A MCRFB.COM THREE PART SERIES
MEMORIES OF THE BIG 8 — Big Jim Edwards — PART 1
1967
“SURE, AND I’M THE EASTER BUNNY”
By JIM DAVIS
October of 1966, I was Assistant PD and Afternoon Drive on WTTO – Toledo, OH. “Wheeto in Toledo” succumbed to the desires of the owners’ wife for “softer music” and it was announced to the staff that WTTO would go “middle of the road.” Lesson learned: Never go to work for a radio station owned by a meat packing company.
So, the scramble began for those of us who loved Top 40 radio to keep the turntables spinning. My friend Ed Busch who had done mid-days on WTTO after Paul Drew canned him at CKLW suggested I might send a tape to Paul who was building a team at the Big 8. So, I took him up on the idea. Since I was playing the mellow sounds of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, I could do nothing except “fake” at tape in the production room. I sent it up along with a resume to Paul Drew and kept my fingers crossed.
It was a Saturday morning. My pilots’ logbook says it was October 21st, 1967. I was practicing touch and go takeoffs and landings at Ellington Aircraft Salvage in Toledo. Suddenly, the Piper Colt radio crackled with the voice of the owner Dick Ellington calling me. He said “I just got a call from your wife. She said it’s important and to land immediately.” So, I hurried from the sky to the little Field Base Operator where I borrowed the phone to call my wife Sylvia. She said “Jimmy, you’ll never believe what just happened.” I said “What.” She said, “This guy called who said he was Paul Drew…. And I knew it wasn’t him so I said ‘and I’m the Easter Bunny’ and hung up.”
Then, his secretary Pat called back and said it was “Mr. Drew” and would I please hold. Paul (not the Easter Bunny) told Sylvia to have me call as soon as I got in. The call was hurriedly made. Paul said: “I heard your tape…. You sounded fake.” (Paul never minced words). I told him it was a fake tape that I had fabricated in the production room. He said, “make another one today, and send it up to me via Greyhound and let me know when it will arrive.” My feet were light as I ran towards the Commodore Perry Motor Lodge to record what I hoped was my big break. The tape was hand carried to the bus terminal, and the call was made. Sunday afternoon the call came from Paul who asked if I could be in his office at 9:00 AM the next morning.
I couldn’t sleep that night. I was afraid of getting stuck in Customs. I was up by 5AM and on the road by 6. By 7:30 AM I was sitting in the lobby of CKLW on Riverside Drive in Windsor, Ontario. About 8:30, I met the receptionist, Rosalie Trombley who was to become the legendary “Rosalie” of Bob Seeger fame. Paul’s secretary Pat Brink came out every ½ hour to explain that Mr. Drew was busy but “he should be with you shortly.” Then, in what appeared to be a streak of a fast moving locomotive, Paul appeared in the lobby and said, “come with me, we have to go to Motown.” Paul had a Pontiac convertible that had a mobile phone in it. I remember thinking how expensive those toys were in those days. The conversation was fast paced. Paul explained how CKLW had a bad reputation because it was Canadian. He said “I don’t care what problem your station has; if it’s FM (not popular in those days), a day-timer, low powered, Canadian etc, if it sounds great people will listen to it.”
We pulled into the back lot of the old 12th street Motown studios. I stayed in the car. Paul went to the back door and knocked. In a brief moment a brown envelope appeared in Paul’s hands and we were back on the road headed back towards Windsor. Paul explained that he had a new Supremes “exclusive” which he would have for a minimum of 12 hours before the competition had the record. It was exciting. The whirlwind that surrounded Paul was evident. On the way back in the car Paul told me: “I’m sharing these things because I assume you are coming to work for us.” That was all I needed to hear. My heart skipped a beat. I was being hired by the Big 8.
Paul said he wanted me for mid-days 12-3PM. He would change my name to “Big Jim Edwards” because there was already a “Jim Davis” in the market on WXYZ. He said “I want you to hit the air prepared, so give your two weeks notice, and then on Saturday and Sunday nights for the next two weekends I want you to do overnights on the Big 8 to get up to speed. He gave me some reading material, and I was out the door.
That Saturday night, I drove to Detroit from Toledo. I had bought a new purple shirt and a tie for my “audition.” I was following the legendary Tom Shannon who I knew from Buffalo as a listener to WKBW while I was growing up. Paul met me at the station bundled up in a large fur coat and carrying a battery operated Zenith Trans-Oceanic radio.
The air studio was known as AB-3 (Announce Booth). It was a large horse-shoe shaped desk with a TV station mike boom which held an Electro-Voice 666 microphone. Brush Clevite earphones screamed the rock and roll (and are the reason I have trouble hearing out of my right ear now). When it was time for me to take to the airwaves, Paul sat across from me with a set of earphones listening to the off air product. There was a definite tension in the air. As I punched on the mike button for my first words on CKLW, I noticed that my hands were shaking like a leaf.
It didn’t take me long to make my first mistake. In fact, it was only 7 minutes. I back-sold the song and gave the time-check and my name and then went into the spot block. Paul took off his headphone and said “You forgot the call letters. You may have lost us valuable listeners. I want you to instruct your engineer to play the same record again, play the same spot again, and see if you can remember to say the call letters this time. Try to never do that again.” I was on edge for the rest of the night. There was no more conversation. Paul simply said “tell your engineer to play a more music fast to fast jingle and record number 1234.” That was it. I was absolutely sure that this would be my last night on the Big 8.
6AM arrived very slowly. I was tired. Paul and I packed it up and left AB-3. As I went for the door he said, “That was the best first effort I’ve heard so far.” I had a reprieve until the next night. I had three more overnight “trials” before I hit the airwaves full-time on November 6th, 1967. I started on the same day as another Big 8 employee started in the newsroom. His name was Gary Mack. However, that name was deemed not authoritative enough, and so, he took his Uncles’ name – Byron McGreggor.
A month later, the station aired the Christmas Wish promotion. My Christmas Wish had come true. I was a Big 8 jock!
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(First of 3 parts, to be continued; Part 2 — Tuesday, July 21, 2015)
A MCRFB Note: Jim Edwards, CKLW
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Motor City Radio Flashbacks recently heard from Jim Davis (July 9, 2015), the former Big 8 jock known as ‘Big Jim’ Edwards on CKLW. A special ‘THANK YOU’ goes out to Jim Davis for sharing his Big 8 recollections with us — today — exclusively here on MCRFB.COM. The first of a three part series, we will publish the second part of Jim Davis’ CKLW memoirs he authored, entitled, “1968-1969,” next Tuesday, July 21, 2015.
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ALSO: Another CKLW aircheck feature going up tomorrow on MCRFB.COM — ‘CKLW-AM Back On The Radio With: Jim Edwards!’ (November, 1967)
