Audio digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
Category: WKSG
FROM THE ARCHIVE: WKSG RECALLED! LEE ALAN IS BACK IN THE ’60S
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Newly restored! This selected audio recording was digitally enhanced by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
WLBS KISSED BY GOLD: WKSG FOCUSES ON LOCAL COLOR . . . . NOVEMBER 17, 1988
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.
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
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Information credit and news source: Billboard; November 17, 1988
WKSG 102.7 KISS FM: MORNINGS! KEVIN O’NEILL
FROM THE ARCHIVES: WKSG-FM BACK ON THE RADIO!
WKSG RECALLED on MOTOR CITY RADIO FLASHBACKS
WKSG-FM * 1988 * PAUL CHRISTY
WKSG PAUL CHRISTY aircheck date: FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1988
WKSG BACK ON THE RADIO: BACK IN THE ’60S AGAIN!
WKSG RECALLED on MOTOR CITY RADIO FLASHBACKS
WKSG-FM 102.7 * LEE ALAN
LEE ALAN WKSG aircheck date: unknown 1991
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LEE ALAN PRESENTS . . . JUNE 13, 1963
NEW! A special THANK YOU to senior website contributor Greg Innis of Livonia, Michigan, for recently donating this WKSG-FM radio aircheck to Motor City Radio Flashbacks!
* THE GREG INNIS COLLECTION *
WKSG-FM: DETROIT RADIO NEWSPRINT AD! 03/20/1988
Sunday, March 20, 1988
A DETROIT RADIO BACK-PAGE AD
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DETROIT FREE PRESS: WKSG
Above article is courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2018. Newspapers.com.
The above featured WKSG-related ad was ‘clipped,’ saved, and imaged from the credited source by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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DETROIT RADIO 1985 NEWS PRINT: WKSG-FM WNIC-FM
Saturday, October 19, 1985
A DETROIT RADIO BACK-PAGE
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DETROIT FREE PRESS: WKSG | “N.Y. Firm Will Sell WKSG by November”
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Above article is courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2018. Newspapers.com.
The above featured WKSG/WNIC-related article was ‘clipped,’ saved, and imaged from the credited source by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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TWENTY-YEARS AGO. IN REMEMBRANCE. TOM KNIGHT.
Saturday, October 18, 1997
A DETROIT RADIO BACK-PAGE
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DETROIT FREE PRESS: ‘Slain Brighton Deejay’s Music Collection Is Huge – And Valuable’
IN MEMORY of TOM KNIGHT
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I still recall when having received stunning word Tom Knight passed away. It was June 5, 1997.
For those of us familiar with Detroit oldies radio from 30-35 years ago, Tom (Knight Train Productions) was an invaluable asset in having produced and provided some of the finest programming on Detroit radio when it came to 50s and ’60s oldies music. His resume comprised largely having worked on Detroit radio stations WHNE-FM, WHND-AM, WMJC-FM and WKSG-FM during the 1980s and early-1990s.
Personally, I knew Tom for some 14-years, having first met Tom at a records meet at the Southgate Civic Center, Southgate, Mi., in 1983. And after several meets of such, a friendship developed and grew from there. On several occasions, he invited me over to his modest brick home in Dearborn, on Raymond St., near Outer Drive. I can still remember the first time when Tom and I went down to the basement. I was in complete awe – having seen firsthand for the first time his massive collection of pristine records, albums, all shelved in protective sleeves. It was amazing. He once told me his interest in record collecting began early on in his teens while having worked for some years at a record store shop located on Ford Rd., near Middlebelt, in Garden City, Mi.
The last several times I saw Tom, prior his passing, he was still at WMJC and WHND (Greater Media). Tom was working on his ‘oldies’ production shows there, and I saw his production skills at work. (I still have my “Honey Radio All Oldies 560” blue wind-breaker Tom gave me during a Honey Radio Car Club Cruise-cast in Wyandotte back in 1985, lettered in gold with their famous ‘milk shake fountain glass’ logo blazoned across the back). One Saturday, April 1994, I stopped by to see him in his new home in Holly, Michigan. He just purchased a large home there, with much larger quarters that would accommodate his massive collection of records, CDs, music artifacts, jukeboxes, Detroit radio paraphernalia, and a vast library of books about the music he, loved so much. Now all housed in a climate-controlled environment as he always wanted for his life’s entire collection. While there I met his estranged wife, Linda, for the first time. Tom introduced me to her, she simply nodded and walked up the stairs saying nothing. Never saw her again while I was there. Now having moved some distance away, I saw less of him. But we kept in touch.
Tom Knight was one of the most kindest, generous person I was blessed having met. He was a music and radio production genius. He was my friend.
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Twenty years ago today. Tom Knight, we miss you still.
(Above TOM KNIGHT related article is courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2017. Newspapers.com).
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NBC RADIO: THE SOUPY SALES ‘MOLDY OLDIES’ SHOW!
SOUPY SALES MOLDY OLDIES SHOW: 04 * Soupy Sales * NBC RADIO NETWORK (1986)
A MCRFB Note: The nationally syndicated NBC Radio Soupy Sales ‘Moldy Oldies Show‘ was heard Sunday mornings, 9 a.m.-11 a.m., in Detroit, having premiered on WKSG-FM 102.7, Sunday, April 6, 1986.
(source: Detroit Free Press, Saturday, March 29, 1986)
HEAR IT AGAIN! From the MCRFB.COM archive: Our THIRD install of the ‘SOUPY SALES MOLDY OLDIES SHOW’ No. 03 — GO HERE.
