Tape recorders. Home stereo components. Portable record players. Transistor radios.
A look back at some of the ’60s electronics American consumers were buying from theRadio Shack chain, 1967. These four product pages were taken from the Radio Shack catalog, from that year.
Motor City Radio Flashbacks found an amazing website online where you can view the entire archived Radio Shack publications — where you can view page-to-page — every single catalog from 1936 to 2005.
It’s a decades’ electronic blast from the past you’ll enjoy viewing. Check it out! 🙂
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J U L Y 2 9 , 1 9 6 7 : T O D A Y I N M U S I C H I S T O R Y
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In Detroit, the Monkees scheduled concert at Olympia Stadium was immediately canceled days earlier due to widespread rioting, shootings, fires, and block-to-block looting — affecting local and federal mandated curfews imposed over the entire city through a four day period, week of July 23-27. Sponsored and scheduled by Dick Clark Productions and WKNR for Saturday, July 29, the concert would later be rescheduled for another date in August.
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Today In Pop Music History: July 29, 1967
MCRFB NOTE: Previously featured on Motor City Radio Flashbacks, July 29, 2014
WKNR ANNOUNCEMENT — DETROIT MONKEES CONCERT POSTPONED
J. Michael Wilson * Wednesday, July 26, 1967
SPECIAL THANKS to Greg Innis for the WKNR J. Michael Wilson audio byte above.
ABC NEWS DON HOWE * Tommy McIntyre; WXYZ News * July 26, 1967
A MCRFB NOTE
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Link update (July 26, 2017): See Scott Westerman’s recent comments HOW KEENER COVERED THE SUMMER OF 1967 at his splendid WKNR tribute website, posted July 21, 2017.
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For a more comprehensive coverage on the five-day civil-disturbances in Detroit, July, this week in 1967, see Motor City Radio Flashbacks’ previous (July 16, 2012) feature — by clicking on the header-title below.
SEVENTEEN WEEKS on the singles chart, “Light My Fire” by the Doors peaked this week at No. 01 (3 weeks) on the Billboard Hot 100, week July 23 through August 12, 1967. (source: Billboard)
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MCRFB Link: For the previous No. 1 record in the U.S.A. 1967 GO HERE.
(Note: Re-post; updated; previously featured July 16, 2012)
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DETROIT. 50 YEARS AGO
“My Fellow Americans, we have endured a week, such as no nation should live through. A time of violence and tragedy.” — Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States
“I think the President of the United States, uh, played politics uh, in a period of tragedy and riot.” — George Romney, Governor of Michigan
“We made it very clear — we do not want more than our share and we are determined to settle for nothing less than our share.” — Walter Reuther, UAW President
“I deplore the actions of the UAW in forcing Ford into this situation. I am sorry that we do not have laws, that effectively prevent the use of this kind of bludgeon, against the public interest.” — Henry Ford II, Ford Motor Company
DETROIT. 1967. The opening commentary you will hear is the voice of WKNR News Director Philip Nye —
“These are the sounds and voices of a year. As WKNR News present an electronic diary in 1967. A year marked by rioting, by a continuing war and growing protest, by a rise in crime and cost,and by tragedy and triumph. As with all years, there was good and bad. We shall recall both.”
. . .WKNR microphones was there.
Philip Nye WKNR KEENER CONTACT NEWS 1967(Play 43:43 audio)
Sunday, July 23, 1967
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T H I S 1 9 6 7 W K N R N E W S N A R R A T I V E recalls many of the events which affected the city of Detroit. Of certain news events which impacted the lives of Detroiters marking the passing of 1967 moving forward into 1968. The stories, news, voices and sounds you will hear was electronically imprinted on recorded tape by the WKNR news staff who covered the stories. The sounds you will be hear was permanently preserved on vinyl records by the WKNR news department ending the year 1967. This news recording served as a marker of what took place in Detroit that year. Whether covering the news, inside or outside the boundaries of the city, the WKNR microphones was there. When it happened. As it happened. How it happened. This WKNR Contact News album will take you back to a time and place. This was 50 years ago. The city was Detroit.
But the biggest story that placed the city on national and international news headlines — the riot that was the summer of 1967. The date set was July 23, to be exact. And the WKNR news department microphones was there when Philip Nye and his six-man news staff and the station’s two mobile units began picking up the story.
By early Monday morning more dramatic news began to intensify with every passing hour as “the story” began to unfold. The civil disturbance sparked with a toss of a single Molotov cocktail during the early morning hours on Sunday. The flashpoint was marked on 12th near Clairmount in the city’s near west side. The riot’s spark ignited during a Detroit police raid on a liquor establishment’s “blind pig.” By mid-afternoon, the rioting spread rapidly out of control. Spreading from block to city block. Looting, shootings, arson became widespread. Within 24 hours, the destruction and carnage would cover 129 square miles of the city. Detroit, the fifth largest metropolis in the United States, was up in flames.
L I S T E N A G A I N T O T H E biggest Detroit news story of 1967. Listen as —
Governor Romney requested the federal government deploy federal troops immediately into Detroit; Presidential Assistant Cyrus Vance informed the city that troops were on the ground in Detroit; President Johnson addresses the nation, deploring “law and order have broken down in Detroit, Michigan.”. . . .
Philip Nye went on to record, that, “At it’s peak, the riots spread over fourteen-square miles of the city. A curfew was in effect, a complete ban placed on liquor sales, gasoline can be purchased only during certain hours and never in a container, offices, banks, schools, businesses, industries were closed down; the heart of Detroit was deserted. Deliveries were curtailed.Food ran short. All normal activities in the nation’s fifth-largest city was at a standstill… they said it couldn’t happen here, but it did.”
The Detroit Free Press headlines below provided a more grim reality —
A VIEWING TIP
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Above DETROIT FREE PRESS related articles courtesy freep.com newspaper archives. Copyright 2017. Newspapers.com
While the July ’67 civil disturbance overshadowed other local events and news for the year, Detroit had other issues the city found itself grappling with throughout 1967. WKNR Contact News covered these stories as well:
A 61-day strike between the UAW and the Ford Motor Company….
In July, the nation’s railroads were shut down by rail-machinists, affecting rail and transport commerce in Detroit….
Teamster Steel-haulers went on strike; spanning 8 states, including Michigan, lasting 9 weeks while inciting violence….
Detroit Federation of Teachers went on strike; teachers reached an agreement with the city two weeks into the new school year….
Contract discussions with the Detroit Officers Association and the city reach a stalled impasse, DPOA stop issuing traffic tickets….
The Teamsters Union strike both the Detroit newspapers over wages; The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press were still shut down due to the strike as of December 31, 1967….
And those were just several of the important news stories WKNR reported for Detroit in 1967. Headed by Philip Nye and assistant news director Eric Smith, WKNR Contact News was awarded five prestigious first-place honors — five different categories — for “news presentation par excellence” in 1966 by the Michigan Associated Press.
“…The hour’s catalog a year’s living; A year’s dying; a year’s luck. For WKNR News… this is Philip Nye, reporting.”
“A great tragedy has visited our city, and now our ability to face an awesome challenge is being tested. It is for us to meet the challenge with the same resolve and dedication for which we have been noted in the past. We must have a united determination torebuild our city into a kind of urban environment in which every citizen can say with dignity and self-respect that he is a Detroiter and proud of it. Like the legendary Phoenix, Detroit shall rise from its ashes.”
— Jerome P. Cavanagh, Mayor of Detroit; 1967
‘KEENER CONTACT NEWS’
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For more on the Keener Contact News year-end albums, go to the left-sidebar menu column on this website and click WKNR Contact News. For everything on WKNR news, go to Scott Westerman’s WKNR tribute website atkeener13.com.
MCRFB NOTES / LINKS
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The YouTube video titled “Detroit Riots 1968,” while seeming erroneous, it was titled as such the year it was released. The footage is silent.
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ALSO| For a more comprehensive visual of the riots, watch this vintage 30 minute 1967 WXYZ-TV film segment on the Detroit civil disturbanceGO HERE.
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ALSO| For a more comprehensive review (link; detroit1967.org) on what took place 50 years ago on this day in Detroit, GO HERE.
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ALSO| The Detroit News Interactive feature FIVE DEADLY DAYS IN DETROIT is a informative review of Detroit’s week of infamy, covering the week beginning Sunday, July 23, 1967. This special report includes many photographs of the ’67 civil unrest. For more on this Detroit News timeline GO HERE.
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ALSO| From the DETROIT NEWS archives. 150 historic photos from the Detroit 1967 riot can be SEEN HERE.
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ALSO| From the Detroit Free Press. Detroit ’67. An interactive hour-by-hour timeline.GO HERE.
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ALSO| From the Detroit News archives. DETROIT 1967 interactive.GO HERE.
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NEW!| Six Days In July — Coverage Of the 1967 Detroit Riots. Aired on WWJ-TV (Channel 4; time 1:28:38), Sunday, July 30, 1967:
A MCRFB viewing tip: On your PC? You can read the entire Billboard article! For a larger detailed view click above image 2x and open to second window. Click image anytime to return to NORMAL image size.
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(Above WKNR related article is courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2017. Newspapers.com).
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Missed any of our previous ‘Detroit Radio Back-Pages‘ features?GO HERE.
From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor
SAN FRANCISCO — The music director at a top 40 station in a large city holds his job largely by continuing to demonstrate his ability to select the new records that eventually become hits. Every week, when he makes his top pick or discovery, he puts his reputation on the line.
It occasionally happens that even after his station has been playing his pick of the week once an hour for a week, none of the local stores can report any significant sales on it. Should such a thing happen with any degree of regularity. his boss will start looking for a new music director.
One annoying circumstance arises occasionally: a few weeks after a pick has been heavily played and yet has sold little or nothing in the market, it looms up in other cities and becomes a national hit. This is pretty frustrating. Why can’t the first station to spot a record’s potential break it for a hit?
BECAUSE IN MOST CASES, the record isn’t in the stores. The dealers get customer calls but don’t have it. Sometimes they’ll try to order it from the distributor and find that he hasn’t stocked it. By the time it finally reaches its destination at the retailer point of sale, there may be no further demand for it. The station may have dropped it entirely, figuring that it was a bomb.
This kicks back at the station, too, in the form of listener displeasure. Those who have tried to buy the record, in the belief that it must be important, have their enthusiasm dampened when they find that it isn’t available in the stores. Their confidence in the station is shaken. It’s unfortunate all the way around. Everybody loses.
Who gets blamed? Everybody. The retailer should keep up with what is being picked for air play, and he should have the new items in stock. The distributor should have stock on the floor, ready to move it out to the stores at the first sign of action. The music director should make certain of the record’s immediate availability before he picks it. At least, that’s the way everyone involved tries to evade the responsibility by blaming someone else.
A closer liaison between the station and the distributor can avoid such situations. Some of the nation’s most successful music directors always check with the distributor before picking a record. When will stock he available? If the station goes on the record, will the distributor order it? Will he guarantee an initial allocation to key retailers?
IT HAPPENS OCCASIONALLY that two or three versions of a record will appear almost simultaneously. Which label gets the pick? It is not always the version with the better sound. It is often the version whose distributor is known to be alert and aggressive, and who can be depended upon to get it on the dealers’ shelves.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the distributor must guarantee 100 per cent. It should be enough – and usually is – that he will back up the station’s confidence in his product by making it quickly available to the dealers if they need it.
Most important distributors follow this kind of a policy. It is hard to understand why all do not. It is a weakness more often encountered in factory owned or controlled branches, where stock is controlled by the national brass, who estimate which of their weekly releases are most likely to be in demand. In such cases, the decision of an important station to pick a left field possibility – something that is not considered by the bosses to be a top plug item – is occasionally ignored by the local branch manager.
Station music directors are becoming more discriminating with picks in relations to practical sales prospects in a local market. It is a trend that merits serious consideration by record people, in improving their coordination between promotion and sales. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; October 19, 1963)