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According to renown Detroit radio historian David Carson (author of ‘Rockin’ Down The Dial’), Bud Davis began his only one-station career at CKLW in 1942, by first working in the mail room and adding duties as a transcription operator and as staff announcer. After serving in World War II in the Royal Canadian Navy, Davis returned to CKLW and began doing early “Platter and Chatter” shows and began to attract a much-younger listening radio audience.
Eventually, during the early-1950s, Davies ranked well in listener popularity with his two shows, “Good Neighbor Club” and “Your Boy Bud”, “when he played records and took the votes of fans in his ‘Battles of the Bands’ and ‘Singers'” at CKLW during the mid-day hours.
It was by the mid-1950s when Davies reputably drew a strong teen audience and was by then a huge teen favorite at CKLW. By 1956, he was doing daily on-air split-shifts. Two hours in the afternoon (1:30 – 3:30 p.m.) and one hour and a half hour in the evening (7:30 p.m. to 9). In between the two shifts, Bud also hosted ‘Top Ten Dance Party’ on CKLW-TV 9. Bud introduced Elvis Presley on stage at the Fox Theater, when he first appeared in Detroit in July of 1956.
Davis, by early-1961, was moved to the late afternoon hours at CKLW and began drawing a more mature, cross-over listening audience playing “the latest hits and engaging his listeners with his popular ‘Shafer Bread Quickie Quiz’ segments. At the time, CKLW went country in the evening hours, with a show called “Sounds Like Nashville.” By May of 1963, Bud Davis replaced Toby David as the new morning man (David going full-time at TV 9) at CKLW. Dave Shafer moved up in the afternoon slot held previous by Davies.
After 29 years at CKLW, for reasons never fully explained, Bud Davies was released from CKLW in August of 1966. Long retired from the radio business and living in Florida, Bud Davies passed away on October 20, 2006.
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Credit and source information: ‘Rockin’ Down The Dial’, by David Carson Momentum Books Ltd., Troy, MI. Copyright 2000
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