WDEE RADIO 1500 PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE
— 1970 —
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At midnight on December 26, 1969, WJBK changed to a contemporary country music format and changed its calls to WDEE (many joked at the time that the calls stood for “We’ve Done Everything Else”). Former WJBK personality Marc Avery recalled in 1971, when interviewed for the WDRQ program “The History of Detroit Radio,” that WJBK had been considering switching to country as far back as the early 1960s. At the time, 1340 WEXL was the only full-time country music station in the immediate Detroit market (with Ypsilanti-based WSDS as its only competitor). WDEE distinguished itself with its slick, contemporary (“countrypolitan”) approach to the country format, designed for mass appeal, and was one of the first stations to program country and western music with a Top 40-style presentation. The move paid off with frequent top-five showings in the Detroit ratings during the 1970s.
With only a thousand watts of power, WEXL was unable to compete with 50,000-watt WDEE and left the country format by 1974 for religious programming. WDEE’s midday show, “The Fem Forum”, in which host Tom Dean fielded calls from female listeners sharing their sexual frustrations, was a controversial feature for its time but also quite popular. Other personalities on the station during the 1970s included morning mainstay Deano Day, Hank O’Neil, Mike Scott, Dave Williams, Bob Burchett, Ray Otis, Randy Price, Doug Smith, Don Thompson, Jimmy Bare, Rosalee, Paul Allen, Bob Day, Ron Ferris, Dan Dixon and Rick Church.
In the early 1970s, WDEE was purchased by Combined Communications, who in turn would eventually be purchased by the Gannett Company. (Previous to Combined ownership, WDEE was part of a broadcast chain owned by Globe Broadcasting, owned by the Harlem Globetrotters.) Also during this time, WDEE-FM changed to news/talk as WDRQ-FM; that lasted until 1972, when Charter Broadcasting bought WDRQ and switched to Top 40, using such memorable slogan as “I Q in My Car”. Four decades and several formats later, that station is now playing contemporary country music again, under Cumulus Media ownership as “Nash FM.”
The WDEE calls later had a brief revival as a daytime-only classic-country music station in Reed City, Michigan, coincidentally also at AM 1500. This station has since gone off the air, but the calls survive on its onetime FM sister station, WDEE-FM, which runs an oldies format as “Sunny 97.3.”
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A MCRFB NOTE: According to the Detroit Free Press (December 26, 1969) the very first song heard after WJBK made the transition to the new WDEE was, “I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail” by Buck Owens.
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(Source: WDEE; Wikipedia)
The above WDEE 1970 booklet was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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