A rare ABC/WXYZ Radio brochure from early-1963. The featured flyer was distributed freely for station visitors, clients, sales staff, and media personnel. The Broadcast House studios was located on Ten Mile Rd., near Northwestern Hwy., in Southfield, Michigan.
WXYZ 1270. Fifty-eight years ago.
_______________
NOTE: For a formidable look-back of WXYZ and its legendary, Detroit broadcasting glory years (previously published on this site), please go HERE.
— SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT —
_______________
NEW! A special THANK YOU to Ray Tessier, of Allen Park, MI., for contributing this rare WXYZ brochure with Motor City Radio Flashbacks 🙂
THE RAY TESSIER COLLECTION
_______________
The above WXYZ flyer was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
** A MCRFB VIEWING TIP **
ON YOUR PC? To fully appreciate this 1963 WXYZ brochure click on image 2x and open to second window. Click image anytime to return to NORMAL image size.
Click your server’s back button to return to MCRFB home page.
ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE? Tap on image. Open to second window. “Stretch” chart image across your device screen to magnify for larger print view.
His Biggest Hurdle Now Behind Him, Sam Cooke Looks Toward the Adult Market
MUSIC BUSINESS — (7/11/1964) — The young and talented in our time face a depressing reality. The very mass media which serve to promote and parade them before the public (press, radio, television, recordings) play a double role: they are also the harbingers of obsolescence. The “too much, too soon” machinery has a will of its own, and few understand the mechanics of escaping it. Hopefully, Sam Cooke does.
At 29, Cooke can already look back on seven exceptionally successful years in show business. A graduate of one of the finest gospel singing groups, the Soul Stirrers, Cooke’s first single hit as a soloist was his self-penned “You Send Me,” which appeared on the Keene label. Shortly thereafter he was signed by RCA Victor Records and his career slowly took shape. And it is a solid shape. His last ten singles have all made Top 20 in the country.
SAM COOKE 1964
Long term success is rarely an accident. For Cooke, it has been a case of meticulous planning, and a constant need on the part of the artist for reappraisal of his abilities – particularly as a live performer. “I remember my first stab at the Copa. I had just two hit singles and was booked as a second string act. I wasn’t prepared. I had no conception of an act, lacked stage presence and made little identity with lyrics. It was a painful lesson.”
Others who recall that particular date are easier on Cooke than he is on himself. But he vowed then he’d be a pro before he returned.
When he opened there, June 24, as head-liner, there was something of a vengeance in the first half of the opening set. He was tight and visibly nervous. But then, the real Sam came through and he had his audience with him from there on in – even to singing and clapping while he fed them the lyrics to “If I Had A Hammer.” A pretty risky trick for the staid Copa crowd — but it worked. Cooke has finally broken into the adult market, and he intends to stay there.
Yet there is something enigmatic about Cooke’s past five years as a performer. He has been virtually protected from the adult market, which is hard to reconcile in this day and age. All the while, he has had a tremendous teen following, and the Negro community know him as a “star.” At New York’s Town Hill, for instance, he earns $12,500 per week as a headliner.
When he plays the Apollo in Harlem he breaks attendance records (52,000 his last week there). Yet, his manager of nine months, Allen Klein, when asked why he’d waited so long for the Copa booking, he explained, “Frankly, they didn’t want him. ‘Who’s Cooke,’ they asked. His current booking there wasn’t even set until May.”
Klein has ambitious plans for Cooke’s future, with murmurs of a Carnegie Hall concert and the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, as well as the European scene. Cooke recently left the William Morris Agency and signed with G.A.C., where Buddy Howe is in charge of him. “Howe’s one of the best talent builders in the business,” offers Klein.
Klein explained, “We’re ready to go all the way with Sam. This past year has been a brief hiatus for Sam — he’s not given any personal appearances, save one, so that he could orient himself to the change in his career. Now we’re set to run with it.”
If Cooke’s business acumen is any indication of his talent for carrying things out, there’s little doubt that he’ll make his presence felt. He owns his own publishing firm (Kags) and two record labels, Derby and Sar. As a composer, he’s been responsible for most of his hit record tunes, including “You Send Me,” “Every-body Likes to Cha Cha Cha,” “Only Sixteen,” “Chain Gang,” “Having A Party,”“Cupid,” “Twistin’ The Night Away,” “Another Saturday Night,” “Ain’t That Good News,” and “Good Times,” is just a partial list. And it is intimated that his recent new pact with RCA Victor has some pretty interesting clauses in it. One is that as he develops new talent on his own labels, Victor gets first refusal on signing the acts.
If Cooke has any idol it is talent. He is ecstatic about great performers, arrangers, writers. He spoke recently at length about Bob Dylan. “Now there’s a guy with a real soul. And such a talent for putting beautiful thoughts in a simple framework. If you’ve got something to say, I think that’s the way to say it. If you haven’t you’d better cool it.
“You know,” he confessed, “I was so impressed with one of his songs (‘The Times They Are a-Changin’), I wrote one around it, called ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ “. END
_______________
Information, credit and news source: Music Business; July 11, 1964
When the Beatles appeared for a three week session at the Paris ‘Olympia’ in January, 1964, John and Paul were concerned with the problem writing all the new songs for their first film — as yet untitled — and in addition they had to cook up a brand new single for release in February.
They had a piano moved into their suite at the Hotel Georges V, and they set to work. By the end of their stay they had laid the foundations for the film songs and written ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ — the single which we recorded in our EMI Paris studios. At this time Paul played me his first ideas for ‘And I Love Her.’
Later, when I was busy orchestrating the background score it was decided to use Beatles music in the background whenever possible. Hence, ‘This Boy’ became ‘Ringo’s Theme’ in the Towpath sequence, and ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ was burned into a Jazz waltz for Grandpa’s chase scene from the Police Station. ‘If I Fell’ was not used orchestrally in the film, but I liked the tune so much I did a score anyway, and the end result is here.
I get great pleasure out of arranging the Beatles’ materials, and when the orchestra musicians comments on the quality of the music they are playing, I get an even bigger thrill telling them who wrote it.
_______________
Music score from the film . . . ‘A Hard Day’s Night’
— George Martin; EMI Records Limited (1964)
GEORGE MARTIN’S “AND I LOVE HER”/”RINGO’S THEME” 1964
_______________
George Martin Orchestra’s “And I Love Her,” made it’s initial debut on the Billboard singles chart in July, 1964, the same month the Beatles ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ film (and their film album) made its theatrical debut in cities across America. The Martin instrumental, a song composition penned by Lennon-McCartney for the film, stayed 4 weeks on the charts (“Bubbling Under” the top 100) having peaked at No. 105 on August 1, 1964.
But the flip side of Martin’s “And I Love Her,” titled, “Ringo’s Theme (This Boy),” another Martin instrumental score from the movie, rose much higher in popularity on the Billboard “Hot 100” several weeks later, in lieu after the film’s soundtrack score having been released by United Artists, on June 26, 1964.
“Ringo’s Theme (This Boy),” peaked higher than “And I Love Her,” having topped off at No. 53 during its eight week run on the Billboard “Hot 100,” on September 12, 1964.
In Detroit, “Ringo’s Theme” made the playlist on album-oriented radio stations WJR, WWJ, WCAR, WQTE and WJBK (as heard here), which incidentally by that time WJBK dropped it’s top 40 format for an easy-listening conservative radio sound by August, 1964.
This year, come July, will mark 50 years having passed since the release of the George Martin single and that of the Beatles’ film, ‘A Hard Day’s Night.’ In observance of the Fab Four’s 1964 theatrical film release, also comes the exciting news ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ will hit the silver big screen once again in major cities across the country on July 4, 2014.
United Artists Release Beatles’ LP Score Ahead of Film’s August Debut
NEW YORK — United Artists Records’ soundtrack album of the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” has become one of the fastest selling LP’s in the history of the record business. Within four days after the album’s introduction at the UA distributor meet in Miami Beach last week, 1,000,000 copies were sold and delivered.
United Artists released the 1,000,000 figure July I and reported that orders were continuing to pour in at the same fantastic rate.
The film, “A Hard Day’s Night,” is slated for saturation bookings and multiple city openings in early August. United Artists toppers are predicting that at least 3 million copies will be sold prior the opening, after which, with the movie play-dates and coast-to-coast personal appearances of the Beatles building sales, it’s anticipated that five million copies will be sold by the end of the year.
The album contains eight vocal selections by the Beatles plus four instrumental themes from the film, all composed by Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
The vocal selections are the title song, “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Tell Me Why,” “I Cry Instead,” “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You,” “I Should Have Known Better,” “If I Fell,” “And I Love Her” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.”
The instrumentals are played by George Martin, the Beatles’ musical director. UA has released a single of Martin’s instrumental treatment of “Ringo’s Theme (This Boy)” and “And I Love Her.”
The Beatles’ next album for Capitol is due sometime in August. Meantime, Capitol has released a Beatles single of the title song. END
_______________
Information credit and news source: Billboard; July 11, 1964
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MOTOR CITY RADIO FLASHBACKS
NEW COUNTER! JUNE 24, 2021
_______________
Numbers do count! We now have a brand-new counter. We wanted to grasp a more comprehensive, visitor numbers count for this site and I am delighted to say it has been found. The plugin is called — Awesome Visitor Counter — and according to the plugin’s WP page, it is “The Best Visitor Counter Plugin for WP.”
You will note as well the plugin also provides a count number below each featured post. It is a significant rolling count now tagged below every exhibit on every page. Now over 600 pages to date!
The latest counter launched, 6:00 pm, Thursday, June 24. And thanks to you, the numbers keep growing with every visit to this site. Take a look. You can see the latest count numbers located at the left-bottom of the site’s page.
Again, thank you so much. You made Motor City Radio Flashbacks what it is today. As you can see now, the latest site’s numbers certainly reflect well of that. 🙂
“The listing of records herein is the opinion of FM94 based on its survey of record sales, listener requests and FM94’s judgement of the record’s appeal.”
_______________
PREVIEWED FOR THE WEEK OF JULY 8 – JULY 14, 1978
The above CKLW FM 94 chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
— A MCRFB VIEWING TIP —
ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE? Tap over CKLW chart image. Open to second window. “Stretch” image across your device screen to magnify for largest print view.
ON YOUR PC? Click on all chart images 2x for largest print view.
NEW!THE CKLW FM 94 COUNTRY CHART SERIES COURTESY OF THE GEORGE GRIGGS COLLECTION
— In MemoryofGeorge Griggs —
A SPECIAL THANK YOU
_______________
A sincere, thank you, Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without your generosity, dedication, and your continuous support.
Above CKLW music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.
CHICAGO — “Detroit is supposed to be one of the worst places in the country for women to get ahead … except in radio and television,” says Maureen Hathaway, station manager of Motor City top 40 WHYT-FM.
Hathaway is one of a large number of women holding top executive positions in Detroit radio –– vice president /general managers, station managers, general sales managers, even owners. Radio is a business whose key jobs are generally held by men, and Detroit is widely perceived as a two-fisted, blue collar city. Yet women there have been able to make a more than significant mark in the upper echelons of radio.
“The radio market here is [one of the most] competitive in the country,” observes Elaine Baker, VP/ GM of adult contemporary WOMC-FM. “Because of that, talent is recognized for what it is. Women have been able to move up the ladder be- cause they’re good.”
Both Hathaway and Vicky Trondle, general sales manager of WNIC-AM-FM, surmise that Detroit radio is such fertile ground for women executives because extensive station turnovers in the recent past have cleared the way for capable, talented women.
“One of the biggest problems for women had been lack of opportunity,” says Hathaway. “Men were holding jobs they’d always held, but when turnovers occurred, women were there to take those jobs.”
Trondle adds, “It took a long time for women to get the type of experience it takes to run a large business.”
Trondle was promoted to GSM when her predecessor left to join former WNIC GM Lorraine Golden, who had formed her own company. Golden is now VP of Metropolis Broadcasting and VP /GM of its first property, the top 40 /AC for- matted WDTX.
The turnover theory doesn’t hold for Verna Green, VP /GM of urban outlet WJLB-FM, who brought the station from a No. 12 overall rating when she joined in 1982 to its current No. 2 status. She says, “Women had the least seniority, and so were the first to go.”
Green’s prior experience in the automotive industry left her with the perspective that the male concentration there and in Detroit’s other heavy industries “gave women other ways to achieve.”
“For women to excel in this market place,” agrees Suzanne Gougherty, national sales manager of WWJ-AM, “they had to look in other areas.”
The majority of the city’s female executives started out not in the typing pool but in the sales department. “It’s the business aspect of the radio station,” observes Dougherty. “Working in sales gives you an awareness of the bottom line . . . and GMs have to be very aware of the bottom line . . . it gives an idea of the structure of the station.”
Operating in a predominantly man’s world, Detroit’s female execs nevertheless all agree they have faced little or no gender discrimination in their positions. “There has probably been some, but I’ve been too busy to notice,” remarks Green.
However, says Betty Pazdernik, VP and GSM of top 40 WCZY-AM-FM, “I still think we have to do a bit more, be superior, excel. If I felt like I wanted to have a tantrum, I wouldn’t do it,” she continues, “yet I’ve seen males fly off the handle, and it’s perfectly acceptable.”
“If I feel like crying from frustration, I’ll leave the office. But, men are allowed to explode for the same reason with no loss of esteem. It’ll probably always be like that.” All agree that their stations hire for excellence, not gender.
“I’m looking for the best person for a job, when I hire,” says Baker. “I had a female program director in 1983 [Lorna Ozman], and we have a famale sales staff – not because they’re women, but for their skills.”
Women applicants can look forward to advice and information on support groups when they go to WJLB, says Green. “We tell them to contact American Women in Radio & Television (AWRT), the Women’s Advertising Club in Detroit, Women In Music, and Women in Communications,” she describes. “We advise everyone, not just wornen, to read the trades and market reports. Women graduate as mass communications majors with no practical skills; we try to spread the word that if they’re considering internships, they can get them.”
Detroit’s women executives all stress that hard work, knowledge, desire, goal setting, risk taking, and dedication got them where they are. “Don’t be overly conscious of your difference,” advises WHYT’s Hathaway. “You can’t be a lone wolf and succeed. You’ve got to be a part of the system, teamwork and company loyalty, that’s what has traditionally gotten men ahead. A lot of women feel they have to be Joan of Arc, but that just reinforces differences. Being a team player does not mean selling out.” END
_______________
Information credit and news source: Billboard; April 25, 1986
The year 1969 was one of the years, if not the only year, in which CKLW did not present their annual Top 100 or Top 80 year-end countdown. Instead, the Big 8 opted for the Top 100 Hits of the 1960s — closing out the decade — as CKLW prepared to usher in the 1970s.
For the first time ever — host Charlie O’Brien and Big 8 radio will present the hits of 1969 as they were featured on CKLW throughout that memorable year. Beginning with song 100, all the way to the number one song on top. The Top 100 Hits of 1969 playlist was tabulated from the weekly CKLW Top 30 Records charts and by CKLW historian Dave Kelly.
The CKLW Top 100 Hits of 1969 countdown resumes today, July 4 at 12 NOON., EST. Another exclusive presentation by Charlie O’Brien and big8radio.com . . . click the streaming link for the broadcast HERE!
_______________
— BIG8RADIO.COM —
Catch big8radio.com LIVE on the streams HIFI radio app for IOS,HERE
WXYZ SALUTES DETROIT HIGH SCHOOLS | A-B-C | ’63-’64
THE WXYZ ‘PAMS’ HIGH SCHOOLERS!
_______________
In 1963, WXYZ commissionedPAMS of Dallas to create a plethora of outstanding jingles saluting all the high schools in the metropolitan Detroit area. They were aired mostly during the Detroit high school graduation season and were highlighted on WXYZ during the Detroit high school football seasons, 1963 and 1964.
At the time, WXYZ chose to tally every high school in alphabetical order on the Detroit map with their own jingle, from A through Z. The presented WXYZ jingle sampler was created for high schools lettered A, B, and C . . . from All Saints to Cody High.
Throughout the decades having passed since, many of the named schools recalled in this PAMS sampler, those institutions no longer exist today. But you just may find your high school’s ‘jingle’ played here — as they were selectively saluted on WXYZ radio, some 58 years ago.
_______________
NOTE: For all the other WXYZ High School tributes — 1963-1964 — you can find them archivedHERE
NEW! A special THANK YOU to our newest contributor Dave Preston — formerly of WDRQ — for recently donating this FM 93 radio aircheck (he recorded in 1979) to our Motor City Radio Flashbacks’ airchecks archive.
_______________
THE DAVE PRESTON COLLECTION
WDRQ 1979 luminaries: ‘Zippo’, Jim Ryan, Kim Carson, Dave Preston (L-R back) Michael Stevens and Bill Garcia (L-R front). [Photo credit: Dave Preston]
— DAVE PRESTON —
_______________
Dave Preston writes:“Jim, I worked at WDRQ FM 1979-1981 and worked at WTWR, Tower 92 during this time era as well. I worked with some great talent, Jim Zippo was somewhat of a passer by but Don Geranimo really left his mark. This tape dated back to when I was first hired by Eddie Rogers. After a recent switch at the time, the new format of WDRQ was Disco. They had hired a whole new staff at the time and I was part of the new hires over there along with a list of others.
The disco format did not last very long. Eddie Rogers was soon let go and Mark Driscoll then became program director. Mark began adjusting and readjusting both the staff and format on an ongoing basis even from day one from his hotel room, nearly over night, turning the station into a revolving door. Mark was replaced after a year by Bill Garcia. Bill was the program director credited with hiring Don Geranimo for evenings.
At the end of the 1970’s and early 1980’s WDRQ continued to evolve quickly and abruptly. What was once a top 40 station switched to an all disco format. Later shifting to ‘The Motown Sound’ under the direction of Mark Driscoll then changing like a hat, calling itself an ‘Urban format,’ shuffling through a list of air talent and gaining the reputation for being ‘An Endless Revolving Door.’ The only person who seemed to experience any sort of stability was then WDRQ-FM Production Director, Doak Breen.
In hindsight, working for both Steve Schram and Victor Ives was a great experience and a well needed contrast to the ongoing drama at WDRQ during that time.”
_______________
The featured WDRQ aircheck was audio enhanced by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
_______________
The above WXYZ flyer was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
