A MCRFB VIEWING TIP: To fully appreciate this official CKLW 800 December 5, 1967 record playlist above click on image 2x for largest detailed view.
A MCRFB VIEWING TIP: To fully appreciate this official WCHB 1440 October 2, 1967 record playlist above click on image 2x for largest detailed view.
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1964
RCA, COLPIX To Mark President Kennedy’s Death on Anniversary
NEW YORK — Two record companies will observe the first anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy November 22 with special product marking the Dallas tragedy.
RCA Victor is releasing “The Kennedy Wit,” an album which captures the humor displayed by the late President during the 1960 campaign and during his abbreviated term in office.
Material was selected by the best-selling book of the same title by Bill Adler. Introduction is by Adlai Stevenson, and David Brinkley does the narration.
Colpix Records is re-releasing “Four Days That Shocked The World,” an album produced late last year and released earlier this year in association with United Press International. The actual voices and sounds of November 22-25, 1963, are taken from UPI tapes. A booklet, “The Murder Of The Young President,” written by UPI’s White House correspondent, Merriam Smith, accompanies the album. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; November 14, 1964)
In commemorating the first anniversary of President Kennedy’s passing, ‘The Kennedy Wit‘ album was initially released, Saturday, November 21, 1964. (Click on both images 2x for large detailed view).
FIFTY YEARS AGO this month, the Teenage Awards Music International (acronym for T.A.M.I Show) debuted it’s first screen presentation with a special press preview held in New York City, November 11, 1964. Filmed over a two-night period at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California, late October, 1964, the show was hosted by Jan and Dean. The billing featured 12 top recording acts from that year. Geared for teenage audience appeal, the highly acclaimed one hour and 40 minute film was released nationally on December 29, 1964.
WATCH THE ENTIRE 1964 T.A.M.I SHOW RIGHT HERE ON MOTOR CITY RADIO FLASHBACKS!
From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: NOVEMBER 24
1950: The musical comedy Guys and Dolls premieres on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre.
1957: Harry Belafonte’s “Mary’s Boy Child” becomes the first single to sell a million copies in the UK. It stayed at Number One for an unheard-of seven weeks and has since become a perennial UK Christmas favorite.
1959: Teen heartthrob Johnnie Ray is arrested in London for soliciting an undercover officer in a gay bar. (He is later found not guilty.)
1961: In yet another important development for British blues-rock, Chicago blues legend Howlin’ Wolf makes his first appearance in the UK, touring behind his latest single, “Little Baby.”
1962: Ex-Beatles drummer Pete Best, sacked from the group three months previously, nevertheless receives a birthday telegram from the band and manager Brian Epstein wishing him “all the best.”
1964: The Who, until recently the High Numbers, perform their first gig under the new name at London’s Marquee Club, promising what the posters famously call “Maximum R&B.”
1964: The UK’s first commercial radio station, Radio Manx, begins broadcasting from the Isle of Man.
1965: NBC-TV airs the musical special Frank Sinatra: A Man And His Music.
1966: Kansas City, MO police lock horns with rioting teenagers at a James Brown concert after officials stop the show due to Brown’s “obscene dances.”
1972: ABC-TV’s Don Kirshner-produced In Concert, the network’s weekly late-night answer to NBC’s Midnight Special, debuts. The initial episode features musical performances by Chuck Berry, Alice Cooper, Blood, Sweat and Tears, The Allman Brothers, and Poco.
1974: In the midst of his infamous “Lost Weekend,” John Lennon rehearses with Elton John for Elton’s upcoming Madison Square Garden performance, at which Lennon will make a surprise cameo.
1978: In a clear prelude to his coming “Christian” direction, the Jewish-born Bob Dylan plays tonight’s gig in Fort Worth, TX wearing a large gold cross around his neck.
1991: An ordained Little Richard marries singer Cyndi Lauper and actor David Thornton in New York, then sticks around to play at the reception.
2003: Glen Campbell is arrested for drunk driving and hit-and-run charges in Phoenix, AZ, after crashing his BMW into another car at another intersection and continuing on. The 67-year-old Campbell, who is sentenced to ten days in jail, allegedly knees an officer’s groin during the arrest.
Birthdays: 1932: Tommy Allsup (The Crickets) 1939: Jim Yester (The Association) 1941: Donald “Duck” Dunn (Booker T. and the MGs) 1941: Pete Best (The Beatles) 1944: Bob Lind 1944: Bev Bevan (The Move, Electric Light Orchestra) 1945: Lee Michaels
Releases: 1958: Jackie Wilson, “Lonely Teardrops” 1958: Ritchie Valens, “Donna” b/w “La Bamba”
Recording: 1965: The Young Rascals, “Good Lovin'” 1966: The Beatles, “Strawberry Fields Forever”
Charts: 1958: The Kingston Trio’s LP ‘The Kingston Trio’ hits No. 1 on the LP charts; 1973: Ringo Starr’s “Photograph” hits No. 1 on the charts; 1978: Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer’s “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” hits No. 1 on the charts.
Deaths: 1985: Big Joe Turner 1991: Freddie Mercury 1993: Albert Collins 1995: Junior Walker (Jr. Walker and the All Stars).
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this date . . . . N O V E M B E R 2 4
From the MCRFB news archive: 1970
Station Air Talents Control Shows: Avails Audience Appeal via Telephone
DETROIT — Personal contact blended with a consistent music policy directed at adults is paying off for WHFI-FM, a stereo station. Tom Danley, in slightly over a year at the station, has taken it from billings of only $20,000 per year to approximately $250,000 this fiscal year and by next year expects to be far above those figures.
The first thing Danley did upon arriving at the station, which is located in the suburbs of Detroit in Birmingham, was raid-local AM stations for top-flight personalities. Then he gave them not only control of their show, but made them available to the listeners not only through radio, but through the telephone.
There are three direct phone lines into the studio “and the phones are constantly ringing . . . sometimes all three at once,” said Danley.
He confessed that once a phone call received by evening Don Alcorn was a wrong number. “Turned out she’d never heard of WHFI-FM or Alcorn and thought she was kidding her when he told her she was on the air. He convinced her into getting an FM radio and then helped her dial it to 94.7, chatting with her all the time. ‘Is that me,’ she yelled, after she got the station. I think she’s now a confirmed WHFI-FM fan.”
Danley said it would be difficult to find at least 60 seconds when those phones are not ringing . . . even on the all-night show. The air personalities — which includes music director Marc Avery, Lee Alan, Joey Ryan, program director Don Zee, Alcorn, and all-night man Bob Bereten — can talk when they want to . . . segue when they want to . . . “they’re in complete control of their show,” said Danley.
The air personalities operate from a playlist of about 100 records, plus a huge volume of albums from which oldies are taken. The oldies are records that were previous Top 40 hits which fit the uptempo easy-listening format of the station. The only restriction is that is that no more than three oldies can be played per show, although the air personality doesn’t have to play any if he doesn’t want to.
Chain Planned
WHFI-FM is on an upgrading drive and the company plans to grow into a chain of stations . . . all of them strictly FM. The station is building a new station and will move into completely new facilities in October.
“FM radio has arrived,” said Danley, “especially in regards to being a profit vehicle for advertisers. I have never received so many call-ins from potential clients . . . listeners who operates businesses and want us to come out and talk to them about an advertising schedule on the station. And I’ve worked for some major stations.”
To spur further call-ins, WHFI-FM has a series of brief promotions on the air asking: “Mr. Businessman, are you listening to WHFI right now? So are a lot of other people.” WHFI-FM is also very promotional-minded off the air. “I tell potential clients there’s no such thing as ‘one’ place to advertise. It’s a valid rule for us to follow, too. So, we’re involved in everything, including bumper stickers.”
The music policy that Danley installed when he first came to the station in August, 1969, was consistency.” Previously, the music format was in the right direction (Tom Jones and Pet Clark), he felt, but occasionally heavier records were thrown in. Danley set a more consistent policy on record. “The sound is hard to describe, but you can more or less tell when you turn on the station now.” END
(Information and news source: Billboard; October 3, 1970).