Beatles Cartoon Ratings Success Saturday Mornings on ABC-TV
NEW YORK — King Features is reportedly planning another TV cartoon series based on a popular recording group. The company’s “The Beatles Series,”aired over Saturday morning over ABC-TV, has been running over a month, and, according to the Nielsen ratings, is reaching over 50 per cent of the audience with sets turned on in their time period. The series, produced in London by TV Cartoons, LTD., uses the English-accented animated-sounding voices of the Fab Four and the actual Beatles hit recordings in every episode as well.END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; October 30, 1965)
This copyrighted Beatles cartoon image was created by Kail Tescar. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
A MCRFB NOTE: The Beatles cartoon series premiered on the ABC Television Network, Saturday September 25, 1965. The last Beatles cartoon episode aired on April 20, 1969. Al Brodax and the King Features team created the cartoon series in New York.
WEXLER, ATLANTIC RECORDS SIGN ARETHA TO NEW LONG-TERM RECORD DEAL
NEW YORK — Aretha Franklin and Atlantic Records have negotiated a new contract, despite her original contract with the label had several years left open before it would have expired contractually. At a luncheon at the Hotel St. Regis last Thursday, April 25, the Atlantic organization were on hand to celebrate her new deal and her imminent departure on her first European concert tour.
Jerry Wexler and Aretha Franklin 1967(click on image for larger view)
Jerry Wexler, Atlantic’s executive vice-president, said that Miss Franklin will receive one of the largest guarantee ever given to any recording star but to reveal the sum would be in “gross taste.”
Miss Franklin signed with Atlantic Records in October, 1966, and her first single was issued in February, 1967. Since then she has had five singles releases that have sold more than 1 million copies, including an album that has garnered sales of over $1 million. Over the past year she has swept virtually every award in the record industry.
Miss Franklin’s European tour begins in Rotterdam, Sunday, May 5 and winds up in Stockholm on Thursday, May 9. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; May 4, 1968)
DETROIT — Unable to carve a niche in the torrid rock and roll field here,WXYZintroduced a “Good Life” sound here last week in a drive by new operations manager Joe Bacarella to create the station’s own audience with a new format appeal, slated tentative for March 5. The new sound hinges almost entirely on uptempo songs from a playlist of 150 tunes.
WXYZ-AM, until recently, was a top 40 station in the Detroit market going against WKNR-AM and CKLW-AM. WJBK, currently an adult-oriented conservative music station, made the switch several years back, dropping top 40 music by August, 1964.
Joe Bacarella
The records played will include everything from up-tempo tunes by Henry Mancini to records by Sonny and Cher and the Herman’s Hermits. But Bacarella emphasized that only the big band sounds of artists like Sonny and Cher and Herman’s Hermits will be played.
Records like Sonny and Cher’s “The Beat Goes On,” said Bacarella, features a big band sound. “Whereas at one time the Herman’s Hermits put out tunes featuring only the group, today their records features many more instruments than just the group itself. Ramsey Lewis’ ‘Wade In The Water,’ if you listen closely, contains that big band backing.
“It’s what’s happening in today’s pop music. It’s good to hear that rock beat, but nothing can compare with a Buddy Rich doing it.”
Bacarella, who came to WXYZ two months ago from Detroit’s WCAR, says the station will feature WNEW type deejays and a WIP (“work in progress”) format. The 150 tunes includes two selections each from 50 albums and 50 singles. Artists played, besides those already mentioned, include Peggy Lee, Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra, and Eydie Gorme.
The format features 12 albums in four categories — male vocal, female vocal, group, and instrumental. A new playlist is compiled anytime the station may feel the need.
As part of it’s new image, WXYZ recently brought in the deejay duo of Howard and Martin and have invested in a fantastic promotion campaign behind the team. Bacarella said the station was also out to establish a “show business” image to correlate with the “Good Life” music sound for a new Detroit audience.
When Tony Bennett recently appeared at the Roostertail nightclub, the entire deejay staff taped interviews with the artist and Howard and Martin did a show from a script with Bennett for their program.
So far, the reception to the new WXYZ changes overall “has been excellent as had been expected thus far,” Bacarella said. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; March 18, 1967)
WXYZ’s new morning team Specs Howard and Harry Martin.
A MCRFB Note: By the time Joe Bacarella arrived at WXYZ (from WCAR) on January 16, 1967, station manager Chuck Fritz had just finalized the deal in ink when hiring the duo of Martin and Howard from Cleveland’s WKYC as the new morning team on 1270.
Martin and Howard made news in print in Detroit when first introduced on December 5, 1966 (Click on image for larger view; scan courtesy Jim Heddle Collection)
It was a big investment. Reportedly, WXYZ agreed to pay the two personalities $48,000 each, with another $20,000 going to the team’s personal writer, an individual by the name of Ray Koeppen.
The very next day, on January 17, the duo was surprised after meeting with ABC brass from New York that WXYZ was dropping the top 40 format for MOR instead, much to their “devastation.”
With the new MOR format at WXYZ in place, Martin and Howard were never given the complete freedom the comedy team had celebrated during their eight-year run at Cleveland’s top 40 WKYC.
By early 1968, the highly-invested Martin and Howard team tanked within earshot of a dismal 4.0 rating for the morning drive. Shortly thereafter, after much anticipated acclaim, the comedy-duo were finally dumped by the ‘XYZ brass. Martin and Howard were finished and done in Detroit. Dick Purtan, who was hired at the station for afternoons after returning back to Detroit from a very short stay at Baltimore’s WBAL, was then promoted by Bacarella to be the new morning man at WXYZ.
NEW YORK — Now that the payola crises has abated, many displaced deejays have relocated — and at least one — Tom Clay of Detroit — is aggressively rooting for the old days when a disk jockey was king and could make or break a record.
In a letter to the trade, Clay (fired from WJBK, Detroit, last November on payola charges and now spinning records at WQTE, Detroit) lamented, “What’s happening to the day when we were really deejays and we would really make rounds of distribs for new records, get exited and predicted overnight smashes, make the charts instead of following them, play a record seven times in a row, and get people to buy the record the same day? So we had a little trouble in our biz. Are we going to crawl up in a shell and sit on our fat fannies and let the deejay die?”
Famed controversial Detroit deejay Tom Clay, pictured here in 1964.
Clay addressed special pleas to top jocks like Bill Randle, WERE, Cleveland; Howard Miller, WIND, Chicago; and Frank Ward, Atlanta. “You could tie the city in knots again,” he told Randle, “Forget teaching school. Teach the Cleveland deejays what real deejays are.” To Miller he said, “Remember when you got kicks doing shows? Are you getting too much rich making what you are doing now?”
Addressing the trio as a whole, he added, “Let’s swing again — a bunch of deejays that made their mark going out on a limb, predicting records. Now wait for it to show up on a chart… Forget your pretty voices and prestige — let’s get some excitement back in radio.”
Clay, who apparently evinces no sensitivity over his payola-headline days, concluded his letter to the trade (headed “Detroit’s No. 1 Deejay Has His Say”) with the following line: if you have any records you’d like auditioned send them. Remember, I too, was a “record consultant.”“Am I being funny? No.”
Although WQTE had said it was taking programming out of the hands of the deejays when it launched it’s new “Fabulous 56” format this June, Clay claims he is programming his own show. At any rate, he said he played Tommy Leonetti’s Atlantic waxing of “Without Love” for “45 minutes straight,” and predicted it would be “a smash hit.”
Clay exudes complete confidence in his ability to predict hits, undaunted by the fact that in a recent newsletter he informed Colonel Tom Parker that Elvis Presley’s second post-GI single was a complete bomb. The disk in questioned — released three weeks ago — is now No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Meanwhile, other displaced deejays have also relocated, but are somewhat more reticent about the whole thing. Alan Freed and Mel Leeds, ex-WINS, New York program directors, are at KDAY, Los Angeles. Chuck Young, ex-KYW Cleveland music librarian, is presently working for Cosnat Distributors in Cleveland.
Stan Richards, ex-WORL, Boston, is at WINS in New York. Joe Smith, another ex-WORL spinner, is sales promotion manager for Hart Distributors in Los Angeles. Joe Finan, ex-KYW, Cleveland, is rumored to be returning to that city at WHK. Peter Tripp, ex-WMGM, New York, is reportedly set to go to KFWB in Hollywood. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; August 8, 1960)
NEW YORK — Mary Wells, known worldwide as the “Queen of Motown” for her million-selling hits “My Guy” and “You Beat Me To The Punch,” died of cancer July 26 in Los Angeles. She was 49.
Wells had been suffering with throat problems for several years and was diagnosed with throat-cancer of the larynx in 1990. She underwent surgery for the condition in August 1990, and received chemotherapy and experimental drug treatment through 1991. According to a close friend, Joyce McRae, the singer’s physical condition worsened earlier this year and she was hospitalized for several months at the Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Center at the University of Southern California, where she died.
Says Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, “Mary’s recording of Smokey Robinson’s ‘My Guy’ became her signature song, marking the beginning of a new era in the world of Motown and music. She holds a special place in the hearts of millions and a very special place in mine.”
Wells, born May 13, 1943 in Detroit, was a 17 year-old graduate of Northwestern High School when she auditioned for Gordy with a tune she’d written when she was 15. As a result, she became the first artist to be released on the Motown label. (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and Little Stevie Wonder had their hits on the Gordy-Tamla imprint.
‘First Lady of Song’
“Mary Wells, our first lady of song, came to me with a song she had written for Jackie Wilson called ‘Bye, Bye Baby,” recalls Gordy, who signed the young songwriter on the spot. “I insisted she become a singer. It became her first hit.”
“Bye, Bye Baby” reached No. 8 and No. 45 on the R&B and pop charts, respectively.
“That song got her on Dick Clark’s ‘American Bandstand,'” remembers Esther Gordy Edwards, Berry’s eldest sister and a former Motown VP. “She was our first artist to go on ‘Bandstand’ in Philadelphia, and that was a first big step for us.”
Mary Wells toured with the Beatles in the U.K. in 1965. (Click on image for larger view).
Wells three top-ten pop hits in 1962, all penned by Smokey Robinson: “The One Who Really Loves You,” “You Beat Me To The Punch,” and “Two Lovers.” In 1963, “My Guy,” another Robinson composition, landed in the No. 1 pop position, becoming Motown’s first No. 1 song. Wells also recorded several duets with Marvin Gaye, including “What’s The Matter With You Baby,” b/w “Once Upon A Time,” which were top-20 hits on the pop charts. As the label’s premier artist, she was the first of the Motown acts to tour the U.K., as an opener for the Beatles.
Post-Motown Years
At the age of 21, after a string of successful singles, Wells left Motown and signed a four-year, $500,000 contract with 20th Century Fox and moved to Los Angeles. According to Edwards, Motown sued for breach of contract, and the suit was settled when her new label bought out her contract.
“She was really riding the crest of the wave,” say Edwards, “She was really getting a lot of other offers. She wanted out and she was probably encouraged by others. We hated to lose her… I think she would have been a super, superstar if she would have stayed with Motown because the nurturing and organization she had here was conducive to a great career.”
Wells, who was at the time married to vocalist Herman Griffin, recorded a few albums for 20th Century Fox and continued to release singles, but none reached the same level of success during her earlier Motown hits. A 1965 move to Atco yielded one top-ten hit, “Dear Lover.”
In 1966, Wells married fellow performer Cecil Womack, brother of singer Bobby Womack. (Cecil now performs with his current wife, Linda, as Womack and Womack). In 1967, Wells gave birth to Cecil Jr., the first of four children the couple would have together.
Mary Wellscirca 1970.
By 1968, Wells was recording for the independent Jubilee label, and then took a break from the recording business in the 1970s to raise her children. In 1978, she began performing again, recording briefly for Warner/Reprise and then Epic, where she had her last major hit in 1982 with the club anthem, “Gogolo.” In 1983, she appeared on the well-acclaimed “Motown 25” television special.
Financial Crisis
Like many R&B artists of the ’50s and ’60s, Wells did not have the business savvy to secure her dues insofar royalty rights, and thus had to perform frequently to keep the bills paid, says Maye James, a childhood friend who served as Well’s secretary and unofficial road manager during her Motown years.
Her lack of financial security became a crisis in 1990, when Wells, a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx. With no medical insurance, Wells was unable to pay rent on her Los Angeles home and was evicted.
Doctors told Wells they could save her by removing her vocal cords, an option she rejected. “I miss my voice, you know, but hopefully it will come back,” she once said on an Entertainment Tonight feature the year before she died. “I’ve been singing all my life, I don’t know of any other trade.”
Word of the artist’s plight circulated throughout the music industry and the world. The Washington, D.C. based Rhythm and Blues Foundation, an organization founded to aid financially distressed R&B recording pioneers, came to Wells’ aid with a fund drive that raised $125,000. Berry Gordy made a special cash gift (reportedly $25,000) through the foundation to cover her housing needs. Diana Ross contributed $15,000, Rod Steward and Bruce Springsteen gave $10,000 apiece, and the Temptations gave $5,000. Aretha Franklin skirted the foundation and gave $15,000 directly to Mary Wells.
“Over the two years (since she was diagnosed), we provided the assistance,” says Susan Jenkins, executive director of the foundation, who says fans from around the world sent money to help Wells. “We worked with her family to make sure she got whatever she needed and worked with AFTRA to get her medical insurance reinstated… It speaks a lot to the power of music that we got contributions from all over the world, from people who couldn’t even speak English, for whom the power of Mary’s music impacted their lives.”
Wells was buried July 30 at Forest Lawn Cemetery. A candle-light vigil was scheduled for July 31 in Detroit outside the original Motown offices, known as Hitsville, where the Motown Historical Museum is located. According to Edwards, director of the museum, the vigil was conceived by Smokey Robinson guitarist Marv Johnson and Martha Reeves.
“She was loved,” says Edwards. “Everybody loved everybody, and once a part of that Motown family in the ’60s, you remain a part of it forever.”
Wells, who is divorced from Womack, is survived by two daughters, Stacy and Sugar, and two sons, Cecil Jr. and Harry. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; August 8, 1992)
Folk Swinging Wave On – Courtesy of Rock Groups and Artists
Hollywood –With Bob Dylan as the stimulus and the Byrds as the disciples, a wave of folk rock is developing in contemporary pop music.
The Byrds in New York City in 1965(click on image for larger view)
British groups, such as the Animals and the Nashville Teens, have on occasions used pure country-folk materials. But their identity has been really in the Beatles vein. The Byrds, on the other hand, with a similar driving sound, are the first American rock group to obtain the majority of its material from the folk field and make a success out of it. Their Columbia single release, “Mr. Tambourine Man,” is the No. 6 record in the “Hot 100” survey this week.
The five folk singers switched over to rock and roll when the Beatles made it fashionable to wear long hair and play amplified guitars.
Since the Byrds single was released, with San Francisco and Los Angeles were the first two markets accepting the Dylan-authored song, a host of other rock groups have caught the message. And the race is on the get on the folk-rock bandwagon.
Such acts as Billy J. Kramer, Jackie DeShannon and Sonny and Cher have all begun using folk-oriented materials on their singles. A new group, the Rising Sons, displayed a folk-rock style at their Ash Grove bow in Los Angeles recently. Joe and Eddie, Crescendo Records top folk artists, are now reportedly switching over to blend of folk-rock. An act billing itself as the Lovin’ Spoonful, reportedly is working in the New York area with a folk-rock sound.
Byrds’ Gene Clark and Bob Dylan at Ciros in Los Angeles, 1965(click on image for larger view)
When the Byrds played their first engagement at Ciros in Los Angeles, many folk artists attended. The boys rubbed elbows with Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary and, with Bob Dylan as well, who attended the Byrds’ L. A. venue. It was reported that several disk-men brought portable tape recorders to the club to catch their sound. The Byrds’ sound combines falsetto voicing with blaring guitar chords along with a rock bottom drum beat, songs already applicable for dancing with the current pop scene.
Their repertoire is heavily Dylan influenced, espousing his causes just above their din of their own playing. Their new album has four Dylan tunes and one by Pete Seeger. For some, the blending of folk lyrics with a rock beat becomes a natural extension for the current new folk sound. For the Byrds, this sound has become their key to their success.
They have already played dates with Britain’s own Rolling Stones, and a tie-in with the Beatles on their planned forthcoming United States tour has been mentioned. For the Byrds, TV appearances have already been in the making, giving more exposure to the new folk-rock sound.
If the folk-rock movement takes hold, a song’s lyrical contents could become as influential as the dominating beat that has always been the pride of rock and roll at best. With the Beatles in the mainstream as one from the old rock-and-roll-school, and the Rolling Stones along with the Righteous Brothers, with their white R&B acts infused with euphoric soul, the Byrds are in flight towards a new plateau, combining the imagery of folk lyrics along with the wave the group is now riding with their newly-acclaimed sound. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; June 12, 1965)
BILLBOARD HOT 100 JUNE 12, 1965
A MCRFB viewing tip: On your PC? For a larger detailed view click above image 2x and open to second window. Click image anytime to return to NORMAL image size.
Click your server’s back button to return to MCRFB.COM home page.
On your mobile device? Tap on image. Open to second window. “Stretch” image across your device screen to magnify for largest print view.
Rock, Folk, and Protest Equals An Erupting New Sound
New York — Call it folk-rock, urban folk, protest music or rock with a message. It’s so new the trade lexicographers haven’t yet agreed on a name. But whatever it’s called, the new sound is selling — and selling big.
Here’s what’s happening. The traditional folk music and the folk-oriented pop product are still selling, but not nearly as much as a few years ago. The hard rock product is still the core of the singles market, but again, it’s not selling as well as it did a year ago. And the sound is not quite as hard today as it has been in recent past.
Fresh Urban Lyric
A hybrid, combining the best and instrumentation of rock music with the folk lyric — usually a fresh urban lyric, and combined with a lyric of protestation — is selling across the board.
Sonny and Cher with Bob Dylan in 1965 (click on image for larger view)
Among the leading exponents of this new form of music are Sonny and Cher, whose Atco record, “I Got You Babe,” hit the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for the second week in a row. “All I Really Want To Do,” another single in the same vein, is on the charts with versions by Cher on Imperial and by the Byrds on Columbia. Two weeks ago, Sonny and Cher’s “Look At Us” album was released on Atco Records.
Also released were singles by Sonny on Atco, and Cher on Reprise. Bob Dylan, the Columbia artist influential in spearheading the “new” folk-rock sound, is also back on the charts with his latest single, “Like A Rolling Stone.”
Elektra, a traditional folk label, announced last week that its fall program would include a heavy dose of the rocking urban-folk product. This Week, Verve-Folkways, another traditional folk label, said it would branch into the folk-rock field this coming fall.
Sound And Message
Barry McGuire folk-rocked the charts with “Eve Of Destruction” in 1965
With many notable exceptions, folk music has been more concerned with the message and narration with the new sound. And rock music has been more concerned with the sound than the message.
The latest development has been is to take the rock sound and instrumentation and use folk-oriented lyrics. The singer or group has something to say. Until recently, the message would be delivered with a guitar with a plaintive voice. Now it’s delivered, often by a group, by hard rock instrumentation behind their lyrics, what they seem in trying to convey of their message.
A case in point is Barry McGuire’s “Eve Of Destruction,” released last week on Dunhill Records. The beat is solid, but the lyrics, aimed at teenagers (are adults listening?), deals with social disarrays at the present, such as the possibility of dropping a nuclear bomb somewhere on the planet, maybe during this lifetime.
Capitol Records recording artist Jody Miller circa 1964
Jody Miller’s “Home Of The Brave” on Capitol, which defends the rights of youngsters to dress as they see fit, is another of the protest genre that is served up with a rock-influenced beat.
Donovan, the British artist on Hickory Records with his current release on the charts, “Colours,” falls in that same category, along with a message of protestation.
The reconstituted Highwaymen, making their first ABC-Paramount album, have come out with a Bob Crewe produced rock sound, but the message remain in the traditional folk idiom.
The songs are plain enough. Traditional folk, while it will continue to serve it’s specialized market, and what has come to be considered rock music, is being influenced to a major degree by the wave of the new folk sound, evidently heard in lyric and in message with today’s ever-expanding music scene. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; August 21, 1965)
WKNR, WJR Hitting Pay Dirt in Detroit, Thanks to Two Air Personalities
DETROIT — Two deejays — one in the Top 40 field and the other from a ‘middle-of-the-road’ easy music station, are basically responsible for the tremendous success of radio stations WKNR and WJR here in influencing the sales of records…. and may be largely responsible for the success of their respective radio stations in reaching a large audience.
J. P. McCarthy WJR circa 1965
WJR station manager James H. Quello, said that his good music station was proud of J. P. McCarthy. “He’s the number one radio personality in town. Everybody knows him and he’s in good part responsible… a major factor… in influencing the sale of LP’s in Detroit.”
According to Billboard’s Radio Response Rating Survey last week of the Detroit radio market — ranked the country’s fifth radio market — McCarthy was rated No. 1 in influencing radio listeners to purchase popular LPs. The station was rated first in the same category, but what makes it a unique situation is that the station gained strength to capture the top position since a similar Billboard survey of May 16, 1964, had placed WJR in second-place behind WCAR.
And the reason, according to Quello, is the power of McCarthy. McCarthy had been with the station at one time, then left WJR in Detroit to work for another radio station in San Francisco. He returned back to Detroit since the last Billboard survey. He’s so effective that WJR placed him on mornings in their 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. time-frame, and he returns for the 3:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. drive time. “After all, this is the motor city of the world… a big car place,” Quello went on to say. McCarthy features mostly MOR records, Quello said, “but we’re programming more contemporary music now, anything short of rock and roll.”
In influencing the sale of popular LP recordings, the major stations, in order, are WJR, WCAR, WWJ, and WJBK. WJR and WCAR has most of the power; in fact, WJR’s McCarthy had 52 per cent of the total points in Billboard’s survey, followed by WCAR deejay Joe Bacarella with 36 per cent overall.
WJR, incidentally, tied for second-place with WWJ in influencing the sale of conservative type records, was No. 1 in influencing the sale of classical records, and showed up fairly well as a power in influencing the sale of folk records as well.
Both Gain
Bob Green WKNR circa 1965
The top position in the sale of popular record singles was again captured by radio station WKNR and its popular disk-jockey, Bob Green. In fact, both station and deejay gained in strength. WKNR radio was rated at 33 per cent in May 16, 1964, but increased its influence to 44 per cent as of last week. Green increased two points to 30 per cent.
WKNR radio station manager Walter Patterson said the Top 40 station isn’t doing anything different, “but we are fortunate in accumulating listeners.” A recent Pulse study showed that the 24-hour Detroit station as reaching 292,900 separate households during a given day.
“We’re not cocky, but we watch our position closely and never let up,” Patterson said. While the station does believe in strong air-personalities, — “some are and some are not” — it also practices “playing more music and keeping talk to a minimum.” The station’s “sound” is very important,” Patterson said.
WKMH the former, now WKNR, featured a “middle-of-the-road” music format until November 1, 1963, when it went Top 40. “We’ve pulled the fastest turnaround of any station in the country,” Patterson said. “What’s happening is the more we go, the more we get.” The station plays the top 31 records and distributes 99,000 copies of the station’s own survey guide of featured songs and hits. Patterson also said the station has a “refrigerator full” of promotions and uses them as the need arises.
Also in the Top 40 market, radio station CKLW has increased its power in influencing the sales of records since the last Billboard survey. The market saw WJBK change format from Top 40, where it ranked No. 2 last May, to good music. In May 1964, it was No. 4; now it ranks second. Dave Shafer and Tom Shannon of CKLW now rank second and third behind WKNR’s Bob Green.
John Gordon, the program director of CKLW, received the Billboard nod as most co-operative in exposing new records.
Close in R&B Field
In the R&B field in the Detroit market, it was a close race, but WCHB radio came out on top in influencing record sales. WCHB had 49 per cent, WJLB had 44 per cent and FM station WGPR had 7 per cent. WJLB ranked first last May.
Ernie Durham WCHB
Bill Williams, program director at WCHB, attributed the station’s increase in influence to a “much tighter format that was launched in January.” The station also went 24-hours in April. Williams said deejays on WCHB are now faster with delivery than before. “We play 35 of the top-selling R&B records, interspersed with every third record with one we think is a good prospect for a potential hit-maker to climb-up the chart.” This has made the station very important in getting listeners to go out and buy more into the R&B product,” Williams said.
“This is a good R&B market, its the home of the Motown sound,” he said, adding that he liked to think of his market as the entire population of Detroit. WJLB, however, scored with the top disc-jockey — Ernie Durham — in the power of influencing record sales. In fact, Durham almost captured the whole thing with a 44 per cent influence in the Detroit R&B market. The second-place honors goes out to Le Baron Taylor of WCHB, who held the No. 2 spot at 27 per cent.
Interesting to note is that an FM station, WBRB-FM is now showing muscles in influencing the sales of country music records. The field is still dominated by country powerhouse WEXL, which still came up with 86 per cent of the total points, but it’s no longer a one-station field. WBRB showed up with a 14 per cent; it’s a new station since the last Billboard survey. Bill Samples, of WEXL, is still the No. 1 deejay in the motor town getting country music records sold. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; July 24, 1965)
SUPREMES ARE NO. 1 ON BILLBOARD; THIRD DISK IN A ROW
NEW YORK — Motown’s Supremes are living up to their title. The gal group captured the first place position on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 chart with their waxing of “Come See About Me.” This is the third No. 1 record in a row for the gals from Detroit, and they now represent the first femme group to achieve this status.
The Supremes ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ LP album; Motown Records; 1964. (Click on image for larger view)
To add to it all, Diana, Flo, and Mary have staged a turnabout on the British by invading their No. 1 position on their chart with “Baby Love,” the first American girl group to do so. The record also registers big here, having reached the No. 8 position on Billboard’s single listing and holding 15th place this week.
Their Motown albums have had the same response from record buyers. “Where Did Our Love Go,” formerly occupying the No. 1 position is No. 7 this week on Billboard’s LP chart with 14 weeks as a chart entry. Their most recent album release, “A Little Bit Of Liverpool,” has reached the 92 position this week after only a month on the chart. Indications are that the album should do as well as its predecessor.
“Baby Love,” also reached the chart pinnacle for four consecutive weeks. The Supremes have recently returned from a much-heralded tour in England and Europe. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; December 19, 1964)
A MCRFB viewing tip: On your PC? For a larger detailed view click above image 2x and open to second window. Click image anytime to return to NORMAL image size.
Click your server’s back button to return to MCRFB.COM home page.
On your mobile device? Tap on image. Open to second window. “Stretch” image across your device screen to magnify for largest print view.
WCHB Adds Own Excitement To Rhythm and Blues Format
WCHB Bell Broadcasting, Inc., 1966
DETROIT — R&B music is the most exciting music in the world now, believes WCHB program director Bill Curtis. That, plus a “lot of hard work,” is the foundation on which the R&B station has built its success. Billboard’s latest Radio Response Ratings survey of this market, the fifth largest in the nation, showed the station as the major influence on sales of R&B records. Fifty per cent of the record dealers, distributors, one-stop operators, and local and national record executives voted in favor of the station over its competition in broadcasting in the Detroit area.
Detroit’s WCHB Super Soul Survey 40; March, 1966. (Click on image for larger view).
Although R&B music has grown increasingly so popular that Hot 100 stations are playing more and more of it, Curtis wasn’t worried. “We play more of it and we try to play it before they do. But it’s the most exciting music in the world right now, and nothing will ever take it’s place.”
The station has been responsible for giving many new R&B records that important initial exposure; in fact, the exposure has been so important that the power of the station has forced rock ‘n’ roll outlets in the city to play the records because of the sale created. An example is “Sunny” by Bobby Hebb, said Curtis. This was the flip side of a record, but during a listening session Curtis was impressed with the B side over the A side, “A Satisfied Mind.”“Just a fluke that I listened to it,” he said. “I don’t go around turning over a cat’s record.” But “Sunny,” which the station went on to play, went to No. 1 at local Hot 100 format stations.
Another record the R&B station broke in the market was “Open The Door To Your Heart” by Darryl Banks on the Detroit-based Revilot Records and Curtis predicted it would be “a big one.”
“I get a kick out of exposing a new recording product, helping it become a hit. At least you know you’re doing something worthwhile. Also, you get an indication of the power of your station and how much you can influence your listeners.” END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard Magazine; July 2, 1966)
A MCRFB NEWS brief: 1965
NEW YORK — King Features is reportedly planning another TV cartoon series based on a popular recording group. The company’s “The Beatles Series,”aired over Saturday morning over ABC-TV, has been running over a month, and, according to the Nielsen ratings, is reaching over 50 per cent of the audience with sets turned on in their time period. The series, produced in London by TV Cartoons, LTD., uses the English-accented animated-sounding voices of the Fab Four and the actual Beatles hit recordings in every episode as well. END
