CKLW TV-9 ‘SWINGIN’ TIME’ September 17, 1966 — Featuring: Richard & The Young Lions. Dionne Warwick. Bob Seger & The Last Herd. Judy Clay. James Brown.
SEPTEMBER 1966: ‘SWINGIN’ TIME’ W/ ROBIN SEYMOUR
Category: Robin Seymour
FROM THE GREG INNIS COLLECTION
VETERAN DJ ED MCKENZIE QUITS ON WXYZ . . . MARCH 16, 1959
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1959
McKENZIE BOWS OUT IN ‘FORMULA RADIO’ PROTEST
DETROIT — Veteran deejay Ed McKenzie resigned from station WXYZ here last week in protest of the station’s “formula radio” programming policy.
Rallying to his side was his long-time competitor and another Detroit veteran spinner, Robin Seymour, of WKMH, who came out strongly last week for McKenzie and against “formula radio.” Seymour stated that, “It’s a crime and a shame when one of the true deejays – one of the men who made the jockey a major factor in broadcasting – has to bow to the dictates of a program director.”
Although Seymour and McKenzie – two of Detroit’s key deejays – have vied for audience ratings for the past eleven years (they occupied the same afternoon time slot) Seymour said they remained friends – their friendship dating back to the time McKenzie gave Seymour his first radio job at WJBK here.
Seymour had asked McKenzie to appear on his WKMH show to discuss the whole formula radio situation and his reasons for leaving WXYZ. Seymour said they will explore the jockey’s need for freedom of programming and will discuss further on whether the advent of “formula radio” has anything to do with the fact that no new name deejay (other than Dick Clark) has come up from the ranks in recent years.
Seymour said his station, WKMH, is now the only major Detroit station operating on a non-formula programming policy. The outlet did adopt a non-rock and roll format last year, but Seymour said the management dropped the policy last January, and put record programming back in the deejay’s hands. As a result, the jock said WKMH’s ratings are already showing a small rating climb – the first rating increase for the station in some time.
The WXYZ “formula” (featuring the Top 40 singles was adopted by the station about a years ago, and WXYZ vice-president in charge of radio, Hal Neal, opined “Our interpretation of radio is that it is a step moving forward.”
McKenzie on the other hand expressed his opinion that this “formula” did not jibe with his interpretation of radio as “being intimate and friendly.” He stated that his ratings were dropping since the “formula” policy had gone into effect and that he would sooner “dig ditches or sell hot dogs” than go back to formula radio “because I can’t do something I don’t believe in.”
The radio station disagreed with use of McKenzie’s bird calls on the air and his “on the air” comments on office typing and the programming. The station also found themselves in disagreement with McKenzie about their new policy to boost the station on his programs, which the jockey termed “unnecessary.”
McKenzie’s 3 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. spot is being taken over by Mickey Shorr, who will have another replacement for his own Night Train program. Reportedly making between $60,000 and $80,000 a year in his 29th year with radio, McKenzie was Jack The Bellboy at WJBK before he changed to WXYZ radio in 1952. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; March 16, 1959)
WAY-BACK DETROIT RADIO PAGES: WKMH . . . AUGUST 6, 1949
From the MCRFB radio news scrapbook:
Bob Seymour of WKMH, one of three local radio jocks, opens Hit Tune Party for Detroiters
DETROIT, July 30 — The first Hit Tune Party of the season was held Sunday, July 24, at the Eastwood Gardens, Eastwood Park, by the Michigan Automatic Phonograph Owners Association (MAPOA). The event drew a crowd of between five and six thousand teenagers, one of the biggest turnouts in the history of the organization.
Gene Krupa and his orchestra played for the event, offering an afternoon of dancing. Tunes picked as “candidates” for the hit tune selection were featured. Winner was Someday, as recorded by Vaughn Monroe on Victor. The number will be the hit tune of August here, and will be placed in the No. 1 position on all juke boxes in the Detroit area. A second-number to be co-featured will be selected later, according to Roy W. Clason, MAPOA business manager.
Three disk jockeys made personal appearances and assisted in handling the program for the evening. They were Bob Seymour, WKMH, Dearborn; Doc Lemon, WJR, and Johnny Slagle, WXYZ, both of Detroit. Clason acted as master of ceremonies.
A personal appearance was made by Frankie Mullec, Continental Records artist, whose new number Tell Me A Story was also played. Plans for a Hit Tune Party for August, with another name band to be featured, are now being made, according to Clason. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; August 6, 1949).
WKMH-AM ‘CRUISIN’ 1956′ WITH ROBIN SEYMOUR
From the MCRFB vinyl archives:
CRUISIN’ 1956 Increase Records (1970)
ORIGINAL LP COVER NOTES
By Jerry Hopkins
The CRUISIN’ history of rock and roll radio begins in 1956, one of the most exciting years in “pop” history, and to take us down this memory lane (with a beat) is Robin Seymour of WKMH, which was, when he joined it, a little-known station In Dearborn, Michigan. Robin came to the suburban Detroit station from the Armed Forces Radio Network and he brought with him a voice that mixed the warm, confidential tone of an intimate friend with the slick disc jockey rap we all know today, a blend which made him a natural for housewives and teenagers alike.
Robin never had any particular ethnic identification or allegiance but the “Bobbin’ with Robin Show” quickly found its audience, as he constructed a bright, orderly program that featured (almost exclusively) the records listed on the sales charts printed by the music press. He also was among the first of the nation’s deejays to ask his listeners what they thought about new records, and hosted some of the earliest sock hops and commercial tie-ins with local record stores. In 1953 he was named “Disc Jockey of the Year” by Billboard, the music trade magazine. The following year he was given the same title by another publication, Hit Parader.
1956: President Eisenhower underwent an operation to relieve blockage of the small intestine due to ileitis, but physicians said he would be physically fit to run for re-election. Scientists said radiation was a peril to the future of humanity, Egypt seized the Suez Canal and the United Nations established the first international police force on the Sinai Peninsula. The first trans-Atlantic telephone cable system went into effect. The Hungarians revolted. Six Marine recruits were marched into a stream at Parris Island and drowned. The Andrea Doria sank off the coast of Massachusetts. And Elvis Presley and the spread of rock and roll nearly pushed everything else in this list of news stories right out of the conversation.
This was the year Elvis recorded Heartbreak Hotel, Don’t Be Cruel, Hound Dog and perhaps half a dozen other million-selling songs . The first of these (Hotel) appeared in the number one position the end of April and that song or another by Elvis occupied the same lofty spot twenty-five of the year’s remaining thirty-six weeks.
1956 was the year “rock ‘n’ roll” became an angry epithet, blamed by psychiatrists and religious leaders (not to mention thousands of parents) for the rise in juvenile delinquency; some even said it was all a part of some Communist plot. Elvis and his pack of noisy imitators were called obscene and there were real riots at dozens of concerts. There were non-rockers on the record charts, to be sure, but it was Carl Perkins’ Blue Suede Shoes and Bill Haley’s Alligator that became a part of the New Culture, not Gogi Grant’s Wayward Wind and Morris Stoloff’s Picnic. The war babies had come to teen-age.
Most adults in ’56 thought it was a fad and that “it” would go away. Most radio listeners believed otherwise. There were a number of rock giants on the popular music charts in 1956 and many had made their abrupt and rhythmic appearances there after serving an apprenticeship in the ghetto called rhythm and blues.
That’s what 1956 was: the teen-age 1776. There’d been rumblings earlier, but this year all the lines were drawn.
— Jerry Hopkins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4D4Lf6z0HY
Recreating one of his old radio shows from 1956 is Robin Seymour, who then was with WKMH in Dearborn, Michigan. He had come to this suburban Detroit station from Armed Forces Radio and soon his warm, confidential tone had won him teenagers and housewives alike. His BOBBIN’ WITH ROBIN show was the reason BILLBOARD named him Disc Jockey of the Year in 1953, and HIT PARADER magazine did the same in 1954. Today he’s in television and concert promotion in Detroit. For this album, Robin Seymour was the first of the seven disc jockeys in the CRUISIN’ series selected as the best living representatives of Fifties and Sixties radio from seven top American radio cities.
(Cruisin’ LP series notes by producer Ron Jacobs, for Increase Records; 1970).
And today, a Robin Seymour video message from 2010 . . . .
FLASHBACK MOTOR CITY HAPPENINGS ’67. . . JULY 8, 1967
From the MCRFB news archive: 1967
Music Happenings In and Around Detroit Town, 1967
Detroit — Columbia Records, Tom and Jerry Schoenith’s Upper Deck of the Roostertail and CKLW combined Monday, July 3 in an all-out promotion for Columbia’s Moby Grape. Columbia Records promotion man Russ Yerge brought the Grape into town that day and arranged with the Schoenith’s to have a special Moby Grape night at their club, which is normally closed Mondays. The public was admitted free. Paul Drew, program director of CKLW, co-operated in promoting the evening with a barrage of spot announcements about the free show. Drew also put the group’s single “Omaha” on his CKLW Big 30 playlist. All of the CKLW deejays, including Tom Shannon and CKLW-TV personality Robin Seymour, were on hand at the Upper Deck to introduce the Haight-Ashbury San Francisco band. The new group earlier in the day appeared on Seymour’s TV show. . . . Terry Knight is booked into the Chess Mate for two weeks beginning Monday, July 10. . . . The Bee Gees are coming into Detroit on a promotion trip Thursday, July 13. . . . Gordon Lightfoot is playing at the Living End the week of July 17. . . . Nanett (Fabray) was in Detroit Tuesday, July 4 to promote her Canusa record, “The Look Of Love.” END
(Information and news source: Billboard; July 8, 1967).
FLASHBACK MOTOR CITY HAPPENINGS ’67 . . . AUGUST 19, 1967
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1967
Music Happenings In and Around Detroit Town, 1967
DETROIT — The Monkees concert originally scheduled for July 29 at Olympia Stadium which was canceled due to the riots, was rescheduled for August 13. WKNR, alongwith its promotion and production department, heavily advertised and was sponsor to the Detroit sold-out event, in conjunction with Dick Clark Productions. . . . The Pleasure-Seekers, an all-girl group from Grosse Pointe, are booked into Trude-Heller’s in Manhattan and have signed with Associated Bookings in New York. . . . The Grateful Dead played at the Grande Ballroom, a psychedelic ballroom-venue here owned by Russ Gibb, on Friday and Saturday, August11 – 12. . . . . CKLW-TV personality Robin Seymour is hosting a series of ‘Celebrity Nights’ at the Upper Deck at the Roostertail on Mondays. He opened on Monday, August 7 with the Rationals, Deon Jackson and Chris Peterson. . . . MGM promotion manager here, Larry Benjamin, is hosting a party for the Paupers to meet disk jockeys and the press at the Pontchartrain Hotel Wednesday, August 16. . . . The Kingsmen are booked to perform at the University of Detroit, Saturday, August 26. . . . “Bearskin Rug Sounds,” an album of readings by CKLW disk jockey Tom Shannon, did so well locally that it will be distributed nationally on the Sound label. . . . Walsh Allen has joined WJLB as operations manager. He spent three years as program director at Cleveland’s R&B WABQ. . . . The Jimi Hendrix Experience makes its first Michigan appearance at the Fifth Dimension in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, August 15. . . . The Spencer Davis Group is in concert at the Ford Auditorium here, slated for Thursday August 24. . . . The Motown Records sales convention takes place here August 25 – 28. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; August 19, 1967)
A MCRFB Note: For more on the WKNR 1967 “Monkees In Detroit” concert, see our previous MCRFB March 3, 2012 feature, here.
For more on Tommy Shannon’s “Bear Skin Rug” Music LP, see our previous MCRFB May 4, 2012 feature here.
VETERAN DETROIT DEEJAY BARS ELVIS . . . SEPTEMBER 1, 1956
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1956
WKMH’s Robin Seymour Refused Presley Plays On Show
DETROIT — When it comes to Elvis Presley, deejays are saying plenty about him these days, but one thing they evidently can’t do is ignore him. WKMH Program Director and air personality Robin Seymour in Detroit, for instance, recently took a stand against playing Elvis Presley recordings on his show, following the singer’s controversial appearance on Milton Berle’s television program.
However, after receiving over 500 letters from teenagers who threaten to boycott his show, Seymour wrote an open letter to his erstwhile fans, which appeared on the front-page article of a Detroit newspaper, under “Teen Life.” In the article, Seymour explained that, “now that Presley was keeping his gyrations under wraps,” (as Presley demonstrated recently with an appearance the Steve Allen Show) the rock ‘n’ roll artist was persona grata on Seymour’s program once again. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; September 1, 1956)
THE BIG SHOWS
SHANNON’S SPOT ON CKLW-TV 9… OCTOBER 5, 1968
From the MCRFB news archives:
DETROIT’S NO. 1 DEEJAY DEBUTS NEW TEEN DANCE SHOW
DETROIT — “The Lively Spot,” hosted by CKLW deejay Tom Shannon, bowed here on CKLW-TV (channel 9) on Monday, September 30, replacing the Robin Seymour “Swingin’ Time” show. The show will be seen 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6 to 7 p.m. Saturday when it will be known as “The Tom Shannon Show.” He’ll continue his 6 to 9 p.m. on the CKLW radio station.
Elmer Jasper, director of programming for CKLW-TV, predicts Shannon will become a great favorite of Detroit young people on TV. Shannon joined CKLW four years ago. A song-writer, he wrote the 1963 hit, “Wild Weekend,” by the Rebel Rousers. He also wrote “Soul Clappin’,” a local hit currently playing in Detroit on the radio charts, as performed by the Buena Vistas on the Marquee record label. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; October 5, 1968).