Category: Flashbacks
WJBK AM DROPS POP FORMAT . . . AUGUST 1, 1964
From the MCRFB news archive: 1964
WJBK SWITCH FROM ROCK TO CONSERVATIVE MUSIC FORMAT
DETROIT — The Motor City will soon lose it’s distinction of being the only city in the U.S. with four full-time contemporary music formatted radio stations.
WJBK, the Storer-owned station, will drop its rock-pop music format on August 16 in favor of an all album, conservative music format.
The post-TV situation saw a battle for the pop market between WXYZ, the ABC-owned outlet, WKMH, with Robin Seymour leading the way, and WJBK.
Six or seven years ago, the 50,000-watt CKLW, just across the Detroit river in Windsor, began to feature a younger deejay lineup and playing more of the top current pop singles. The RKO General station with its big wattage has been effective carving an important niche for itself in the Detroit market as well as in secondary markets in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.
The next significant important change in the contemporary station line-up was the switch of WKMH to a standard, no rock policy, leaving the field to WXYZ and WJBK, with CKLW contributing its share to the hot pop scene, but not to the same degree.
Enter WKNR
The most exciting change to the status quo took place in November of last year, when WKMH pulled a complete 360-dgree switch in music format and call letters, WKNR, came a 30 plus 1 contemporary music format, promotions galore, much fanfare in the press and also added a few new swingin’ airman to enhance the format change.
The impact of WKNR greatly altered the Detroit market picture, rating-wise and pop-music wise. The tight-playlist formula the station’s concentrated on and off-the-air promotion drove the station’s ratings from obscurity up to a position of prominence.
Although many factors must be taken into consideration in reasoning why a station decides to change it’s format, many programmers label any format changes as a certain sign of defeat. Industry observers opinion that the mitigating factor in the forthcoming WJBK change was brought on by the impact of WKNR on the market, along with the solidifying of WXYZ’s influence on its pop music audience and coupled with the increased competition in the same area from CKLW.
Other important factors to be taken into consideration is the affinity of the Storer Broadcasting Company for conservative and subdued music formats. WJBK will, along with WGBS, Miami; WHN, New York City; WJW, Cleveland and KGBS, Los Angeles, be programmed musically from Storer’s music department in Miami.
At present Storer’s 50,000-watt station in Philadelphia is the company’s foremost and highly successful exponent of contemporary music. Another tpo-rated Storer station, WSPD in Toledo, also features a pop music, news and personality format.
Current Research
WJBK is presently in the survey of the listeners in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties to keep in touch with their taste, desires and preferences in radio.
“Although we have only completed approximately half of the current survey, we are learning that the majority of the people polled are desirous of the type of format we will be launching in August,” said John Grubbs, WJBK program station manager.
According to Billboard’s May 16 Radio Response Rating for Detroit, WQTE and WWJ reported conservative music formats. WCAR and WWJ features music of the standard variety, culled primarily from albums.
“WJBK’s ‘Sound of (Just Beautiful) Music and Total Information News’ format is being designed to incorporate all members of the staff,” said Grubbs. “Our air personalities are all top pros and are capable of handling any format.”
WJBK staffers include Marc Avery, Clark Reid, Robert E. Lee, Robin Walker and Bobby Layne. Grubbs scotched rumors circulating in the trade in recent weeks that he is being transferred to WIBG in Philadelphia as program manager replacing William Wheatley.
“The rumors circulating to the effect that I am being moved to WIBG or any other station are not in any way based on fact,” emphasized Grubbs. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; August 1, 1964)
DETROIT HEATS UP FOUR-WAY RADIO WAR… NOVEMBER 16, 1963
From the MCRFB news archives:
FROM WKMH TO WKNR, FOUR-WAY BATTLE HEATS UP RADIO DIALS ACROSS DETROIT
DETROIT — A four-way battle is shaping up in this market with the immediate changeover in programming at WKMH.
The Dearborn-based 5,000 watter has introduced a new set of calls, WKNR, several new deejays, and a radical switch from the soft sound in music to a “30 plus 1” format. Detroit will be one of the few markets where severe competition is taking place among three or more pop music stations.
The Knorr-owned radio outlet has been under the programming consulting of Mike Joseph for many months. Soft standards have been the path for more than a year. WKMH (now WKNR) was once the major pop music outlet in the market. Today a major fight is now developing between the new WKNR, RKO radio’s 50,000 watter, CKLW, WJBK, Storer-owned “teen’s swinger” radio, and WXYZ, the ABC-owned pop-rater on the 1270 radio dial in Detroit. Recently CKLW had added Tom Clay in the afternoon-evening drive to help accentuate CKLW’s positive pop sound.
Mort Crowley, a KHJ defector, broadcasts 5 to 9 a.m., followed by the former-WKMH mainstay Robin Seymour in the 9 to 12 p.m. time slot. Jim Sanders is handling the noon to 3 p.m. shift, and Gary Stevens will be hosting the 3 to 7 p.m. segment. Bob Green will deejay from 7 to 12 a.m., while Bill Phillips will hold down the fort all night long until 5 a.m. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; November 16, 1963).
FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: APRIL 13
From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: APRIL 13
1959: The Fleetwoods “Come Softly To Me” hits No. 1 on the charts.
1962: The Beatles begin their legendary stint at the new Star Club
in Hamburg, Germany. Performing three to four hours a night for 48 days with just one day off, the group logs a total of 172 hours of performance. When the band returns to England, they are already stars with a record contract.
1965: At tonight’s Grammy Awards ceremonies in Los Angeles, Roger Miller is the big winner, taking home five awards (a first for a country artist at the Grammys). Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto wins the
Record Of The Year Award for “The Girl From Ipanema” and Album Of The Year for Getz/Gilberto. The Beatles win the Best New Artist Award and Best Performance By A Vocal Group for “A Hard Day’s Night.”
1967: The Rolling Stones play their first-ever gig behind the “Iron Curtain” of Soviet countries with a performance in Warsaw. When the club is overrun by fans without tickets, the local police react by dispersing the crowd with tear gas.
1968: Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey” hits No. 1 on the national chart.
1969: Diana Ross makes her first television appearance as a solo-act, performing on Dinah Shore’s NBC-TV special, Like Hep.
1974: Paul McCartney and Wings LP album “Band On The Run” hits No. 1 on the national LP chart.
1982: Still awaiting trial on a concealed weapon and illegal drug charges three weeks earlier, David Crosby, formerly of the Byrds and with Crosby, Stills and Nash, is again arrested in Dallas after local police found him preparing a “speedball” of cocaine backstage before he was to perform.
1989: Jack Jones is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 6104 Hollywood Blvd. in L.A.
1999: After nine years of a very public marriage, Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley announce they are separated. They will divorce later on in the year.
2008: Cult ’60s Detroit soul man Nathaniel Mayer collapses from a brain hemorrhage that will, within the year, will take his life.
And that’s a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. 
BEHIND THE ‘RECORDS’… AUGUST 13, 1966
From the MCRFB news archives:
BEHIND THE RECORDS: Thank you, Dave Prince….
It is high time we give thanks to the nation’s deejays who are performing an invaluable service for music publishers and record companies by bringing to their attention talent from their area — talent which otherwise might never had the opportunity to have been heard by publishers and recording companies.
A case in point is Dave Prince of WXYZ, Detroit. About two years ago, Mr. Prince wrote us about Billy Lee & The Rivieras, a group appearing around Record Hops in Detroit. He was so impressed with their musical talent and performance abilities that he felt it was his duty to help them. He waxed so enthusiastically about the boys that we agreed to hear them. We liked what we heard and we signed them.
The rest is musical history, the group now known as Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels has soared to stardom. As for Dave Prince, he derives much satisfaction in realization he discovered a stellar group, and in knowing that was truly a great judgment in talent found.
There are other cases where deejays discovered writers, musicians, and singers, and have done much to help them. This speaks well for the radio personalities of the USA who feel a sense of responsibility for their listeners. So, we say thank you one and all, you dedicated people in radio wherever you are.
Dan Crewe,
Vice-President,
Saturday Music, Inc.
1841 Broadway, New York, New York 10023
212-CI 5-3535
(Information and news source: Billboard; August 13, 1966).
UK ARTISTS BEAMED TO CKLW… NOV. 28, 1964
From the MCRFB news archives:
BRITISH ARTISTS BEAMED OVER TO U.S. VIA CKLW
LONDON — The Animals, the Bachelors, the Nashville Teens, the Isley Brothers and Paul Jones, lead singer of the Manfred Mann group, recently took part in a unique broadcast from London to 26 States and much of Canada via transatlantic cable telephone.
The program was the first from a series to be beamed by Britain’s leading “pirate” station Radio Caroline to CKLW, Detroit. The two stations are taking turns to phone a 30-minute show from each other’s country every week.
The British part is phoned from Caroline House in London and used in disc jockey Terry Knight’s CKLW four-hour radio show. Knight interviews all the artists in the British studio and later plays each artist’s their respective records. CKLW returns the same kind of material for similar use here. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; November 28, 1964).
ALL GIRL JOCKS: ’67 WABX-FM . . . AUGUST 19, 1967
From the MCRFB news archives:
Girls ‘Man’ Deejay Mikes at WABX-FM
Detroit — Last Monday, on August 14, 1967, WABX-FM began a new all-girl deejay policy and the ladies will be playing jazz oriented pop music and humor. The girls will be featured 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. daily, and noon to midnights on Sundays. Jim Rockwell remains to do his daily 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. jazz show. John Small is the WABX station manager.
The man responsible for the station’s new image is Mickey Shorr, program manager and creative director of Century Broadcasting Corp., which owns WABX-FM. Shorr is originally from Detroit, where he once was a Top 40 disc jockey with WJBK, WXYZ, CKLW and the former WKMH, now presently WKNR.
Shorr first used the all-girl formula on WSDM-FM in Chicago where it became very successful. Instead of calling his WABX-FM girls “disc jockeys,” Shorr labels them as “Mickey’s Collection.”
The girls will tape lead-outs from records, commercials, and humorous bits rather than actually broadcasting live from the studio. They represent different nationalities and have names like Curry, Halavah, Supersport and Lo-Cal. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; August 19, 1967).
RADIO LOGO OF THE DAY
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RADIO LOGO OF THE DAY
