FIVE DAYS IN JULY:DETROIT FREE PRESS Tuesday, July 25, 1967(click on image 2x for largest detailed view)
ABC NEWS DON HOWE * Tommy McIntyre; WXYZ News * July 26, 1967
FIVE DAYS IN JULY: DETROIT Sunday, July 23, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed view)FIVE DAYS IN JULY: Wayne County sheriff officers on foot patrol near 12th and Elmhurst in Detroit.Wednesday, July 26, 1967 Photo: LIFE (click on image 2x for largest view).FIVE DAYS IN JULY: The National Guard stand vigilant near intersection of Linwood and Joy Rd.Thursday, July 27, 1967. (Photo: LIFE)FIVE DAYS IN JULY: National Guardsman Gary Ciko, foot-patrolling Linwood Ave., looks up at rooftops for possible snipers.(Photo: LIFE)
A MCRFB NOTE
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Link update (July 26, 2017): See Scott Westerman’s recent comments HOW KEENER COVERED THE SUMMER OF 1967 at his splendid WKNR tribute website, posted July 21, 2017.
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For a more comprehensive coverage on the five-day civil-disturbances in Detroit, July, this week in 1967, see Motor City Radio Flashbacks’ previous (July 16, 2012) feature — by clicking on the header-title below.
(Note: Previously featured on Motor City Radio Flashbacks, July 23, 2015)
FIVE DAYS IN JULY: THE DETROIT NEWS Monday, July 24, 1967 — “The shaded area in the above map of Detroit indicates where the rioting was more intense Sunday and this morning. There have been many reports of firebombing and looting in other sections of the city.”
SEVENTEEN WEEKS on the singles chart, “Light My Fire” by the Doors peaked this week at No. 01 (3 weeks) on the Billboard Hot 100, week July 23 through August 12, 1967. (source: Billboard)
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MCRFB Link: For the previous No. 1 record in the U.S.A. 1967 GO HERE.
BILLBOARD HOT 100 TABULATED BY RECORDS RETAIL SALESAND RADIO AIRPLAY
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 01* The Doors * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 02* Stevie Wonder * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 03* The Association * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 04* Frankie Valli * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 05* Procol Harum * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 06* The Music Explosion * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 07* The Buckinghams * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 08 U.S.A.* Jefferson Airplane * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 09* 5th Dimension * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 10* Four Seasons * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 11* Scott McKenzie * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 12* Sandy Posey * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 13* Every Mother’s Son * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 14* Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 15* Ray Charles * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 16* Hollies * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 17* Tremeloes * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 18* Bar-Kays * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 19* Young Rascals * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 20* Engelbert Humperdinck * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 21* Bettye Swann * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 22* Peaches & Herb * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 23* Smokey Robinson & The Miracles * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 24* Monkees * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 25* Tommy James & The Shondells * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD HOT 100 TABULATED BY RECORDS RETAIL SALES AND RADIO AIRPLAY
DETROIT JULY ’67. THE WEEK THAT WAS
THE DETROIT FREE PRESSMonday, July 24, 1967A National Guardsman on foot patrol scours rooftops for snipers as firemen battle blaze. Detroit, Wednesday July 26, 1967
(For more on the ’67 Detroit riot click dates above to open MCRFB.COM website link)
Looter Killed; 724 Held as Riot Spreads
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DETROIT — (Monday, July 24, 1967) — Governor Romney called in the National Guard and clamped a state of emergency on Detroit Sunday night in an attempt to quell spreading Negro sniping, burning and looting that broke out in the Twelfth and Clairmount area on the city’s west side.
Policemen round up suspects in a Detroit street on July 25, 1967 during riots which had erupted in the city’s west side following a police raid, early Sunday morning July 23. The National Guardsmen, with weapons drawn, hold suspects at bay. (Photo credit: Getty Images; click image for largest view).
Tanks, Jeeps and 2 1/2 ton trucks moved in ahead of infantry units to clear a sealed-off area bounded by W. Grand Blvd., Chicago, Linwood and the Lodge Freeway.
The state of emergency — a step just short of martial law — was ordered by the governor at 9:05 p.m., amid of reports of sporadic rifle fire throughout the city. Three looters were wounded early Monday, one fatally.
When the emergency order was issued, more than 800 stores had been looted, more than 200 persons were arrested and hundreds had been treated in hospital emergency rooms.
At 1 a.m. Monday, Police Commissioner Ray Girardin said a total of 724 persons had been arrested. This included 600 adults and 124 juveniles. The charges ranged from breaking and entering, through felonious assault to curfew violations.
After 17 hours of rampaging by Negroes, triggered by an early-morning police raid on an illegal after-hours liquor spot, the area was a shambles of shattered and demolished stores and blazing buildings.
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— DETROIT FREE PRESS
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THE BILLBOARD TOP 25
July 29, 1967
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These were the records played on the radio prior, during, and after that tragic week remembered still in DetroitJuly 23 through July 29, 1967.
Many went on to become some of the most popular singles heard played on AM Top 40 radio, July 1967, on WKNR, CKLW, and WXYZ. Also as well on soul stations WCHB and WJLB, conservative album-oriented, easy-listening WJR and WJBK radio in Detroit.
For reference purposes the audio tracks 1 through 25 were added in the same order to correlate with this special Billboard chart feature presentation, week-ending 7/29/67.
(Note: Previously posted on Motor City Radio Flashbacks. July 23, 2015)
(Note: Re-post; updated; previously featured July 16, 2012)
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DETROIT. 50 YEARS AGO
“My Fellow Americans, we have endured a week, such as no nation should live through. A time of violence and tragedy.” — Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States
“I think the President of the United States, uh, played politics uh, in a period of tragedy and riot.” — George Romney, Governor of Michigan
“We made it very clear — we do not want more than our share and we are determined to settle for nothing less than our share.” — Walter Reuther, UAW President
“I deplore the actions of the UAW in forcing Ford into this situation. I am sorry that we do not have laws, that effectively prevent the use of this kind of bludgeon, against the public interest.” — Henry Ford II, Ford Motor Company
The WKNR Contact News album for 1967
DETROIT. 1967. The opening commentary you will hear is the voice of WKNR News Director Philip Nye —
“These are the sounds and voices of a year. As WKNR News present an electronic diary in 1967. A year marked by rioting, by a continuing war and growing protest, by a rise in crime and cost,and by tragedy and triumph. As with all years, there was good and bad. We shall recall both.”
. . .WKNR microphones was there.
Philip Nye WKNR KEENER CONTACT NEWS 1967(Play 43:43 audio)
DETROIT FREE PRESS Linwood and Hazelwood. July 23, 1967(click on image 2x for largest view)BY THE TIME DETROITERS awoke to this Sunday edition headline, a large swath of flames was intensifying at the north side of the city, spreading block-to-city-block. Rioting, looting began to spread throughout that part of Detroit with each passing hour.(click on image 2x for largest detailed read)
Sunday, July 23, 1967
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T H I S 1 9 6 7 W K N R N E W S N A R R A T I V E recalls many of the events which affected the city of Detroit. Of certain news events which impacted the lives of Detroiters marking the passing of 1967 moving forward into 1968. The stories, news, voices and sounds you will hear was electronically imprinted on recorded tape by the WKNR news staff who covered the stories. The sounds you will be hear was permanently preserved on vinyl records by the WKNR news department ending the year 1967. This news recording served as a marker of what took place in Detroit that year. Whether covering the news, inside or outside the boundaries of the city, the WKNR microphones was there. When it happened. As it happened. How it happened. This WKNR Contact News album will take you back to a time and place. This was 50 years ago. The city was Detroit.
Sunday evening,July 23, corner of Hazelwood and Dexter.(Click on image 2x for largest detailed view)
But the biggest story that placed the city on national and international news headlines — the riot that was the summer of 1967. The date set was July 23, to be exact. And the WKNR news department microphones was there when Philip Nye and his six-man news staff and the station’s two mobile units began picking up the story.
By early Monday morning more dramatic news began to intensify with every passing hour as “the story” began to unfold. The civil disturbance sparked with a toss of a single Molotov cocktail during the early morning hours on Sunday. The flashpoint was marked on 12th near Clairmount in the city’s near west side. The riot’s spark ignited during a Detroit police raid on a liquor establishment’s “blind pig.” By mid-afternoon, the rioting spread rapidly out of control. Spreading from block to city block. Looting, shootings, arson became widespread. Within 24 hours, the destruction and carnage would cover 129 square miles of the city. Detroit, the fifth largest metropolis in the United States, was up in flames.
With a single toss of a gasoline bomb (6:30 a.m.) Detroit erupts in flames. Sunday morning, July 23, 1967.(Click on image for larger view)
L I S T E N A G A I N T O T H E biggest Detroit news story of 1967. Listen as —
Governor Romney requested the federal government deploy federal troops immediately into Detroit; Presidential Assistant Cyrus Vance informed the city that troops were on the ground in Detroit; President Johnson addresses the nation, deploring “law and order have broken down in Detroit, Michigan.”. . . .
Philip Nye went on to record, that, “At it’s peak, the riots spread over fourteen-square miles of the city. A curfew was in effect, a complete ban placed on liquor sales, gasoline can be purchased only during certain hours and never in a container, offices, banks, schools, businesses, industries were closed down; the heart of Detroit was deserted. Deliveries were curtailed.Food ran short. All normal activities in the nation’s fifth-largest city was at a standstill… they said it couldn’t happen here, but it did.”
The Detroit Free Press headlines below provided a more grim reality —
THE DETROIT FREE PRESS Monday, July 24, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)THE DETROIT FREE PRESS Tuesday, July 25, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)THE DETROIT FREE PRESSWednesday, July 26, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)THE DETROIT FREE PRESS Thursday, July 27, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)THE DETROIT FREE PRESS Friday, July 28, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)THE DETROIT FREE PRESS Saturday, July 29, 1967 (click on image 2x for largest detailed PC read)
A VIEWING TIP
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Above DETROIT FREE PRESS related articles courtesy freep.com newspaper archives. Copyright 2017. Newspapers.com
While the July ’67 civil disturbance overshadowed other local events and news for the year, Detroit had other issues the city found itself grappling with throughout 1967. WKNR Contact News covered these stories as well:
A 61-day strike between the UAW and the Ford Motor Company….
In July, the nation’s railroads were shut down by rail-machinists, affecting rail and transport commerce in Detroit….
Teamster Steel-haulers went on strike; spanning 8 states, including Michigan, lasting 9 weeks while inciting violence….
Detroit Federation of Teachers went on strike; teachers reached an agreement with the city two weeks into the new school year….
Contract discussions with the Detroit Officers Association and the city reach a stalled impasse, DPOA stop issuing traffic tickets….
The Teamsters Union strike both the Detroit newspapers over wages; The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press were still shut down due to the strike as of December 31, 1967….
WKNR Assistant News Director Eric Smith
And those were just several of the important news stories WKNR reported for Detroit in 1967. Headed by Philip Nye and assistant news director Eric Smith, WKNR Contact News was awarded five prestigious first-place honors — five different categories — for “news presentation par excellence” in 1966 by the Michigan Associated Press.
“…The hour’s catalog a year’s living; A year’s dying; a year’s luck. For WKNR News… this is Philip Nye, reporting.”
WKNR News Staff 1967: Mike O’Neill; News Director Philip Nye; Assistant News Director Erik Smith; (seated) John Maher; Dick Buller; Pat Kelly; Doug Fernlock
“A great tragedy has visited our city, and now our ability to face an awesome challenge is being tested. It is for us to meet the challenge with the same resolve and dedication for which we have been noted in the past. We must have a united determination torebuild our city into a kind of urban environment in which every citizen can say with dignity and self-respect that he is a Detroiter and proud of it. Like the legendary Phoenix, Detroit shall rise from its ashes.”
— Jerome P. Cavanagh, Mayor of Detroit; 1967
Uprising flashpoint. Where the police raid took place, 3:30 a.m., 9125 12th. Street. Sunday morning, July 23.(Detroit News)DETROIT Sunday, July 23, 1967 (AP Wire Photo)Click on image for largest view.The National Guard poised on Woodward Avenue, downtown Detroit. By July 26, 1967, Detroit was under imposed curfew and federal martial law. U.S. Army tanks armed with 50 cal. machine guns patrol the streets of Detroit, July 25, 1967.
‘KEENER CONTACT NEWS’
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For more on the Keener Contact News year-end albums, go to the left-sidebar menu column on this website and click WKNR Contact News. For everything on WKNR news, go to Scott Westerman’s WKNR tribute website atkeener13.com.
The YouTube video titled “Detroit Riots 1968,” while seeming erroneous, it was titled as such the year it was released. The footage is silent.
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ALSO| For a more comprehensive visual of the riots, watch this vintage 30 minute 1967 WXYZ-TV film segment on the Detroit civil disturbanceGO HERE.
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ALSO| For a more comprehensive review (link; detroit1967.org) on what took place 50 years ago on this day in Detroit, GO HERE.
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ALSO| The Detroit News Interactive feature FIVE DEADLY DAYS IN DETROIT is a informative review of Detroit’s week of infamy, covering the week beginning Sunday, July 23, 1967. This special report includes many photographs of the ’67 civil unrest. For more on this Detroit News timeline GO HERE.
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ALSO| From the DETROIT NEWS archives. 150 historic photos from the Detroit 1967 riot can be SEEN HERE.
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ALSO| From the Detroit Free Press. Detroit ’67. An interactive hour-by-hour timeline.GO HERE.
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ALSO| From the Detroit News archives. DETROIT 1967 interactive.GO HERE.
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NEW!| Six Days In July — Coverage Of the 1967 Detroit Riots. Aired on WWJ-TV (Channel 4; time 1:28:38), Sunday, July 30, 1967:
WLLZ-FM BOB BAUER1989(Press Photo)WLLZ-FM BOB BAUER, PD Director Jay Clark and WLLZ station promotions director Mike Isabella 1990 (Press Photo)
BOB BAUER. R.I.P.
Bob Bauer, longtime decades Detroit radio personality at radio stations WLLZ-FM, WCSX-FM, WABX-FM and others, has passed away, asreported by the Detroit Free Press, today.
DETROIT RADIO RESPONSE RATINGBillboard July 17, 1965 DETROIT RADIO STATIONS BY FORMATBillboard July 17, 1965DETROIT RADIO STATIONS BY FORMATBillboard July 17, 1965
DETROIT RADIO. THIS WEEK. JULY 1965
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LOS ANGELES —RKO General Broadcasting has hired Bill Drake, its programming consultant for two Coast stations, for its remaining radioproperties, according to reliable sources.
Drake, who currently guides the programming of top 40 stations KHJ locally and KFRC, San Francisco, will immediately take up the assignment to oversee and modify: CKLW, Detroit; WRKO, Boston; WOR-FM, New York; WGMS, Washington, D. C., and WHBQ Memphis.
Drake will initially concentrate on Detroit and Boston first. He has yet to visit and study the two markets, hence immediate personnel changes at the two stations is questionable.
Save for WTMS in the nation’s capital, all the stations are rockers, with WOR-FM an all stereo operation. Drake will also become involved at a later date with WOR-AM, the city’s leading all- conversation money and middle-of-the-road operation which apparently has been doing fairly well.’
Known for his “subliminal” approach to programming, whereby ingredients are strategically pieced within the broadcast hour. Drake will come up against WKNR in Detroit and both WBZ and WMEX in Boston. In Memphis he faces Plough’s WMPS plus a strong r &b operation -WDIA. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; July 15, 1967)
TAMLA MOTOWN Appreciation Society’s Margaret Phelps chaperones Stevie Wonder, Peter Noone outside Hitsville U.S.A. Friday, July 29, 1966
Friday, August 5, 1966
A DETROIT RADIO BACK-PAGE
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DETROIT FREE PRESS: ‘Herman Visits Motown Studio’
(Above WKNR related article is courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2017. Newspapers.com).
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Missed any of our previous ‘Detroit Radio Back-Pages‘ features?GO HERE.
From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor
SAN FRANCISCO — The music director at a top 40 station in a large city holds his job largely by continuing to demonstrate his ability to select the new records that eventually become hits. Every week, when he makes his top pick or discovery, he puts his reputation on the line.
It occasionally happens that even after his station has been playing his pick of the week once an hour for a week, none of the local stores can report any significant sales on it. Should such a thing happen with any degree of regularity. his boss will start looking for a new music director.
One annoying circumstance arises occasionally: a few weeks after a pick has been heavily played and yet has sold little or nothing in the market, it looms up in other cities and becomes a national hit. This is pretty frustrating. Why can’t the first station to spot a record’s potential break it for a hit?
BECAUSE IN MOST CASES, the record isn’t in the stores. The dealers get customer calls but don’t have it. Sometimes they’ll try to order it from the distributor and find that he hasn’t stocked it. By the time it finally reaches its destination at the retailer point of sale, there may be no further demand for it. The station may have dropped it entirely, figuring that it was a bomb.
This kicks back at the station, too, in the form of listener displeasure. Those who have tried to buy the record, in the belief that it must be important, have their enthusiasm dampened when they find that it isn’t available in the stores. Their confidence in the station is shaken. It’s unfortunate all the way around. Everybody loses.
Who gets blamed? Everybody. The retailer should keep up with what is being picked for air play, and he should have the new items in stock. The distributor should have stock on the floor, ready to move it out to the stores at the first sign of action. The music director should make certain of the record’s immediate availability before he picks it. At least, that’s the way everyone involved tries to evade the responsibility by blaming someone else.
A closer liaison between the station and the distributor can avoid such situations. Some of the nation’s most successful music directors always check with the distributor before picking a record. When will stock he available? If the station goes on the record, will the distributor order it? Will he guarantee an initial allocation to key retailers?
IT HAPPENS OCCASIONALLY that two or three versions of a record will appear almost simultaneously. Which label gets the pick? It is not always the version with the better sound. It is often the version whose distributor is known to be alert and aggressive, and who can be depended upon to get it on the dealers’ shelves.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the distributor must guarantee 100 per cent. It should be enough – and usually is – that he will back up the station’s confidence in his product by making it quickly available to the dealers if they need it.
Most important distributors follow this kind of a policy. It is hard to understand why all do not. It is a weakness more often encountered in factory owned or controlled branches, where stock is controlled by the national brass, who estimate which of their weekly releases are most likely to be in demand. In such cases, the decision of an important station to pick a left field possibility – something that is not considered by the bosses to be a top plug item – is occasionally ignored by the local branch manager.
Station music directors are becoming more discriminating with picks in relations to practical sales prospects in a local market. It is a trend that merits serious consideration by record people, in improving their coordination between promotion and sales. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; October 19, 1963)
