DETROIT — WLBS ended a brief experimentation with top 40 here Friday, November 9 when the station switched it’s call letters to WKSG and its format to oldies.
Now known as Kiss 102.7, WKSG has adopted the “Kiss Of Gold” format developed by by veteran programmer and Detroit native Paul Christy. According to general manager Joe Buys, the new format focuses on the music of the ’60s and ’70s, emphasizing Detroit artists and songs that were popular in Detroit in particular.
Program director Sergio Dean continues in that capacity. The rest of the staff will remain intact. However, Buys doesn’t rule out the possibility of signing longtime Detroit personalities: “We could use at least one person who understands Detroit’s lifestyle and characteristics,” Buys suggested.
According to Buys, who joined the Inner City Broadcasting-owned station last month after a year in Chicago with Arbitron as central division manager, WLBS had undergone several changes since its 1979 inception as a disco station.
After a lengthy stint with an urban format, the station switched to a “new music” orientation, which remained in place until last August. At that time, a Burkhart/Abrams-consulted “hybrid” hits format known as “the best of everything” went into effect.
“It didn’t work,” says Buys, noting that WLBS faced stiff competition in the top 40 market from Gannett’s WCZY and Capitol Cities’ WHYT. After researching and “evaluating the market’s holes,” Buy says, ‘we found gold’ to be the biggest hole.” The Detroit area’s only other oldies radio station, he notes, is WHND Monroe, a daytime AM outlet which consultant Christy “got off the ground” in 1978.
“The baby boom generation is growing older, and they’re bringing their musical heritage with them,” says Buys. “We found an audience which wants updated gold, and they want stereo FM to hear it on.”
Paul Christy
According to Christy, a 25-year radio veteran most recently with WCLS (formerly WABX) Detroit and currently consulting four other radio stations, WKSG’s “Kiss Of Gold” format was “modeled for Detroit.”
“There is an emphasis on Motown music, of course,” say Christy, “as well as other artists popular in Detroit in the ’60s and ’70s.” In addition to better known artists as Bob Seger, the MC5 and Ted Nugent, Christy says local favorites such as the Dynamics, the Wanted, the Velvelettes, the Gallery, the Scott Richard Case, the Rationals, the Fantastic Four, and other acts such as Tim Tamand the Turn-Ons will be heard.
“I feel a cyclical backlash to top 40 coming on,” says Christy. “Artists like Prince and Cyndi Lauper are wonderful, but they’re played into the ground. WKSG’s new format, on the contrary, involves at least 3,000 titles, which is enough material so that there’s no repetitive — with the advantage of built-in familiarity.”
Adds GM Buys, “Gold is a format that traditionally attracted loyal listeners, as well as cume sharing tendencies.”END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; November 17, 1984)
A MCRFB Note:Paul Christy, real name Paul Christides, passed away on June 4, 2007. He lost his life to Parkinson’s Disease. He was 69. Christy formerly was music director at WCFL. He was also the morning personality on WCAR in the early-1970s in Detroit. Christy also programmed WABX in the early-1980s, WCLS, and WKSG. As recently as the latter 1990s, he was doing mornings on WYUR-AM 1310.
Joe South Dies At 72; Singer-Songwriter Did ‘Games People Play’
Joe South also wrote ‘Down In The Boondocks,’ ‘Hush’ and other pop-rock hits in the 1960s and 1970s. He won two Grammy Awards for ‘Games People Play.’
September 06, 2012 | Los Angeles Times staff and wire reports
Joe South(Click on image for larger view).
Joe South, a versatile singer-songwriter who penned “Games People Play,” “Down In The Boondocks” and other pop-rock hits in the 1960s and ’70s, has died. He was 72.
South died at his home in Buford, Georgia, northeast of Atlanta, said Butch Lowery, president of the Lowery Group. The company published South’s music. Marion Merck of the Hall County coroner’s office said South died of natural causes stemming from a heart attack.
Beginning in the late 1960s, South rode a wave of success with his combination of melodic tunes and compelling lyrics. Billy Joe Royal scored a hit with his cover of “Down In The Boondocks” in 1965, and Deep Purple had one with “Hush.” Then South won Grammy Awards for song of the year and best contemporary song of 1969 for his own recording of “Games People Play.” He had hits with “Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home” and “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.” He collected a Grammy nomination for country singer Lynn Anderson’s recording of “(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden.”
“The Grammy Awards are a very nice gesture by the record industry, but they can really mess up your head,” South told Times rock-critic Robert Hilburn in 1970, months after he accepted the honors for “Games People Play.”
“The Grammy is a little like the crown, After you win it, you feel like you have to defend it. In a sense, I froze. I found it hard to go back into the recording studio because I was afraid the next song wouldn’t be perfect.”
He struggled emotionally after his brother, Tommy Souter, committed suicide in 1971. Drug abuse derailed South’s career, and he disappeared from the stage and recording studio while living in Maui in the early 1970s. His first marriage ended in divorce, and he made comeback attempts to little notice.
He eventually went through drug rehabilitation programs and married his second wife, Jan, in 1987.
Born Joseph Souter in Atlanta on February 28, 1940, he began playing guitar when he was about 11. He was later signed to a recording and publishing contract by country music disc jockey Bill Lowery.
In 1958, South recorded his debut single, a novelty song called “The Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor.” His hit songwriting abilities were next on display in 1962 when the Tams reached No. 1 with their R&B recording of “Untie Me.”
South worked as a session musician for a time, playing gutiar on Aretha Franklin’s “Chains Of Fools,” Bob Dylan’s “Blond On Blond,” Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sounds Of Silence” and albums by Eddie Arnold, Marty Robbins and other country, R&B and rock bands.
South was an inductee in the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame and the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame.
DETROIT — The rapid rise of CKLW-AM Windsor from a .8 rating to a 5.2 rating in six months may be perceived by competing stations as an example of the “flash in the pan” syndrome that has affected other nostalgia outlets. However, CKLW operations manager Dave Shafer insists, “We have a lot of plans to insure it sustains itself.”
CKLW-AM Dave Shafer, mornings, BIG 30 Survey from late-1967. (Click on image for larger view).
Baton Broadcasting sold CKLW AM-FM to present owner Keith Campbell in January, after the struggling AC outlet had sunk to a .8 in the Fall Arbitron book. “Seems the police radio had more action,” jokes Schafer.
Campbell switched formats to Al Ham’s “Music Of Your Life,” and results were immediately apparent in the Winter book’s 4.0 ratings. With the Spring’s book’s 5.2, Shafer notes, “That’s an increase of over 600% in just six months.”
Shafer attributes some of CKLW’s success to the fact that the 50,000-watt AM reaches 18 states and two provinces, and that it’s big band format is the first in the market “since WCAR 35 years ago.”
In addition, Shafer credits the station’s somewhat altered approach to “Music Of Your Life.” “We’ve done some things different than Al Ham,” he notes. “We’ve added more cuts; our repertoire is more varied that normal.”
Another factor contributing to CKLW’s popularity, says Shafer, is a staff of well-known Top 40 deejays, among them Jim Davis, formerly of Detroit stations WXYZ, WJR and WOMC; Bob Charleson, previously with Detroit’s WWJ and WCAR; and Dave Prince, who had served at WXYZ as well as Los Angeles outlets KIIS and KHJ.
Competing stations such as WJOI and all-news WXYT have felt the effect’s of CKLW’s rise, but their respective program directors say they are not at all concerned. At WJOI, which went from a 9.8 fall rating to a 6.1 in the spring, PD Steve VanOort says, “They’re taking some of our older audience, but this isn’t a competitive format. There’s nothing we will do or can do. We’re not going to start programming big band music.
“We do go after the same audience,” VanOort continues, “but easy listening, because it’s more contemporary, has a younger audience. Sure, we’ve been affected in the older demos, but our 25-54 numbers haven’t changed that much.”
WXYT program director John Harper concurs. “They’ve only affected our 55-plus numbers,” he says. WXYT went from a 4.6 in the fall to a 3.4 in the spring.
“Across the country,” Harper says, “the big band format has a tradition of a meteoric rise and fall.” CKLW’s success, he says, could be considered distressing, “but it’s only 55-plus numbers.”
CKLW’s Shafer disagrees. “Our listeners’ average age, according to our research firm, is 40-49, and I think it’s actually 44. And these people aren’t old or dead. They’re the biggest buying public out there.”
Shafer claims it usually takes a year and a half to achieve this kind of growth, but notes that “people are still finding us. We receive an average of 350 letters a day.” END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; August 10, 1985).
DETROIT — A big chunk of radio history comes to life at CKLW-FM in Detroit (formerly CKEZ-FM), where the “Big Eight” format was reinstated last week, tentative May 11. Developed by Bill Drake (as in Drake-Chenault), the format ran on CKLW-AM when it ranked, along with WLS in Chicago and WABC in New York, as one of the three most-listened-to radio stations in North America.
That was back in the late 1960s, and CKLW-FM program director and morning man Dave Shafer says he is aiming at the 35-49 demo that grew up on the Motown-based format. It appears the return of the “Big Eight” may draw that demo’s children , too. “Already after just a week,” says Shafer, “we can tell that the younger demos are here.”
Few, if any, jock changes are expected, says Shafer, although he says he’s been chatting with a few of the original format jocks. The “Big Eight,” by the way, refers to CKLW’s AM dial position. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; May 24, 1986).
HAL DAVID SUCCUMBS IN LA AT 91, TEAMED WITH SONGWRITER BURT BACHARACH IN THE ’60s AND ’70s
By BOB THOMAS and CHRISTOPHER WEBBER | Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — (AP) Hal David, the stylish, heartfelt lyricist who teamed with Burt Bacharach on timeless songs for movies, movies and a variety of recordings artists in the 1960s and beyond, has died. He was 91.
Songwriter Hal David poses for photographers as the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honors him with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California, on October 14, 2011.
David died of complications from a stroke Saturday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to his wife Eunice David. He had suffered a major stroke in March and was stricken again on Tuesday, she said.
“Even at the end, Hal always had a song in his head,” Eunice David said. “He was always writing notes,”, or asking me to take a note down, so he wouldn’t forget a lyric.”
Bacharach and David were among the most successful teams in modern history, with top 40 hits including “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head,” (by B. J. Thomas) “(They Long To Be) Close To You” (by the Carpenters) and “”That’s What Friends Are For” (by Dionne Warwick). Although most associated with Dionne Warwick, their music were recorded by many of the top acts of their time, from Barbra Streisand to Frank Sinatra and Aretha Franklin. They won an Oscar for “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” (from the movie “Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid”), Grammys and Tonys for the songs from the hit Broadway musical, “Promises, Promises.”
David joined the board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1974 and served as president 1980 to 1986. He was head of the Songwriters Hall of Fame from 2000 to 2011, and was Chairman Emeritus until the time of his death.
“As a lyric writer, Hal was simple, concise and poetic — conveying volumes of meaning in fewest possible words and always in service to the music,” ASCAP’s current president, the songwriter Paul Williams, said in a statement. “It is no wonder many of his lyrics has become part of our everyday vocabulary and his songs… the backdrop of our lives.”
In May, Bacharach and David received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during a White House tribute concert attended by President Barrack Obama.
Bacharach, 83, thanked Obama, saying the award for his life’s work topped even the Oscars and Grammys he won for individual accomplishments. David could not attend because he was recovering from a stroke. Eunice David accepted in his behalf.
“It was thrilling,” she said. “Even though he wasn’t there, Hal said it was the highest honor he ever received.”
More than 55 years after their first songs hit the airwaves, Obama said “these guys have still got it.” He noted their music is still being recording by such artists as Alicia Keys and John Legend.
“Above all, they stayed true to themselves,” Obama said. “And with an unmistakable authenticity,” they captured the emotions of our daily lives — the good times, the bad times, and everything in between.”
David and Bacharach met when both worked in the Brill Building, New York’s legendary Tin Pan Alley where songwriters cranked out songs and attempted to sell them to music publishers. They scored their first big hit with “Magic Moments,” a million-selling record for Perry Como.
In 1962 they begin writing for a young singer named Dionne Warwick, whose versatile voice conveyed the emotions of David’s lyrics and easily handled the changing patterns of Bacharach’s melodies. Together the trio created a succession of popular songs including “Don’t Make me Over,” “Walk On By,” “I Say A Little Prayer,” “Do You Know The Way To San Jose,” “Trains And Boats And Planes,” “Anyone Who Had A Heart,” “You’ll Never Get To Heaven” and “Always Something There To Remind Me,” a hit in the 1980s for the synth pop band Naked Eyes.
Bacharach and David wrote or numerous other singers: “This Guy’s In Love With You” (trumpeter Herb Alpert in his vocal debut), “Make It Easy On Yourself” (Jerry Butler), “What The World Need Now Is Love” (Jackie DeShannon) and “Wishin’ And Hopin'” (Dusty Springfield). The duo also turned out title songs for the movies “What’s New, Pussycat” (Tom Jones), and “Wives And Lovers” (Jack Jones).
Singer Smokey Robinson praised David’s musical legacy. “I hope that the music world will join together in celebrating the life of one of our greatest composers ever,” he said.
In a 1999 interview, David explained his success as a lyricist this way: “Try and tell a narrative. The songs should be like a little film, told in three or four minutes. Try to say things as simply as possible, which is probably the most difficult thing to do.”
The writer, who lived in New York, often flew to Los Angeles, where he and Bacharach would hole up for a few weeks of intense songwriting. Sometimes they conferred by long-distance telephone; “I Say A Little Prayer” was written that way.
David would recall working on a song that seemed to go nowhere. They stuck it in a drawer and left it there for months.
“This was particularly disappointing to me. I had thought of the idea at least two years before showing it to Burt,” David wrote in a brief essay on his website. “I was stuck. I kept thinking of lines like, ‘Lord we don’t need planes that fly higher and faster….’ and they all seemed wrong. Why, I didn’t know. But the idea stayed with me.
“Then, one day, I thought of ‘Lord we don’t need another mountain,’ and all at once I knew how the lyric should be written. Things like planes and trains are man-made, and things like mountains and rivers and valleys are created by someone or something we call God. There was now a oneness of idea and language instead of a conflict. It had taken me two years to put my finger on it.”
And so they had another smash: “What The World Needs Now Is Love.”
The hit-making team broke up after the 1973 musical remake of “Lost Horizons.” They had devoted two years to the movie, only to see it scorned by critics and audiences alike. Bacharach became so depressed he sequestered himself in his vacation home and refused to work.
Bacharach and David sued each other and Warwick sued them both. The cases were settled out of court in 1979 and the three went their separate ways thereafter. They reconciled in 1992 for Warwick’s recording of “Sunny Weather Lover.”
David, meanwhile, went on to collaborate with successfully with several other composers: John Barry with the title song of the James Bond film “Moonraker;” Albert Hammond with “To All The Girls I loved Before,” which Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson sang as a duet; and Henry Mancini with “The Greatest Gift” in “The Return Of The Pink Panther.”
Born in New York City, David had attended public schools before studying journalism at New York University. He served in the Army during World War II, mostly as a member of an entertainment unit in the South Pacific. After the war, he served as a copywriter at the New York Post, but music was his passion and he had written lyrics for Sammy Kaye, Guy Lombardo and other bandleaders before hooking up with Bacharach years later.
He married Anne Rauchman in 1947 and the couple had two sons.
(This AP article was published in the Detroit Free Press, Sunday, September 2, 2012).
Burt Bacharach, left, and Hal David pose with singer Dionne Warwick at the “Love, Sweet Love” musical tribute to Hal David on his 90th birthday in Los Angeles, California. David died Saturday, September 1, 2012.
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1984
