Motor City Radio Flashbacks

WKNR, WJR Hitting Pay Dirt in Detroit, Thanks to Two Air Personalities

DETROIT — Two deejays — one in the Top 40 field and the other from a ‘middle-of-the-road’ easy music station, are basically responsible for the tremendous success of radio stations WKNR and WJR here in influencing the sales of records…. and may be largely responsible for the success of their respective radio stations in reaching a large audience.

WJR station manager James H. Quello, said that his good music station was proud of J. P. McCarthy. “He’s the number one radio personality in town. Everybody knows him and he’s in good part responsible… a major factor… in influencing the sale of LP’s in Detroit.”

According to Billboard’s Radio Response Rating Survey last week of the Detroit radio market — ranked the country’s fifth radio market — McCarthy was rated No. 1 in influencing radio listeners to purchase popular LPs. The station was rated first in the same category, but what makes it a unique situation is that the station gained strength to capture the top position since a similar Billboard survey of May 16, 1964, had placed WJR in second-place behind WCAR.

And the reason, according to Quello, is the power of McCarthy. McCarthy had been with the station at one time, then left WJR in Detroit to work for another radio station in San Francisco. He returned back to Detroit since the last Billboard survey. He’s so effective that WJR placed him on mornings in their 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. time-frame, and he returns for the 3:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. drive time. “After all, this is the motor city of the world… a big car place,” Quello went on to say. McCarthy features mostly MOR records (middle of the road), Quello said, “but we’re programming more contemporary music now, anything short of rock and roll.”

In influencing the sale of popular LP recordings, the major stations, in order, are WJR, WCAR, WWJ, and WJBK. WJR and WCAR has most of the power; in fact, WJR’s McCarthy had 52 per cent of the total points in Billboard’s survey, followed by WCAR deejay Joe Bacarella with 36 per cent overall.

WJR, incidentally, tied for second-place with WWJ in influencing the sale of conservative type records, was No. 1 in influencing the sale of classical records, and showed up fairly well as a power in influencing the sale of folk records as well.

Both Gain

The top position in the sale of popular record singles was again captured by radio station WKNR and its popular disk-jockey, Bob Green. In fact, both station and deejay gained in strength. WKNR radio was rated at 33  per cent in May 16, 1964, but increased its influence to 44 per cent as of last week. Green increased two points to 30 per cent.

WKNR radio station manager Walter Patterson said the Top 40 station isn’t doing anything different, “but we are fortunate in accumulating listeners.” A recent Pulse study showed that the 24-hour Detroit station as reaching 292,900 separate households during a given day.

“We’re not cocky, but we watch our position closely and never let up,” Patterson said. While the station does believe in strong air-personalities, — “some are and some are not” — it also practices “playing more music and keeping talk to a minimum.” The station’s “sound” is very important,” Patterson said.

WKMH the former, now WKNR, featured a “middle-of-the-road” music format until November 1, 1963, when it went Top 40. “We’ve pulled the fastest turnaround of any station in the country,” Patterson said. “What’s happening is the more we go, the more we get.” The station plays the top 31 records and distributes 99,000 copies of the station’s own survey guide of featured songs and hits. Patterson also said the station has a “refrigerator full” of promotions and uses them as the need arises.

Also in the Top 40 market, radio station CKLW has increased its power in influencing the sales of records since the last Billboard survey. The market saw WJBK change format from Top 40, where it ranked No. 2 last May, to good music. In May 1964, it was No. 4; now it ranks second. Dave Shafer and Tom Shannon of CKLW now rank second and third behind WKNR’s Bob Green.

John Gordon, the program director of CKLW, received the Billboard nod as most co-operative in exposing new records.

Close in R&B Field

In the R&B field in the Detroit market, it was a close race, but WCHB radio came out on top in influencing record sales. WCHB had 49 per cent, WJLB had 44 per cent and FM station WGPR had 7 per cent. WJLB ranked first last May.

Bill Williams, program director at WCHB, attributed the station’s increase in influence to a “much tighter format that was launched in January.” The station also went 24-hours in April. Williams said deejays on WCHB are now faster with delivery than before. “We play 35 of the top-selling R&B records, interspersed with every third record with one we think is a good prospect for a potential hit-maker to climb-up the chart.” This has made the station very important in getting listeners to go out and buy more into the R&B product,” Williams said.

“This is a good R&B market, its the home of the Motown sound,” he said, adding that he liked to think of his market as the entire population of Detroit. WJLB, however, scored with the top disc-jockey — Ernie Durham — in the power of influencing record sales. In fact, Durham almost captured the whole thing with a 44 per cent influence in the Detroit R&B market. The second-place honors goes out to Le Baron Taylor of WCHB, who held the No. 2 spot at 27 per cent.

Interesting to note is that an FM station, WBRB-FM is now showing muscles in influencing the sales of country music records. The field is still dominated by country powerhouse WEXL, which still came up with 86 per cent of the total points, but it’s no longer a one-station field. WBRB showed up with a 14 per cent; it’s a new station since the last Billboard survey. Bill Samples, of WEXL, is still the No. 1 deejay in the motor town getting country music records sold. END

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Source information and credit: Billboard July 24, 1965