PAT HOLIDAY – PAT ST. JOHN – TED RICHARDS – MIKE RIVERS – STEVE HUNTER
Category: CKLW
CKLW – 93.9 FM – ROCK AND ROLL OLDIES STATION
CKLW * CHARLIE VAN DYKE * 1969
CKLW ALLIES BOND WITH RECORDS REPS . . . SEPTEMBER 30, 1967
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1967
Promo Men Valuable Tools, asserts CKLW
DETROIT — Close contact with record promotion men has been a contributing factor in CKLW’s surge to the top in a July-August Hooper audience rating survey, according to program director Paul Drew. The Hot 100 format edged out easy-listening station WJR-AM 20 to 19.9 in total rated time periods. WKNR, once the leading rock ‘n’ roll outlet, had a 13. 6 in the Detroit market. WJR does best in the morning hours, losing out 25.2 to 12.3 in the noon to 6 p.m. slot Monday through Friday. WKNR also tops WJR in the afternoon period.
A “feel” of the market is necessary in order to program a radio station successfully, said Drew. This involves “going where the people go. . . . not watching TV or going where you want to go.”
Promotion men can be a valuable aid in learning what’s on CKLW on March 3. The 50,000-watt station had never before enjoyed good ratings. . . . going on in a market, Drew says. The 50,000-watt station beaming out of Canada into Detroit and beyond had never before enjoyed good ratings. . . . going on in a market, Drew said. CKLW set aside two days each week so promotion men can see the music librarian, he said, “and I try to see them when I can.” Last Monday, for example, Drew took time to talk to Sammy Kaplan, an independent man ” who’s don’t very well and has given us some good information”; Harvey Cooper, RCA-Victor Records; Cliff Goroff, Dot Records; and Russ Yerges, Columbia Records. In addition, Drew tries to take or return every telephone call from all the record men connected with the recording industry for the benefit of where the station has been going both in popularity and market rank.
Team Effort
Drew, formerly music director at WQXI in Atlanta, took over as program director at CKLW earlier this year, which at the time was certainly not benefiting the high ratings it hold now. Drew felt that the achievement was a team effort of the people at the station; though he did bring in some deejays, such as Gary Mitchell, Mike Rivers and Jim Edwards, he did not do the “cleaning house” (Tom Shannon, Dave Schafer remains) that many program directors do. Playlist varies, but centers around a group of 30 records, plus eight or nine “hitbound” selections added each week, plus a few album cuts. Last week, the station was playing one cut from Aretha Franklin’s “Aretha Arrives” LP, “If I Were A Carpenter” from the new Four Tops album “Reach Out,” and a track from Dionne Warwick’s “Window Of The World” LP.
Watches Playlist
A tight playlist doesn’t necessarily mean that a new product won’t get played, he said. Last week, the station went on J. J. Barnes new “Now That I Got You” on Groovesville Records and was also playing the Strawberry Alarm Clock’s “Incense And Peppermints.” A new record by an unknown artist will have trouble making the station’s playlist, he said. . . . “It’s a rare thing, unless it’s a smash in another market.” The station watches closely current radio playlists in Flint and Lansing. At night, CKLW’s signal reaches 18 States, Drew said.
Drew started in radio in 1955 at WHLS in Port Huron, Michigan, after attending Wayne State University in Detroit where he majored in speech and psychology. He was a deejay for four years at WGST in Atlanta, doing a nightly rock ‘n’ roll show for the good music station, there since 1963. It was about this time that Phil Yarbrough, now known as Bill Drake, talked him into joining WAKE in Atlanta, where Drake was program director. Drake went to KYA, San Francisco, and Drew went to WQXI in Atlanta for three years. While there he served as deejay, then program director, then music director for the popular top 40 radio station. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; September 30, 1967)
MCRFB Note: The Jim Davis YouTube interview featured below took place in 2002. For more on Jim Davis (Big Jim Edwards) today, go here.
CKLW * 12 HOURS OF NON-STOP AIRCHECKS
CKLW * 1973 * 12 HOURS OF NON-STOP AIRCHECKS
CKLW – Various CKLW Jocks – Friday June 29,1973.mp3
Big Thanks To Scott Miller for this 12 Hour Aircheck of Various CKLW Jocks!
CKLW-AM BACK ON CLIMB FOR RATINGS… AUGUST 10, 1985
From the MCRFB news archives:
Switch To Nostalgia Format Boosts CKLW’s Ratings
From the MCRFB Aircheck Library, featuring:
CKLW.Marc.Avery.K.800.Marc.Avery.1984.mp3
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.”
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).
BIG SWITCH ON: CKEZ-FM TO CKLW-FM… MAY 24, 1986
A MCRFB news brief:
DRAKE FORMAT NEWLY REVIVED ON THE FM BAND
From the MCRFB Aircheck Library, featuring:
CKLW.FM.93.9.Looking.Back.With.Dave.Shafer.Roasting.Bryon.MacGregor.9.6.1986.mp3
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).
CKLW * SEPTEMBER 3, 1968
FLASHBACK MOTOR CITY HAPPENINGS ’67. . . JULY 8, 1967
From the MCRFB news archive: 1967
Music Happenings In and Around Detroit Town, 1967
Detroit — Columbia Records, Tom and Jerry Schoenith’s Upper Deck of the Roostertail and CKLW combined Monday, July 3 in an all-out promotion for Columbia’s Moby Grape. Columbia Records promotion man Russ Yerge brought the Grape into town that day and arranged with the Schoenith’s to have a special Moby Grape night at their club, which is normally closed Mondays. The public was admitted free. Paul Drew, program director of CKLW, co-operated in promoting the evening with a barrage of spot announcements about the free show. Drew also put the group’s single “Omaha” on his CKLW Big 30 playlist. All of the CKLW deejays, including Tom Shannon and CKLW-TV personality Robin Seymour, were on hand at the Upper Deck to introduce the Haight-Ashbury San Francisco band. The new group earlier in the day appeared on Seymour’s TV show. . . . Terry Knight is booked into the Chess Mate for two weeks beginning Monday, July 10. . . . The Bee Gees are coming into Detroit on a promotion trip Thursday, July 13. . . . Gordon Lightfoot is playing at the Living End the week of July 17. . . . Nanett (Fabray) was in Detroit Tuesday, July 4 to promote her Canusa record, “The Look Of Love.” END
(Information and news source: Billboard; July 8, 1967).