WKNR SIGNED OFF INTO HISTORY TODAY, APRIL 25, FORTY-YEARS AGO
DETROIT (April 25, 2012) — WKNR-AM, once the dominate radio station in Detroit during the 1960s, signed-off the 1310 AM frequency for the last time on this day, April 25, 1972.
The WKNR AM and FM studio facility at 15001 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, in the 1960s. (Photo courtesy Keener13.com)
Formerly WKMH-AM, the station made the switch to “the new Radio 13” on October 31, 1963.By early 1964, WKNR was by then the most popular radio station in Detroit and remained No. 1 in the market, still holding that status throughout the first six months through 1967.
WKNR, affectionately known as “Keener 13,” began it’s eventual slide from Detroit radio dominance in April, 1967. It was during this timeWKNR saw their challenge met head-onby their other rival located across the Detroit river, CKLW.
WKNR No. 1 in 1965, according to this published trade article. (Click on image for larger view).
CKLW, during that time, was totally being restructured into a formidable radio powerhouse the Canadian station would become by year’s end.
RKO radio consultant Bill Drake and Paul Drew were the two people responsible for the major changes at the “Big 8.” Paul Drew, the newly-appointed program director at CKLW, patterned the same “Boss Radio” format Bill Drake and Ron Jacobs had programmed on 93 KHJ in Los Angeles. By 1965’s end, Jacob’s KHJ was by then the No. 1 radio station in L.A.
But WKNR would not easily go down without a fight. While going against the “Big 8” giant, the legendary Detroit radio station’s ratings were found inside a downward decline, all the while battling against two major fronts.
CKLW officially became the No. 1 radio station in Detroit by November, 1967, according to a Radio Response Survey published inBillboard on November 4.
CKLW, with it’s massive 50,000-watts of transmitted radio power covered 3 Canadian provinces and at times, their night-time signal spanned across 28 States. In contrast, after sundown, WKNR’s 5,000-watt signal was commonly known to be absent from the radio dial in areas east of Detroit and, more so, deficient in night-time coverage and strength.
By now, major changes had begun at WKNR both in the management and personnel level. In January of 1968, J. Michael Wilson was by then doing mornings on Keener. Dick Purtan had left WKNR for Baltimore. By the first week of April 1968, WKNR radio greats Bob Green, Jerry Goodwin, Ted Clark and Scott Regen were no longer there. Sean Conrad, Edward Alan Busch, Tony Randolph, Ron Sherwood, and Dan Henderson were to be the new voices on Keener 13.
WKNR survey guide from February 07, 1972. (Click image for larger view).
Despite the many changes in the Detroit radio market scene at the time, WKNR’s battle for survival against CKLW and FM’s “free-form” radio would drag on for five years.
Near the end of 1971, according to a Detroit Arbitron radio rating for the period Oct./Nov., WKNR-AM had a 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. cume of 377,300 in total listenership during a given broadcast day. For WKNR, those numbers represented a reduction down to a 15 to 12 total market share. In comparison, WABX-FM ranked just under in total rank, with a cume of 330,000 during those same hours.
WKNR, who by then revamped its playlist to include some album-oriented tracks, also made much of their attempt to pull away from the “same as” CKLW all-pop music format. No longer were the top 31 songs part of the playlist rotation. Slashed in half, WKNR’s new playlist focused primarily on the top 15 hits instead, while “previewing” the other 16 songs or so for the week.
By late 1971 and early 1972, WKNR now was promoting itself as the new “American Rock and Roll” radio station. An obvious affront towards the dominance that was CKLW located in Windsor, Ontario.
On the 100.3 FM side, the album rock-oriented ‘underground” format that was WKNR-FM was dropped after an unsuccessful run against WABX-FM. In it’s place, Stereo Island, an easy-listening music format, now found it’s place competing against WLDM-FM in Detroit.
MCRFB jingle audio: WKNR “Stereo Island” 1970
But the changes were not enough, and ultimately, it was not to be.
In the end, WKNR became the former on a brisk, chilly but sunny morning that was Tuesday, April 25, 1972. Just before 8:00 a.m., WKNR deejay John McCrae’s voice breaks but regains composure as he announced the inevitable —
MCRFB aircheck audio: John McCraeLast Moments of Keener 13 April 25, 1972
(This original audio source is property, courtesy of Scott Westerman andkeener13.com)
“…This is John McCrae, I’d like to take it upon my, myself to speak on behalf of all the people who made Keener what it, was and is. You know, Pete Seeger, with a little help from his cosmic friend, wrote it much better than I could, and the Byrds sing it, much better than I, could ever say it. So this time Detroit, we’d like to thank you, for making nearly a decade — a Keener season.”
Signing-off, the last WKNR Keener 13 Top 30 hit WKNR would ever play — before the 8:00 hour on the morning of April 25, 1972.
As the last few bars of the Byrd’s “Turn, Turn, Turn” began to fade, the magic that was once WKNR faded away with the song. But the memories, the events, the music, the great names, the faces and voices who crafted the Keener legacy a long time ago, remain in many a hearts and minds yet even still, to this day.
In 2002, thirty years since WKNR was last on the air, Scott Westerman and Steve Schram decided it was time someone gave WKNR it’s long due, with honors. Working together they packaged an incredibly amazing WKNR tribute site, aptly named,keener13.com.
This coming June, 2012, will mark a decade since the website’s creation. And the phenomenal story about this greatDetroit radio legacyis still being told, remembered, and celebrated there on the world-wide web.
WKNR ‘Together’ logo from 1970 – 1971.(Click image for larger view).
“Keener” was a radio station that went on to impact nearly a decade the many lives of a community it once served.It knew its listeners. And if only but for a short time, WKNR also was the station that, in all essence,knew the city of Detroit wellby way of its prestigious award-winning news department informing and staying “on top of the news” during the station’s Top 40 reign here during the the 1960s and early-1970s.
As Bob Green previously commentedto Scott Westerman on keener13.com, quote, “The WKNR experience provided some of my happiest radio memories.”
We agree.
As to a generation who grew up listening to top 40 radio in Detroit during the 1960s, one may actually say many of those “happiest radio memories” we recall having heard on Keener 13 — belongs to many of us today just the same.
WKNR. Those call letters would come to embody one sensational story. A story of a Detroit radio station’s historic top 40 run to number one status (in short-order all within 9 weeks) after having signed on in October 1963.
And it is a story still remembered to this day. Forty years after signing-off into Detroit radio history one April morning, on this day, in 1972.
A MCRFB NOTE: For a more comprehensive search in our MCRFB archives on WKNR to date, you may GO HERE.
1955: The United Nation’s Commission on Narcotics releases a report stating there is a “definite connection between increased marijuana smoking and that form of entertainment known as be-bop and re-bop.”
Rocker Eddie Cochrane in 1959. (Click on image for larger view).
1960: Eddie Cochran is laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California.
1970: At today’s concert at Raleigh, North Carolina, the interracial band Pacific Gas and Electric Company is subject to verbal abuse while on stage. Later, as they leave, four bullets are fired in the van. No one is injured. no one is arrested.
1974: According to the new issue in Rolling Stone, “streaking” has become so popular that Yes and Greg Allman concerts have been interrupted by the fad. At a recent Beach Boys concert, the magazine says, the band was streaked by it’s own crew.
1977: Elvis Presley performs at the Civic Center in Saginaw, Michigan, with a mobile unit capturing what would be his very last recording, released on the RCA album Moody Blue.
1977: The musical variety television special Paul Anka — Music My Way, featuring Natalie Cole, The Savannah Band, and a host of cameos, airs on ABC-TV.
1981: Denny Laine leaves Paul McCartney and Wings, essentially leaving McCartney as a solo act once again.
1990: A London auction house sells the Fender Stratocastor on which Jimi Hendrix played the U.S. national anthem at Woodstock for $295,000.
1993: Legendary album artist Stanley “Mouse” Miller, designer of the Grateful Dead “skull and roses” logo, has his upcoming liver transplant financed by the band.
The Eagles Second Night Reunion Concert for April 28, 1994 on a promo CD cover. (Click on image for larger view).
1994: After an absence which lasted fourteen years, the Eagles perform at the Warner Burbank Studios for what will be the first of two reunion concerts chronicled on the live studio album Hell Freezes Over.
1994: A judge finds Michael Bolton’s 1991 hit “Love Is A Wonderful Thing” plagiarizes the Isley Brothers 1966 song of the same name, despite Bolton’s protest he’s never heard of the song.
2003: The parents of the late Doors lead singer Jim Morrison sue the remaining members of the band for touring with a new singer as “The Doors 21 Century” using the band’s image and logo.
2003: Nina Simone is laid to rest in Cary-Le-Rouet, France, with attendees including Miriam Makeba and gifts sent by luminaries like Elton John.
Billy Joel’s vehicle after second traffic accident in two years, this one in 2004. (Click on image for larger view).
2004: For the third time in two years, Billy Joel is involved in a traffic accident, driving his car into a home in Bayille, Long Island, New York. No one is injured.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….
1954: Billboard, taking notice in changes in music trends, publishes an article entitled, “Teenagers Demand Music With A Beat — Spur Rhythm And Blues.”
1959: After running on Saturday nights on radio for twenty-four years and TV for the last nine, the final installment of the musical countdown show Your Hit Parade airs on NBC-TV. The final Top Five: Elvis Presley, “I Need Your Love Tonight” (#5); Brook Benton, “It’s Just A Matter Of Time” (#4); Ricky Nelson, “Never Be Anyone Else But You” (#3); Dodie Stevens, “Pink Shoe Laces” (#2); and the Fleetwoods at No. 1 with: “Come Softly To Me.”
A young Bob Dylan performing inside a NY coffee house in 1961. (Click on image for larger size).
1961: Bob Dylan makes his first recording — playing harmonica on Harry Belafonte’s song “Calypso King.” He’s paid $50.00 — cash — for his efforts.
1961: Del Shannon’s “Runaway” hits No. 1 on the national charts.
1963: An 18 year-old Brenda Lee marries Ronnie Shacklett, one year her senior, in Nashville a mere six months after meeting him at a Jackie Wilson concert. Forty-six years later, the two are still a pair.
1965: Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders’s “Game Of Love” hits No. 1 on the charts.
1968: The newly-formed Apple Records decides not to sign a young audition who goes by the name David Bowie.
1970: Having been invited to a White House dinner by Tricia Nixon, daughter of President Richard Nixon, the Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick brings the radical Abbie Hoffman with her, in an attempt to dose Tricia with LSD during the dinner. Hoffman is turned away at the door by the Secret Service and Slick decides to leave with him instead.
1972: Detroit Top 40 radio legend WKNR-AM conducts what will be it’s last 24-hour broadcast day. Unbeknownst to listeners of any immediate changes at the station, WKNR signed off before 8:00 a.m. the following morning and signed on playing an all-instrumental “beautiful music” format as the new WNIC-AM.
1976: In a parody of recent offers, Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels goes on the air and offers the Beatles the whopping sum of $3,000 if they agree to to reunite on the SNL show. And it almost happens: Paul, visiting John at his New York apartment for what would turn out to be his last time, is watching the skit with John, and both consider going across town to the studio live. However, the duo by that time decide they’re too tired.
Jerry Lee Lewis and 22 year-old Kerrie McCarver weds in 1984. (Click on image for larger view).
1984: With questions still lingering about the death of his fifth wife, Shawn Stephens, Jerry Lee Lewis marries his sixth, Kerrie McCarver, the 22 year-old president of his fan club.
1992: The Cleveland Orchestra sues Michael Jackson for $7,000,000 upon discovering the singer used part of their recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on his album Dangerous.
1992: In his hometown of Inglewood, New Jersey, Wilson Pickett drives his car through the mayor’s front yard, yelling death threats at the house and accidentally running over an 86 year-old man. He is arrested and found with open containers of brew strewn about inside his car.
2007: President George W. Bush is denied a luxury suite at the Imperial Hotel in Vienna when Mick Jagger, in town with the Stones on a tour, gets the ‘presidential’ treatment instead by booking it first.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….
1959: The Alan Freed “Rock and Roll” movie, Go, Johnny, Go! premier in New York City. The movie features Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, The Cadillacs, and The Flamingos.
1962: Jerry Lee Lewis loses his first son, Steve Allen (named after the TV host and good friend), in a tragic drowning accident at the age of three.
Go, Johnny, Go! Actual theater billboard poster; circa 1959. (Click on image for larger view).
1964: The President of England’s National Federation of Hairdressers makes headlines when he offers a free haircut to the next rock group who reach Number One.
1966: A young Bruce Springsteen gets a boost when his band The Castiles wins a battle of the bands at a roller rink in Matawan, New Jersey. The first prize? Opening for the Crystals and the Ad Libs at next week’s show.
1966: The Troggs “Wild Thing” was released today.
1967: Elvis Presley’s 23rd motion picture Easy Come, Easy Go premiers in Hollywood.
1968: Herb Alpert sings a Burt Bacharach composition, “This Guy’s In Love With You,” to his wife on the Tijuana Brass television special, Beat Of The Brass. It would spark a national demand for the song, which results in the song being released a few weeks later. It will become a million-seller later in the year.
1969: Herb Alpert’s A&M Records signs The Carpenters.
1969: On the roof of Apple headquarters at 3 Sevile Road in London, John Winston Lennon changes his name to John Ono Lennon.
1969: Today is Tommy Day. The Who performed their new rock opera Tommy for the first time on stage in its entirety at a concert in Dolton, England; five years later to the day, the group begins filming the movie version, and, on the same date in 1993, the Broadway play based on the album opens in New York.
1974: Rebone’s “Come And Get Your Love” is certified gold.
1976: Johnnie Taylor goes platinum with his No. 1 disco-hit, “Disco Lady.”
The Blues Brothers performs “Soul Man” on SNL; April 22, 1978. (Click on image for larger view).
1978: On tonight’s Saturday Night Live, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd team up to debut two new characters called “The Blues Brothers,” who performs a cover version of Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man.”
1979: The Rolling Stones play two concerts in Oshawa, Ontario, for the Canadian Institute for the Blind, as a result of a court-ordered community service for guitarist Keith Richards, who was busted two years earlier for heroin possession.
1981: Eric Clapton is involved in a car crash near Seattle, Washington, and is hospitalized with bruised ribs and lacerations, just two days after he was released from a Minneapolis, Minnesota hospital after treatment was administered for an ulcer disorder.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….
Scott Miller @ CKLW
