Category: Flashbacks
WKNR 1310: AIRCHEX OF THE WEEK! JERRY GOODWIN
From the MCRFB AIRCHECK library:
Jerry Goodwin on 1310 WKNR-AM “Keener 13” May, August 1966
…”We have ‘Cherish’ by the Association, which is a pretty, pretty song which we’re gonna play next…”…
In 1963, WKMH-AM, Detroit’s only CBS-affiliated “Flagship Radio” station on the dial, was suddenly transformed overnight on October 31. The former was christened with a new set of calls, WKNR, along with a brand-new “total station sound” that would ultimately be known in Detroit as “Keener 13.”
Atone time floundering dismally with low ratings under WJBK and WXYZ on the Detroit radio dial, the Knorr Broadcasting family, which owned WKMH, made their decision to consult with famed radio-programmer Michael Joseph. Coming off recent successful radio changes he implemented prior at WGR-AM in Buffalo, New York, Joseph was hired to “modernize” the old station located in Dearborn, where he immediately instituted there more of his successful up-to-the-minute ‘Top 40’ and news format, but with a shorten “top 31” playlist Joseph implemented instead.
By early 1964, the Joseph radio formula would become the radio success story in Detroit that was, “Keener 13.” “WKNR – The New Radio 13,” as it first prided itself, also had a new crop of air-personalities whose names and popularity rose to prominence a short couple of months after the station’s inception in November 1963.
By March 1964, WKNR was alone at the top as No. 1. in Detroit. But more so, it was primarily those Keener deejays who were instrumental in retaining high the station’s popularity and sound — Swingin’ Sweeney, Robin Seymour, Bob Green, Gary Stevens, Bill Phillips and Jerry Goodwin.
Jerry Goodwin began his 40-year span broadcasting in radio, beginning in 1959, as Sam Hill in Amarillo, Texas on KFDA-AM. By 1961, Jerry moved over to Dallas’ own KBOX doing evening-drive under a new name while there, as Danny Preston.
But by 1962, it was on to Florida. Jerry found his place in the Sunshine State with the legendary WQAM-AM, the Storer Broadcasting-owned affiliate in Miami. By February 2, 1963, Jerry Goodwin was doing noon to 3 on the famous AM-560 and within three weeks time, he became the new morning man (6-9 a.m. time), replacing Charlie Murdock for that spot on February 23, 1963. During that time, Jerry Goodwin found himself in good company with some of the greatest 560 voices while there, some very familiar — Ted Clark, 9-12; Bob Green, 12-3; Charlie Murdock, 3-6; Tom Campbell, 6-10; Jim Dunlap; 1-6 a.m.
But by mid-November in 1963, Jerry was no longer at WQAM. By then, Goodwin, along with WQAM’s Bob Green, had made the switch going north to Detroit on “the new Keener 13.”
From late 1963 through the early part of ’68, Jerry Goodwin rode the entire radio success story that was WKNR while here in the Motor City.
But by early 1967, the market was beginning to see some drastic changes across the Detroit radio landscape. The advent of FM radio was on the rise, coupled with the fact there was a new radio station, CKLW, which was starting to dominate the Detroit airways with its massive 50,000-watts of transmitted-power located across the Detroit river in Windsor, Ontario.
WKNR-AM * Jerry Goodwin * MAY 12, 1966
By the end of 1967 WKNR dropped in ratings at No. 2 radio for the very first time. Along with it’s deficient night-time signal, it was by then the station was beginning to lose of their appeal, no longer retainer of the largest audience share WKNR once had embraced in the market the year prior when the station was still hot on top at No. 1.
By April 1968 more changes became evident at WKNR-AM, both in staff and the management level. By that time ‘The Miami Four’ Bob Green, Ted Clark, Scott Regen (from WFUN; Miami) and Jerry Goodwin were no longer on board on AM Keener 13.
As WKNR-FM began experimenting with an album-rock format in 1968, Jerry Goodwin would instead take to the new “underground” movement in radio by crossing over to the WKNR FM side. At the time, WKNR-FM music director Paul Cannon decided they would compete going against WABX-FM. But the station’s “free-form” run would be entirely short-lived. As changes were on-going at WKNR both on the AM and FM sides, the “album-rock” format was soon dropped on 100.3 FM. It was replaced with an “easy-listening,” MOR music format the station dubbed as “Stereo Island.”
WKNR-AM * Jerry Goodwin * AUGUST 23, 1966
By year’s end 1969, and no longer at WKNR-FM, Jerry found himself with a new home with “album rocker” WABX-FM in Detroit. He was given the 7-11 a.m. time slot and, immediately found his niche there with the station both in popularity and with management personnel. In May 1971, Tim Powell, music director at WABX, had left the station for KLOS in Los Angeles. With that move, Jerry Goodwin, who was chief of creative productions for the station, became the new music director at ‘ABX up until 1972, when thereafter he would leave WABX for his next venture in radio, this time it was on to Toledo’s WIOT-FM. Historically, WIOT became Toledo’s first FM rock station. According to WiKipedia, it went on the air on December 25, 1972.
By early 1973, and having left WABX the previous year, Jerry had moved his family to Onsted, MI., a small township located just outside of Adrian. At the time, WCAR-AM in Detroit was still doing top 40 radio. Jerry Goodwin was hired at WCAR, though briefly, by Paul Christy as a ‘filler’ deejay for the station — a relief man. WCAR luminaries Dave Prince and Dave Shafer were also there, as well as Jim Harper, Kevin Sanderson and Tom Ingram. While at WIOT and while briefly at WCAR, Jerry went on to complete his academics by enrolling at Siena Heights College (today it is a university), where he graduated cum laude in 1974.
Later that same year, in late 1974, Goodwin was back in the Motor City. He was hired by station program director Paul Christy once again, but this time on WWWW-FM. WWWW was a progressive rock station with a unique format, with program emphasis on rock-oriented LP stop-sets they would play (albums in their entirety) during the evenings — well into the all-night hours. All during the time he was at WWWW, Jerry attended the University of Detroit. By 1975, within a year’s time there, he would graduate from the university with honors earning his Masters.
After a brief stay on W4 in Detroit, it was back east in 1976 to his hometown in Boston, where he would do PhD. work at Boston University. It was also during this time Jerry Goodwin would find himself back in radio, one more time, on WCOZ. He would remain in broadcasting in the Boston area for the remainder of his illustrious radio career while there. Stops would include Boston’s WBCN (as the Duke of Madness) from 1979-1982, WCGY (as the Duke of Madness) in 1985, and then it was off to Boston’s WROL from 1994 through 1999, thus capping off a very successful 40-year span in the radio business.
While doing radio in Boston, Jerry Goodwin was teaching radio courses and television performances at the Northeast School of Broadcasting where he taught for 20 years, until 2008. Today, the very same institution where Jerry had taught courses in the arts, the school has since evolved into an accredited four-year college course as the New England Institute of Arts.
Retired from radio since 1999, Jerry Goodwin today invests quality time in the art of theater, film and television. He is an award-winning actor in the New England area, and is a registered member of the New England Actors Guild. Demand for his professional “voice over” production work has earned him such clients as Perrier, American Airlines and Goodyear, to name a few, and he also “characterized” his voice-talents with multiple commercial CD-ROM game productions as well.
Currently, Jerry Goodwin has two Indie Films pending, The Red Death and Autonomy, which is slated for film shooting this month, May 2012. Also beginning in June (through October 2012), Jerry Goodwin will take to the stage as an actor in Cry Innocent. According to Jerry, “it will be a live performance based on the trial of Bridget Bishop, the first woman to be tried and executed as a witch” in Massachusetts. The stage production is tentative for its scheduled run at The Olde Salem Town Hall in Salem, MA.
___
Today, Jerry Goodwin enjoys the comforts of home in Boston with his family. He is the proud grandfather, “of two amazingly beautiful grand-daughters, Jesse and Mimi Goodwin,” daughters of his son Jason Goodwin, who was born here in Detroit.
MCRFB would like to express our sincere gratitude to Jerry Goodwin for contributing to this exhibit. Photos courtesy of George Griggs, Art Vuolo, and also Scott Westerman’s Keener13.com.
Thank you Jerry Goodwin for sharing with us those special memories you shared with us on the radio during your successful long broadcasting years on WKNR-AM, WABX-FM and WWWW-FM in Detroit.
ROLLING STONE: THE KINGSMEN, “LOUIE, LOUIE”
THE 500 GREATEST SONGS OF ALL TIME: NO. 54
Writer: Richard Berry; 1955
Producer: Ken Chase
Released: June, 1963; originally on: Jerden Records
Chart: 16 weeks; No. 2
A blast of raw guitars and half-intelligible shouting recorded for $52, the Kingsmen’s cover of Richard Berry’s R&B song hit No. 2 in 1963 — thanks in part to supposedly pornographic lyrics that drew the attention of the FBI. The Portland, Oregon group accidentally rendered the decidedly non-controversial lyrics (about a sailor trying to get home to see his lady) indecipherable by crowding around a single microphone. “I was yelling at a mike far away,” singer Jack Ely told Rolling Stone. “I always thought the controversy was record-company hype.” END.
54/500: “Louie, Louie” by the Kingsmen
(Source article: “500 Greatest Songs of All Time,” Rolling Stone Magazine).
DETROIT FEDS EYES ‘LOUIE, LOUIE’ LYRICS . . . SEPTEMBER 11, 1965
From the MCRFB news archives:
Feds Sparks Investigation For Second Year In A Row
MCRFB: To view FBI investigative reports on “Louie, Louie” from 1964-1965 click here.
(Actual letter of complaint below; verbatim) —
Received, February 7, 1964; FBI Criminal Division
(This letter/memo is found on page 13 of the actual 119 page FBI report-investigation, from the FBI link above; see photo below).
January 30, 1964
Mr. Robert F. Kennedy
Attorney General U.S.A.
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Kennedy:
Who do you turn to when your teenage daughter buys and brings home pornographic or obscene materials being sold along with objects directed and aimed at the teenage market in every City, Village, and Record shop in this nation?
My daughter brought home a record of “LOUIE, LOUIE” and I, after reading that the record had been banned from being played on the air because it was obscene, proceeded to try to decipher the jumble of words, the lyrics are so filthy that I can-not enclose them with this letter.
The record is on the WAND label #143 and recorded by the KINGSMEN “a Jerden Production by Ken Chase and Jerry Dennon” and there is an address 1650 Broadway, New York, N.Y.
I would like to see these people, the “artists” the Record company and the promoters prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
We know there are obscene materials for those who seek it, but when they start sneaking in this material in the guise of the latest ‘teenage rock and roll hit record these morons have gone too far.
This land of ours is headed for an extreme state of moral degradation what with this record, the biggest hit movies, and the sex and violence exploited on T.V.
How can we stamp out this menace ? ? ? ?
Yours very truly,
[NAME BLACKED OUT]
Document stamped, recorded declassified; February 4, 1984
FBI Division: CRIMINAL GEN. CRIME SEC. [END of FBI memo]
HOLLYWOOD — Allegations that the lyrics to the song “Louie, Louie” are obscene have popped up for the second year in a row, with the FBI calling in Limax Music publisher Max Feirtag for a first hand review of the lyrics. So far, the original lyrics have not been questioned.
Feirtag said the local FBI office called him after a complaint was reportedly filed in Detroit. Fiertag also indicated he showed the FBI the current sheet music and the original copyright. The disputed single was recorded by the Kingsmen in 1963 on the Wand record label.
Feirtag was told the FBI had contacted Wand in New York in their investigation. Last year, Feirtag offered $1,000 to anyone coming up with a copy of the obscene lyrics. When the original embroilment began last summer, Feirtag learned that someone in Indiana had written obscene lyrics for the calypso song and had sent them to the Governor. The state governor in turn had asked the Indiana Broadcasters Assn. to ban the disk. The broadcasters association called the allegations unfounded.
Feirtag claims to have never seen a copy of the obscene lyrics but was told by Vern Stierman, program director of KEEL, Shreveport, La., that he had a copy. “When I asked him to mail me a copy, he said he wouldn’t chance putting it through the mails,” Feirtag said. Further FBI review are pending. END.
Addendum: For more on the “filthy” lyrics in “Louie, Louie,” as deciphered in a FBI memo, see pages 14 and 22 of the FBI’s actual report in the attached link above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R60kVchBps
(Information and news source: Billboard; September 11, 1965).
FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: MAY 10
From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: MAY 10
1960: A group from Liverpool named the Beatals (sic) changes it’s name to the Silver Beatles after local scenester Brian Cassner declares the first name ridiculous. The five-piece band — at this point includes Stu Sutcliffe on bass (and Tommy Moore on drums) audition to become singer Billy Fury’s backing group. though they don’t get the main gig, they do score backing up fellow Liverpudllian Tommy Quickly on a Scottish tour.
1963: The Rolling Stones recorded their first recordings for Decca Records, including the Chuck Berry cover “Come On,” but were all critically rejected by the label as significantly “dreadful.”
1964: Dusty Springfield makes her first U.S. television appearance on CBS-TV’s Ed Sullivan Show, singing “I Only Want To Be With You.”
1965: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is recorded today by the Rolling Stones.
1965: The Beatles record two hits today, “Dizzy Miss Lizzie,” and Ringo sings lead in the second number, “Bad Boy.”
1966: Struggling singer Janis Joplin, back home in her native Texas, is invited back out to San Francisco by her friend Chet Helms, who invites her to audition with a group he’s managing called Big Brother and Holding Company.
1968: Reacting to alleged abuse of concert attendees by the police, Doors bad-boy Jim Morrison incites a riot at the Chicago Coliseum.
1969: Tricia Nixon, daughter of the U.S. President, invites the Temptations and the Turtles to perform at a White House ball. For some apparent reason, Turtle guitarist Mark Volman keeps falling off the stage; rumors started to run amuck that he and several members (unamed) of the group allegedly snorted coke before the gig on Lincoln’s desk.
1972: Slade begins their first tour as headliners, performing at St. George’s Hall in Bradford with the Status Quo as the opening act.
1974: Eric Clapton records today, “I Shot The Sheriff.”
1974: The Main Ingredient is awarded a gold record by the RIAA for their million-seller, “Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely.”
1974: Led Zeppelin launches their new record label, Swan Song, with a swank dinner at the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles that quickly resorts into a food fight.
1975: The Commodores “Slippery When Wet” charted, becoming their first top 40 hit at No. 19 and their first No. 1 R&B hit. The group began their carreer playing the club circuit, but unlike other acts, it wasn’t the local club circuit. The group made their start in French resorts like St. Tropez.
2004: Glen Campbell is sentenced to 10 days in jail after he pleads guilty for drunk driving and leaving the scene of an accident involving another vehicle the previous November in Phoenix. That’s him mugging a mean one on the left.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. MAY 10.
FLASHBACK MOTOR CITY HAPPENINGS ’68 . . . FEBRUARY 10, 1968
From the MCRFB news archive: 1968
Music Happenings In and Around Detroit Town, 1968
Janis Ian appeared Friday, February 2 in concert at the Masonic Auditorium…. The Sam and Dave Revue opened Friday, February 2, at Cobo Hall, including an 18-piece orchestra and other acts from the Stax/Volt stable of artists…. Rhetta Hughes appeared in the Roostertail’s main dining room during the week of January 18 through 24.
…Red Buttons headlined at the Roostertail Supper Club for 10 days through February 3, and the Four Tops are scheduled to open there Monday, February 12…. MGM Records will present their new artist Every Mother’s Son as part of a promotional campaign at the Roostertail’s Upper Deck for Robin Seymour’s celebrity night on Wednesday, February 14…. Bob Harper is the new disk jockey at WKNR, filling the all-night spot…. The all-night hours at Detroit’s super-soul station WCHB is now being filled by Ron White, and Leon Ivan is the new early afternoon deejay at WJLB….
…Dave Shafer, formerly with CKLW, is now head promotion man for Records Distributors here…. Tom Shannon, top disk jockey at CKLW, has scheduled his second TV production at WJBK Channel 2 for Friday, February 16. The format of the show will consist of discussion about radio with other Detroit area disk jockeys. Representing the other stations in the area for Shannon’s discussion will be Ernie Durham for WJLB, Dick Purtan for WKNR, Hank O’Neal for WJBK, and Bill Williams for WCHB. Video tapes will be shown of performances by the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Every Mother’s Son…. Laura Lee is currently performing at the Phelps Cocktail Lounge, and James Carr has just closed there…. CKLW Channel 9 plans to begin a weekly taping of live, nightclub type shows at the 20 Grand Driftwood Lounge, to be telecast on Thursdays.
…Aretha Franklin will perform her first Detroit concert Friday, February 16, at the Cobo Hall Arena. With her will be Erma Franklin and the Young-Holt Unlimited…. Al Williams will present the “Memphis Sounds Show” at the Riviera Theater for seven-days, February 23-29. This show will include Eddie Floyd, Barbra Merger, Pat Lewis, J. J. Barnes, Pig meat Markham, the Cassanovas, Dusty Williams, Denis Thomas, Ruby Andrews and Timmy Willis.
…Don Davis, formerly the music director for Solid Hitbound Productions here, has set out to start his own operation under the name of Groovesville Records. One of the first acts signed on WCHB, has been appointed production manager for that station.
…Motown Record Company has filed suit for $1 million against a theater here which recently opened, calling itself the “Beverly Motown Theater.” Motown contends the name is a fraud on the public and an “unlawful infringement” on the Motown trade name…. MGM’s Orpheus is set for the Chessmate through Sunday, February 18. Philips Records 4 Seasons are scheduled for a Detroit Concert this coming Friday, February 16. END
(Information and news source: Billboard; February 10, 1968).
WHND * RICHARD D. HAASE * TOP 12 AT 12 * 1966
Richard & Jon Ray
WHND – Richard Haase – March 29, 1994 – Top 12 at 12 – 1966.mp3
Big Thanks To Larry Mischel For This Airchex
WABX-FM * DENNIS FRAWLEY * 1977
WABX – Dennis Frawley – August 16, 1977.mp3
Special Thanks To Larry Mischel For This Great Motor City Aircheck!
FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: MAY 8
From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: MAY 8
1954: The BBC bans Johnny Ray’s latest single, “Such A Night,” from airplay due to it’s somewhat suggestive lyrics. It would later become a hit for Elvis Presley.
1961: Teen idol Ricky Nelson turns 21 and, eager to shed his teeny-bop image, changes his professional first name to “Rick,” which he would insist upon being called for the rest of his career.
1963: Chicago R&B great Major Lance records “The Monkey Time.”
1962: Beatles manager Brian Epstein, already discouraged somewhat from the Decca records rejection, runs into engineer Ted Huntley while at the HMV Record Store in London. Huntley suggest sending the bands’s demo to a producer at EMI by the name of George Martin.
1967: During filming of what would become the documentary Don’t Look Back, Bob Dylan gets the idea to make a short film of his single, “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” featuring him standing in an alley next to London’s Savoy Hotel. The film features Dylan with the company of his two friends, Allen Ginsberg and Bob Neuwirth flipping cue cards with the lyrics of the Dylan song on them.
1967: Gerry and the Pacemakers, increasingly out of step with changing rock trends, announce their disbandment.
1969: The Beatles sign a contract making Allen Klein their manager (through his company ABKCO). Paul, pointedly, refuses to show up and sign the agreement, a decision that will eventually lead the group to dissolve as a band.
1972: Following promoter’s Sid Bernstein’s decision to reinvent Radio City Music Hall in New York as a rock venue, Billy Preston becomes the first rock performer to headline at the famous landmark.
1976: John Sabastian’s “Welcome Back” hits No. 1 on the Billboard chart.
1976: On stage during Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue in Houston, Willie Nelson joins Dylan for a stirring rendition of the country standard, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” dedicated (as is the concert itself) to freeing wrongfully convicted ex-boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter from his murder sentence.
1976: BBC’s Radio One fires deejay Johnny Walker after he refuses to promote the teeny-bop group Bay City Rollers’ “Saturday Night” on the station.
1990: Tom Waits wins his $2.5 million lawsuit against snack giant Frito Lay for using a Waits “sound-alike” in a television commercial promoting their product.
1991: 55 year-old Rolling Stones’ bassist Bill Wyman divorces his second wife, 21 year-old model Mandy Smith, after three years of marriage.
1998: The three former Beatles, along with Yoko Ono, win an injunction stopping the re-release of the band’s live 1962 “Star Club” tapes, recorded in Hamburg at the famous venue.
2006: Apple Computers wins a long, long legal battle over rights to sell music over the internet without violating the trademark of the Beatles’ Apple label.
2006: Former MC5 bassist Michael Davis is badly injured in a motorcycle accident while riding in his hometown in Detroit, Michigan.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. MAY 8
FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: MAY 7
From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: MAY 7
1955: Ray Charles breaks through with his first No. 1 R&B hit, “I’ve Got A Woman,” a revamped version from a gospel standard called, “It Must Be Jesus.”
1958: The Champs appear on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and perform their No. 1 instrumental hit, “Tequila.”
1965: At London’s Twickenham Studios, the Beatles film scene in Help! entitled “The Exciting Adventure of Paul On The Floor,” where a suddenly-shrunken Paul McCartney tries to hide his newly-naked body.
1966: Simon & Garfunkel’s “I Am A Rock” enters the charts.
1966: The Mamas and The Papas “Monday Monday” hits No. 1 on the Billboard chart.
1967: During Moscow’s May Day celebrations, several teens dance the twist in outright violation of the Ministry Of Culture’s orders against Western decadence.
1967: Breaking his self-imposed exile after a motorcycle accident the previous year, Bob Dylan gives his first post-crash interview to the New York Daily News.
1968: Singer-songwriter Reginald Dwight changes his name legally to Elton Hercules John, the first and last names taken from his former bandmates in Bluesology, Elton Dean and Long John Baldry.
1972: Tom Jones’ Special London Bridge Special, featuring the Carpenters and Engelbert Humperdinck and celebrities alike including Kirk Douglas to Charlton Heston, airs on the BBC.
1978: Bob Dylan’s upcoming series of concerts at London’s Wembley Empire sells out all 90,000 tickets in just under eight hours.
1982: Diana Ross is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 6712 Hollywood Blvd.
1991, In his hometown of Englewood, NJ, Wilson Pickett is arrested for insisting on driving over the lawn of his neighbor, Donald Aronson, who just happens to be the town’s mayor. After finding a knife and a baseball bat in his vehicle, attempted murder is added to the charges. Pickett is inexplicably let off with a charity concert and a years’ probation.
1991: Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman, 54, ends his two-year marriage to Mandy Smith, 21, whom he had begun dating at age 13. Despite in only spending two months total with Wyman during their marriage, she receives a settlement of $6.5 million.
2002: London authorities wrap up their four-month investigation of Who guitarist Pete Townsend, charged with downloading child-pornography in 1999. Townsend, who claimed he was researching a book he was writing about his own childhood sexual abuses, was not jailed but was placed on a national sex offender registry.
Deaths: Ron Wilson (The Surfaris), 1989; Eddie Rabbitt, 1998; Alphonso Howell (The Sensations), 1998; Rudy Maugeri (The Crew Cuts), 2004; Dave Fisher (The Highwaymen), 2004.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. MAY 7.