WXYZ 1270 DETROIT SOUND TOP 35! THIS WEEK IN 1966

WXYZ 137 (MCRFB)

WIXIE DETROIT SOUND No. 8 * Terry Knight & The Pack * WXYZ (4/18/66)

WXYZ 137 (MCRFB) Header Cropped 2

  WIXIE DETROIT SOUND No. 18 * Johnny Rivers * WXYZ (4/18/66)

wixie174

WIXIE DETROIT SOUND No. 27 * Dave Clark Five * WXYZ (4/18/66)

Loading

ROYAL RADIO: LOCAL PROMOS SPURS STEREO 8 SALES . . . JULY 1, 1967

Motor City Radio Flashbacks logo (2015)From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1967

8-Track Sales at Royal Radio Rises Through Detroit Radio Ads

 

 

 

 

 

DETROIT — “The Stereo 8 is still just a baby,” said Mrs. Lowell Bennett of Royal Radio in Royal Oak, a Detroit suburb. Mrs. Bennett, who with her husband and another partner, Harry Showers, has been selling 4- and 8-track stereo cartridges for the past year-and-a-half.

Sale of the stereo 8 cartridge has completely overwhelmed the sale of 4-track tapes at the store. But the total cartridge business at Royal Radio is still a small percentage of the total business. They also sell stereo tape players for car and home, radios, televisions, intercoms, car radios and record players, and other electronic equipment.

A 1966 Ford Motor Company ad for 8-track automobile players. (Click on image for largest view).
AN EARLY 1966 Ford Motor Company dealership notice promoting their new automobile 8-track cartridge player. (Click on image 2x for largest view).

The store sells an average of 400 8-track cartridges a week and at present has over 1,000 tapes in stock. Mrs. Bennett says they are constantly building up their inventory. Their bookkeeping indicates their inventory that they haven’t been hurt at all by carrying a large inventory.

The biggest selling tapes are Herb Alpert, Frank Sinatra and semi-classical music, Mrs. Bennett said. This reflects the buyers. “It’s not the real young people who buys tapes,” said Mrs. Bennett. The people who buy the most of our tapes are past 21.”

In her opinion, teenagers are still buying 45 rpm records since they can get the one song they want for less money than a tape cartridge costs.

The store has found radio advertising to be quite effective. They buy about 25 to 30 one-minute spots per week although all are not for the tapes exclusively.  Currently they are advertising on WOMC, an FM station; WXYZ, easy listening; WEXL, the only country station covering the Detroit market. They have also used CKLW, a top 40 station.

Mrs. Bennett has discovered that WEXL is one of the best stations for the store’s advertising. The station has a “country club” and members entitles them to a 10% discount at Royal Radio. These listeners buys a lot of tapes, mostly country music, at the store.

Royal also advertises in the Royal Oak Daily Tribune with lists of tapes available and special 10% off sales.

In their ads Royal does not list their 4-track stereo tape cartridges since they are not interested in building up that business. Mrs. Bennett feels that eventually that 8-track will completely replace 4-track.

To promote the sales of stereo-8 cartridges the store works closely with automobile dealers in the area. They contact the dealers to let them know what the store carries. In some cases, local dealers did not know about the cartridges. The store also sells stereo-8 cartridges wholesale to the automobile dealers who stock them in their showrooms.

Mrs. Bennett believes that the tape cartridge market language is something that needs developing.  At present the store can special order them, but she thinks more work needs to go into building up a market for them.

As far as the total stereo-8 cartridge scene goes, Mrs. Bennett said, “We’re working very hard to develop this part of our business because there is good potential there.” END

___

(Information and news source: Billboard; July 1, 1967)


MCRFB.COM Logo (2)

A MCRFB NOTE: Check out our WXYZ-AM BACK ON THE RADIO WITH: JIM HAMPTON (July 27, 1966) featured today — as an audio attachment added with this ‘Royal Radio’ post on Motor City Radio Flashbacks. You’ll note the show was sponsored by none other than ROYAL RADIO “The House of Modern Sound” on WXYZ 1270 — it’s summertime with Jimmy Hampton on the radio with “The Detroit Sound,” 1966!


Royal Radio. The vacant building today, that was formerly Royal Radio on Main in Royal Oak, Michigan.
THE VACANT BUILDING as it stands that was formerly Royal Radio. Property situated at 612 N. Main Street (between 11 and 12 Mile Rd.), Royal Oak, Michigan. (Click on image for larger detailed view).

Loading

50 YEARS AGO: DISK ARTISTS TAKE TIME OUT FOR A CAUSE . . . APRIL 10, 1965

Motor City Radio Flashbacks logo (2015)From the MCRFB news archive: 1965

’65 Selma to Montgomery March Includes —

Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Bobby Darin, Chad Mitchell, Tony Bennett, Joan Baez and More

 

 

 

 

MONTGOMERY — A million dollars’ worth of recording talent entertained the rapidly swelling crowd of voting rights marchers on the grounds of the City of St. Jude School here on the eve of the final leg of the Selma-to-Montgomery trek.

Mounting a temporary platform erected on coffin crates were civil rights entertainment committee chairman Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis, Tony Bennett, the Chad Mitchell Trio, Odetta, Joan Baez, Billy Eckstein, Pete Seeger, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Dick Gregory, Bobby Darin; Peter, Paul and Mary and others.

The ailing Mahalia Jackson was unable to attend but wired personal greetings.

Harry Belafonte, photographed in  Montgomery, Alabama. March 25, 1965. (Click on image for larger detailed view).
Harry Belafonte, NAACP activist Roy Wilkins (center in hat), photographed passing through the Montgomery black district en route to the Alabama State Capitol, March 25, 1965. (Click on image for larger detailed view).

Predominant on the program was the body of haunting song identified with the “movement.”

The following morning many of the recording artists marched into Montgomery with the 25,000 and staged another rousing concert on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol.

As the column of marchers moved out of the Negro district and into the downtown Birmingham, stern-faced onlookers lining the route caught sight of Mary Travers, Harry Belafonte, James Baldwin, Chad Mitchell and Lena Horne and grabbed for cameras.

For the entertainers on the scene, it was not the first instance of identification with the “movement.” Nor is show business involvement in the rights struggle likely to abate.

As previously been reported last week, a veritable who’s who of the entertainment industry — some 60 stars — was to appear April 4 at New York’s Majestic Theater in a benefit for the late Rev. James Reeb’s family, the Voters Education Program of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund of the Congress of Racial Equality.

The sponsoring committee was sprinkled with top recording industry executives.  END

Belafonte, Leon Bibb, and Joan Baez sing on the capital steps in Montgomery (photo by Matt Herron; click on image for largest view))
Singer and rights activist Harry Belafonte, Leon Bibb, and Joan Baez sing on the capital steps in Montgomery. (photo by Matt Herron; click on image for largest view).
The scene at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, March 25, 1965.
Marchers, united behind Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., converge at their final point of destination. The Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery. March 25, 1965.

(Information and news source: Billboard; April 10, 1965).

Loading

LOST IN THE ’50S: THIS WEEK! THE HONOR ROLL OF HITS!

BILLBOARD Honor Roll Of Hits 04-27-57 (MCRFB cropped)

AMERICA’S WEEKLY HIT PARADER: THE NATION’S TOP TUNES INDEX

 ROUND AND ROUND * Perry Como * BILLBOARD (No. 02) 4/17/1957

BILLBOARD Honor Roll Of Hits 04-27-57 (MCRFB2)  AMERICA’S WEEKLY HIT PARADER: THE NATION’S TOP TUNES INDEX

 MAMA LOOK-A BOO BOO * Harry Belafonte * BILLBOARD (No. 18) 4/17/1957

BILLBOARD Honor Roll Of Hits 04-27-57 (MCRFB cropped)

Loading