Month: August 2013

DETROIT RADIO SIDEBAR: WKNR-AM BILLBOARD NOTES

Motor City Radio Flashbacks logoFrom the MCRFB notebook: 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, and 1972

STATION MILESTONES

WKNR-AM

 

 

 

DETROIT (September 11, 1965) — Ted Clark, formerly with Miami’s WQAM, has joined WKNR, along with J. Michael Wilson, who was formerly with KBTR, Denver. WKNR has also promoted Paul Cannon to assistant program manager and Jim Jeffries, formerly with WKFR, Battle Creek, Mi., is replacing Cannon on the all-night show in the Motor City. END

DETROIT (January 15, 1966) —  Dick Purtan, air personality at WKNR, Detroit, reports all doing fine, especially doing mornings. Purtan took the place of Frank Sweeney, who switched to the other side of the radio business ans is now national promotion director for Monument Records with headquarters in Detroit. END

DETROIT (March 5, 1966) — The Supremes, hot Motown Records artists, recently made a studio appearance with Scott Regen, WKNR, the popular Detroit (7-10 p.m.) radio personality who feature interviews with record artists on his nightly show. The famous female recording trio were featured in a five-hour special marking their nightclub opening at the Roostertail recently in Detroit. END

DETROIT (September 17, 1966) — The “Motown Mondays” at Detroit’s Roostertail Supper Club are now being broadcast on WKNR, Detroit, each Saturday at 11:00 p.m. Scott Regen is host. Artists of Motown Records appearing on the show include the Four Tops, Jr. Walker and The All Stars, Marvin Gaye, Martha and The Vandellas, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Marvelettes, and the Temptations. This is the first time in recent years that “live” music is being broadcast on WKNR. END

DETROIT (December 24, 1966) — Frank Maruca, program director of Top 40-formatted WKNR, said he’d been holding back on Christmas records until the week before Christmas. At that point, the station will institute a formula — the Saturday before Christmas, WKNR will play one Christmas tune an hour; on Sunday, two per hour; Monday, three per hour; at 3 p.m. Christmas Eve the station will switch to a temporary all-Christmas format that includes everything from “Jingle Bell Rock” to holiday songs by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. END

DETROIT ( February 18, 1967) — Steve Robbins, formerly with WKNR-FM, replaced Jim Jeffries on WKNR, Dearborn, Michigan, beginning February 6. Jeffries has been called to six-months of active duty with the Army. Dave Forster of WLAV, Grand Rapids, Michigan, takes over Robbins’ FM duties. END

DETROIT (March 11, 1967) — Scott Regen, heard nightly 7-10 p.m. on WKNR, Detroit, has written the liner notes for the new “The Supremes Sing Holland – Dozier – Holland” album; he also wrote the liner notes for the “Four Tops Live At The Roostertail” and can be heard singing along with the Tops on “Reach Out.” Regen also introduced the Temptations on the new “Temptations Live At The Roostertail” long-playing album. END

DETROIT (April 6, 1968) — There has been some big changes at WKNR in Detroit. Departing were Scott Regen, Jerry Goodwin, and Ted Clark. On WKNR now are J. Michael Wilson, 6-9 a.m.; Ron Sherwood (from WKNR-FM) 9 a.m. til noon; Dan Henderson (from WAIR, Winston-Salem, North Carolina), noon – 3 p.m.; Gary Mitchell (from CKLW, Detroit) 3 -7 p.m.; Bob Harper ((from WKNR-FM), 7 – 10 p.m.; Sean Conrad (from WOHO, Toledo, under name of Ron Knight), 10 p.m. – 1 a.m.; and Dave Forster (from WKNR-FM), 1- 6 a.m. New men on WKNR-FM include Jerry Taylor from WAIR in Winston-Salem, S. C., and Alan Busch from WTTO, Toledo. END

DETROIT (March 14, 1970) — Bob Green returns as noon – 3 p.m. air personality and as production manager in Detroit; Ron Sherwood has been promoted to music director of the Top 40 operation. The station is revamping . . . . Skip Broussard has resigned at WMPS, Memphis, to become new program director of WKNR, Detroit. Lee Sherwood has just resigned as program director at WFIL in Philadelphia to consult WKNR. Jerry Goodwin, who jocked at WKNR since 1963, has joined WABX-FM, Detroit. He attends Wayne State University. END

DETROIT (October 17, 1970) — Bob Dearborn is now with WCFL, Chicago, doing the all-night trick. He’d been Mark Allen at WKNR in Detroit and at WPTR in Albany and back at WIXY in Cleveland as part of the original Top 40 crew. He started 10 years ago at CKOC in Hamilton, Canada, but says WCFL is the greatest station he’s ever worked at. The Top 40 operation, incidentally, is experimenting with longer album cuts at night, playing, for example, the longer versions of “Closer To Home” and “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and “getting fantastic response” to it, says Dearborn. END

DETROIT (April 24, 1971) — Harry C. Walker is the new general manager of WKNR and WKNR-FM in Detroit. Walker had been general sales manager at the station, Frank Maruca is out; Mr. Maruca had been with the station for many years, including its days as the market’s number one top 40 station during most of the 1960s. END

DETROIT (July 31, 1971) — Frank Maruca, has been named general manager of WKIX, Raleigh; he’d been general manager of WKNR, Detroit. END

DETROIT (August 14, 1971) — Bill Garcia has taken over as program director of WKNR, Detroit, and Bob Green is out. Garcia needs a heavy morning man, as a.m. personality Jim Tate is slated to leave the building for the very last time. Staff includes Robin Stone, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Pat St. John, 2-6 p.m., Mark Darwin, 6-10 p.m., Michael Stevens, 10 p.m. – 2 a.m., and Gary Kent, 2-6 a.m. Garcia is rating every record played and has plunged the station into a “very, very hard rock” format approach. Armed with a 40-record playlist and oldies dating back to 1954, including Chuck Berry and Bill Haley product, Garcia plans some excitement for the market. The station will be leaning towards LP cuts, and not just those cuts we think will become singles later, but cuts we know will probably be not be released as  singles.” END

DETROIT (March 4, 1972) — Bob Green, former program director of WKNR, Detroit, informed Billboard the bulk of the staff at KULF, Houston, were formerly with WKNR — himself, Jim Tate, and Ron Sherwood. Green stated he is looking for a young personality to add to his staff. Format is easy listening. END

(Information and news source: Billboard Magazine. All excerpts culled as was published from the dated editions noted above).

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EYDIE GORME, ’60S POP HITS ICON, DIES AT 84

MarqueeTest-2Eydie Gorme, ‘Blame it on the Bossa Nova’ Singer, Dies at 84

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

The Associated Press | Published NYT/Entertainment / August 11, 2013

 

LOS ANGELES — Eydie Gorme, a popular nightclub and television singer who had a huge solo hit in 1963 with “Blame it on the Bossa Nova,” died Saturday. She was 84.

Edyie Gorme in 1956.
Eydie Gorme in 1956.

Her publicist, Howard Bragman, said Ms. Gorme, who performed as a solo act and as a team with her husband, Steve Lawrence, died at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas after a brief, undisclosed illness.

Ms. Gorme was a successful band singer and nightclub entertainer when she was invited to join the cast of Steve Allen’s local New York television show in 1953.

She sang solos and did duets and comedy skits with Mr. Lawrence, a young singer who had joined the show a year earlier. When the program became NBC’s “Tonight Show” in 1954, the young couple went with it.

They married in Las Vegas in 1957.

“Eydie has been my partner on stage and in life for more than 55 years,” Mr. Lawrence said in a statement. “I fell in love with her the moment I saw her and even more the first time I heard her sing. While my personal loss is unimaginable, the world has lost one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time.”

Although usually recognized for her musical partnership with Mr. Lawrence, Ms. Gorme broke through on her own with the Grammy-nominated “Blame it on the Bossa Nova.” The bouncy tune about a dance craze of the time was written by the songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme circa 1962.
Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme circa 1962 (click image for larger view).

Her husband had had an equally huge solo hit in 1962 with “Go Away Little Girl,” written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

Ms. Gorme would score another solo hit in 1964, but this time for a Spanish-language recording.

Ms. Gorme, who was born in New York City to Sephardic Jewish parents, grew up speaking both English and Spanish. When she and her husband were at the height of their career as a team in 1964, the president of Columbia Records Goddard Lieberson suggested she put that Spanish to use in the recording studio.

The result was “Amor,” recorded with the Mexican combo Trio Los Panchos.

The song became a hit throughout Latin America, which resulted in more recordings for the Latino market, and Mr. Lawrence and Ms. Gorme performed as a duo throughout Latin America.

“Our Spanish stuff outsells our English recordings,” Mr. Lawrence said in 2004. “She’s like a diva to the Spanish world.”

The couple had an impressive, long-lasting career in English-language music as well, encompassing recordings and appearances on TV, in nightclubs and in concert halls.

Throughout it, they stuck for the most part with the music of classic composers like Berlin, Kern, Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and other giants of Broadway and Hollywood musicals. They eschewed rock ‘n’ roll and made no apologies for it.

“People come with a general idea of what they’re going to get,” Mr. Lawrence said of their show in a 1989 interview. “They buy a certain cereal, and they know what to expect from that package.”

Soon after their marriage, the pair had landed their own TV program, “The Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme Show,” which was a summer replacement for Mr. Allen.

Not long after that, however, Mr. Lawrence entered the Army, and Ms. Gorme went on the nightclub circuit as a soloist until his return two years later. Their careers took off.

They appeared at leading nightclubs in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Las Vegas, combining music with the comedy bits they had learned on Mr. Allen’s show.

With nightclubs dwindling in popularity in the 1980s, they moved their act to large theaters and auditoriums, drawing not only older audiences but also the baby boomers who had grown up on rock ‘n’ roll.

Eydie Gorme's 'I Feel So Spanish' UA LP (1961)
Eydie Gorme’s ‘I Feel So Spanish!’ UA LP from 1961.

Ms. Gorme was born Aug. 16, 1928 and began to consider a music career while still a student at William Taft High School in the Bronx, where she had been voted the “Prettiest, Peppiest Cheerleader.”

After graduation, she worked as a Spanish interpreter for a time but also sang on weekends with the band of Ken Greenglass, who encouraged her and eventually became her manager.

Her first big break came when she landed a tour with the Tommy Tucker band, and she followed that up with gigs with Tex Beneke, Ray Eberle and on radio and television.

Early in her career, Ms. Gorme considered changing her name, but her mother protested.

“It’s bad enough that you’re in show business. How will the neighbors know if you’re ever a success?” she told her, so Ms. Gorme decided to keep the family name but changed her given name from Edith to Edie.

Later, having grown tired of people mistaking it for Eddie, she changed the spelling to Eydie.

Survivors include her husband, Mr. Lawrence, her son David and a granddaughter. Another son, Michael, died of heart failure in 1986 at age 23.

(Article reprint from AP wire services and nytimes.com online August 11, 2013).

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FLASHBACK MOTOR CITY HAPPENINGS ’71 . . . MARCH 20, 1971

MarqueeTest-2From the MCRFB news archive: 1971

Music Happenings In and Around Detroit Town, 1971

 

 

 

 

 

Detroit's Alice Cooper circa 1971.
Detroit’s Alice Cooper circa 1971.

DETROIT — Producer Jack Richardson, who has worked with RCA’s Guess Who out of Toronto and most recently with Bizarre’s Alice Cooper, is recording in Chicago with Mitch Ryder and his band, Detroit. A new single and album will be out. The finished product will be mixed in Toronto. Ryder follows the sessions with his first tour in six months, covering most of the northwest from April 13 to 25.

Ted Nugent, lead guitarist of Polydor’s Amboy Dukes, married in Florida. He spent his honeymoon touring radio stations in the south talking about the group’s latest album, ‘Survival Of The Fittest.’ Nugent and the Amboy Dukes and Brownsville Station will work together at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in Los Angeles April 21 through 25. It marks the West Coast debut of both groups, although the Amboy Dukes have been there with different personnel and a different show . . .  New Jersey’s Wadsworth Mansion, now booked out of Diversified Management Agency in Detroit presently taping ‘The Dating Game,’ ‘American Bandstand’ and other TV shows on the West Coast.  The group starts touring March 12 going through North Carolina, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas and into Canada April 16, 17, 18 for dates and TV shots.

Ted Nugent 'Motor City Madman'
Ted Nugent aka the ‘Motor City Madman.’

Ike and Tina Turner plan to work on a new album June 1-10 following a two-week stint in Las Vegas. That’s to be followed by 15 one-nighters. They’ll be on the Pearl Baily show Saturday, March 20 .  .  .   Damnation will head into their Cleveland studios for their third United Artist album . . . .  Alice Cooper, along with Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes and Brownsville Station, goes to Pittsburgh March 31, Atlanta April 1, Miami April 2 and 3, ten one-nighters to Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Tampa, Jackson, Memphis, Little Rock and winding up at Orlando, Florida April 11. The second-half tour of the 20-day tour is not completed as yet. The swing is booked out of  DMA in Detroit . . . .  The Stooges begin recording their third Elektra LP Monday, March 22 in Los Angeles. The working title for the album is ‘Big Time Bum.’ The group, featuring Iggy, has taken time off from recording and touring to prepare an entirely new act, to be debuted sometime in April . . . .

Local favorites Sunday Funnies will have their first album out for Rare Earth Records. Andrew Oldham, discoverer and early producer of the Rolling Stones, produced the album. The album was recorded in the Motown studios in Detroit.

. . . Jam Band, led by pianist Mike Quatro, took to the stage at the Roostertail as part of the Pop Cycles series put on to help bring young people closer to classical music . . . . Janus’ Teegarden & Van Winkle are working in their home studios for an early April single release. A second Janus album will follow. . . . Savage Grace  will come home to Detroit after living in Los Angeles for six months will they worked on their second album with Reprise. A May tour is planned for the group through DMA, to coincide with the release of the album . . . .

Windsor’s CKLW are currently into their concert promotion field. Their first venture, with Three Dog Night, sold out within five days of tickets going on sale. It took place at the University of Detroit. The next CKLW announcement is expected to be a Steppenwolf – Alice Cooper show for Detroit’s Olympia April 17. . . .  The Supremes are playing a rare local engagement at Windsor’s Elmwood Casino. END

(Information and news source: Billboard; March 20, 1971).

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WXYZ-AM 1270 * THE DETROIT SOUND SURVEY * AUGUST 8, 1966

MarqueeTest-2From the MCRFB archived files:

THE TOP 35 HITS ON WXYZ ON THIS DATE IN 1966

 

WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey; Week no. 17 issued August 8, 1966 under Lee Alan, Program Director; WXYZ

 

 

wixie153(WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey for August 8, this date 1966; survey courtesy the Jim Heddle Collection. For the previous weekly WXYZ August 1, 1966 survey click here).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88N8L7WX7-c

WXYZ Detroit Sound Survey No. 15: “That’s Enough,” by Rosco Robinson, this date in August 1966.

wixie174

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