Many of these records were the most popular radio plays heard on Detroit’s two R&B stations on the AM dial at the time, WCHB 1440 and WJLB 1400, week-ending 04/23/66.
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DETROIT FREE PRESS: WCHB 1440 ‘Beaming With Pride’
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(Above WCHB article is courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2016. Newspapers.com).
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WCHB, WJLB, DETROITThese records were also many of the most popular radio plays on Detroit’s two R&B stations on the AM dial at the time, WCHB 1440 and WJLB 1400, week-ending December 24, 1965.
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1967
Radio Frank Hub for Auto Tape Player Units and Cartridges in Dearborn for 1967
DETROIT — A “please handle” policy on tape cartridges has created a booming business for Radio Frank, a Dearborn-based, 2-way mobile phone and tape outlet here. “First, we tried keeping the cartridges back of the counter,” said owner Frank Meckrock. “But we now we put them out front where customers handle them. First thing you know, the customer is picking up two or three extra cartridges he never intended to buy.”
If Radio Frank returned the cartridges behind the counter, “business would drop 50 per cent,” Meckrock said. Pilferage is rare, but if a clerk suspects anyone of thinking of pocketing a cartridge without paying for it, the store clerk gives them extra special service and attention.
Radio Frank, relying heavily on radio promotion, has been moving anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 tape cartridges a month and installing player units at the rate about 200 per month. Most of the business — “about 25 to 1” — is 8-track, Meckrock said. The firm promotes heavily on radio, mostly on weekends when people “have got money in their pockets,” including the major deejay shows of CKLW and WCHB in Detroit.
Tom Shannon on CKLW does an excellent job in marketing cartridges, Meckrock said. The radio advertising pulls 30-40 people into the store on a Saturday. About the middle of May, business tapered off a little bit . . . “there were only three to four cars waiting at a time in line in the alley behind our building to have units installed. We used to have 30-40 cars waiting out there like, for a car wash,” he said. Radio Frank installs units in six cars at a time, “doing this, all day.”
Overall, however, business has been very good. The firm is located on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, in “Ford Country.” Executives at Ford Motor Company get their cars free and all have tape cartridge players; they buy a lot of their cartridges from Radio Frank. The firm was mostly involved in the car radio business until about four years ago when it started selling 4-track units and cartridges.
“I thought at one time that the 4-track business was good,” but 8-track has far passed it.” he said. Meckrock got into the 8-track business in August 1965.
When he used to buy on 4-track cartridges, he bought the music he like personally. Some of those cartridges were still around, he says, and now he buys only the product that would sell. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; July 1, 1967)
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From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1983
Jerry Boulding Joins WCHB/WJZZ Detroit
DETROIT — Veteran urban programmer and personality Jerry Boulding has joined the staff of WCHB/WJZZ here in the newly created position of operations manager.
“I’m looking forward to programming one of America’s premiere jazz stations, WJZZ, “ says Boulding, who adds that the station will retainits mass appeal jazz directionfor the time being. “I foresee no immediate changes there, but I think we’ve got some very exciting things planned for WCHB, one of the country’s first black-owned stations, in spite of the fact it’s on AM,” he says.
WJZZ switched to its current modern jazz format at some point in the early 1970s. The station was formerly WCHD-FM, Detroit. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; March 12, 1983)
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1967
On The FM Band — WCHB Reaches Out To Jazz
DETROIT — “WCHB-FM “sells the hell out of jazz,” said Jack Millman, of Music Merchants, a leading distributor. WCHB-FM’s play of the “Groovin’ ” cut from the “Hip Hugger” album by Booker T. & The M.G.s. on Stax Records sold more than 20,000 albums in a month, Millman said, “and forced out the single. The first day the single was released, we moved 18,000 copies.”
Jack Springer is one of the most powerful air personalities on the station, “but all contribute. All go their own way,” said Millman. “That station made Hugh Masekela in Detroit. When Masekela appeared at the Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, you couldn’t get near the place. I went by the club on a Sunday afternoon and there was a huge line outside.”
The station is now breaking a Cadet Records album called ‘Groovin’ With The Soulful Strings,’ he said. “Burning Spear” will likely be released as a single as a result of airplay of this album. The station is also giving Marlena Shaw, a Cadet artist, a big push with her “Go Away Little Boy,” has sold extremely well in the market because of WCHB-FM.
“The station does so well because the deejays are individuals playing good music,” Millman said. “The station may not show up on audience surveys, but I couldn’t care less. They sell products, and that’s all what counts.”
He said that Music Merchants advertises records on the station because of it’s tremendous impact on the public. “We don’t have to advertise, but we’re doing very successfully with it. Our accounts are now asking what we’re going to advertise next so they could get it in stock.” The radio advertising is followed by displays and personal contacts with retailers. Music Merchants has advertised product on radio for some time and has long-term contracts with CKLW calling for 30 spots a week and WCHB-FM. The distributing firm has its own advertising agency. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; November 11, 1967)
From the MCRFB NEWS archives: 1966
Blue-Eyed Soul Artists Herald Musical Integration on Airways
NEW YORK — Hot 100 radio stations have been “borrowing” the most popular tunes of its R&B sister stations for the past few years and the trend, if anything, is increasing. Some rock ‘n’ roll outlets have, in fact, gone so far as to hire Negro air personalities and the reason has been two-fold. For one thing, these particular personalities were top flight: Chuck Leonard at New York’s WABC and Larry McCormick at Los Angeles KFWB. Second, there was the feeling that they could appeal to a wider audience.
But this past year marked a turnabout for R&B stations. It happened quite by accident; some of the news artists being programmed by program directors at the nation’s major R&B stations such as WWRL, New York; WDAS, Philadelphia; WOL, Washington; and WLAC, Nashville, turned out to be white.
Frank Ward, general manager of WWRL, puts it this way: “You should have seen the face of Rocky G when he found out who the Righteous Brothers were!” Rocky Groose is program director at the New York outlet. Many other R&B outlets were also fooled by the “soul” sound of the two artists.
Georgie Woods, an air personality with WDAS, Philadelphia, came up with the term “blue-eyed soul” to cover these white artists now receiving airplay on R&B stations. Besides the Righteous Brothers, once the barriers were down, R&B stations began spinning any white artist — the big name ones — who could be said to have “soul.” In other words, sound like a Negro. These “soul” artists were many and the term became quite loosely used; for example: Sonny & Cher, the Beatles, Tom Jones, Sam the Sham, Barry McGuire, Roy Head.
What it actually meant was that R&B stations were trying to give rock ‘n’ roll outlets a run for their money . . . to hold on to their audiences. To get involved in the action, many British groups are appearing now — American groups, too — with the R&B sound.
The next step?
Some R&B stations decided to concentrate on appealing to both white and Negro audiences. Instead of aiming at an ethnic group, these stations began to realize that R&B music had a basic appeal. So, they integrated their air personality rosters, once almost almost a private domain of the Negro. There were some white deejays in the field — John Richbourg at WLAC, Nashville, and Porky Chedwick at WAMO, Pittsburgh. But they were rare. Then, KYOK, Houston, hired Al Gardner as program director; KGFJ in Los Angeles has two white deejays, WCIN, Cincinnati, not only went with an integrated staff, but plays such artists as Bob Dylan, Brenda Lee, Billy Joe Royal, and the Rolling Stones . . . . anyone that has “a little bit of soul.” WAKE, Atlanta, which changed its call letters to WIGO, has an integrated staff. WLOU, Louisville, has had an integrated staff. So does WLTH, Gary, Indiana.
It is the integration of music that has contributed to the integration of staffs, believes George Woods of WDAS, Philadelphia. Rudy Runnells of WOL, Washington, feels that the Negro audience is no longer a specialized “in” group. “Musically, they’ve grown out of the strictly heavy-accented R&B field limited only to Negro artists.”
KGFJ, Los Angeles, keeps as pure “soul”as possible, but program director Cal Milner says high general market audience ratings indicate the station is being listened to “by the white kids in order to hear R&B records early . . . we’re playing them about 10 days earlier than the rock stations.” Hunter Hancock and Jim Woods are the blue-eyed soul deejays at KGFJ; Hancock is currently rated the No. 3 air-personality in the market influencing R&B record sales. Milner says Hancock sounds “ethnic” on the air.
James Whittington, operations manager and program director at Atlanta’s WIGO, said his station had a different situation that brought about its integrated air staff. When the station changed formats recently to R&B, it kept on a white deejay, Tommy Goodwin, because of his tremendous following. Goodwin is the drive time personality and Whittington says, “he’s worrying heck out of rock ‘n’ roll personalities by playing R&B records.”
WLTH, Gary, Indiana, set out deliberately to aim at both white and Negro teenagers with an integrated play list as well as an integrated staff. The station manager, George Corwin, previously worked with WSID, Baltimore, an R&B outlet. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; October 22, 1966)
MCRFB Addendum: In covering 1966 Detroit R&B radio stations, WJLB-AM and WCHB-AM were the two premier soul stations on the radio dial. But these two R&B stations seemed always well ahead in playing the newest soul records and albums before they would hit the charts, at times weeks before other local popular Detroit Top 40 stations would find those selected R&B hits on their respective radio playlists.
In was known also that during the 1960s, WJLB and WCHB also held a respectable Detroit (non-black) radio audience. And one reason was due in part that by 1966, both stations tended to first introduce and promote at the earliest local R&B hits, the newest soul hits and albums produced by many independent and major record labels. And of course, there was Motown Records and Stax as well. By 1966, soul music, or R&B, would comprise as much as up to one-third of the singles played in mainstream top 40 radio stations around the country.
