RADIO REUNION WEEKEND * MICKEY SHORR * 1985
THIS DAY IN POP MUSIC HISTORY: APRIL 6
From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: APRIL 6
1956: Having impressed Paramount Studios with his screen test five days earlier, Elvis Presley is signed to a seven-year, three-picture deal worth nearly a half-million dollars.
1960: The Everly Brothers begin their first European tour at London’s New Victoria Theater.
1962: The U.S.S.R’s official newspaper, Pravda, warns Soviet teens of the decadent dangers of the new “twist” dance craze.
1963: Fats Domino leaves Imperial Records and signs with ABC-Paramount Records.
1965: The Beach Boys commence studio session recordings for “California Girls.”
1968: Founding member Syd Barrett, already in a mental downward spiral from LSD abuse, leaves Pink Floyd.
1969: Bassist Pete Quaife announces that he’s quitting the Kinks.
1971: The Rolling Stones unveil their new custom record label, Rolling Stones Records, which also features the group’s new logo, the infamous tongue-and-lips “pop art” drawing created by London graphic artist John Pasche.
1971: Carly Simon is introduced to James Taylor backstage after her performance at Los Angeles’ famous Troubadour nightclub. Instantly smitten, they would marry in November of 1972.
1974: Columbia Record’s Billy Joel cracks the Top 40 for the first time with “Piano Man.”
1974: California’s biggest annual rock concert, the California Jam, has its debut in Ontario, CA, featuring stage acts by the Eagles, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Seals and Croft, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Rare Earth and Black Oak Arkansas performing for a crowd estimated well over 200,000 who attends.
1974: The Rolling Stones premier their concert film Ladies And Gentleman: The Rolling Stones, the first-ever such film with a quadrophonic soundtrack. The event premiers at the Ziegfeld Theater in NYC.
1979: Rod Stewart marries George Hamilton’s ex-wife, Alana Collins, in Beverley Hills, California. They would divorce in 1984.
1984: Guitarist Steve Van Zandt announces that he’s amicably leaving the E Street Band to pursue a solo career. He will return to the E. Street Band in 1995.
1992: To benefit the Natural Law Party, George Harrison plays his first full-length live concert in London. It was his first live performance since the Beatles’s final performance in 1969.
1998: Chubby Checker, Lesley Gore, Fabian, and Dick Clark all guest-star as themselves in tonight’s “Opus One” episode of CBS-TV’s Murphy Brown.
Deaths: Ral Donner, 1984; Tammy Wynette, 1998; Niki Sullivan (band member of the Crickets); 2004.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. 
CKLW * AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMIN’!
HELLO DETROIT * JIMMY HAMPTON
FORMER DETROIT RADIO PERSONALITIES – DECEASED
Please note:
This was from the Master List at the
2010 Radio Re-Union.
There are a few names mis-spelled.
FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: APRIL 5
From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: APRIL 5
1955: Ray Charles marries his second wife, Della Beatrice Howard, in Houston, Texas.
1958: Johnny Mathis’ compilation album Johnny’s Greatest Hits, the first “greatest hits” LP, enters the Billboard charts, where it will stay for almost nine and a half years. Its a record that would only be broken in 1982 by Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon LP.
1964: The Beatles film the famous opening scene from their first movie, A Hard Day’s Night, running away from several rabid female fans in pursuit of the Fab Four while at London’s Marylebone train station.
1964: The Searchers make their U.S. television debut, singing “Needles And Pins” and “Ain’t That Just Like Me” on the Ed Sullivan Show on CBS-TV.
1967: Monkees fans march in London in protest of band member Davy Jones’ announced induction into the Army. The teen heartthrob is eventually exempted from duty for being his family’s main provider.
1967: Elvis Presley’s 24th movie, Double Trouble, premieres in Hollywood.
1982: Marvin Gaye’s funeral takes place at Forest Lawn cemetery in Los Angeles, drawing some very notable mourners, including Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, and Berry Gordy. Gaye had been shot to death three days earlier by his father after he intervened in an argument between his parents.
1987: Buddy Rich’s funeral in Los Angeles also draws some very notable mourners, including Frank Sinatra, Artie Shaw, and Johnny Carson, just to name a few.
1990: After serving months of his sentence for drug possession, resisting arrest, and other related charges, James Brown is put on a work-release program. Brown is moved from his jail to South Carolina’s Lower Savannah Work Center, where he provides counseling for drug addicts. For his services there, James Brown is paid four dollars an hour.
Deaths: Bob “The Bear” Hite, member of Canned Heat; 1981; Cozy Powell, Black Sabbath, Rainbow; 1998; Gene Pitney; 2006.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. 
SHANNON’S SPOT ON CKLW-TV 9… OCTOBER 5, 1968
From the MCRFB news archives:
DETROIT’S NO. 1 DEEJAY DEBUTS NEW TEEN DANCE SHOW
DETROIT — “The Lively Spot,” hosted by CKLW deejay Tom Shannon, bowed here on CKLW-TV (channel 9) on Monday, September 30, replacing the Robin Seymour “Swingin’ Time” show. The show will be seen 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6 to 7 p.m. Saturday when it will be known as “The Tom Shannon Show.” He’ll continue his 6 to 9 p.m. on the CKLW radio station.
Elmer Jasper, director of programming for CKLW-TV, predicts Shannon will become a great favorite of Detroit young people on TV. Shannon joined CKLW four years ago. A song-writer, he wrote the 1963 hit, “Wild Weekend,” by the Rebel Rousers. He also wrote “Soul Clappin’,” a local hit currently playing in Detroit on the radio charts, as performed by the Buena Vistas on the Marquee record label. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; October 5, 1968).
CKLW CANCON PLAYLIST TRANSFORMS MORE INTO U.S. HITS… MAY 26, 1973
From the MCRFB news archives:
ARTIST CLAIMS CKLW’S KEEN INTEREST AFFECTS U.S. HITS IN POPULARITY AND IN SALES
By RITCHIE YORKE
TORONTO — The future evolution of Canadian-made music in the U.S. charts depends very much on a “continuing keen interest” by the programmers of Radio CKLW Windsor/Detroit, according to Edward Bear’s singer/writer, Larry Evoy.
Evoy credits CKLW with being “directly responsible” for the massive American success of his “Last Song” single on Capitol.
Since the introduction of Canadian content regulations on AM broadcasters in this country (January 18, 1971), CKLW has been required to devote 30 percent of its playlist to records with at least a minimum involvement of Canadiana.
Its Canadian location notwithstanding, CKLW caters primarily to an audience in excess to 90 percent Americans. It has been the top-rating teen station in Detroit for several years and also draws strong ratings in nearby cities such as Cleveland and Toledo.
CKLW is the only Canadian-owned station (TV or radio) with a significant U.S. audience. In addition, CKLW is widely regarded as one of the key breakout stations for new recorded hits in the United States. A recent Billboard survey revealed that more hit singles are broken from Detroit than any other major market in the country.
It comes as no surprise then that CKLW has become the prime access route for Canadian record makers anxious to get their vinyl recorded wares onto the U.S. charts. In the early part of the Cancon era (acronym; Canadian context), CKLW demonstrated considerable reluctance in programming legitimately locally-made singles. Rather, the station searched out U.S. records with dubious Canadian connections (many a song written by Paul Anka, who left Canada fifteen-years ago, have found their way onto the ‘CK playlists) to avoid taking a chance on unknown Canadian artists.
But in the past six months or so, CKLW has gotten behind real Canadian records with unprecedented vengeance. At the same time, the station continues to make rating gains destroying the myth that CKLW could not fairly compete in Detroit with the Cancon millstone around its neck.
Edward Bear’s Larry Evoy is one of several key Canadian artists now singing the praises of the new ‘CK policy. “It seems that CKLW now listens to Canadian records seriously,” Evoy says. “They merely don’t dismiss them as inferior.”
Real Ear
Evoy believes that CKLW music director Rosalie Trombley has a real ear for picking unproven hits. He cites the example of Skylark’s current U.S. top 10 hit, “Wildflower” as an example of this ability.
“I must say also, that she was tremendously important in breaking ‘Last Song.’ If it hadn’t been for her efforts, I doubt if we’d done anywhere near as well,” he said.
“Last Song” had sold some 1,250,000 copies in the U.S. and in excess of 100,000 in Canada, making it the biggest-selling domestically produced pop record ever on home soil.
The follow-up single “Close Your Eyes” was at No. 44 with a star on the Hot 100 last week. It moved from No. 24 to No. 20 at CKLW with top five requests reported. “Last Song” had previously reached the No. 1 spot at CKLW, becoming the first Canadian-made single to ever achieve that difficult feat in a predominately R&B market.
Evoy said he favors the CRTC Cancon laws, which made a record industry in Canada a reality. “I cannot see that the regulations have caused any hardship anywhere.”
Evoy also considers Canadian studios to be the equal of U.S. recording facilities. “I’m very high on the studios here. We cut both of our U.S. hits at Thunder Sound in Toronto. As far as sound goes, you can get what you want — it just depends on what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with.” END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; May 26, 1973).
BUMPER STICKER OF THE DAY
