(Click on chart image 2x for detailed view)
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TWELVE WEEKS on the singles chart, “Get Back” by the Beatles peaked this month at No. 01 (5 weeks) on the Billboard Hot 100. Week ending May 24 through June 21, 1969. (Source: Billboard)
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MCRFB Link: For the previous No. 1 record in the U.S.A. 1969 GO HERE.
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Marv Earl Johnson (October 15, 1938 – May 16, 1993) was an American R&B and soul singer, notable for performing on the first record issued by Tamla Records, which later became Motown.
Johnson was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1938. He began his career singing with a doo-wop group, the Serenaders, in the mid-1950s. With budding talents not only as a singer but also as a songwriter and pianist, he was discovered by Berry Gordy while Johnson performed at a carnival. Gordy had already decided to form his first record label, Tamla, and Johnson’s recording of their song “Come to Me” was the label’s first single, released in May 1959. The fledgling label did not have national distribution, so the song was released by United Artists. It reached number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Johnson went on to co-write another four songs with Gordy. After he issued the first release for the Tamla (Motown) label, Johnson was signed by United Artists. He released three albums and several singles for UA but continued to record in Motown’s homegrown studios at Hitsville USA.
He then re-signed with Motown in 1964, writing and producing as well as recording. “Why Do You Want to Let Me Go” was his first Motown single after he rejoined the company, released by Motown’s Gordy subsidiary in May 1965. Johnson’s final US chart appearance was “I Miss You Baby (How I Miss You)”, which was a minor hit, reaching number 39 on the R&B chart in April 1966. His next release, “I’ll Pick a Rose for My Rose”, issued in 1968, failed to chart; it was his last American single.
Johnson died of a stroke on 16 May 1993, in Columbia, South Carolina, at the age of 54. He was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit. His headstone reads “Motown Pioneer”.
(Source: Wikipedia; Marv Johnson)
Do you remember?
In 1985 the Coca Cola Co., after 99 years, decided to “reformulate”, rebrand and market their “new” Coke soda product.
Here is one of the company’s radio spots promoting the New! Coke brand. But it wouldn’t last long.
For more about the real New! Coke story, click on the year above when this Coke radio spot was heard playing on the radio, 1987.
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(For the complete story click on the Detroit Free Press article/link highlighted above)
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The WJBK FORMULA 45 hits was compiled, tabulated and produced by Radio 1500’s Bob Martin and Rosemary McGann.
This survey was tabulated overall by each record’s popularity and its appeal, sales, listener requests and record airplays based on the judgement of WJBK Radio.
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Previewed for the week of April 21, 1958
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In Memory of George Griggs
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Above WJBK music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1969
Consultant See Radio Top Playlists Out in Near Future
NEW YORK – “Within the next three years the basic concept of playing a top 30 record or a top 40 or a top 60 will go out the window, according to Bill Drake, programming consultant. Stations just won’t be doing that sort of thing anymore . . . at least not those stations that want to appeal to a mass audience. In my opinion, there are again going to be many radio stations where the records played will be a matter of judgment.” To survey record stores is great; it’s possibly the only base you have of determining whether a record is popular or not in your market, he said. But some of the albums today are selling whether they get played on the air or not. He felt that some stations with a small audience are going to make a larger impact on record sales than some stations with larger audiences.
Many radio stations today are not reaching the full potential of the possible mass audience . . . just as record sales on many records are not meeting their full potential.
“As far as reaching a mass audience is concerned, you have to have some sort of foothold at a broad base of appeal. When your music approach or the approach
of your personalities is too hard or too soft, the broad base of audience is going to dwindle.” he said.
No Danger Flags
“There are no real danger flags to tell when a station is slipping or not doing its job right. It’s almost intuition. It’s more of a feeling than anything else. It may be a lack of interest in the sound or it may be that you feel you’re not really stimulating any more. Actually, I guess it’s a lot of little things.”
And there’s no magic wand to correct things. Every station has to control its own destiny. You can’t operate a station by remote control.
“What we have going for us, to tell the truth, is a brain trust. Any time any of the stations we consult have difficulty, I can bring almost a dozen top-notch radio men into the market to analyze the situation, starting with Bill Watson, who’s over-all national programmer for our firm. But we also have such minds as Ron Jacobs and Gary Mack on tap. I’ve never gone out and shouted about any ratings we’ve achieved because you first have to substantiate it. I’ve always taken the attitude that you can have a fluke success in a ratings book, but all of the ratings firms will agree over a long period of time. This is why it’s so stupid to fire a deejay because his ratings dropped. I feel it’s my duty to constantly go back and improve and if something bad does happen, then it needs special concentration on it – like KFRC in San Francisco where no Top 40 station has a very good ratings picture at this time. Four members of the braintrust went into the market to study the situation. This, again, brings you back to the music problem: You have to reach for that broad appeal. So many people in radio are afraid they will miss the latest fad. But it’s a sad state of affairs if you have to depend on the latest fad in radio or records like the Beatles or Elvis because when the fad changes you’ll be left with egg on your face and find your audience has disappeared.
One Secret
“I think one of the secrets in mass appeal programming is related to the fact that Motown Records doesn’t want to produce r&b records – they want to turn out records that are both pop and r&b. Country artists are now trying to be both pop and country.
“Part of our KFRC situation was as a result of paying too much attention to a fad. I was told: ‘But this type of music is drawing 3,000 kids a night into the Avalon Ballroom.’ And I said: ‘Great. But you should hang around the Cow Palace when Billy Graham is there. He’ll pack that place. Yet this is not exactly the best reason I know for rushing back to a radio station and putting on your George Beverly Shea records.”
The character of the people has changed in the world, he said. Everybody talks about the generation gap. There has always been one, but it’s probably wider today than ever before. If you admit that the gap does exist, then you have to consider that Fats Domino today is middle-of-the-road. This is why in “Parade ’69” syndicated programming “we went after the largest possibly audience available to FM-the 18 to 34 age group that we felt would own FM sets.
“WOR-FM in New York, one of the stations we consult, just ranked fifth in a January/February ARB -among all stations. And in adults 18-34, we were second by WABC in the 6 a.m.- midnight Monday through Sunday period. What this survey also showed was that WOR-FM had a cume of 1,880,000 during a week, reaching 146 per cent more listener impressions than the next highest FM station in New York.
“If you had to compare the programming on WOR-FM, I guess you’d classify it as a little more rocky and r&b than our ‘Parade’ programming. Bot ‘Parade’ is already showing threes and sixes in some of the markets where it’s on the air. We’ve signed agreements for 25 stations and it’s now on the air on 15 of these.
“Personal judgment plays a major role in the selection of the music for this programming – we might only be playing 17 of the top 20 records of the time. And personal judgment was a key factor in the 48 -hour “History of Rock ‘n’ Roll” special that we put together. Like many people, I’m a record buff and when I get some friends over to the house I’ll put one some albums and would find myself telling everybody: ‘Did you know that Berry Gordy wrote nine of the songs on this album?’ That led me to thinking what a groovy thing it would be to do this on radio. You can’t tell me that people would have been as interested in the special, which gathered astronomical ratings everywhere. if we’d just played the records because we play 80 per cent of them anyway. It was the information about the artists and the interviews with the artists and record producers that created a special kind of excitement about the show. A major auto manufacturer now wants to buy the show to introduce its new cars with this September. Two TV producers are thinking of transferring the concept to television. We’ve had countless requests for the show and it’s now in syndication.”
Collective Effort
Programming, in general, has to create a collective effect, he said. There’s not any individual record that can make you a success. And this is where personal judgment in the records a station plays will be more and more significant in years to come. END
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Information and news source: Billboard; March 29, 1969
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Great news broke out earlier this month (March 1) informing Detroiters the former classic rock station – WLLZ – is back on the dial after first breaking on 98.7 FM, 29 years ago in the Motor City, November 1980.
The NEW WLLZ 106.7 jocks lineup consists of Detroit radio veterans Doug Podell, Bill McAllister, Trudi Daniels, Casey, Anne Erikson and Producer Tyler.
For more information on the new WLLZ 106.7 you can go to their link over to their new Facebook page – HERE – or you can listen live anytime to the new 106.7 WLLZ page on the web – HERE.
The ‘Classic Rock’ image below is courtesy of the WLLZ Facebook page
A special THANK YOU to website contributor Vaughn Baskin for providing Motor City Radio Flashbacks with a plethora of former classic WLLZ 98.7 FM bumper stickers from the 1980s and 1990s.
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After WKMH became WKNR on October 31, 1963, the “New Radio 13” in Detroit premiered it’s first music guide, released for the week of November 7, 1963.
After 8 years, 19 weeks, and 435 official WKNR surveys having been published since it’s premiere, this was the last official music guide (03/20/1972) the legendary Detroit radio station published before WKNR changed it’s call letters to WNIC on April 25, 1972.
In Memory of George Griggs
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Above WKNR music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.
It has been awhile. Our Motown Mondays features will return next Monday, March 18. Only here. On Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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