DETROIT — The departure offeatured deejay Tom Clay from CKLW last week was as an “amiable termination” based on Clay’s decision to quit because he was not able to spin his own records, and was not based on any difference of programming, as reported elsewhere.
Clay felt he was not doing enough on his show when not allowed to play the records himself, but John Gordon, CKLW’s program director, told Billboard that present contracts with both the engineers and AFTRA prohibit this practice at the station.
(MCRFB note: Clay’s departure “last week”, as indicated in the article, actually, was not correct. Clay’s last show at the RKO-owned Canadian station (Windsor, Ontario) was on Friday, June 19, 1964).
Last week the Tom Clay show was replaced by the Terry Knight show, Monday through Friday, 7 to 11 p.m. and 1 to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Knight comes from WTRX, Flint, where he had a similar show and was formerly a deejay on WJBK. END
_______________
Credit, information and news source: Billboard; July 11, 1964
“TOP 40 RADIO,” as we have known it for a decade, is fast becoming obsolete. “Top 40,” as a term of reference relating to a music format based on singles sales, will undoubtedly continue in our vocabulary for some time to come. In practice, however, the number of stations actually using a full 40 best selling singles is rapidly decreasing. The majority of pop format stations today have reduced their applicable lists of hits to 25 or 30 titles. The day of the playlist numbering 80 to 100 titles has passed. These days a list of 60 titles is considered long.
INTERESTINGLY enough, a good many stations decline to publicize the fact they have shortened their surveys. These stations continue to print and distribute a full top 40, or top 50, as they have done for years past. Their program directors will tell you privately that they are actually playing only a portion of the records on their charts. For some reason. not clearly understood, they are reluctant to publish a limited list of the hits they are playing, which omits some singles that are still selling better than some others that are being played. Other stations with attenuated surveys make no secret about it, they publish their top 30s with no attempt at concealment. There are two slightly different approaches now being taken to the short survey. In one case, the top survey items are simply listed according to tabulations of sales reports. The other system deletes the older hits that are dropping down rapidly, so that the resulting list of 30 may actually he a blue-penciled 40.
A few stations, accepting the principle of a smaller number of records for airplay, still cling to the mystic magic of the number 10. They continue with a full-blown survey of 40 hits but hold down their “extras” to only 10or 15. Such playlists obviously have less room for new releases than lists of “25 plus 25.”
PEOPLE in the record business quite naturally regard these changes in radio program policies with some misgivings. The sale of single records. as everybody knows, is almost entirely controlled by airplay. Some record men express the fear that widespread curtailment of playlists will reduce the exposure of new product. A number of radio people consider such fears to be groundless. “What’s the good of 40 or 50 extras on a playlist?” asks one radio man. “Most of them never get played often enough to find out if they’re hits or not. With only 20 extras. and 30 survey records, all the new things on your list get played at least every three or four hours all day long.” Another program director puts it this way: “Every time we knock a tired old hit off our chart, it makes room for something new. With this new system we’ll not only break more new hits but we’ll also stir up lots more interest and excitement in new records, new artists and new sounds. The record people all ought to be cheering us, instead of finding fault.”
SUCH A STATEMENT of the new policy should make good sense, but apparently it does not. Judging from comments and inquiries that have been coming in to me, a good many people seem to think that a playlist is shortened by chop- ping new tunes off the bottom. This is not so in the big majority of cases. The first chopping is done on the older hits that have dropped down below 20 or 25. Then the half hits, whose sales have been fair, but which have failed to show improvement for two weeks, are dropped. This makes room for the more dynamic newcomers, either with a number on the chart or as “hot comers” standing next in line for a number next week.
AT THIS POINT, the playlist would show about 10 titles in addition to the chart – a total of 35 to 40 selections. The final 10 or 15 on the list will be about equally divided among (a) previous picks that still could be hits, (b) regional hits that were passed by the first time around, and (c) brand-new releases.
If every pop format station in the nation played only five new records a week – many will continue to play more – it would be practically certain that every worthwhile new release would get fair exposure in a number of markets, large and small.
True enough, promoters will find it more difficult to get big station picks in some cities. In others, of course, this condition has existed for quite some time and will not be a new experience.
Let’s get one point quite clear: The new trend is toward a shorter survey. It is not in the direction of drastic curtailing of airplay on newer material. The emphasis is on weeding out the weaker sides – either weak from the infirmities of old age, or weak from an inherent inability to build sales. This does not imply an impetuous haste to delete every item that has passed its sales peak. The occasional smashes, like a Dean Martin or a Louis Armstrong, continue selling in big volume for a long time after they have dropped out of the No. 1 position, and radio will keep its “umbrella” over them while they’re moving out of the rack locations. On the other hand, fast dropping items become candidates for oblivion.
What the change does imply is that radio programmers now rely less blindly on statistics. There is more evaluation of statistical data to interpret in terms of strongest possible airplay. END
_______________
Information, credit, and news source: Billboard; September 12, 1964
Motown Convention Hypes 1970 Fall Happenings ala San Francisco Chartered
SAN FRANCISCO — Motown disclosed sweeping sales increases on all fronts during its sales convention here last week prior to unveiling an impressive 37-LP new fall product release.
The meeting here marked the firm’s 10th anniversary and also served as the company’s first international convention attended by representatives from its affiliates in the U.K., Holland, Canada, Mexico, Australia and Japan, in addition to its U.S. distributors and their wives.
Phil Jones, Motown’s director of sales, told distributors that the company’s total singles sales during the first six months of 1970 increased by 14.7 per-cent over the same period of 1969 despite the fact that there were three fewer releases this year.
He said that the average sale per singles release during the past 12 months amounted to 618,000. The total percent of singles sales increase since 1960, Jones said, reached 2,400 per-cent.
Jones said that 18 out of 24 singles released during the first six months of this year made the charts, giving Motown a batting average of .750.
In the tape field, Motown showed a 70.8 percent increase during the first half of this year over sales for the same period of 1969, according to Jones. He said that his firm was one of the first to handle its own tape CARtridge production and helped pioneer the field. He said that since 1966, the four -year period showed a 2,600 percent sales increase in Motown’s prerecorded tape product.
On the album front, Jones said, the first six months of this year showed a 37.1 percent LP sales increase over the like period during 1969. Since 1961, the company’s LP sales have increased 5.600 percent, Jones said.
Among the incredible statistics Jones tossed at the distributors was Motown’s 10-year singles chart batting average. Jones said that during Motown’s decade the company released 535 singles. Of these, 357 made the charts, giving it a percent- age of 66.7 of all the singles it has released hitting the charts.
In announcing the new fall product, Motown revealed it was adding a new label, Black Forum, which will be devoted to “the presentation of ideas and voices of the worldwide struggle of black people to create a new era. Black Forum also serves to provide authentic material for use in schools and colleges and for the home study of black history and culture.”
Three LP’s were introduced in launching the Black Forum line. These consisted of a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. album dealing with his opposition to the Viet Nam war, an album featuring black poets Langston Hughes and Margaret Danner, and an LP devoted to Stokely Carmichael.
Fall Product
The fall product array included a TemptationsGreatest Hits LP and a Martha Reeves & the Vandellas album on the Gordy label; Earl Van Dyke, Jimmy Ruffin,Jr. Walker and the All Stars, the Ruffin Brothers, The Originals, and Gladys Knight & the Pips on Soul; the VIP line offered LP’s featuring Chuck Jackson, a new group called the Hearts of Stone, and an album by the Spinners produced by Stevie Wonder. On the Rare Earth label, new LP’s included a release by a new English group, Sounds Nice (the group was named by Paul McCartney), and albums featuring Power of Zeus, Lost Nation which was produced by Ollie McLaughlin, Holland’s top chart riders The Cats, who will be on tour in the U.S. this fall, the Poor Boys, and Rare Earth.
An eight-LP release on the Motown label will feature the Jackson 5, the Supremes, the Four Tops, an album packaging the Supremes with the Four Tops and the Magnificent 7, Gordon Staples and the Strong Things, volumes 1 and 2 of a new series called Chartbusters (this features a gold foil package with only the color of the type on the sleeve being changed from one release to the next for easy identification purposes), with each Chartbuster package featuring established Motown names, and an album of Diana Ross to round out the Motown label portion of the fall offering.
On Tamla, the new release included albums by the Marvelettes with this LP produced by Smokey Robinson; Marvin Gaye in a package of his 16 biggest sellers; and an album of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.
The Chisa label features Letta, the Hugh Masekela South African discovery.
4 Yule Packages
In addition to these LP’s, the firm unveiled four Christmas packages. These featured Yuletide product by the Temptations (Gordy), an album of various artists on Motown (Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles), Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (Tamla), and the fourth holiday package, the Jackson 5 (Motown). Tom Schlesinger, in charge of the firm’s graphics supervision, was credited with producing the sales presentation.
The meetings convened on Aug. 28 and were concluded Aug. 31 afternoon. They consisted of a well organized schedule of activities, highlighted by a banquet and show on Aug. 30. The show featured performances by Jimmy and David Ruffin, the Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and following the intermission, Rare Earth and the Jackson 5.
Bobby Darin, newly signed to Motown, and Smokey Robinson were co-masters of ceremonies.
Each performer brought a standing ovation. The last two acts on the bill brought the house down. Despite the late hour, the distributors applauded loud and long for the Jackson 5 clamoring for more.
Berry Gordy Jr., Motown’s president, addressed the distributors and members of his own company prior to the show stressing that the company was celebrating its 10th anniversary. He recalled the circumstances surrounding the birth of Motown, and related some of the milestones in its growth. His brief talk was comprised of a mixture of nostalgia and humor.
Welcoming remarks to all assembled were delivered by Barney Ales, Motown’s executive vice president and general manager. Ales singled out the presence of international representatives at the convention, and then introduced Gordy.
Among the guests attending the festivities were Mr. and Mrs. Berry Gordy Sr. Representatives from abroad included from the U.K. Ken East (EMI), Philip Brodie (EMI), John Reid (EMI), John Marshall (from the London Tamla-Motown operation), and Bill Fowler (Carlin Music).
Other international representatives attending were George Barlow (EMI), Australia; John Bush (EMD, Mexico; Gerry Oord (EMI) and Pete Felleman (EMI), Holland, and Don McKim (Phonodisc), Canada. Representatives from Japan included Joshihisa Honda (Victor of Japan) and Kazuo Hoshino (Cosdel). END
_______________
Information, credit, and news source: Billboard; September 12, 1970
Note: All photos featured herein courtesy Billboard from issue as dated.
_______________
Click on images for enlargement (PC). Stretch images across your (Mobile) device’s screen for enlarged detailed view.
The Animals’ Arrival Here Opens New York’s Paramount Theater with 10-Day Engagement
NEW YORK — The British invasion of the U. S. continues this week with the arrival of the Animals, new group clicking on the MGM label with “House Of The Rising Sun.”
The boys are here for a 10-day engagement at the Paramount Theater (NYC) that begins Sept. 4. The theater, now closed, will reopen for this special engagement. The package is being promoted by Marty Kummer. The Animals consists of John Steel (drums), Eric Burdon (vocals), Charles Chandler (bass guitar), Alan Price (organ) and Hilton Stuart Patterson Valentine (guitar).
High-powered press action is being prepared for the boys via the offices of MGM through Sol Handwerger, and indie publicists Mal Braveman and Bob Perilla. It will culminate at the Delmonico Hotel on Sept. 3.
The boys also have been set for an MGM movie, “The Swinging Set,” and footage for the picture will be shot during their engagement at the Paramount. Sam Katzmzn is producing the film. END
_______________
Information, credit and news source: Billboard; September 5, 1964
THE ANIMALS (‘The Swinging Set‘; MGM) Paramount Theater September 1964 (A)
THE ANIMALS (‘The Swinging Set‘; MGM) Paramount Theater September 1964 (B)
THE ANIMALS (‘The Swinging Set‘; MGM) Paramount Theater September 1964 (C)
THE ANIMALS (‘The Swinging Set‘; MGM) Paramount Theater September 1964 (D)
Liggett Broadcasting Banks Big on Rogers for Morning Drive and Programming
DETROIT — Eddie Rogers has taken over program director and morning drive duties at AC-formatted WCLS (“Class FM,” formerly WABX) here. He replaces Bob Christie, who departed six weeks ago to open his own consultancy firm in Bend, Ore., and who remains as group consultant to WCLS owner Liggett Broadcasting.
According to WCLS general manager John Piccirillo, who took over that position three and a half months ago after predecessor Grant Santimore suffered a heart attack, acting PD Gary King will remain at WCLS on the 7 p.m. to midnight shift and may be named assistant PD. Also new to the staff is former WMJC production manager Steve Cassidy, who takes over from 9 a.m. to noon.
Piccirillo, who had worked with PD Rogers at adult contemporary WYYS (now WLLT) Cincinnati in 1980, says he’s looking forward to teaming up with him once again. “He’s a great morning man, and he’s never been given the opportunity to be the dominant morning man, which I think he’ll be in the next two years,” predicts Piccirillo.
The WCLS GM took up his new position after a year in Cincinnati with Warner Amex as vice president of ad sales. Prior to that, his 20 years in radio included VP /GM stints with the aforementioned WYYS, top 40 WIKS (now WZPL) Indianapolis in 1979, and WNDE/ WFBQ Indianapolis.
CKLW Eddie Rogers 1973
Rogers, who had most recently served as afternoon drive personality on rival Detroit AC WMJC (Greater Media’s “Magic“), is a well-known name in Detroit radio. A native of North Carolina, where he earned early notoriety in the ’60s as “The Royal Flying Doctor” at WLOS (now Kiss 99.9), Rogers put in time as morning man and assistant PD at top 40 WEAM Washington before signing on the FM drive shift at CKLW Windsor during its heyday.
After two years at Heftel’s 13Q (WKTQ) Pittsburgh, Rogers returned to Detroit to join ABC affiliate WXYZ. He has served for the last two years at Magic.
“Greater Media is a great place to work, but I had a better offer,” comments Rogers. Greater Media, he adds, unsuccessfully sought an in-junction a month ago to keep Rogers from working anywhere else in the city. With the injunction denied by the Wayne County Circuit Court, Rogers says, “There are no hard feelings on either side.”
Rogers and Piccirillo say they intend to sharpen up the AC format instituted earlier this year at WCLS. Liggett’s prior experiment with top 40 after purchasing AOR-formatted WABX from Century Broadcasting 18 months ago was not successful.
Since the AC format has been in place, Piccirillo notes, WCLS has gone from a 1.6 to a 2.6 in the summer ratings. “This is a scrappy market, and everybody’s trying to get a leg up,” comments Piccirillo. “It’s clean competition.”
“Detroit’s one of the most competitive markets in the country,” agrees Rogers, “especially in AC.” WCLS opponents in the AC race include, in order of prominence, WNIC (historically the AC leader), WOMC, and WMJC, with WCLS currently bringing up the rear. “We’re the new kids on the block,” says Rogers, “so we plan to program the most precise music for the audience we’re trying to reach.” END
_______________
Information, credit and news source: Billboard; December 1, 1984
UNTIL RECENTLY, the bus cards for WHYT “Power 96″ Detroit emphasized “more continuous music.” Now the Capital Cities /ABC top 40 has five new lines: “Lick before sealing,” “Dishwasher safe,” “Spread over baked meat loaf,” “Insert nozzle, squeeze handle,” and “You’re soaking in it.”
The current campaign began elsewhere, but it says a lot about Power 96’s promotional tack in recent months. WHYT has been so busy on the street lately that “you’d need 40-50 pages just for our outside promotions,” according to PD Rick Gillette.
“We usually do topical weekend contests. With the Detroit News and Free Press planning to become one newspaper, we did a joint operating agreement weekend. The grand prize was a trip for two to Chicago, a city that still has two newspapers. The qualifying prize was a three-month supply of whatever the Sunday paper becomes.
“On the day of the George Michael show, since the song ‘Monkey’ was out, our midday guy Sunny Joe went to Greektown in a gorilla costume. The first people to bring him a banana and say ‘Power 96 is my favorite station’ got free tickets.”
In the summer, when stations may back off from cash giveaways or heavy outside advertising, street muscle counts for a lot. This summer, it helped WHYT Detroit reach No. 3 – up from 4.6 to 5.3 12-plus overall – and decisively break a tie with rival WCZY “Z95.5,” which fell from 4.6 to 4.0. “Demographically, it’s our best book ever,” says Gillette. “We’re No. 2 in 18-34 adults, No. 5 in 25-54, and No. 2 in teens.”
When Gillette came to WHYT from KSFM “FM102” Sacramento, Calif., 18 months ago, WHYT “had always been a teen jukebox. We’ve tried to maintain our teen strength but grow in adults, who were always WCZY’s biggest strength. By being consistent we’ve finally been able to beat them in every category.”
WHYT PD Rick Gillette
One place where Gillette has been especially consistent is in his music mix. Long before the dance and ballad rushes of 1988, KSFM played a blend of soft pop ballads and harder R &B. Now, with top 40 and urban seeming to diverge again, WHYT still doesn’t get much rockier than INXS’ “New Sensation,” although it will play enough Elton John or Peter Cetera to distinguish itself from a crossover outlet. (Music Director Mark Jackson terms WHYT’s mix “metropolitan” as op- posed to urban.)
Even during this time of Def Leppard mania, Gillette says, WHYT has hit music to choose from. “There was also a lot of DJ Jazzy Jeff this summer. You had 19 Whitney Houston records, and they were all pretty good. Bobby Brown, New Edition, Information Society, and Terence Trent D’Arby all had hits at top 40 radio.
“FM102 might have leaned urban, but it was toward the dance side. In Detroit, you lean more toward Teddy Pendergrass, Keith Sweat, and Freddie Jackson. In Sacramento you could be a little late on Luther Vandross. Here you want to get the album first.”
The other Detroit station with a clear interest in the Vandross album is urban mainstay WJLB, second in the market overall and first among music FMs with a 7.8. Recently WHYT got a lot of local attention when it hired Larry “Doc” Elliot, previously WJLB’s p.m. driver, for late nights, then put local urban veteran Gerald McBride on overnights.
The hirings gave WHYT an all-black air staff from 6 p.m.-6 a.m., which convinced some locals that WHYT would go directly after WJLB’s audience – at least at nights.
“I’ll take anybody’s listeners, to be honest,” Gillette says.
“Larry was No. 1 in afternoon drive for five years. When a well-known talent is available, you snap him up. It had nothing to do with going after WJLB.
“The black /white thing was a coincidence. You hire the best people for the job and hope the chips fall in the right place.” (In Sacramento, FM102 had white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and female staffers.)
Musically, WHYT’s only significant day–parting is with oldies. Currents are more likely to be stress parted – rotated faster in some dayparts than others. “We don’t play J.J. Fad during mid-days, but we do play Anita Baker at night and Bobby Brown’s ‘My Prerogative’ in mornings,” Gillette says. In mornings, Baker comes up more often; later on, Brown does.”
WHYT relies on an unusual amount of in-house research. “We do our own weekly perceptual studies, weekly call-out research, and un-aided recall. We have phone monitors between 6 a.m. and midnight on weekdays and 8 a.m. and midnight on weekends, so we get an accurate request tabulation.
“We talk to 95% of the local stores – including a lot of one-stops and mom-and-pop outlets. Our weekly research report is 3/4 of an inch thick after the raw data is compiled. We spend all of Monday going through it so we can do the music on Tuesday.”
WHYT began the fall ratings with a Twin Grand Giveaway – $1,000 twice daily. That contest has been expanded to a Triple Grand Giveaway, in which $3,000 is given away daily. WHYT and WCZY have traded places several times before; that race has since been complicated by WDTX, which recently became WDFX and modified its rock-slanted format to a more mainstream top 40 one.
This summer, WCZY fell evenly across various demos. WDFX lost adults but more than doubled in teens. While Gillette is proud of WHYT’s expanded adult audience, he’s still concerned about teen numbers. “Going after 25-54 adults only is the easy way out. It’s always been my philosophy that you want as many bodies over 12 as you can get. The beauty of mass appeal radio is its appeal to the widest spectrum of audience – ethnically and geographically – which is why I’m in this format.” END
_______________
Information credit and news source: Billboard; October 22, 1988
CHICAGO — “Detroit is supposed to be one of the worst places in the country for women to get ahead … except in radio and television,” says Maureen Hathaway, station manager of Motor City top 40 WHYT-FM.
Hathaway is one of a large number of women holding top executive positions in Detroit radio –– vice president /general managers, station managers, general sales managers, even owners. Radio is a business whose key jobs are generally held by men, and Detroit is widely perceived as a two-fisted, blue collar city. Yet women there have been able to make a more than significant mark in the upper echelons of radio.
“The radio market here is [one of the most] competitive in the country,” observes Elaine Baker, VP/ GM of adult contemporary WOMC-FM. “Because of that, talent is recognized for what it is. Women have been able to move up the ladder be- cause they’re good.”
Both Hathaway and Vicky Trondle, general sales manager of WNIC-AM-FM, surmise that Detroit radio is such fertile ground for women executives because extensive station turnovers in the recent past have cleared the way for capable, talented women.
“One of the biggest problems for women had been lack of opportunity,” says Hathaway. “Men were holding jobs they’d always held, but when turnovers occurred, women were there to take those jobs.”
Trondle adds, “It took a long time for women to get the type of experience it takes to run a large business.”
Trondle was promoted to GSM when her predecessor left to join former WNIC GM Lorraine Golden, who had formed her own company. Golden is now VP of Metropolis Broadcasting and VP /GM of its first property, the top 40 /AC for- matted WDTX.
The turnover theory doesn’t hold for Verna Green, VP /GM of urban outlet WJLB-FM, who brought the station from a No. 12 overall rating when she joined in 1982 to its current No. 2 status. She says, “Women had the least seniority, and so were the first to go.”
Green’s prior experience in the automotive industry left her with the perspective that the male concentration there and in Detroit’s other heavy industries “gave women other ways to achieve.”
“For women to excel in this market place,” agrees Suzanne Gougherty, national sales manager of WWJ-AM, “they had to look in other areas.”
The majority of the city’s female executives started out not in the typing pool but in the sales department. “It’s the business aspect of the radio station,” observes Dougherty. “Working in sales gives you an awareness of the bottom line . . . and GMs have to be very aware of the bottom line . . . it gives an idea of the structure of the station.”
Operating in a predominantly man’s world, Detroit’s female execs nevertheless all agree they have faced little or no gender discrimination in their positions. “There has probably been some, but I’ve been too busy to notice,” remarks Green.
However, says Betty Pazdernik, VP and GSM of top 40 WCZY-AM-FM, “I still think we have to do a bit more, be superior, excel. If I felt like I wanted to have a tantrum, I wouldn’t do it,” she continues, “yet I’ve seen males fly off the handle, and it’s perfectly acceptable.”
“If I feel like crying from frustration, I’ll leave the office. But, men are allowed to explode for the same reason with no loss of esteem. It’ll probably always be like that.” All agree that their stations hire for excellence, not gender.
“I’m looking for the best person for a job, when I hire,” says Baker. “I had a female program director in 1983 [Lorna Ozman], and we have a famale sales staff – not because they’re women, but for their skills.”
Women applicants can look forward to advice and information on support groups when they go to WJLB, says Green. “We tell them to contact American Women in Radio & Television (AWRT), the Women’s Advertising Club in Detroit, Women In Music, and Women in Communications,” she describes. “We advise everyone, not just wornen, to read the trades and market reports. Women graduate as mass communications majors with no practical skills; we try to spread the word that if they’re considering internships, they can get them.”
Detroit’s women executives all stress that hard work, knowledge, desire, goal setting, risk taking, and dedication got them where they are. “Don’t be overly conscious of your difference,” advises WHYT’s Hathaway. “You can’t be a lone wolf and succeed. You’ve got to be a part of the system, teamwork and company loyalty, that’s what has traditionally gotten men ahead. A lot of women feel they have to be Joan of Arc, but that just reinforces differences. Being a team player does not mean selling out.” END
_______________
Information credit and news source: Billboard; April 25, 1986
Detroit’s WKSG to Recall Motor City’s Brand of ‘Golden Oldies’
DETROIT — WLBS ended a brief experimentation with top 40 here Friday (November 9) when the station switched its call letters to WKSG and its format to oldies.
Now known as Kiss 102.7, WKSG has adopted the “Kiss Of Gold” format developed by veteran programmer and Detroit native Paul Christy. According to general manager Joe Buys, the new format focuses on music of the ’60s and ’70s, emphasizing Detroit artists and songs that were popular in Detroit in particular.
Program director Sergio Dean continues in that capacity. The rest of the staff will remain intact. However, Buys doesn’t rule out the possibility of signing longtime Detroit personalities: “We could use at least one person who understands Detroit’s lifestyle and characteristics.”
According to Buys, who joined the Inner City Broadcasting-owned station last month after a year in Chicago with Arbitron as central division manager, WLBS had undergone several format changes since its 1979 inception as a disco station.
WKSG Paul Christy 1988
After a lengthy stint with an urban format, the station switched to a “new music” orientation, which remained in place until last August. At that time, a Burkhart /Abrams-consulted “hybrid” hits format known as “the best of everything” went into effect.
“It didn’t work,” says Buys, noting that WLBS faced stiff competition for the top 40 market from Gannett’s WCZY and Capitol Cities’ WHYT. After researching and “evaluating the market’s holes,” Buys says, “we found ‘gold’ to be the biggest hole.” The Detroit area’s only other oldies station, he notes, is WHND Monroe, a daytime AM outlet which consultant Christy “got off the ground” in 1978.
“The baby boom generation is growing older, and they’re bringing their musical heritage with them,” says Buys. “We found an audience that wants updated gold, and they want stereo FM to hear it on.”
According to Christy, a 25-year radio veteran most recently with WCLS (formerly WABX) Detroit and currently consulting four other stations, WKSG’s ‘Kiss Of Gold’ format was “modeled for Detroit.”
“There is an emphasis on Motown music, of course,” says Christy, “as well as other artists popular in Detroit in the ’60s and ’70s.” In addition to better known artists such as Bob Seger, the MC5 and Ted Nugent, Christy says local favorites the Dynamics, the Wanted, the Velvelettes, The Gallery, Scott Richard Case and Tim Tam & the Turnons will be heard.
“I feel a cyclical backlash to top 40 coming on,” says Christy. “Artists like Prince and Cyndi Lauper are wonderful, but they’re played into the ground. WKSG’s new format, on the contrary, involves at least 3,000 titles, which is enough material so that there’s no repetition problem – with the advantage of built-in familiarity.”
Adds GM Buys: “Gold is a format that traditionally attracted loyal listeners, as well as cume sharing tendencies.”END
_______________
Information credit and news source: Billboard; November 17, 1988
Both AOR and Country Stations Draws Extreme Ratings Share in Motor City
DETROIT — The two big winners in this market in the October /November Arbitron ratings are country-formatted WCXI-AM and AOR outlet WRIF-FM.
The country Golden West station is benefiting from the fact that WDEE-AM abandoned the format early this year, leaving a clear field for WCXI. WDEE is now known as WCZY and plays beautiful music.
Although the Golden West chain is owned by Gene Autry, this is the first station of the chain that has moved into the country format. Program director Bill Ford is making the most of the situation and includes a number of old Autry records in the format. The DJs make frequent remarks about playing records made by the “boss.”
WCXI Deano Day
WCXI switched from a contemporary format in February, but it was not until this latest Arbitron book that the ratings substantially improved. The station climbed from a 2.0 share in the July /August book to a current 5.6.
Morning man Deano Day, who was hired from WDEE climbed in ratings from a 1.8 to a 6.3. R.T. Griffin, who has been in country radio for 20 years climbed from 2.6 to 7.1.
Ford says the station’s success is due to attention to country music’s roots. “Too many programmers cut off their library at 1965.” Ford says. He also has increased visibility of the station by having the DJs make 400 local public appearances in the past 10 months.
The ‘Riff
Over at ABC’s WRIF-FM program director Tom Bender has achieved an overall growth in share from 4.8 to 6.3 by playing “a purer form of AOR (album-oriented rock). We play many more new wave acts and have purged the Top 40 crossover acts such as Cat Stevens, Paul Simon and Al Stewart,” he says.
Bender explains, “Detroit is more hard rock-oriented than either coast. For example Jimi Hendrix is more important here.
Bender has also assembled a lineup of the market’s top rock DJs. He hired WWWW-FM’s morning team Jim Johnson and George Beier just before the rating period. As a result Johnson and Buyer delivered a 6.0 share in morning drive up from 3.9 in July /August while the Burkhart /Abrams Super Star W-4 fell from 4.0 to 3.2.
WRIF Karen Savelly
Bender also hired Karen Savelly away from WABX-FM and installed her in the 6 to 10 p.m. slot. The station’s share in that time period climbed from 6.0 to 10.0. Bender wooed CBS promotion man Ken Calvert back into radio and placed him in the midday period. Calvert registered a 6.8, up from 5.0.
Some of Bender’s success, as seen by the competition, is the result of an Arbitron book that does not favor adult radio. “It’s just not a good book for adult radio,” says CKLW-AM program director Bill Gable.
Gable’s formerly rocking outlet that now is adult contemporary beams a signal into Detroit from nearby Windsor, Ont. Gable points out that the latest Arbitron is the first to use Extended Sample Frame in this market. The audience measurement system has been in use in larger markets for more than a year.
It is a method to include listeners without listed phones in the survey. Some critics claim this. technology skews Arbitron’s figures to a younger and often non-white listenership. Most unlisted numbers are not held by up-scale people who pay to be unlisted, but by lower income people who move so much they just get left out of the phone book.
CKLW fell from a 5.5 share in the summer and a year ago to 4.4. The old-line MOR (middle of road) giant in the market, WJR-AM also had a bad book. The station fell from 14.1 to 10.0 overall and in the 7 p.m. to midnight slot from 22.6 to 5.0, a reflection that Detroit Tigers play-by-play added a substantial summer audience.
WJR program director Jim Long says the new numbers have forced him to take a hard look at what the station is doing. One thing he did was to hire Jim Davis away from WOMC-FM to be afternoon drive man. Davis registered a 6.6, down from a summer rating of 10.2 when Marc Avery was in that slot.
Avery was deemed to have “too old an image” to continue on WJR, so he was snapped up by WOMC program director Dave Shafer, who installed him in morning drive on the Metromedia MOR outlet.
Avery delivered a 4.3 share, up from the 3.1 the station had in the summer. Shafer also hired Tom Dean, who has been at ABC’s WXYZ-AM and WDEE, at the start of the rating period to handle afternoon drive. Dean came through with a 5.0 share, up from a summer’s share of 3.1.
Shafer also hired Steve Peck from WABX to be music director so that Jim Scollin can put down that second hat and concentrate on his mid-day jock duties.
WNIC-FM’s adult contemporary format held its own overall with a 3.5 share in both the summer and fall books, but morning drive climbed from 2.3 and 3.3 reflecting a new morning drive team of program director Jim Harper and Jerry St. James. END
_______________
Information credit and news source: Billboard; February 2, 1980
Former Detroit Radio DJ Tom Clay Finds Home For Disk on West Coast Motown Label
TOM CLAY 1971 (Photo credit: Bonnie Dater Jay)
LOS ANGELES — Tom Clay, veteran radio personality now freelancing in this area, this week turned over his produced master, “Tom Clay’s ‘What the World Needs Now‘,” to Motown Records (MoWest), with Dick Sherman, West Coast sales director for the firm, promising Clay free records so Clay could satisfy a previously-made deal with listeners, who wrote in for free copies. Clay said that he had 17 thousand written requests for freebies disks, when he withdrew the offer June 1.
Clay prepared for his two-week vacation-fill slot over KGBS, local radio station here, by doing an eight -minute production, which he felt expressed his philosophy on the contemporary world situation. The recorded production in- interwove music and news events in Clay’s narration with special emphasis on Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy.
Clay played the record production once on his first day at KGBS on May 22. He was off Sunday but when he returned on May 24, disk jockeys who had been on KGBS over the weekend told him of repeated requests. The deal is one of the label’s rare master purchases.
Dave Bell, Motown West Coast A&R chief, went into the studio June 1 and re-cut the entire production, cutting the time from over 8 minutes to 6 minutes and 20 seconds. Motown is rushing the record for national release.
_______________
Information credit and news source: Billboard; June 12, 1971
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1964
