http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=636kebz3pms
THE YEAR WAS 1972
Category: Flashbacks
COUNTRY 1130 * WCXI * CHRIS MOSS * 1991
DETROIT COUNTRY WARS: WDEE VS WEXL . . . FEBRUARY 28, 1970
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1970
WDEE: CAN THE DETROIT NEWCOMER BEAT WEXL TRADITION?
DETROIT — What happens when two stations of comparable signals compete in a major market and both airing respective country music formats? The answer may soon develop here as WDEE marches into a fray with WEXL, which has been a country music station since around 1962.
Slowly, but surely, in many markets good facilities are coming along in new country music formats and busting the hold of small-wattage or daytime only stations. Only in a few markets have daytime stations or small wattage stations been able to hold their own against the bigger newcomers. . . and largely only because of the growing role of FM, which these stations use to extend their broadcast day.
But here in Detroit, two 24-hour AM stations are now waging war against each other. On one side, the most traditional station — WEXL — which believes it has established a strong listening habit in Detroit. On the other, WDEE (the former WJBK, a top 40 station before having made the switch), is perhaps a little more expansive in its approach and willing to play popular, though country-oriented, record hits in its format.
WDEE has the advantage, if you talk to Chuck Renwick, regional radio manager who is responsible for markets such as Toledo, Cleveland, and Detroit in the Storer Broadcasting chain. “WDEE has a far superior signal,” Renwick said.
But WEXL, said program director Bill Mann, “has a fairly good signal in comparison to WDEE in spite of their 50,000 watts. Too, we got the image in the market. As far back as 1933, this station has a ‘Sagebrush Melodies’ program featuring country music.”
Go Further
WDEE claims that WEXL has commercial religion on Sunday, which doesn’t help their country image one bit. “In addition,” said Renwick, “WDEE will be aggressive in it’s promotion — running television spots and newspaper advertising. We’ll also be sponsoring our own concerts. We’ll swamp them out in promotions and with the quality of our personalities. But, in order to be successful, we feel that WDEE has to go further than that. It’s more than just beating another country music station. We don’t think our audience on WDEE will become Top 40 or middle-of-the-road as well as the potential country music fans in Detroit. But WDEE will not be zeroing in on strictly a country music audience. I’m not sure that the country music audience, as such, exists anymore, especially in a market of this size,” he said, pointing out that listeners in general were more sophisticated today. “And there are a lot of No. 1 country music stations who’ve certainly gone beyond the normal boundaries of country music fans for their audience. . . in a sense, creating additional country music fans.”
To counter WDEE in the market, WEXL is not doing anything different, said Mann. “We’re going along pretty much the same as always. That’s one of the problems WDEE has had over the years. . . . they’ve never stayed long with anything. The past six months, under the call letters of WJBK, they were a top 40 rock station. For the eight or nine months before that they were playing good music. One thing I can’t understand is why they don’t stay with any particular format long. But I don’t think that their going country music is good for country music business. It might wake up agencies to the fact that country music is important, considering that two stations are fighting for the audience.”
Adjustments
WEXL, however, has made some adjustments in its programming. Mann said that the format has been tightened up some. And the psychology of having competition has been good for the WEXL personalities. “So, we’re probably sounding better than before.” WEXL has about 50 records charted, but plays 65, plus album cuts and oldies. The station also checks out single sales, but only to an extent. “The biggest problems about singles sales in the area is that only certain stores will carry them. And even those that carry country music don’t have all of the records.”
WDEE will feature a “pretty broad-playlist,” said Renwick. “We’ll probably publish a playlist of the top 40 country records. Already, we are presenting them on the air. But we’re working off a playlist that includes up to 100 records.” One of the things WDEE is doing in order to build up a rapport quicker with Detroit listeners is that each deejay goes on the phone for a half-hour after doing his show. During this half-hour, he takes requests and chats with listeners. He is free to insert these requests into his program the next day. Besides the singles, WDEE airs between 40-60 current and recent album cuts. The major 40 records, of course, gets most-frequently play.
WDEE has just installed a package of jingles created at Spot Productions in Dallas. Production of the sound of the station is something between an easy listening and a contemporary approach, said Renwick. The deejays have now began to pull their own records, although for the first five or six weeks the station was on the air with its country music format, all of the records were slated for them. Renwick also said all the deejays had done a “lot of homework” about country music. Now they do their own shows within certain guidelines.
These guidelines include pacing in terms of tempo and a mixture between modern sounds like those of a Glen Campbell and traditional country sounds like those of a Stonewall Jackson or Faron Young. “WDEE plays the traditional things that occur in today’s hit lists. . . though the trend is towards the modern sounds,” Renwick went on to say. To put a balanced sound hour at WDEE, the deejay would play to or three of the modern-sounding records, then a Wanda Jackson: then two or three more of the modern-sounding record and a Faron Young. Album cuts are used to pick up the pace. . . to bring up the tempo. Then there are guidelines to put a separation between records that have the same kind of stories. For example, to keep a song about Carolina from being back-to-back with a song about Oklahoma. “It’s what we call a ‘thinking jocks’ format,” said Renwick. “And so far we’re getting a pretty good response on the telephone. Those half-hours that the deejay spends on the phones after his show gives us a pulse of who’s switching from other stations to us and how many of them are hardcore country music fans.”
On February 11, the station sponsored an agency party for all local time buyers, advertisers and the press. Leroy Van Dyke and his band performed. Other country artists on hand to spread the word abut country music included Jeannie C. Riley, Lynda K. Lance, Nat Stuckey, Tom T. Hall and Hank Williams, Jr.
WEXL will probably not go so “modern” as WDEE. In fact, WEXL program director Bill Mann believes that Ernest Tubb and Kitty Wells are virtually important to its programming. “I think you have to play them or you’d lose your country identity,” said Mann. Jimmy Martin won’t get exposed that much, nor the harder bluegrass sounds of the Osborne Brothers and Flatts and Scruggs. “But we do play their softer sounds. The truth is that there’s just not that much bluegrass being put out today.”
The overall sounds of WEXL seems to be good, Mann said, “from what people tell us. Of course, listeners around Detroit have never had anything with which to compare us. The competition might pick up some listeners, but I think we’ll keep the vast majority of them. And I don’t think they’ll pick up listeners from other formats because the other stations in Detroit– the Top 40 and the easy-listening stations — are playing Glen Campbell and Eddie Arnold.”
WDEE-FM also plays country music — the stereo country music package distributed by International Good Music out of Bellingham, Washington. This package is aired 6:00 A.M. through 5:00 P.M., at which point the FM station simulcast with the AM. WDEE-FM signs off at midnight at the present. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; February 28, 1970)
A MCRFB Note: In 2009, Detroit country radio legend Deano Day passed away. For more on this story, see Mike Austerman’s michiguide.com. Also, former-Detroit country great Tom Dean can still be heard on the world-wide web today, here.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: THE FOUNDATIONS * 1968 * HD STEREO
WTWR – IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR – 1959
GOOD AFTERNOON AMERICA
FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: AUGUST 15
From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: AUGUST 15
1956: “Colonel” Tom Parker, actually a dutch immigrant who merely played at being a Southern “aristocrat,” became “special adviser” to Elvis Presley, effectively taking over management duties from Bob Neal, who knew managing the King was about to become a full-time job.
1958: Buddy Holly marries Maria Elena Santiago, a former receptionist at his music publishing company, at a private ceremony held at Holly’s boyhood home in Lubbock, Texas.
1964: After the massive success of the Beatles first film, A Hard Day’s Night by United Artists, Warner Bros. sign up the Dave Clark Five to a film project entitled Catch Us If You Can (which was released in the United States as Having A Wild Weekend).
1965: At 8 PM EST, the Beatles take the stage at Shea Stadium in New York City, marking the very first time a rock band would headline a stadium concert and a major promotion victory for Sid Bernstein, who had arranged the concert after his gamble of booking the then-unknown British band at Carnegie Hall had paid off. Tickets for the show, sold merely by word-of-mouth created by kids who asked Bernstein about the next Beatles show while he strolled through Central Park, sold out in just three weeks, beating the stadium’s old seating record with 56,000 seats sold. Two thousand professionals were pressed into service for security. The concert, filmed for the BBC and the NBC Television Network, also featured openers Brenda Holloway, The King Curtis Band, and Bernstein’s new obsession, The Young Rascals.
1969: Promising “three days of peace, love, and music,” The Woodstock Music and Art Fair begins on Max Yasgur’s sixty-acre farm in Bethel, New York (nearby Woodstock being the original location). Featuring two dozen of the country’s hottest bands, the festival draws over 450,000 hippies to the tiny town, causing unimaginable traffic and logistic problems, but nevertheless impressing the ordinary citizens. Three deaths, two births, four miscarriages, and a wedding are all reported prior as Jimi Hendrix ends the festivities with his legendary rendition of the US national anthem. Also appearing were (in part) Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Santana, The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Canned Heat, Joan Baez, Melanie, Ten Years After, Sly and the Family Stone, Johnny Winter, The Jefferson Airplane, Ravi Skankar, Country Joe and the Fish, Blood, Sweat and Tears, and Arlo Guthrie. Among those who elected not to attend were Tommy James and The Shondells, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Jethro Tull, and the Moody Blues.
1973: Baltimore, Maryland declares today “Cass Elliot Day” in honor of the native singer for the Mamas and The Papas.
1980: George Harrison’s acclaimed autobiography I Me Mine — the first book by any Beatle — hits the bookshelves all over the UK and the United States.
1980: John Lennon enters the Record Plant Studios in New York to record his “comeback” album, Double Fantasy.
1996: A New York women’s shelter refuses to take money raised by a recent benefit concert when they learn that one of the performers was James Brown, more often than not, accused of emotional and physical abuse towards women.
2007: The Osmonds reunite for the first time in over two decades to perform their 50th anniversary concert for PBS Television.
Deaths: Thomas Wayne; 1971. Norman Petty; 1984. Jackie Edwards; 1992.
Releases: NONE for this date.
Recording: 1966: “If I Were A Carpenter,” Bobby Darin. 1968: “Rocky Raccoon,” The Beatles. 1969: “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” “The End,” “Something,” “Here Comes The Sun,” The Beatles.
Charts: 1953: “No Other Love,” Perry Como; hits No. 1 on the charts. 1960: “It’s Now Or Never,” Elvis Presley; hits No. 1 on the charts. 1964: “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime,” Dean Martin; hits No. 1 on the charts. 1970: “Looking Out My Back Door,” Creedence Clearwater Revival; enters the charts.
Certifications: 1969: ‘Three Dog Night,” self-titled LP; certified gold by the RIAA.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. 
FLASHBACK 1960s: IT’S “BEATLEMANIA!” * HD VIDEOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9qZt0apTcc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH3WxzYLHcY
A HARD DAY’S NIGHT * HELP! * THE BEATLES ’64 & ’65
A HARD DAYS’ NIGHT * THE BEATLES * UA PICTURES ’64
Posted March 16, 2012: this exhibit has been updated. Three new videos added!
HELP! * THE BEATLES * A UNITED ARTIST RELEASE ’65
Posted March 21, 2012: this exhibit has been updated. On new video added!
— OR FOR MORE —
Go to ‘CATEGORIES‘ on the left panel and click Beatles.
FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: AUGUST 14
From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: August 14
1956: Washington DC deejay Bob Rickman forms the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Elvis Presley after reading too many articles that made Presley out to be a hick and / or a threat to teen society.
1958: At approximately 3:00 a.m, Gladys Presley, mother of Elvis, succumbs at age 46 from a heart attack brought on by hepatitis. His father, Vernon, calls Elvis immediately and he rushes to her bedside, wailing loudly and praying over her lifeless body. Elvis refuses an autopsy. Gladys’ body is transported to Graceland and will lie in state there for two days, with her son simply starring at her, until his father, Vernon, insisted that she be buried.
1962: With producer George Martin unhappy with his drumming (and, some say, the group was unhappy with his teen-idol looks), Pete Best is officially let go from the Beatles. Manager Brian Epstein tells him about three days later, however, after one more performance at the Cavern Club, giving him no real reason for the sacking and cutting off all contact from the other members of the group. (Lennon went on to admit to the group’s “cowardly” handling of the event in a later interview). All sights were on Ringo Starr instead, then-drummer for a Liverpool band named Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, who was then asked if he would like to join the group. Starr accepted.
1966: The Catholic Herald of London runs an editorial describing John Lennon’s recent remarks the Beatles were “bigger that Jesus” as “arrogant,” while admitting the controversy associated with the quote was a generally accurate statement. However, the Vatican paper of record, L ‘Osservatore Romano, accepts Lennon’s public apology he had made a few days earlier.
1970: After he was found crawling along a motel hallway in La Jolla, California, incoherent and “combative,” Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills and Nash is arrested for possession of cocaine and barbiturates.
1971: Diana Ross becomes the proud mother of her first child, Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein; Ross soon marries her manager, Robert Ellis Silberstein, a few days later to mask the fact that the baby is actually the child of Motown’s current married founder, Berry Gordy.
1981: Four years after his untimely death, a Memphis judge rules that the Elvis Presley estate is no longer financially ensconced to his manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker.
1985: Acting on the advice of his good friend Paul McCartney to invest his Thriller money in music publishing, Michael Jackson makes a secret winning-bid of $47 million for the rights to over 250 Lennon-McCartney Beatles songs owned by ATV Publishing. When he finds out about the transaction, McCartney is livid, saying “I think it’s dodgy to do things like that. To be someone’s friend and then buy the rug they’re standing on.”
1995: The Grateful Dead meet and decide to break up after the recent tragedy of founder/leader Jerry Garcia’s death.
1999: Former teen idol Leif Garrett pleads guilty to drug possession in Los Angeles and is ordered into rehab upon the advice of his attorney.
Deaths: Johnny Burnett; 1964. Charles Fizer (The Olympics); 1965. Roy Buchanan; 1988. Tony Williams; 1992.
Releases: “Hang On Sloopy,” The McCoys; 1965. “Maggie May,” Rod Stewart; 1971. “So It Goes,” Nick Lowe; 1976. “Rock ‘N Me,” Steve Miller Band; 1976.
Recordings: “I’m A Loser,” “Mr. Moonlight,” The Beatles; 1964. “Yer Blues,” The Beatles; 1968. “Indian Sunset,” “Rotten Peaches,” “Madman Across The Water,” Elton John; 1971.
Charts: 1961: “Right Or Wrong,” Wanda Jackson; enters the charts. 1965: “I Got You Babe,” Sonny and Cher; hits No. 1 on the charts. 1975: “Devil Woman,” Cliff Richard; enters the charts.
Certifications: 1970: “The Wonder Of You,” Elvis Presley; certified gold by the RIAA. 1974: “(You’re) Having My Baby,” Paul Anka; certified gold by the RIAA.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. 