DETROIT — WLLZ-FM, Detroit’s “Rockin’ Best” was born in November, 1980. In the winter ’81 Arbitron book, it debuted at 9.2 share, second only to WJR-AM. Its secret is simple according to program director John Larson: “We play whatever listeners want.”
Owned by Doubleday & Co., the station employs a strategy developed by Bobby Hattrik, corporate vice-president of programming. The station make 800 to 1,000 phone calls a week, asking listeners what they want to hear. Larson says, “Songs they like, we play; songs they don’t like, we don’t play. It’s that simple. The listener request line gets about 500 calls a day.These requests clue Larson and music director Joe Urbiel to tunes they hadn’t thought of adding.
The playlist changes frequently, at least twice a week. The process is ongoing. Current hot numbers include “Tom Sawyer” by Rush, AC/DC’s “Problem Child,” Rainbow’s “No Release” and the new Moody Blues record.
Prior to WLLZ taking to the airwaves, the frequency was occupied by WBFG, a 50-kilowatt religious station. Doubleday also owns WDWB-AM-FM Minneapolis and St. Louis’ KWK-AM/WWWK-FM. These also employ listener-determined playlists. Larson says “This strategy mirrors local taste. Their playlists are not the same as WLLZ’s. In St. Louis, for example, they play more Southern music.”
Larson came to the station from Rockford, Illinois. In the course of seven years in radio, he developed a similar listener-determined playlist. “The station’s personality is the music,” he claims. “We have news, but news director Jeff Young spotlights stories the listeners consider important. “No blood and guts.”
Among the station’s many requests, Van Halen is a particular favorite. The Who, Boston, Bob Seger and Bad Company figure prominently. “Over-saturation causes an artist to go out of fashion. They come back, though its like eating chocolate cake every day. Eventually you get tired of even your favorites,” Larson says.
WLLZ hasn’t done any print advertising since it first broke into the market. Promotion concentrates on giving people things, especially money, because “it’s something everybody can use,” Larson continued. There are no contests involved. A station staffer roams the streets of Detroit, asking pedestrians and drivers with radios what station they’re tuned to. If the answer is WLLZ, the staffer hands the lucky listener $1,000. Understandably, the promotion is highly popular.
Larson reported little action with record companies, except a CBS album giveaway at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Ohio. The station co-promotes concerts with Brass Ring, recently Rainbow/Krocus, Pat Travers and REO. Two local retailers, Harmony House and Musicland, handed out WLLZ bumper stickers. “It helped them with trafficto be mentioned on the air,” Larson says.
For the 4th of July, Larson ran an eight-hour special program of Detroit’s “Rockin’ Best” (also the station’s motto), the 98 favorite songs reported by listeners. The special included a motorcycle and cash giveaway.
“Our goal is to be number one in the market. We feel counter-programming is pointless, so we don’t do it. We want to take the offensive — do your own thing and hope it works,” Larson says describing his philosophy. “We don’t try to play what other stations are playing. We may play something we feel may do well, whether its getting the airplay elsewhere or not. We were the first to play Donnie Iris’ ‘Ah, Leah’ and Touch‘s ‘Don’t You Know What Love Is?’
“We try to keep a balance, not just appeal to 18-year old males who drink a lot of beer. We were number two with women in the last book,” Larson says. To introduce listeners to unfamiliar music, the station airs Rated Eight, playing new songs from new bands. Silver Condor was one recent newcomer aired.
Source concerts, weekly interviews and Album Review, a play through of listener-requested albums are some of WLLZ’s special programming the station has bonded favorably with its listeners. Rock Wars, aired from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. weeknights, pits well-known musicians against each other in sometimes bizarre battle-of-the-bands that net 250 calls nightly.
WLLZ doesn’t play much home-grown Detroit music. “There’s not a lot of interest from local people in local music,” Larson explains. The call-in line also gets negative requests, including complaint from new wavers and minorities that their music is being neglected. Larson defends the station by saying, “The playlist is based completely on calls. If listeners haven’t said they want to hear it, we don’t play it.
“Dinosaur rock is a term that has been thrown at us. But oldies are making a comeback. We use common sense. You can’t test songs no one knows. But you can look for certain ingredients that make it. Good songs and bad songs are obvious to everyone. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; July 11, 1981)
T R I N I L O P E Z who really made it big in the United States during the last year, got his momentum from his acceptance of “If I Had A Hammer.”
As his manager Bullets Durgom explains, “Trini caught on fast in Europe because the people liked his sound and beat.” Durgom said he found it aggravating attempting to convince American booking agents that Trini had been a success on his own merit in Europe in 1964 and deserve showcasing here.
“They didn’t want to believe his European success,” Bullets said. “They thought it was manufactured.”
But in little over a year the 27 year-old Dallas singer had broken attendance marks, set the Europeans singing and dancing along with his infectious melodic style and traveled more than 100,000 miles to earn $480,000 dollars.
At the Olympic Music Hall in Paris, the Reprise artist reportedly stole the spotlight from the Beatles, earning more encores than the Fab Four. In berlin, 23,000 fans crammed inside an arena to hear him sing. In Buenos Aires he drew 60,000.
Trini Lopez opened for the Beatles while in Paris, 1964, to critic’s acclaim.
More of the same occurred in Holland, Spain, Italy, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Australia, England, Germany, Monte Carlo, Beirut, Canada and Mexico.
In Mexico City, he broke the attendance record at the Terrazza Cassino and earned $80,000 for two weeks’ work.
Trini’s success in Europe can be directly traced to the single, “If I Had A Hammer,” culled from his debut LP for Reprise. This cut was recorded live at P.J.’s, a Los Angeles night spot.
A call by Pete Felderman, Reprise’s licensee in Holland, to Mo Ostin, Reprise general manager in Burbank, California, exclaiming that “Hammer” had everybody excited, alerted the record company of a developing enthusiasm for the rising star. Felderman said if Trini could appear on the Eurovision TV show “Grand Gala De Disc,” he felt the record could break wide open all over the Continent.
Trini Lopez performed with the Beatles while in Paris, France, 1964. (Click image for larger view)
Lopez did go to Europe after ending a two-year engagement at P.J.’s and his appearance on the TV show excited other European bookers.
Durgom relates it was “thrilling to hear European audiences, many of who couldn’t speak English, singing along with Trini on such singles as “If I Had A Hammer,” America,” “This Land Is Your Land” and “Kansas City.” “It reminded me of a revival meeting,” Durgom said. The effect worked and through advance radio exposure, audiences memorized the lyrics and came in person to see the young American with the Latin accent, the infectious rocking beat along with the happy voice. Accompanying Trini on his first European tour were David Shriver, bass guitar, and Micky Jones, drums, since replaced by Gene Riggio.
When Trini returned to the United States, his first East Coast breakthrough occurred at Basin St. East in New York, where he was paced on the bill with the Smothers Brothers. This appearance resulted in national television exposure at bookings at Harold’s, Reno; Mr. Kelly’s, Chicago; Blinstrub’s, Boston; Latin Casino, Philadelphia; Off-Broadway, San Francisco; Flamingo, Las Vegas (at $15,000 per week for three weeks).
Also scheduled bookings are slated at the Eden Roc, Miami Beach. Trini’s first major booking after P.J.’s was at Cal-Neva for $1,200. The club has him booked this year at $15,000. END
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(Information and news source; Billboard; May 15, 1965)
A MCRFB Note: Trini Lopez with the Beatles (above two photos) courtesy the official Trini Lopez website.
Trini Lopez signs an autograph for a fan during his tour across Europe in 1964.
LONDON — From songwriting alone, Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney earned around $4,000,000 last year, their publisher Dick James has confirmed. Thirty of their compositions were published in 1964, of which they recorded 22 themselves.
James has added to his fast growing organization the talents of Dennis Berger who quit his job as assistant to Philips recording manager Johnny Franz at the end of 1964.
According to James, Berger will be seeking out songwriters and artists for the company’s small roster, but it is generally expected that he will handle independent production or records for the publisher. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; January 16, 1965)
Beatles songwriting team Lennon and McCartney earned millions from their hits in 1964.
Former PD KHJ Ron Jacobs Pay LP Homage To Radio Station Greats 1956 – 1962
LOS ANGELES — Something that no deejay should be without is the new “Cruisin ‘Series” on Increase Records and GRT Tapes which feature music and air personalities such as Robin Seymour, WKMH in Detroit from 1956;Joe Niagara, WIBG in Philadelphia from 1957; Jack Carney, WIL in St. Louis from 1958; Hunter Hancock, KGFJ in Los Angeles from 1959; Dick Biondi, WKBW in Buffalo from 1960; Arnie Ginsburg, WMEX in Boston from 1961; and Russ (Weird Beard) Knight, KLIF in Dallas from 1962.
RON JACOBS with Cruisin’ LPs
None of those guys are with those stations anymore. What the records/tapes are, of course, are their shows in those particular years — complete with music. They were produced exclusively for distribution by Chess/GRT by Ron Jacobs, former program director for KHJ in Los Angeles. The records have everything, jingles, commercials, and even Arnie Ginsburg’s cowbells or whatever. It nostalgic to listen to them and hear those hits from yesteryear and what radio was all about. We suggest you latch unto some copies for a trip back to those wonderful days of classic American pop radio as it was then one more time. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; July 4, 1970)
WJR-AM situated inside the Fisher Building, Detroit.
DETROIT — Deejays are competitive, but they can also be cooperative.
While recuperating from a knee twist which had him away from the WJR studio turntables for about a week, midnight record-spinner Jay Roberts received a note from station owner Jon Holiday, of WAIR (Winston-Salem) asking permission to use the basic format of Roberts’ “Nightflight 760.”
Roberts simulates a jet flight to a different city every night, beginning with a whooshing takeoff sound effect and a (pre-recorded) airline hostesses’ voice issuing a welcome and instructions just as though it was a real flight. During the flight, “Captain” Roberts describes the city of the night in detail.
Roberts told Holiday, a former top jazz deejay from Little Rock, Arkansas to go ahead. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; March 2, 1963)
ANTICIPATED NEW RELEASE GETS INITIAL PRESSING OF MILLION
NEW YORK — An initial pressing of 1 million albums, reportedly the largest single order in the history of the business, is in the works for “Help!” the Beatles album scheduled to be released by Capitol Records when the United Artists film of the same name opens Wednesday (August 11).
A previous Beatles album, “Beatles VI,” had an initial pressing order of 500,000 albums slated for its scheduled release.
The film will be accompanied by a publicity barrage calculated to blast the American public out of its homes and into the movies houses across the country.
WINS-AMMurray The K 1965
In New York, Murray the K will introduce the British group on his hour-long Channel TV show on Saturday, August 14. The show will be televised in 40 major markets.
The evening after the telecast, the Beatles made their much-heralded appearance in New York’s Shea Stadium.
Gary Stevens (formerly WKNR-AM Detroit) WMCA disk jockey, is conducting a “Beatles Stakes” contest, with tickets to the Shea Stadium concert as prizes. Here’s how it works:
From 7 to 11 p.m., during the Gary Stevens Show, fans telephone WMCA and tell Stevens by guessing which Beatle will be talking to them next. Those lucky enough to make the correct guess answered will get a pair of tickets to the Shea concert, Sunday evening, August 15. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; August 14, 1965)
Beatles’ Help! photograph signed by the Fab Four, while filming, 1965.
Hitsville U.S.A Catalogs Record LP Release, Record Billings
DETROIT — The Motown Record Corporation’s single largest record release, 15 packages for fall, was introduced at the company’s first sales convention, held at the Hotel Ponchartrain, Friday to Monday, August 25 to 28. The Motown convention theme was “Showcase ’68.”
Barney Ales, vice-president in charge of sales for Motown, reported a record $4 million in billings for the 15 albums were received at the convention party.
“This party has been a success,” Ales told Billboard. “The acceptance of the product itself has been unbelievable and the album release is our best to date.”
Motown’s vice-president in charge of sales, Barney Ales with Marvin Gaye in 1967.
Pointing to the tremendous growth rate to the record industry and the growth of rhythm and blues-oriented companies, Ales told the distributors, “We feel that here in Motown, we have indeed created new dimensions in the world of R&B, because we have worked for world-wide acceptance. While many of our competitors were busy merchandising their old sounds, Motown writers, producers and artists were busy creating a new sound and we take great pride in its having become ‘the sound of young America.’ ”
Fall Package
Motown’s own Chris Clark circa 1968 (Click image for larger view)
The new fall release features packages by Chris Clark, the Original Spinners, the Isley Brothers, San Remo Golden Strings, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Jr. Walker and the All Stars,Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, the Four Tops and Diana Ross and the Supremes (deluxe-double album package with pictures included).
Four new singles slated for release in the fall were “I’ll Come Running,” by the Four Tops;“From Head To Toe,” by Chris Clark;“Wondering,” by Stevie Wonder; and “Window Shopping,” by the Messengers.
A display and browser box for the new product were also shown during the Motown all-star studded extravaganza four-day event held in downtown Detroit.
Highlight
The convention highlight was the special Motown Showcase show presented Sunday night, August 27, at the Roostertail Supper Club. About 500 people, including the distributors plus local dealers, radio personalities and members of the press saw the two-hour show featuring Earl Van Dyke and his Orchestra, the Spinners,Gladys Knight and the Pips,Willie Tyler and Lester,Chris Clark, and Diana Ross and the Supremes.
Berry Gordy, Jr. 1967
Berry Gordy, Jr., Motown president, spoke before the show. He credited Smokey Robinson, a company vice-president as well as artist, for urging him to establish a national company with the release of the Miracles’ “Way Over There.” He also remembered his late sister Lucy Wakefield as a creative force in the company.
Gordy pointed out that Motown demonstrated that “people of all races not only can but do work together to achieve heights previously limited by lack of understanding.”
Education Key
He also stated that the racial gap can be bridged by education. “I mean complete education,” Gordy continued. “Educating the black about the black, Educating the white about the white. Educating the black about the white and educating the white about the black.”
The entire convention proceeded smoothly. On Friday night, Hal B. Cook, publisher of Billboard, gave the opening speech of the meetings. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; September 9, 1967)
NEW NBC RADIO VICE PRESIDENT POST WILL BE TOUGH ASSIGNMENT FOR MIKE JOSEPH
NEW YORK — Broadcasters did double-takes last week upon hearing of the appointment of Mike Joseph, former program consultant, to the newly-created post of vice-president, NBC-owned radio stations.
Joseph, long-associated with what is usually called swingin’ pop-music formatted stations, will be taking over the reins of one of the nation’s richest and most unsuccessful group of radio station operations owned by the network.
NBC RADIO and television operations are centered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City [Billboard; 1963 photo](Click on image then click original size 900 x 587 2x for larger detailed view).Joseph is fresh from Michigan where he doctored Dearborn’s WKNR (formerly WKMH) — where he instituted an up-to-the-minute pop music and news format. Prior to the WKNR assignment, he “modernized” WGR, Buffalo, New York, with a similar format. He also served as program director at WJEF, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and national program director for the Founders’ stations; WTAC, Flint, Michigan; WSBL, Syracuse, New York; WSMD. New Orleans, and KPOA, Honolulu.
At this juncture Joseph’s duties have not been spelled out. No matter what his duties, he will have his work cut out for him.
The six NBC-owned radio stations are perhaps — as a group — one of the best examples of a low audience appeal approach to broadcasting.
Bottom Of Heap
A thumbnail analysis of each station’s market position reveals the following:
WNBC, New York (50,000 watts): 10th place. One service gives it sixth position 7 a.m. to noon, and 11th, noon to 6 p.m.
WMAQ, Chicago (50,000 watts): Tied for fifth place, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. From 6 p.m. to midnight, ninth. Another service is much kinder, rating the station third in the morning and fourth in the afternoon.
KNBR, San Francisco (50,000 watts): Tied for fifth place in the morning and seventh in the afternoon. Another service rates it sixth in the a.m. and eighth in the p.m.
WRC, Washington D. C. (5,000 watts): Eighth place out of nine stations listed.
WRC, Washington D. C. (5,000 watts): Fourth in mornings and sixth in the afternoon and evening. This outlet tops all others in the NBC chain achieving first place in the morning and third in the afternoon on one rating service.
WJAS, Pittsburgh (5,000 watts): Tied for last place morning and night; last place in afternoons.
It is highly unlikely that four of the six stations could stand on their own financially without being carried by mother flagship network NBC.
Industry observers attribute the sorrowful rating picture of the NBC-owned radio stations mainly due to the fact that they are satellites for the financially successful NBC radio network. The family stations must carry all of the network’s programming, including the full load of “Monitor” Saturdays and Sundays no matter the effect on rating. Affiliates have a choice of scheduling and percentage of net shows carried.
What little there is left for the beleaguered six stations to program on their own is dictated from the sixth floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza where the attitude had been: close down before playing rock and roll, no editorializing, no promotion, etc. The top echelon of NBC has persuaded itself that it is more in the public interest to sacrifice popularity and listeners for image. Apparently the image is fading as quickly as the listener audience in general, translating in poor ratings overall.
In sharp contrast to the NBC operation is the highly successful, aggressive, and modern, ABC-owned radio stations headed by Harold Neil. Each of the ABC stations are for the most part, operated independently with local management calling the shots as to how best serve their immediate communities. ABC places few taboos on their stations.
ABC advertising and promotion in behalf of its owned radio stations has been brilliant and outstanding. CBS has also followed a course of promoting their stations through ads in the consumer and trade press. Although there is a proliferation of other NBC advertising, promotion of its owned radio stations is a rarity.
Speculation has it that no vice-president — however talented and capable as Mike Joseph is successfully known for his brilliant approach in various radio consultations and changes he implemented during the course of this year alone — will be able to solve the dilemma of the NBC-owned radio stations without a complete change of thinking and approach by the two men who are presently calling the shots for NBC radio, Robert Kintner and Robert Sarnoff.END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; December 28, 1963)
Former WKNR and WMCA Deejay Hits Big Today As President of Doubleday Chain
WKNR’s Gary Stevens in 1963.
NEW YORK — Consider for a moment how the major broadcasting chains evolved into the forces they are today: companies like Westinghouse, Bonneville, Gannett and Malrite, all rich in history but not quite like Doubleday Broadcasting — “which really should not exist,” suggest Doubleday president Gary Stevens. “The only reason it does because I couldn’t get a job. People wanted to generalize me as an ex-deejay who had no business acumen.”
In all fairness to a near-sighted industry, never before (or since the likes of) Gary Stevens, formerly a night-time Top 40 disk jockey, has led to running a radio station. The road to management usually runs through sales, and occasionally takes a left turn through programming.
Gary is the first to point out it wasn’t easy. “Even after I’d been successful in Phoenix and Minneapolis, nobody would take me seriously. I knew that if I wanted to do what I’m doing, I had to build my own company.”
WKNR Music Guide – Gary Stevens – November 14, 1963. (Click image for larger view).
Stevens has become more than a builder. He’s the architect of one of the fastest-growing chains of radio properties in America. Interested in broadcasting since the age of eight (“my mother would take me down to sit in with the jocks at the local station”), the son of the chief executive officer for a chain of Buffalo department stores started his career ay WWOW in Conneaut, Ohio while on vacation from college.
The next years at the University of Miami brought him work at several stations, including WCKR and WAME, “where I worked with Frank Ward, one of my idols. He was one of the four guys who were ‘Guy King’ at WWOL. The other three were Tom Clay, Bruce Bradley and Dick Purtan. Some of the guys who went through Buffalo were amazing,” reminisces Stevens.
From WAME, Gary gravitated to WFUN, which had just signed on the air in Miami, “where I stay until 1961, where I left to go to WIL in St. Louis. My whole career moved so quickly because I worked with such good people and I learned from them. WIL had Ron Lundy in afternoons; I did seven to midnight; Dan Ingram, who had just left to go to New York; Roger Barkley; Gary Owens. I kept finding myself in the company of excellent people. I was there from 1961 to 1963, when Mike Joseph hired me to go to WKNR in Detroit.
WKNR’s Gary Stevens in studio with Frank ‘Swingin’ Sweeney, February 1965.
In 1965 I came to New York. I’d been pitching Ruth Meyer (the program director at WMCA) since St. Louis. When I went to Detroit, I sent her a note and said, ‘watch what we do.’ I’d figured if we did what we said we would, I’d have a job, and if we didn’t, she wouldn’t remember anyway.”
She remembered. In just two monthly Hoopers, WKNR emerged as the No. 1 station in Detroit, climbing over such giants as WXYZ, WJBK and CKLW. It wasn’t long before Gary Stevens wound up where he’d always wanted to be, on the air in New York City. “I stayed there (at WMCA) doing nights until 1968, when I didn’t want to be on the air anymore. I moved to Europe, which was something I’d always wanted to do.”
When Stevens returned to the United States, he learned the harsh realities of being a former WMCA ‘Good Guy’ in search of a management position. In spite of the grim prospects, his perseverance paid off when he heard that Doubleday Broadcasting was about to acquire KRIZ in Phoenix. “I called the president and told him about my background. I paid my own way to Dallas, where the company was located at the time, to talk to him about the job, and he hired me on the spot,” Stevens recalled.
WMCA’s Gary Stevens in 1965. (Click image for larger view).
“I went to KRIZ after having been gone for two years, and I put on the greatest 1968 radio station you ever heard — in 1970. We bombed. We were almost run out of business, but then I analyzed what was wrong and we fixed it. We became the highest rated Class IV in the United States, as well as perhaps the highest billing 250-watter. I stayed there until 1974. The truth is, nobody else took me seriously as general manager. The disc jockey thing still hung over me.”
So when an opening came within the Doubleday chain for a manager at KDWB in Minneapolis, Stevens went for it. “When I got there, there was KSTP consulted by Burkhart, Storz’s WGDY, and WYOO, which had just come in. We beat ’em all, and by 1976 I still couldn’t get a job. I thought, ‘How many times do I have to do this?’ “
Gary Stevens with the ‘Woolie Burger’ in tow at WMCA, New York, in 1965.
Before Stevens had the chance to contemplate the answer, an offer to manage a large East Coast station won him a promotion within his own company. He was named senior vice-president director of research. “A lot of people don’t know this, but nobody before us was doing music research. When Todd Wallace joined us at KRIZ, he was the first guy to market a a music research system. Steve Casey was our all-night man and a computer nut. He refined the system and suggested things like playing parts of a song to listeners over the phone” — which, while commonplace today, was quite innovative in the early-1970s. Casey followed Stevens to Minneapolis along with another KRIZ personality, John Sebastian. “John became our program director. You heard of Sabastian/Casey, well, they got together under me at KDWB.”
In 1977, a change in the structure of Doubleday led Stevens’ being named president of the company. Since that time, Doubleday had gone through several changes and emerged as a force to deal with: “It’s only in the last two years that people are taking us seriously. Actually, this company has benefited by the underestimation of it’s abilities. A few years ago, many people thought Doubleday was getting out of radio. We’d sold half the company. All we had was Minneapolis and Denver and a construction permit for St. Louis.”
‘WMCA Good Guys’ Gary Stevens in 1967. (Click image for larger view).
But Stevens was far from ready to fold. “By then, there was no question where FM was going. I got us into the right technology, selling our AMs and buying only FMs starting with Detroit. One thing I learned in Phoenix is was that you work harder for less money in smaller markets, so our central core strategy was top 20. But after our experience in Detroit, I realized the big markets brought three to five times the return, and redefined that strategy as top 10.”
Assessing the future, Stevens is ambivalent about the fate of his two remaining AM properties. “Our AMs don’t cost us anything to operate, but they don’t bring in any revenue either. I don’t see any future in AM. As for AM stereo, it’s too little too late. The problem between AM and FM is coverage, not stereo. AM stations were engineered 30 to 40 years ago, and they don’t cover today’s market.
“Nobody could have envisioned the tremendous growth our cities have undergone, and because of that, most AMs can’t compete. FMs being non-directional are winning to a great degree because of a signal advantage. So AM stereo won’t be a solution to the basic problem.”
The Doubleday chain currently includes WAPP in New York, WAVA in Washington, D. C., WLLZ in Detroit, KDWB AM-FM in Minneapolis, KWK AM-FM in St Louis, and KPKE in Denver, and is in the process of acquiring WMET in Chicago from Metromedia. All are operated under what Stevens terms “the module concept, where all the stations are similar in format and facility.” (Once Top 40, the chain is now AOR, a move Stevens generally credits to former Doubleday program director Bob Hattrick).
“While we’re committed to AOR for the foreseeable future, we really look at our company as seven very good FMs in seven very good markets delivering whatever the public wants. Keeping the philosophy and physical setups the same is the reason we’ve been able to grow so fast. And though there are enormous musical differences among the stations, the positioning and promotion remains consistent, and that gives us a good synergy and allows our people to become interchangeable from station to station.”
Gary Stevens as he looked in the former WKNR studios (WNIC) in 1998. (Click image for larger size).
People is a key word with Stevens. “That’s the edge we have. Our people last. Most people don’t want anybody good. They feel threatened by them. I really believe that. One of radio’s biggest problems today is the definite lack of professional management. Radio is a margin business, not a gross sales business. Two bad books and you lose your revenue. And while revenues in this business have been increasing each year by about 10%, profits have been consistently going down. That’s a stunning indictment of management’s failure to realize that they’re operating a margin business. And that impacts all of us because we get our future management from the system that’s producing these people. And I want the best I can get.”
Stevens’ track record is indicative of a man who gets what he wants. A list of his former programmers, for instance, read like a radio who’s who. Names like Todd Wallace, Dan Clayton, John Sebastian, Gerry Peterson, Dave Hamilton and Bobby Hattrick, most of whom were in their infancy when they came to Doubleday, had gone on to notable careers.
“From 1970 to the present, we’ve had an unending strings of successful program directors who have emerged from nowhere. I don’t program the stations. But I know how to pick a good program director.”END
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Information, credit and news source: Billboard; December 18, 1982
Former ’60s WKNR personalities Frank “Swingin’ Sweeney” and Gary Stevens at the Detroit Radio Reunion Conference, Novi, Mi., April 25, 1998. (Click on image for largest view).
A MCRFB note: Here’s a recent articlestill on the internetMCRFB found on Gary Stevens today. While the article is dated March 23, 2010, it is still currently posted on the allaccess.com website.
A recent picture of the legendary WMCA-AM 570 transmitter site in N.J., taken in 2010. (Thank you M. J. Rosenbluth for the “transmitter site” clarification you shared in your comments below this post).
Gary Stevens was at WMCA from 1965 to 1968. The former legendary WMCA-AM 570 facility resonates strictly a Christian radio broadcasting format today.
Condolences Extended To Families Of 3 Rock ‘n’ Roll Stars Killed In Plane Crash
O N T H E B E A T
b y R e n G r e v a t t | B i l l b o a r d F e b r u a r y 9 , 1 9 5 9
T H I S C O L U M N extends its condolences to the families and friends of Buddy Holly, J. P. (Big Bopper) Richardson and Ritchie Valens, whose deaths occurred in a tragic plane crash earlier this week. All three left a distinct mark on the pop record scene and all three will be sorely missed by not only those who were close to them, but by many, many young record buyers who felt close to them in another way, as well.
Valens, a 17 year-old Californian, was experiencing his first big surge of popularity with his Del-Fi disk of “Donna,” which at the time of his death was the number three record in the nation. Earlier, Valens had scored with “Come On, Let’s Go.” Richardson, a Texas disc jockey with some eight years’ radio experience behind him, was a cleffer of some distinction and recently had made it big with “Chantilly Lace,” on Mercury Records. The hit disk, oddly enough, was the flip side of the “Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor,” the original plug-side of the record.
Holly had been on the scene longest of all. A discovery of music man Norman Petty of Clovis, New Mexico, Holly had much to do with popularizing the so-called “Tex-Mex” rockabilly sound, with a number of smash hit records like “That’ll Be The Day,” “Peggy Sue,” “Oh Boy,” “Maybe Baby,” “Rave On” and “Early In The Morning.” His latest coupling, his first effort for a with a big string backing, was “It’s Raining In My Heart,” and in a way the ironical title, “It Really Doesn’t Matter Anymore.” But for many, it does matter, and Holly, Valens and Richardson will be not be forgotten. In fact, Coral Records is rushing out an album of Holly’s biggest hits, under the title, “The Buddy Holly Story.” END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; February 9, 1959)
February 3, 1959
A MCRFB Note: This column was Billboard’s first immediate reference on the deaths of Holly, Valens and Richardson. This column initially was published six days after the tragedy.
For more on February 3, 1959 on the web: Go to the Des Moines Register online and see that paper’s exclusive tribute to Holly, Valens and Richardson, observing“50 Winters Ago”from 2009. You can literally spend hours here — it is loaded with a time-line, interviews, videos, photographs,documentsand otherspecial featurescommemorating 50 years since the tragic 1959 event. And this from the Lubbock-Avalanche Journal online (2009), “Iowans Remember Buddy Holly Performance” (click on the BACK-NEXT button as you go). Especially read the very last eyewitness account . . . Last, see Scott Westerman’s splendid take on”American Pie Deciphered” (broadcast on XM-Sirius in 2010) here on Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
F E B R U A R Y 3 , 1 9 5 9 : T O D A Y I N M U S I C H I S T O R Y
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1959:WITHIN MINUTESOFTAKEOFF FROM the Mason City, Iowa Airport, at around 1:00 AM CST, the chartered Beech-Craft Bonanza airplane No. N3794N containing Buddy Holly,Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson (Big Bopper) crashes into the Iowa countryside, killing all three, in addition to pilot Roger Peterson. The plane, headed for the next “Winter Dance Party” tour stop in Fargo, North Dakota, had been chartered by Holly in order for the band members to travel in heated comfort and to arrive early for their next gig.
When he learns that band member Waylon Jennings, who would eventually become a country star in his own right, has decided to take the freezing bus instead, Holly jokes, “Well, I hope your old bus freezes up.” Jennings jokes back, “Well, I hope your plane crashes.” Another Holly band member, Tommy Allsup, flips Valens for the last available seat, losing the coin toss. Valens exclaims, “That’s the first time I’ve won anything in my life!”
Pilot Peterson, not having been informed of worsening weather conditions, decides to fly “on instruments,” meaning without visual confirmation of the horizon, which leads to the crash. The tragedy was later immortalized as “The Day The Music Died” by Don McLean in his famous song “American Pie.”
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1981
The playlist changes frequently, at least twice a week. The process is ongoing. Current hot numbers include “Tom Sawyer” by Rush, AC/DC’s “Problem Child,” Rainbow’s “No Release” and the new Moody Blues record.
For the 4th of July, Larson ran an eight-hour special program of Detroit’s “Rockin’ Best” (also the station’s motto), the 98 favorite songs reported by listeners. The special included a motorcycle and cash giveaway.
