“The listing of records herein is the opinion of CKLW based on its survey of record sales, listener requests and CKLW’s judgement of the record’s appeal.”
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The featured CKLW chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE? Tap over CKLW chart images. Open to second window. “Stretch” image across your device screen to magnify for largest print view.
ON YOUR PC? Click on all chart images 2x for largest print view.
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A sincere thank you Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without your generosity, dedication, and your continuous support.
Above CKLW music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.
Beatles Shea Stadium Second Appearance Disappoint Anticipated Tickets Sellout
NEW YORK — There were certain unmistakable signs at Shea Stadium Tuesday night (Aug. 23) that the phenomenal popularity enjoyed by the Beatles has begun to wane. Although their 35-minute concert netted them a whopping $189,000, the Liverpool moppets drew only 45,000 fans compared with the capacity crowd of 55,000 that jammed the ball park for last year’s show.
Perhaps a more significant omen came from being able to understand some of the lyrics to the group’s 11 songs, including “Yesterday,” “If I Needed Someone” and “Paperback Writer.” In their previous appearances, the din of hysterical, teen-age girls drowned out all sound emanating from the highly amplified speakers.
Another indication that the Capitol Records stars are declining in popularity was the reaction, or lack of reaction, of the screaming Beatlemaniacs. In contrast to last year’s concert, when the young teeners in the lower boxes stormed the stage en masse, only a score of hysteria-clutched fans braved the bolstered police lines (upward of 400 on the field).
It’s doubtful that recent statements from John Lennon, concerning the status of Christianity in the world today, caused a dip in attendance. It is more likely that the mop-tops have saturated the market.
Whatever the reason, it seems that the Beatles have begun the long, slow downward journey, even though their concerts will attract thousands and their records will continue to gross millions for some time.
Other groups that shared a slice of the $292,000 gross, and a much smaller share of the crowd’s enthusiasm, were the Cyrkle, the Remains, the Ronettes and Bobby Hebb. The WMCA Good Guys, Murray the K, “Cousin Brucie” Morrow and Hal Jackson handled the emcee chores for producer Sid Bernstein.
Are the Beatles on the Wane?
The Beatles appearance in Boston (August 18) created only wild enthusiasm for 20,000 youngsters and left next day $60,000 richer. Attendance of 30,000 was hoped for. It is reported that Frank Connelly, impresario of the big Framingham Carosel Theater, who staged the show, took in a gross of from $125,000 to $160,000. Tickets were scaled at $4.75 and $5.75.
The more than 350 State and local police kept the crowd orderly, had little trouble in handling the few recalcitrants who jumped fences and got onto the vast infield where the stage was set up. Local deejays tried to calm the crowd, but in this modern trend, the audience wanted to be the show.
The Remains performed in a nasal imitation of the Beatles; Bobby Hebb and the Cyrkle went on to the thunderous rumble and good-natured screams of the crowd. Then three slim girls in gold-lace dresses, the Ronettes, tried to make themselves heard.
Finally at 9:55 p.m. the Liverpool group sang “If I Needed Someone” to the screaming crowd. And at 10:25 p.m. it was all over. The Beatles gave all they had and it was a good show. END
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Information, credit and news source: Billboard, September 3, 1966
The agency’s oldest active radio account is Schmidt Brewing Co., user of available spots before or after sports events. This account got one of the greatest bargains in radio history last fall when it bought a package deal of the AM rights for the Stanley Cup hockey games. The first game of the series, instead of ending in one hour, went more than two hours overtime, and permitted more than 100 commercials. Naturally, copy wasn’t written for even a great part of that number, and partner Simons wound up dictating new ones over the phone to the waiting announcers at Olympia Stadium. Schmidt is now buying spots on each of the three TV stations, plus a steady schedule of AM spots.
Simons-Michelson also placed Benrus Watch spots before the World Series games last fall, on every available station on a one-time buy. It instigated the Wheaties five-minute sports program before leading football games all over the country-pro, college, even high school or semi-pro if the game had generated enough interest in a specific area. Unfortunately, the football season was just a little too late in the year to do a good selling job on a cold cereal, and the idea was dropped.
[Note: Mouse click over (pc) or tap and stretch (mobile screen) over the WJR ad image for largest detailed read.]
Pepsi-Cola is a heavy spot buyer in the Detroit area. Dossin Food Products is the local bottler, and at present is also using the Ty Tyson 10- minute sports show. One of the outstanding success stories in the food line is that of Velvet Peanut Butter. A comparative newcomer to the field, Velvet now ranks as the largest selling brand in Michigan despite the competition of national names.
This preference for radio has been built in part by the Floyd Rice account, local Ford dealer, which claims to buy and sell more used cars than any new car dealer in the world. About 75% of its budget is put into radio, especially spots, with emphasis on nearness to sports programs. Occasionally it buy sports shows. The agency also handles the Plymouth Dealers of both Detroit and Cleveland. The Detroit organization sponsors the early morning traffic program, Listen and Live, built around music, with a representative of the police department giving pertinent data on traffic, weather and driving conditions for the a.m. drive to work.
During last fall’s Plymouth model changeover, the Detroit dealers used twice as much point of sale display as they did radio, but when the 1949 Plymouth was introduced this year, the program had swung to 100% radio. In Cleveland, a saturation schedule was put on all stations, using over 400 spots in two weeks. Two other active auto accounts are Park and Jefferson Motors, Lincoln-Mercury dealers who buy a half-hour newscast once a week.
An instance of a product catching on with the use of radio through Powell-Grant is Miracle-Power, an engine conditioning product made by the A. P. Parts Corp. of Toledo. Another “off-trail” advertiser is the Southeastern Michigan Tourist Assn., which uses mid-week spots to buck up business in resorts that are having dull times, to pull out-state residents into the Detroit area, and Detroiters into the vacation-land along the eastern shore, north of the city. The association claims it can see a response the next weekend to spots placed on Wednesday. Lee & Cady, wholesale grocer, uses chain breaks to ‘satisfy retailers’ demands for product backing up. A furniture retailer, Fenster’s, uses spot radio in three-day buys when the store holds sales. Robert H. Powell is head of Powell-Giant, with Pat Freeman in charge of radio buying.
One of the outstanding users of radio in this area has been the Goebel Brewing Co., which has expanded distribution to the point where it now advertises as “Detroit’s National Beer.” Through Brooke, Smith, French & Dorrance, Goebel sponsors the AM broadcast of all Tiger games, at home and away, over the Goebel network, a regional buy of over 30 stations, including WJBK and WKMH in suburban Dearborn. In addition, the brewery is telecasting some 35 home games over WWJ-TV. To round out baseball activities, it is active in Chicago, telecasting the Cubs’ games over WEN-TV.
Willard S. French is president of the agency and Guy C. Smith is secretary-treasurer. Other active radio accounts are Iron-Rite Ironers, of Mt. Clemens, Mich., now buying the five minute TV show, Petticoat Lane on WJBK-TV and using occasional AM spots, and Youngstown Kitchens, who plan using a TV test program in the near future.
Hugh Hole is BSF & D radio director, with Clyde Vortman as time buyer. This agency is housed in an Italian Renaissance mansion on East Jefferson that once belonged to the Book family and was a landmark in Detroit’s social life.
Like BSF & D, Jefferson avenue is the home of Maxon Inc., which is housed in two buildings, one the lovely old Barbour family home which contains the media and research departments, and a few hundred feet away, the former building of George Harrison Phelps, a pioneer Detroit broadcaster and ad-man, which now houses executive offices and production facilities. No. 1 radio account of this nationally known agency is the Gillette Safety Razor Co., which sponsors most of the major sports events of the year, including the World Series and the Triple Crown of racing, plus the fights from Madison Square Garden. However, the billing of this account and purchases of time are handled through the N. Y. office, under the direction of Preston H. Pumphrey, and Ed Wilhelm, time buyer. This is also true of the recently begun spot campaign of the H. J. Heinz Co., another giant Maxon account, which is being continued. (In spite of the recent N. Y. Times ad of the American Newspaper Advertising Agency). Searle Hendee, vice-president` of the agency, is account-executive on Gillette.
The chief local radio account of this agency, whose president and founder, Lou R. Maxon, is as well known for his unpublicized charities as he is for his meteoric rise in the advertising world, is that of the Pfeiffer Brewing Co. Currently, this company is using an hour-long 1 a.m. show on WJR, featuring records beamed at stay-up-laters, plus a steady schedule of spots on 53 Michigan stations. The increased advertising of this brewery is in great measure responsible for its recent vault into first place in beer sales in the state. On a slightly smaller scale is the spot campaign being used nationally by Drewrys Ltd. for their beer and ale. Both Of these accounts favor chain breaks and best available spots.
Stockwell & Marcuse is another Detroit agency that has been quite active in the radio and television field. Sam’s Cut Rate, a local department store client, has sponsored the Detroit Symphony and has been a large spot buyer in the past. The agency telecasts pictures of actual homes for sale for Homer Warren & Co., local realtor. It claims a first in bringing a political figure to the TV mike in Detroit in a paid telecast.
Another advertising agency handling radio accounts is Howard D. Steere Advertising with offices at 2812 Book Tower. Howard D. Steere is owner of the firm.
In the institutional field, Stockwell & Marcuse handles the Industrial National Bank, which sponsors the local broadcast of the Ronald Colman half -hour drama. Another steady user of spots is the Michigan Automobile Club, AAA representative in the state. William Stockwell and Philip R. Macuse head the firm, with Mr. Stockwell handling time buying.
One of the oldest firms handling local accounts is Luckoff, Wayburn & Frankel, which evolved from Bass-Luckoff, founded in 1928. One of the original partners, Louis Bass, left Detroit and established a new firm, Bass-Luckoff of Hollywood. Lou Luckoff, senior partner of L, W & F, is a strong supporter of radio, especially spots. He says: “We find that a consistent program of spots, properly used, can go a long way in increasing volume. The key phrase is, properly used.” And he backs his statements with time buys, too.
BROADCASTING August 1, 1949
Another leader in the local field is the Rex Advertising Co., who estimate their radio and TV billings as ‘70% of the agency total. Under the direction of Fred A. Epps, president, and Jack Trustman, v.n. in charge of radio and TV production, this agency has had to change locations three times in as many years, each time doubling space used. They are producing the half hour Club HADA TV show for the Hamtramck Auto Dealers Association, which features talent from the Bowery night club, plus guest stars, in a variety show. This association, whose members are in violent competition with each other, joined hands two years ago in an endeavor to publicize their Auto Row and to win business away from world-famed Livernois Avenue. One of the dealers, Krajenke Buick, in addition just signed a 52-week contract with WJBK-TV for a televising of western serials. Woody Pontiac, and Harley Buick are TV spot buyers. In the AM field, chief spot buyers are Lasky Furniture, Clark Auto Sales, and Kowalski Sausage.
A unique success story is recorded by the Broadway Market, one of the oldest markets in the area, located in the heart of downtown. With the rise of supermarkets in neighborhood areas, business had been falling off badly. The 34 different concessionaires who had booths in the market held a meeting and called in Mr. Luckoff, asking his advice on the spending of a $25,000 appropriation. MCRFB: to be continued next week . . . .
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This feature is a special Broadcasting series about Detroit radio. This report was first printed by the publication, August 1, 1949. This exclusive presentation has continued every Tuesday on this site beginning in August. The last two chapters of this series will be posted two weeks — Tuesdays — into September, for a total of six weeks.
Originally published in Broadcasting magazine under the title “The Detroit Radio Market,” this extensive article will be presented in six parts, in sequential chapters.
The 1949 article provides valuable insights into the state of radio in Detroit during the late 1940s decade, as it was, then, seven decades ago.
Above article is courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2024.Newspapers.com.
The above featured ‘Motown’ newspaper article (Detroit Free Press) was clipped, saved, and was digitally re-imaged from the credited source by Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
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ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE? Tap over above DFP newsprint image. Open to second window. “Stretch” print image across your device screen to magnify for largest print view.
ON YOUR PC? Click on all images 2x for largest print view.
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A special thank you to senior MCRFB consultant Greg Innis, of Livonia, MI., for contributing the Newspapers.com archives (Motown related) articles, ads, and images we have provide for this site since 2016.
Thank you, Greg Innis, for making these historic, Detroit Free Press features possible. 🙂
A special THANK YOU to Kip Brown, of Three Rivers, MI., for having contributed this WKNR aircheck, many years ago, for our Motor City Radio Flashbacks airchecks repository.
Our contributor, Kip Brown, first wrote to us, nine years ago:
“Hello there! As I write this I am transferring a 45 year old WKNR FM log recorder reel from October of 1970. It is from a collection of them I purchased many years ago that included both AM and FM tapes from March to October of 1970. As you may know, log recorder tapes were off-air recordings done for commercial performance or if something controversial happened and management needed a playback of the incident. They were recorded at a very slow speed so as to maximize available reel space. They contain hour after hour of continuous WKNR radio, uncut. I sold copies of some of the recordings years ago from the AM tapes. Most of the 1970 tapes on this very site came from those transfers. I have never circulated the FM transfers.
Thanks, and I enjoy your site very much!”
Kip Brown Three Rivers, Michigan | 2015/12/31 at 8:30 pm
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The featured audio presentation was extracted from an actual 12-hour WKNR logger tape from March 30, 1970. Today, we are featuring the first two hours of Bob Green’s show on WKNR from that day. Fifty-four years ago.
Bob Green is a legendary broadcaster in Detroit radio history. He began his broadcasting career in Detroit at WKMH in 1961, then moved to Miami before returning to Detroit in 1963 to join “the new WKNR radio 13”, where he stayed until early 1968. He came back to WKNR for a short period between 1970 and 1971. Bob, today, is fondly remembered as “the voice of Keener 13.” Currently, he resides in Austin, TX, after having run Bob Green Productions, which was previously based in Houston.
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About the logger tape: The logger tape recording was an essential technology for radio stations before the digital age revolutionized recording and playback.
Here’s a breakdown of what logger tape is and why it was crucial:
Logger tape refers to a continuous reel-to-reel tape used to record radio broadcasts. The term “logger” comes from the concept of “logging” or documenting broadcasts for various purposes. The logger tape would run continuously at ultra slow speed, recording everything that was broadcasted over a particular period.
The large tape would continuously record broadcasts over a 24-hour period, typically using a loop of tape that was automatically replaced once it was full. This ensured that all broadcast content was captured without manual intervention.
Logger tapes also provided evidence that specific content, like public service announcements or political broadcasts, was actually aired as required.
Broadcast verification. Regulatory bodies, such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S., required radio stations to keep records of their broadcasts. This was to ensure that stations adhered to regulations and maintained the integrity of their content.
Logger tapes served as evidence in legal disputes or complaints, such as copyright issues or allegations of improper content. If there were disputes about what had been broadcasted, the logger tape served as a complete record that could be reviewed in such cases, and if required.
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Newly restored! This featured WKNR (logger tape) audio recording was digitally remastered by Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
Combination of her emotional style and Bacharach and David’s dramatic material has led to a memorable string of hits
Is there a new wave of R&B singers carrying the ball today? The increasing legion of fans being picked up along the way by slim, svelte, pretty Dionne Warwick might well advance this thesis.
Miss Warwick, of East Orange, N. J., has the same roots that many other R&B-oriented pop stylists have today, namely, the church. But somehow, there is a new element involved, not only in the relatively sophisticated delivery, but in the material she sings. Her songs are largely the work of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, a pair of ASCAP pop writers who make their headquarters in the offices of Famous Music in the Brill Building, informally known as the capitol of Tin Pan Alley.
This in itself is a switch from the expected, since this team has written such pop hits as “Wives And Lovers” and “Love With the Proper Stranger.” It’s interesting to note too, that Bacharach and David just recently have brought their intense and dramatic wares to Maxine Brown, (“I Cry Alone”) a singer strongly identified with the more popular connotation of R&B performance and material, with somewhat the same kind of classy sound that’s come to be expected of Miss Warwick.
Dionne Warwick herself gives another clue to her own new direction in her open admiration for the vocal class of Nancy Wilson. “I think she is absolutely fabulous,” she said recently. “And I think Etta James is one artist who has never reached the level she should have. She has so much to offer. With the fellows, I would take Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. What can you say? They speak for themselves.
“As far as the newer people go, Dusty Springfield wins by a mile, for my money. She is too much! What a talent. I know Burt (Bacharach) and Hal (David) are writing for her now too, and I’d say she did pretty well with her first by them, “Wishin’ And Hopin’.”
Only recently, Dionne was selected to be the featured singer at the Cannes Film Festival, a rare distinction for an artist so relatively new in the business. Just two years ago, she was singing in the Newark, N. J. recording studios of Savoy Records as part of a group.
“I was with my aunts and uncles in a gospel song group. We called it the Drinkard Singers. We sang a lot of gospel on records for Savoy and later we used to work as a background vocal group with people like Sam ‘The Man’ Taylor. That was about two years ago when I was 21.
“Then I began doing more background and less gospel singing. I was in New York singing on a date with the Drifters when they cut ‘Mexican Divorce.’ My sister, Dee Dee, was on the date with me too. She was doing the background melody and I was singing top, but for some reason, Burt Bacharach, who was conducting the date, heard me. I must have been singing too loud. Anyway, he asked me to do some demos of his songs and that’s how it started.
“Burt and Hal manage me now along with the Wand Management company at Scepter Records. I think I’ve gotten a good start on records. After all, it’s only been about a year as a soloist. I’d like to do some stage roles, maybe on Broadway if I’m good enough. But I really don’t know when I’ll ever get a chance, the way my schedule looks. I’ll be in Europe a great deal of the time between now and the end of the year, doing concerts and night club work.
“I know I’ll find a few friends in Europe, but I hope I won’t be losing something I’ve been able to build back home. That would be a great tragedy. But I’ve done enough recording recently to keep the company well supplied while I’m gone. I hope they’re all hits.”
As Dionne has said, she’s going to be mighty busy making the European scene. Important things are on tap after she gets back too. But that won’t be until around next Thanksgiving. She left Friday (July 31) to start her almost four months of junketing.
Her line-up includes four days of solo concerts in the south of France, six days at the Casino in Knokke, Belgium; another six days in Ostend; and from August 21 to September 17 she’ll do an extended series of concerts and television dates throughout the continent and in North Africa.
On September 20, there will be a date on Britain’s “Sunday Night at the London Palladium” TV show and then she moves immediately across the Channel to Paris’ famed Olympia Theater, where she’ll costar with a top French singer until October 13. On October 14, she does another TV special in London and then goes on a tour of the United Kingdom until November 23.
“When she returns from Europe, we plan to have her do an album of standard songs,” said Paul Kantor, head of Wand Management. “We’ll also be working on material for her to do in her club act. We’re planning big things for Dionne, believe me.”
Speaking of class, the girl whose consecutive hits include “Don’t Make Me Over,” “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “Walk on By,” and now the two-sided “You’ll Never Get to Heaven” and “A House Is Not A Home,” also picked up a nice mention in Vogue Magazine last month, in that publication’s “People Are Talking About” department. END
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Information, credit, and news source: Music Business, August 22, 1964
At Kenyon & Eckhardt, Don Miller isaccount executive on the Lincoln-Mercury business. Like Ford, L-M has been active recently only in TV, sponsoring Toast of the Town on CBS-TV. This show is live in the East, plus Detroit and Chicago, and kinescoped to the rest of the network. K&E also has the Detroit L-M dealers who are buying spots on all three local TV stations, plus weather reports over WXYZ-TV.
Packard Motor Co. has only one show going now, a WWJ-TV presentation of the George Scotti Show. Young & Rubicam, which just celebrated its 18th year as agency for Packard, handles the show.
Ford, in a surprise move in May, announced that its entire effort on the air was going to be concentrated on TV. The AM Ford Theatre was dropped as of July 1 and the entire budget thrown to the Ford Television Theatre, which is to go to every other week in October, with tentative plans for weekly operation after the first of next year. The Ford Dealers fell into line with this policy by dropping the Fred Allen Show at the conclusion of this season.
Note: Mouse click over (pc) or tap and stretch (mobile screen) over the WJBK ad image for largest detailed read.]
The dealer TV offering, through the Crystal Ball, is being sponsored by the 16 sales districts that have TV outlets in their area. (There are 33 Ford sales districts, with 21 of them handled by the Detroit office of J. Walter Thompson Co.) Eight of them are using TV spots or short programs, including the Detroit Dealer buy of Baseball Scoreboard on WXYZ-TV, which gives the results of all major league games seven days a week. In the AM field, however, only one district is active in spots at present, the Denver area using a schedule on used cars.
This picture is subject to change with practically no notice, however, and in view of the dropping of the Allen show, the budget may allow for more in the way of spots. Last year, when the 1949 Ford was introduced, all 21 of the Detroit-handled districts used a large schedule of spots.
Getting a little car-sick? Let’s settle your nerves with another quick look at this enormous market, big and active enough to soothe the most ambitious salesman.
Though Detroit is 1,000 miles from the nearest ocean, it still ranks second only to New York as a customs district, largely because of the city’s heavy trade with Canada, the second largest customer of the U. S. Over the river to Windsor, Ont., soars the Ambassador Bridge, while the Fleetway Tunnel burrows beneath the water.
The river forms a natural harbor, and the banks are lined with wharves and elevators, helping to handle the north and southbound ore, grain and automobile shipping. Five major railroads service the Detroit area, plus several smaller lines and scores of trucking systems.
Leading products include automobile bodies, parts and accessories, steel and pig iron, brass products, pharmaceuticals, heavy chemicals, paints and varnishes, stoves and furnaces, electric appliances, machinery, foundry products, tools, dies, gauges, jigs and fixtures, adding and calculating machines, soda ash, salt, cleaning compounds, screw machine products and cutting tools.
One of the important things to remember about Detroit is the large foreign speaking population, a classification in which the city ranks third in the nation. Hamtramck, a city completely surrounded by Detroit, has a population of over 300,000, mostly of Polish extraction. There are also strong nationality centers of Italians, Slavs, Irish, Greeks and many others, though each year brings a more thorough breaking -up of the old tendency to huddle together in nationality groups.
The market is big in every sense of the word. Last year, estimates of the value of the Wayne County factory product value were $7.9 billion. The highly paid workmen of the factories didn’t do badly, either, taking home $1,530,000,000 as their share of the bounty. The high wages of the factories in the area have had their effect on the wages of every other trade and profession. Employees of the Detroit Street Railway, a municipally owned transportation system, are among the highest paid workers in their classification in the country.
And lest the use of 1948 figures bring the suspicion that 1949 figures haven’t kept pace, the April 25 issue of the Board of Commerce paper, The Detroiter, shows that whatever the rest of the country thinks of a recession, Detroit is too busy turning out goods to worry about it. With 498,000 factory workers employed during the first three months of 1949 (a gain of 24,000), they had raised their weekly average pay to $66.89, with factory payrolls at $33 million weekly increases over the same 1948 period of 5.1 %, 8.7 %, and 14.2%, respectively.
Though department store sales were down 5 %, most of this was attributed to the later Easter date, and in any case, the increase of $21 million in bank savings, and $6.6 million in E Bond holdings, reflected that Detroiters still had the wherewithal. With the slight downward movement of living costs, the area’s purchasing power is expected to remain on the upgrade.
The tobacco industry was one of the brightest spots in the 1948 U. S. sales picture, producing 352 billion cigarettes, and Detroit didn’t hurt sales a bit, buying one out of every 25 packages sold. Produce is another item that ranks high in big business in Detroit, for the Produce Terminal reported the unloading of 30,248 carloads of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Naturally, Detroit as a home-loving city, specializes in brides. The city had 26,077 marriages in 1948, and multiplying this by the national estimate of $4,900 in merchandise and gifts that brides are directly or indirectly responsible for, shows a sub-market in Detroit of $127,777,000, and not all in silver butter dishes! If it’s baby foods or diapers you’re selling, 48,148 new customers came to Detroit in 1948, only 2,000 less than the all-time high of 1947.
While Detroit has its feet in the factories, it also has a place in its heart for the arts. The Art Center, just north of downtown, includes the $4 million Italian Renaissance style Institute of Arts, the white marble Public Library, and the Rackham Memorial, center of the city’s engineering societies.
A mecca for tourists as well as residents is the Ford Foundation in near-by Dearborn, where Henry Ford recreated a replica of an age gone by in beautiful Greenfield Village. Detroit has the largest Masonic Temple in the world, with two floors occupied by Fort Industry’s WJBK and WJBK-TV.
Four major airports serve the Detroit area. The Municipal Airport on the east side, just 10 minutes from downtown, is one of the country’s busiest, handling just air freight and private plane traffic. With the increased use of four-motored planes, all the passenger airlines moved out to the giant Willow Run Airport, site of the Ford B-24 building operations during the war.
BROADCASTING August 1, 1949
The 30-mile trip from downtown to Willow Run has been a sore point with Detroiters and they are solving it in a typical way by making a tentative agreement with Canada to build an international airfield just outside Windsor, only 12 minutes from Detroit.
Such a city was bound to develop some outstanding advertising agencies, agencies which have been consistent radio users in both the national and the local fields. They tend to the conservative side, with a minimum of account shifting, but are prominent in the creation of new commercial programs and ideas, and able new business departments specialize in the development of retail advertisers.
One of the most outstanding jobs of radio promotion ever used anywhere in the country is the drug chain sponsored Cunningham News Ace, a series of 5, 10, and 15-minute newscasts on every Detroit station. These broadcasts have now passed the 75,000 mark, and are still going at the rate of 117 each week. The high mark came in 1946, when the News Ace “came zooming into your home” 185 times every seven days.
Using a unique plan of product manufacturer cooperation, the firm has had unrivaled success in its field. The chain has now expanded to over 100 stores in 17 Michigan cities. It is also a consistent buyer of programs before and after leading sports events, including the Paul Williams Sports Ace before Tiger home games, and Football Panorama in the fall. Larry Michelson, of Simons-Michelson, handles the Cunningham account personally, and is known as one of radio’s strongest boosters in the area.
Each year Cunningham puts on an anniversary sale backed by saturation use of radio. One year it bought all spots available on every Detroit station. Another landmark came when it brought the Don McNeill Breakfast Club to Detroit and broadcast the hour long show on all six of the city’s AM stations.
At the same time, Cunningham jumped into the TV picture as well, sponsoring the area telecast of Cavalcade of Stars in conjunction with nine drug chains in other cities.
Simons-Michelson will celebrate the twentieth anniversary this year of the Leonard N. Simons-Lawrence J. Michelson partnership. One of the foundation stones of the firm has been the all-out effort of both the partners on behalf of every community welfare and public service drive. Invariably, the fund raising drives of Detroit’s charities will list one or the other as publicity and advertising chairman.
Marian Sanders is radio and television director for S-M, assisted by Rudy Simons, son of Detroit’s famous songwriter and band leader, Seymour Simons. These two were thrown headlong into the production of filmed TV commercials when a promised commercial for an early TV client didn’t come through.
Dragging a cameraman with them, the two utilized any props they could to do the job, including Marian’s fiance and her own apartment. The agency became experts on paste-up commercials through clients’ insistence that production costs be held to a minimum, one even offering $20 for the costs on 10 jobs! They still insist that it doesn’t take a lot of money for the small advertiser to get into television if he will only use his budget in the smartest way. MCRFB: to be continued next week . . . .
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This feature is a special Broadcasting series about Detroit radio. This was first released by the publication on August 1, 1949. It will continue as an exclusive presentation every Tuesday on this site throughout August and for two weeks in September, for a total of six weeks.
Originally published in Broadcasting magazine under the title “The Detroit Radio Market,” this extensive article will be presented in six parts, continuing in sequential chapters.
The 1949 article provides valuable insights into the state of radio in Detroit during the late 1940s decade, as it was, then, seven decades ago.
Above article is courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2024.Newspapers.com.
The above featured ‘Motown’ newspaper article (Detroit Free Press) was clipped, saved, and was digitally re-imaged from the credited source by Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
_____________________
ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE? Tap over above DFP newsprint image. Open to second window. “Stretch” print image across your device screen to magnify for largest print view.
ON YOUR PC? Click on all images 2x for largest print view.
NEW! A special THANK YOU to Mark Yurko, of Langhorne, PA., for his WJR aircheck contribution for our Motor City Radio Flashbacks airchecks repository.
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“If the day is slipping away from you by early afternoon, Mike Whorf can stop the clock and recapture the excitement of time–past, present and future. His ‘Kaleidoscope’ will take you on a walk through Caesar’s Rome–whirl you back to Detroit’s bootlegging days or capture the moments of Balboa’s first glimpse of the Pacific. Mike Whorf’s Kaleidoscope is the theater of your mind . . . and now it’s a matinee at 1:15 every day on WJR 760 . . . where we couldn’t leave well enough alone!”
WJR Radio 760 [Detroit Free Press] ad, January 5, 1974
Mike Whorf, passed away on November 10, 2020. He was 88.
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New! Newly restored!This selected audio recording was digitally remastered by Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
Compiled by the Music Popularity Chart Dept. of Billboard, from national retail store and one-stop sales reports, and radio airplay reports.
August 1 – The Municipal University of São Caetano do Sul is established in São Caetano do Sul, São Paulo.
August 2 – The magnitude (Mw) 7.6 Casiguran earthquake affects the Aurora province in the Philippines with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing at least 207 and injuring 261.
August 5–8 – The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida nominates Richard Nixon for U.S. president and Spiro Agnew for vice president.
August 11 – The last steam passenger train service runs in Britain. A selection of British Rail steam locomotives make the 120-mile journey from Liverpool to Carlisle and return – the journey is known as the Fifteen Guinea Special.
August 18 – Two charter buses are forced into the Hida River on National Highway Route 41 in Japan in an accident caused by heavy rain; 104 are killed.
August 20–21 – Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia: The ‘Prague Spring’ of political liberalization ends, as 750,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 6,500 tanks with 800 aircraft invade Czechoslovakia, the largest military operation in Europe since the end of World War II.
August 24 – Canopus (nuclear test): France explodes its first hydrogen bomb in a test at Fangataufa atoll in French Polynesia.
August 22–30 – Police clash with anti-war protesters in Chicago outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. president and Edmund Muskie for vice president. The riots and subsequent trials are an essential part of the activism of the Youth International Party.
August 29 – Crown Prince Harald of Norway marries Sonja Haraldsen, the commoner he has dated for 9 years.
Source Credit: 1968 [August] Wikipedia
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