Philip Yarbrough’s impact on Top 40 radio can’t be overemphasized. Known to just about every aspiring 60s DJ, “Bill Drake” helped refine the format to it’s bare essence, generating millions of dollars of ad revenue for legendary stations like Ron Jacob’s KHJ and Paul Drew’s CKLW, when the Detroit Top 40 station first aired the program in March 1969.
Drake’s magnum opus has to be the gargantuan “History of Rock and Roll“, a “rocumentary” that covered the rock era with a depth and detail that still sounds fresh today. The show ran for 48 straight hours when it premiered in 1969. An updated version, broadcast in 1978, clocked in at 52 hours.
One of the program’s many highlights is a time sweep, featuring the musical hooks of every Billboard Top 40 number one song from 1957 to 1977.
CKLW * HISTORY of ROCK & ROLL TIME SWEEP * 1969