . . JUNE 19, 1971
From the MCRFB news archive: 1971
CKLW Says Rhythm Is Not Included
TORONTO — A loophole in the Canadian content legislation has arisen, centered on the Windsor radio station, CKLW, which is located on the Canadian side of the Detroit River and is a top rated radio station in Detroit, Toledo and Cleveland.
The station has been playing several U.S. soul records recorded by U.S. producers which have been submitted as Canadian content material although the rhythm tracks were laid down at Toronto studios. Overdubbing and mixing were done in the United States.
In the Canadian content legislation, launched in January by the CRTC, the country’s broadcast governing body, a station is required to broadcast 30 per cent of all musical composition in at least one of four categories — instrumentation and lyrics were principally performed by a Canadian, music composed by a Canadian, lyric written by a Canadian and the live performance was wholly recorded in Canada.
The last category is the section that raises the controversy. CKLW vice president of programming, Alden Diehl, said that, in his opinion, the R&B disks programmed were legitimate Canadian product.
Navin Grant, chairman of the Maple Leaf System, which picks product for radio play, had this to say, “I personally would have a lot of questions about whether such performances are Canadian or not. We certainly wouldn’t review them on the MLS although they have not been submitted.
“We could do with some more definition on some of these points from the CRTC.”
CKLW programmed the Janis Joplin single, “Men And Bobby McGee,” as Canadian content because members of the back-up group, Full Tilt Boogie Band, were born in Canada.
However, the CRTC reportedly does not consider two members of a back-up group as principal performers. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; June 19, 1971).
HAPPY SUNDAY
DEEP IN THE VAULT * RAY OTIS ON WKMH
DETROIT’S TEMPTATIONS LIVE ON CKLW-TV CH. 9 1965!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltRwmgYEUr8
FABULOUS FLIPSIDES * 1961