(Above ad courtesy freep.com newspapers archive. Copyright 2016; Newspapers.com).
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DETROIT FREE PRESS: DETROIT MAGAZINE August 3, 1975DETROIT FREE PRESS: DETROIT MAGAZINE August 3, 1975(pg. 15; click on image 2x for largest view).DETROIT FREE PRESS: DETROIT MAGAZINE August 3, 1975 (pg. 16; click on image 2x for largest view).DETROIT FREE PRESS: DETROIT MAGAZINE August 3, 1975 (pg. 17; click on image 2x for largest view).DETROIT FREE PRESS: DETROIT MAGAZINEAugust 3, 1975 (pg. 18; click on image 2x for largest view).
Sunday, August 3, 1975
A DETROIT RADIO BACK-PAGE
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A NEW FEATURE ON MOTOR CITY RADIO FLASHBACKS!
DETROIT FREE PRESS: WJLB ‘Martha Jean Steinberg And The Home Of Love’
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A MCRFB NOTE
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MCRFB.COM was delighted having recently heard from Diane Steinberg Lewis, daughter of the renown, legendary Detroit “soul radio” broadcaster and personality, the late Martha Jean “The Queen.” Today’s exclusive (Detroit Radio Back-Pages) 1975 Detroit Magazine article feature hereby is presented to her, Diane Steinberg Lewis, and her family, in dedication to the memory of Martha Jean Steinberg.
Motor City Radio Flashbacks remembers. “The Queen.”
BILLBOARD HOT 40 RHYTHM & BLUES SPECIAL SURVEY January 01, 1966 (Click on image 2x for largest detailed view).
THE NO. 1 HOTTEST R&B SINGLE IN AMERICA * James Brown * January 01, 1966
WCHB, WJLB, DETROIT
These 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 1440and WJLB 1400, week-ending December 24, 1965.
WJLB Tries Sports To Reach Audience – Big on Bowlers
DETROIT (December 11) — WJLB, 250-watt Detroit station, is making an aggressive bid for the thousands of sport fans among Detroit listeners, including the newcomers brought here by war industries.
Catering to bowlers exclusively, a sport that threatened local motion picture theaters during the past few seasons, according to statements of theater operators — is Ten Pin Topics. The show is aired for fifteen minutes at 5:45 P.M. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, just when most bowlers are getting home or driving home. The latter catch the show on their car radios, for Detroit’s working population moves by car. Show is run by Harold Kahl, bowling editor of The Detroit Times. It give unusual local scores and highlights the hundreds of amateur leagues in the city. One leading bowler, such as the first Detroit woman to score 300, is interviewed on each show.
Two fifteen-minute daily shows hit all other sports fans, with heavy emphasis — about 60 per cent — on horse racing. Morning show at 11:45 is called Scratch Time and headlights track news and little other sports news. Evening show at 5:45 gives complete track results, plus any other seasonal sports. Both are handled by Phil Roberts, formerly a Chicago sports announcer.
Billboard, December 18, 1943
Most unusual feature of the WJLB sports angling, however, is a series of 15 to 20 daily spots, irregularly spaced, by Roberts, giving any immediate sports news, with fresh broadcasts of every track report in particular. Roberts breaks into every program except two — Uncle Nick’s Kiddie’s Hour and Ladies’ Matinee, a symphonic program, where the sports flashes would be obviously unsuitable. Some of the spots come in the breaks between shows, but as many break right into a program.
The sports announcements are never race tips but but legitimate news and are handled that way. Station simply feels that the great mass of war workers are sports fans and that they’ll win them to WJLB by keeping them informed on what goes on in the athletic field.
Stations in other parts of the country has tried the idea without too much success, but it’s a private service in Detroit, where hundreds of war plants have their radios turned on for the men and women all throughout the 24 hour day. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; December 18, 1943)
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Army Air Show Sold In Detroit; One Newspaper Plus Every Detroit Radio Station Breaks Records for 20-Day Military Shindig
DETROIT (July 1, 1944) — The consistent, but most important use of radio by the army was the major factor in building an all-time record attendance for the Army Air Show. Turnstile clicked 2,100,000 in the 20 days ended Sunday (June 25). Show was sponsored by The Detroit Times and received general space there, naturally, but as The Times itself commented, it was just “not publicized” by the other newspapers. Practically all credit therefore for the large attendance goes to radio.
Pvt. (film actor) John Payne in Army uniform, 1943.
The show, staged five miles from town at the municipal airport, had a mile of exhibits under tent of Detroit-made (military) war products. Covered stage at the center of midway was used for on-the-ground shows and for the series of programs aired.
The Army Air Show set a record of three shows fed to national networks, three fed to regional networks and 52 local stations shows. Originating stations for the network shows were WXYZ, feeding the Blue and the Michigan Radio Net, and, WWJ, feeding the NBC-RED.
Local stations taking the shows were WJLB, WJBK, WJR, and CKLW. One show each was also fed to WTOL, Toledo, and to WCAR and WHK, Cleveland.
How Variety Shows Pull Best
Most consistent air show were Victory Varieties, opening five days in advance of the show on WJLB and broadcast through the entire run of the show. Program was variety with patriotic angles. Features of this, as of every practically show aired, was a combination of standard radio entertainment, with the casts of the radio station making the daily trip, via police escort, to the exhibit.
Billboard, July 8, 1944
Among guest artists were Lt. William Holden and Pvt. John Payne, Hollywood stars; “Skeets” Gallagher, Benny Baker, and Gloria Humphrey, of Good Night, Ladies; Russell Swann, noted magician, and Norman H. Birnkrant, general counsel for the National Association of Theatrical Agents.
Numerous shows were not broadcast because of lack of air time. These were broadcast over the show’s P.A. system to all tents.
Reopening of the shows, which was closed four days because of a blow-down of fourteen big tents, was plugged by 35 spot announcements over various local stations.
Top accolades for the success of the radio program go to two former radio men, Lt. Col. J. Gordon Lloyd, and Staff Sgt. Arthur Sutton, assigned to the public relations office of the Sixth Service Command, Detroit Command, Detroit office. Lloyd was formerly account executive at WJZ, Blue Network, New York. Sutton was formerly production man and continuity writer at CKLW, WXYZ and WWJ, Detroit. END
(Information and news source, The Billboard; July 8, 1944).
ARMY’S AIR DISPLAY AGAIN SHOW DETROIT AS WEEK-END TOWN
DETROIT (July 1, 1944) — The Army Air Show, which featured a mile of tent exhibits of war products made in Detroit, closed a twenty-day span Sunday with attendance of 2, 100,000. Admission was free, but a check was made by General Motors and Ford Motor Company, principal exhibitors.
Sunday crowd reached about 300,000, second only to the opening Sunday, June 4, when it hit about 500,000. Mid-week attendance was down.
The factor points to a moral to shows playing in Detroit for the duration at least. The Motor City has become a 100 per cent weekend town, with amusements generally starving about four days a week, followed by turn-away crowds on weekends. END
(Information and news source, The Billboard; July 8, 1944).
DETROIT (September 16) — WJLB is making what is believed to be the first sustained effort by a station in this territory to build a listening habit among the serious hep-cats. Hitting the teenagers after school, a show, Strictly Jive, is being aired Mondays through Fridays at 3:15 p.m.
Billboard, September 23, 1944
Program is handled by Bill Randle, known locally as an expert in the hot jazz field, who interlards a program of all hot jazz selections with keen comment. Interviews with famous jazzmen are also used on the show, and, to top-off listener interest, a quiz on the subject is staged three-days a week. Awards are right in the listener’s alley, too — albums of jazz, plus copies of ‘Jazzmen,’ ‘The Jazz Record Book,’ ‘The Real Jazz’ and ‘Jazz.’
Program is scheduled at an hour when it can hit the teenage group with maximum ease, when they probably have maximum proprietary rights in the radio, after the housewife’s show earlier in the day, and before the rest of the family gets home after a day’s work.
Program started off as a half-hour feature and proved so strong in the responsiveness that it recently extended to 45-minutes, and is tentative slated to go to a full hour September 15. END
(Information and news source: Billboard; September 23, 1944).
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.
“Blue-eyed Soul” Roy Head in 1965 (click image for larger view)
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)
WCHB SOUL RADIO, Detroit 1966. Note that Nat Keller, a Caucasian deejay, was also on WCHB 1440 (click on image for larger view)
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.
DETROIT — “Detroit is suppose to be one of the worst cities in the country to get ahead . . . except in radio and television,” says Maureen Hathaway, station manager of of Motor City top 40 WHYT-FM.
Hathaway is one of a large number of women holding holding top exective positions in Detroit radio — vice-presidents/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 because they’re good in what they do.”
Both Hathaway and Vicky Trondle, general sales manager of WNIC-AM-FM, surmise that Detroit 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,” say Hathaway. “Men were holding jobs they’d always held, but when turnovers occurred, women were there to take those jobs.”
Trondle add, “It took a long time for women to get the type of experienceit 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 GM/VP of its first property, the top 40/AC formatted WDTX.
The turnover theory doesn’t hold for Vera Green, VP/GM of urban outlet WJLB-FM, who brought the station from a No. 12 overall when she joined in 1982 to its current No. 2 status. She says, “Women has 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 female’s executives started out not in the typing pool, but in the sales department. “It’s the business aspect of the radio station,” observes Gougherty. “Working in sales gives you an awareness of the bottom line . . . and GMs have to be aware of the bottom line . . . it gives an idea of the structure of the station.”
Operating in a predominately 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 I wanted to do a tantrum, I wouldn’t do it,” she continues, “yet I’ve seen males fly off the handle, and its 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 had a female sales staff — not because they’re woman, but for their skills.”
Woman 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 and Television (AWRT), the Women’s Advertising Club in Detroit, Women In Music, and Women In Communications,” she describes. “We advise everyone, not just women, 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 be a lone wolf and succeed.” You’ve got to be 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 and news source: Billboard; April 26, 1986).
Detroit Record Distributors Play Down Chart Value in Sound-Alike Market
DETROIT — While local record merchandisers claim that area radio “Top 40 Charts” are highly inaccurate, they say they are able to live with the situation because no one in the Motor City market uses radio charts as a buying guide.
This lack of direct chart influence on record sales, according to dealers, is due to the relatively high number of competing “Big Beat” radio stations in the area — all offering slightly different formats and none having a clearly dominant influence in effect in the Detroit pop market.
WKNR-AM radio survey, Detroit, September, 1966 (click image for larger view)
Sam Press, co-owner of Ross Music Shops in Detroit, said that “There are actually three influential rock stations — WKNR and WXYZ here (Detroit) and one, CKLW, in Windsor, Canada, competing for the kids’ attention, plus two very strong R&B stations, WCHB and WJLB (Detroit). You have to remember that because of Motown, R&B (or Soul music) is a stronger product here than it might be in other markets. So what you have is kids constantly switching dials between all these stations and not being dominate by any of them. A (WKNR) ‘Keener’ chart might have some of the most popular songs in the area on it but it will be invariably late in listing a big English hit which the kids have been hearing on CKLW of Windsor, and will likewise be late in list a hot R&B number that has been exposed by one of the other stations.”
“What this means,” he said, “is that teen-agers choose the best of several stations. For this reason we don’t have to buy according to any one station’s charts. The independent dealers in this town wait until they start getting requests before they will order anything — except something by a very hot artist.”
Asked if his customers would not seek out a competitor who already had the hits in stock, Press said: “The racks are even slower in getting current singles out — we can move faster than our competition.”
NOT USED AS GUIDE
WXYZ-AM radio survey, Detroit, September, 1966 (click image for larger view)
Lou Salesin, a 35-year veteran of the business who owns Munford Music Shop, said he also does not use “radio charts as buying guides. I must ignore WKNR and the other lists; they are inaccurate for a number of reasons. Some of these inaccuracies could be eliminated — and I would like to see that happen, just for the principle of the thing.”
Sol Margolis, owner of the Ross Music Stores, told Billboard: “I only order what I get calls for, plus a minimum of new releases by established artists. To my knowledge, no Detroit dealers uses radio charts as any kind of a buying guide. We know better than to trust what these sheets say.”
Another dealer, who did not wish to be identified, said that “you simply cannot believe what the radio charts list. The problem is there are too many pop records being released. I think the manufacturers are working on some sort of percentage planning. They just keep churning the records out, hoping that 4 per cent or more will make money for them.”
“As far as local charts are concerned,” he added, “we often see a record that hasn’t been shipped already on the sheet. Other times, we see stations keeping numbers on the charts long after they have stopped selling. They do this, apparently because they got on a record too late, and then refuse to admit that their influence hasn’t been able to keep it a hot seller. There are many complicating factors, but the end result is inaccurate charts. All the dealers know this, and they depend on requests and their own experience in the business to tell the how to buy.”
CKLW-AM radio survey, Windsor, October 1966 (click on image for larger view).
Chet Kajeski, of Martin and Snyder, one-stop in Detroit, told Billboard: I find frequent discrepancies on the radio charts. As far as I am concerned, they hurt jukebox operators in the area. By failing to list, and expose on the air, what is a legitimate ‘adult’ hit, they can cut down play on the boxes. This happens when a record sells very well in the area, deserves to be listed on the charts, but doesn’t get listed because such a record does not get the additional push of air play, its life on the jukebox is sometime shortened.
“I don’t believe,” Kajeski added, “that many record dealers are affected by the charts in the Detroit area. By being inaccurate, these charts defeat their own purpose.” END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; September 3, 1966)
