DETROIT ‘BIG DEE’ TOP MODERN COUNTRY 40: THIS WEEK! SEPTEMBER 22, 1975

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY September 22, 1975

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY September 22, 1975

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This WDEE chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

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WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY September 22, 1975

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A sincere thank you Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without your generosity, dedication, and your continuous support.

Above WDEE music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.

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DETROIT BIG ‘DEE’! MODERN COUNTRY TOP 40: THIS WEEK! MARCH 19, 1979

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY 40 SURVEY March 19, 1979

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY 40 SURVEY March 19, 1979

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This presented WDEE 03/19/1979 chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

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A sincere thank you, Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without your generosity, dedication, and your continuous support.

Above WDEE music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.

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DETROIT ‘BIG D’ TOP COUNTRY 40: THIS WEEK! MAY 21, 1979

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY May 21, 1979

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY May 21, 1979

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This WDEE chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

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A sincere thank you, Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without your generosity, dedication, and your continuous support.

Above WDEE music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.

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DETROIT ‘BIG D’ TOP COUNTRY 40: THIS WEEK! APRIL 14, 1975

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY April 14, 1975

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY April 14, 1975

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY April 14, 1975

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This WDEE chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks 

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A SPECIAL THANK YOU

_____________________

A sincere, thank you, Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without your generosity, dedication, and your continuous support.

Above WDEE music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.

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WDEE VS WEXL: CAN THE NEWCOMER BEAT TRADITIONAL? . . . . FEBRUARY 28, 1970

Country Duels Detroit: WDEE Sways with Modern Country Sound; WEXL Stays Traditional “Not So Modern” Country

 


 

DETROIT What happens when two radio stations of comparable signals compete with each other in a major market in a country music format? The answer may soon develop here as WDEE marches into fray against WEXL, which has been a country music station since around 1962.

Slowly, but surely, in many markets good facilities are coming along in new country music formats and busting the hold of small-wattage or daytime only stations. Only in a few markets have daytime stations or small wattage stations been able to hold their own against the bigger newcomers . . .  and largely only because of the growing role of FM, which these stations use to extend their broadcast day.

But here in Detroit, two 24-hour AM stations are now waging war against each other. On one side, the more traditional station – WEXL – which believes it has established a strong listening habit in Detroit. On the other, WDEE (the former WJBK, a rock station before it switched last September) is perhaps a little more expansive in its approach and willing to play popular, though country-oriented, records in its format.

WDEE has the advantage, if you talk to Chuck Renwick, regional radio program manager who’s responsible for markets such as Toledo, Cleveland, and Detroit in the Storer Broadcasting chain. “WDEE has a far superior signal,” Renwick said. But WEXL, said program director Bill Mann, “has a fairly good signal in comparison to WDEE in spite of their 50,000 watts. Too, we’ve got the image in the market. As far back as 1933, this station has a ‘Sage-brush Melodies’ program featuring country music.”

Go Further

WDEE claims that WEXL still has commercial religion on Sunday, which doesn’t help its country music image one bit. “In addition,” said Renwick, “WDEE will be aggressive in its promotion-running television spots and newspaper advertising. We’ll also be sponsoring our own concerts. We’ll swamp them out in promotions and the quality of our personalities. But, in order to be successful, we feel that WDEE has to go further than that. It’s more than just beating another country music station. We don’t think our audience on WDEE will come Top 40 and middle-of-the-road stations as well as the potential country music fans in Detroit.

But WDEE will not be zeroing in on strictly a country music audience. I’m not sure that the country music audience, as such, exists anymore, especially in a market of this size,” he said, pointing out that listeners in general were more sophisticated today. “And there are a lot of No. 1 country music stations who’ve certainly gone beyond the normal boundaries of country music fans for their audience . . .  in a sense, creating additional country music fans.”

To counter WDEE in the market, WEXL is not doing anything different, said Mann. “We’re going along pretty much the some as always. That’s one of the problems that WDEE has had over the years … they’ve never stayed long with any- thing. The past six months, under the call letters of WJBK, they were a rock station. For the eight or nine months before that, they were playing good music. One thing I can’t under- stand is why they don’t stay with any particular format long. But I do think that their going country music is good for country music business. It might wake up agencies to the fact that country music is important, considering that two stations are fighting for the audience.”

Adjustments

WEXL, however, has made some adjustments in its programming. Mann said that the format has been tightened up some. And the psychology of having competition has been good for the WEXL air personalities. “So, we’re probably sounding better than before.” WEXL has about 50 records charted, but plays 65, plus album cuts and oldies. The station checks out singles sales to some extent. “The biggest problem about singles sales in the area is that only certain stores will carry them. And even those that do carry country mu-sic singles don’t have all of the records.”

WDEE will feature a “pretty broad playlist,” said Renwick. “We’ll probably publish a play – list of the top 40 records. Already, we’re presenting it on the air. But we’re working with a playlist that includes up to 100 records.” One of the things that WDEE is doing in order to build up a rapport quicker with Detroit listeners is that each dee-jay goes on the phone for a half hour after doing his radio show. During this half-hour, he takes requests and chats with listeners. He’s free to insert these requests into his program the next day. Besides the singles, WDEE airs between 40-60 current and recent album cuts. The major 40 records, of course, gets more -frequently played.

WDEE has just installed a package of jingles created at Spot Productions in Dallas. Production of the sound of the station is something between an easy listening and a contemporary approach, said Renwick. The deejays have now began to pull their own records, although for the first five or six weeks the station was on the air with its country music format, all of the records were slated for them. Renwick said that all of the deejays had done a “lot of homework” about country mu- sic. Now, they do their own shows within certain guidelines. These guidelines include pacing in terms of tempo and a mixture between modem sounds like those of a Glen Campbell and traditional country sounds like those of a Stonewall Jackson or Faron Young.

“WDEE plays the traditional things that occurs in today’s hit lists, although the trend is toward the modern sounds,” Renwick said. To put a balanced sound hour together at WDEE, the deejay would play two or three of the modern-sounding records, then a Wanda Jackson; then two or three more of the modern-sounding records and a Faron Young. Album cuts are used to pick up the pace . . . to bring up the tempo.

Than there are guidelines to put a separation between records that have the same kind of stories. For example, to keep a song about Carolina from being back-to-back with a song about Oklahoma. “It’s what we call a ‘thinking jock’s format’,” said Renwick. “And so far we’re getting pretty good response on the telephone. Those half-hours that the deejay spends on the phone after his show gives us a pulse of who’s switching from other stations to us and how many of them are hardcore country music fans.”

On Feb. 11, the station sponsored an agency party for all local time buyers, advertisers and the press. Leroy Van Dyke and his band performed. Other country artists on hand to spread the word about country music included Jeannie C. Riley, Lynda K. Lance, Nat Stuckey, Tom T. Hall, and Hank Williams Jr.

WEXL will probably not go so “modern” as WDEE. In fact, WEXL program director Bill Mann believes that Ernest Tubb and Kitty Wells are vitally important to its programming. “I think you have to play them or you’d lose your country identity,” said Mann. Jimmy Martin won’t get exposed that much, nor the harder bluegrass sounds of the Osborne Brothers and Flatts & Scruggs. “But we do play their softer sounds. The truth is that there’s just not that much pure bluegrass being put out today.”

“The overall sounds of WEXL seems to be good”, Mann said, “from what people tell us. Of course, listeners around Detroit have never had anything with which to compare us. The competition might pick up some listeners, but I think we’ll keep the vast majority of them. And I don’t think they’ll pick up listeners from other formats because the other stations in Detroit – the Top 40 and the easy listening stations are playing Glen Campbell and Eddy Arnold.”

WDEE-FM also plays country music. The stereo country music package distributed by International Good Music out of Bellingham, Wash. This package is aired 6 a.m.-5 p.m., at which point the FM station duplicates the AM. WDEE-FM signs off at midnight at present. END

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Information credit and news source: Billboard; February 28, 1970

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WDEE FOLLOWS THE SWING . . . . OCTOBER 31, 1970

Detroit Modern Country WDEE Highlighted at CMA Meet in Nashville

 

 


 

NASHVILLE — The format of WDEE in Detroit is not focused just on acquiring the local country music audience of the city, but “the continuing swing of people to country music,” Chuck Renwick, national program director for Storer Broadcasting, told an audience here of radio executives during an annual broad- caster’s meeting of the Country Music Association. The CMA meeting was held here Saturday (October 17) in conjunction with the yearly birthday celebration of radio station WSM.

“We’d heard of so many radio stations doing variations of country music that we felt there was no right way or no wrong way,” Renwick said. He pointed out that Storer was a little reluctant to take the station country because of its failure with KGBS in Los Angeles with country music programming, but that “we’d got some experience programming country music on WCJW-FM in Cleveland.”

At the outset, WDEE was programed record-for-record until the air personalities got better acquainted with the format; now they build on their own shows. Another most important factor in building not only a stronger rapport with country music, but with their audience, is that deejays get on the phones with their listeners for 20-25 minutes after they get off the air. This also builds up a person-to-person relationship with the listeners, Renwick said. He spoke of a consistent flow of information, kept brief, aired on the station and played tapes illustrating not only the sound of WDEE, but its jingles, personalities, and music.

In Back Door

Also speaking on programming during the session was Bill Ward, general general manager KBBQ in Burbank (Los Angeles). Ward said that 95 percent of radio stations now playing country music “came in the back door . . . they’d tried everything else.” He said that all three of the last stations were this type . . .  and that all became successes with country music. The best type of air personality for today’s country station, he felt, was a Top 40 jock out of the midwest because “they grew up in a country environment and know how to pronounce Red Sovine’s name, know who Bob Wills is.”

He felt that the typical rock format is about as refined as you can get it and that the same thing is happening in country music today. But perhaps country radio stations “ought to take stock – pay some dues – make an investment back into country music in general.”

Irving Hill, general manager of WCMS in Tidewater, Va., spoke of consulting with two radio stations, both in the major 50 markets of the nation, and found that the manager not only didn’t like country music, but didn’t listen to his own station.

Dan McKinnon, owner of KSON in San Diego, talked of various management problems at the government level then later delved into editorials, pointing out that the on-the-air broadcast of an editorial is only 20 percent of the work; KSON also mails out copies of its editorials to some 500 congressmen, business leaders, and members of the press. He also spoke on a KSON drug-abuse project.

Ads Raise Sales

Bill Hudson of Bill Hudson and Associates, spoke on how effective use of billboard advertising boosts spot sales on WKDA in Nashville. The station features client’s ad along with a station promo on various billboard signs in town. This same method can be used effectively with bus posters, he said.

Dorothy Kuhlman, promotion and publicity expert from station WHOO, detailed all of the various promotional methods used by the Orlando station, both on-the-air and off-the-air. Moderator George Crump, president of WCMS in Tidewater, Va., said there was a possibility of a second yearly Country Music Association  radio meeting, if members wanted it. END

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Information credit and news source: Billboard; October 31, 1970

 


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THE BIG ‘D’! DETROIT COUNTRY TOP 40: MAY 24, 1976

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY May 24, 1976

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY May 24, 1976

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY May 24, 1976

WDEE NUMBER ONE COUNTRY SINGLE

“AFTER ALL THE GOOD IS GONE” | CONWAY TWITTY | MCA

45 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

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THE BIG “DEE” RADIO 15

The Top 40 country hits as tabulated by WDEE for the week of May 24, 1976

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The above WDEE chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

 

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In Memory of George Griggs

A SPECIAL THANK YOU

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A sincere, thank you, Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without your generosity, dedication, and your continuous support.

Above WDEE country music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.

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WDEE 15: DETROIT COUNTRY MUSIC TOP 40! JANUARY 10, 1977

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY January 10, 1977

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY January 10, 1977

WDEE MODERN COUNTRY SURVEY January 10, 1977

WDEE NUMBER ONE COUNTRY SINGLE

“BROKEN DOWN IN TINY PIECES” by “CRASH” CRADDOCK

44 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

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THE BIG “DEE” RADIO 15

The Top 40 country hits as tabulated by WDEE for the week of January 10, 1977

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The above WDEE chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

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In Memory of George Griggs

A SPECIAL THANK YOU

_______________

A sincere, thank you, Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without your generosity, dedication, and your continuous support.

Above WDEE country music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.

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TOM DEAN TAKING YOUR CALLS: WDEE 15 FEM FORUM

Detroit Free Press March 9, 1975

 

Sunday, March 9, 1975

A DETROIT RADIO BACK-PAGE

 

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DETROIT FREE PRESS: TOM DEAN

Above article is courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2020. Newspapers.com.

 

 

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Detroit Free Press March 9, 1975

Detroit Free Press March 9, 1975

Detroit Free Press March 9, 1975

Detroit Free Press March 9, 1975

Detroit Free Press March 9, 1975

 

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Detroit Free Press January 12, 1974

 

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THE BIG D! WDEE RADIO PROMO/SALES ’70 BROCHURE

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (A)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (B)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (C)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (D)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (E)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (F)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (G)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (H)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (I)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (J)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (K)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (L)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (M)

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (N)

 

WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE

 

1970

 

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At midnight on December 26, 1969, WJBK changed to a contemporary country music format and changed its calls to WDEE (many joked at the time that the calls stood for “We’ve Done Everything Else”). Former WJBK personality Marc Avery recalled in 1971, when interviewed for the WDRQ program “The History of Detroit Radio,” that WJBK had been considering switching to country as far back as the early 1960s. At the time, 1340 WEXL was the only full-time country music station in the immediate Detroit market (with Ypsilanti-based WSDS as its only competitor). WDEE distinguished itself with its slick, contemporary (“countrypolitan”) approach to the country format, designed for mass appeal, and was one of the first stations to program country and western music with a Top 40-style presentation. The move paid off with frequent top-five showings in the Detroit ratings during the 1970s.

With only a thousand watts of power, WEXL was unable to compete with 50,000-watt WDEE and left the country format by 1974 for religious programming. WDEE’s midday show, “The Fem Forum”, in which host Tom Dean fielded calls from female listeners sharing their sexual frustrations, was a controversial feature for its time but also quite popular. Other personalities on the station during the 1970s included morning mainstay Deano Day, Hank O’Neil, Mike Scott, Dave Williams, Bob Burchett, Ray Otis, Randy Price, Doug Smith, Don Thompson, Jimmy Bare, Rosalee, Paul Allen, Bob Day, Ron Ferris, Dan Dixon and Rick Church.

In the early 1970s, WDEE was purchased by Combined Communications, who in turn would eventually be purchased by the Gannett Company. (Previous to Combined ownership, WDEE was part of a broadcast chain owned by Globe Broadcasting, owned by the Harlem Globetrotters.) Also during this time, WDEE-FM changed to news/talk as WDRQ-FM; that lasted until 1972, when Charter Broadcasting bought WDRQ and switched to Top 40, using such memorable slogan as “I Q in My Car”. Four decades and several formats later, that station is now playing contemporary country music again, under Cumulus Media ownership as “Nash FM.”

The WDEE calls later had a brief revival as a daytime-only classic-country music station in Reed City, Michigan, coincidentally also at AM 1500. This station has since gone off the air, but the calls survive on its onetime FM sister station, WDEE-FM, which runs an oldies format as “Sunny 97.3.”

 

 

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A MCRFB NOTE: According to the Detroit Free Press (December 26, 1969) the very first song heard after WJBK made the transition to the new WDEE was, “I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail” by Buck Owens.

 

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(Source: WDEE; Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

The above WDEE 1970 booklet was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

 

 

 

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WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE 1970 (O)

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