October 2013 – USA Radio Museum

DID YOU REMEMBER? IT’S A ‘KEENER’ 50TH TODAY!

Thursday, October 31, 2013

ON THIS DATE IN 1963 A DETROIT RADIO LEGEND WAS BORN 50 YEARS AGO

DETROIT (October 31) — October 31, 1963. WKMH becomes the new WKNR, “New Radio 13.”

Did you remember?

WKNR. Detroit. The “Keener Story.” How much more can be said that hasn’t been said about this great Detroit radio legend? In all reality not much more else needs to be said, nor added, of what is well known about the “Keener story.”

And despite many years having passed, this much is known, the “story” is still remembered today. A story about an incredible Dearborn radio station, situated on Michigan Avenue, a story that has been told, re-told time and time again for five decades. The story of a station remembered for its meteoric rise — within weeks — from bottom to No. 1 status, the fastest ever in Detroit radio history.

WKNR. The greatest Detroit radio story that was ever told.

NEW NAME: WKNR (click on image for larger view) — **NEW SHOW. NEW NAME. WKNR** *(click on image 2x for larger PC view).*

What took place this day in Detroit, exactly 50-years ago today, would turn a new page in Detroit radio history. It would change Detroit radio forever. (To those who may not know about the “Keener Story,” we have archived and covered the WKNR story here on Motor City Radio Flashbacks. Go to our menu’s ‘Categories’ on the left, scroll down and click WKNR).

Detroit radio history would record when Mrs. Fred Knorr, owner of the Knorr Broadcasting Corporation, early in 1963 hired an independent free-lance radio consultant by the name of Mike Joseph. Joseph, who had successfully “modernized” top 40 radio WGR to No. 1 status in Buffalo, he would devote his winning consulting talents in the same way for Mrs. Knorr’s WKMH.

Within 70-days of it’s launch, WKNR found itself alone on top during the Detroit radio wars, late-1963. By mid-January ’64, WKNR, the “New Radio 13,” would be christened the winner in the four-way battle for the top 40 crown in the Motor City.

WKNR Music Guide, November 14, 1963 [b/side] (click image for larger view) — **The 1963** “Key Men Of Music.” WKNR Music Guide *November 14, 1963.* [b/side] *(click image 2x for larger PC view).*

But there was more to this amazing Detroit radio story than just the story having been told. Names. Names remembered. Names that would make the “Keener sound” what it was. Names that would become the Keener story. And for every story having been told there was a beginning . . . .

In 1962 Bob Green left Detroit’s WKMH for the legendary WQAM down in Miami. WQAM was the No. 1 top 40 radio station at the time. By early 1963, the Miami station was gifted claiming two of their most popular radio personalities that year. Bob Green and Jerry Goodwin. But Bob would leave WQAM in October, 1963. Jerry Goodwin would leave WQAM shortly thereafter in January, 1964. Both headed north for the new WKNR in Detroit.

Mort Crowley, formerly from St. Louis’ KWK, would become the new morning man on Keener radio. His at-times acerbic wit quickly would endear him with WKNR’s new morning listeners. (Crowley, after just three months with WKNR would leave the station in February, 1964). Robin Seymour would be the mid-morning man on the new WKNR. Seymour, then a 16-year stalwart in the business held over from the old WKMH days (since 1947), was regarded at the time the most popular personality Detroit radio ever produced.

Gary Stevens would leave top 40 WIL in St. Louis. Having been at WIL since 1961, inevitably Stevens honed his radio skills masterfully there. Stevens caught the attention of WKNR PD Frank Maruca for the early to late afternoon drive. For teens in Detroit, Stevens would become one of the most popular jocks at the station here through March, 1965. (Gary Stevens would leave WKNR for WMCA in New York).

WKNR's Gary Stevens ans Frank 'Swingin' Sweeney in the WKNR-AM studio. February, 1965 (click on image for larger view) — **WKNR’s Gary Stevens** and Frank ‘Swingin’ Sweeney in the WKNR-AM studio. *February, 1965.*

Frank ‘Swingin” Sweeney came to WKNR in early 1964. When the time came Mort Crowley was no longer at the station, Sweeney was called in from Youngstown, Ohio, WKBN-AM. Replacing Mort Crowley, Sweeney became Keener’s new morning man, April, 1964. He would become an instant A.M. favorite on the “New Radio 13” here in Detroit through August, 1965.

Jim Sanders. New at WKMH since February 1963, Sanders was production director at the station for the short term. Eventually Jim was selected by Knorr management to fill the 12 noon – 3:00 p.m. mid-day slot for the “New Radio 13.” Sanders, more into the production phase, would leave WKNR shortly thereafter to work for Triad Broadcasting in Milwaukee, January 1964. Jerry Goodwin, Bob Green’s friend and protege from his Miami WQAM days, would become the perfect mid-morning voice on WKNR replacing Sanders immediately thereafter.

And overnights? It would be Bill Phillips doing the all-night shift, 12 Midnight – 5 A.M. on the new WKNR Keener 13.

Crowley. Seymour. Sanders. Stevens. Green. Phillips. WKNR.

The die was set. The die was cast. And the rest of this story would become radio history. 50 years later. Without question. WKNR would become the greatest Detroit radio story that would ever be told.

Did you remember? It’s October 31, 2013. Halloween. Happy 50th. WKNR “Keener 13.”

WKNR-AM * Keener 13 Key Men of Music * November, 1964

**WKNR Music Guide** *November 7, 1963* *(first issue)*

A MCRFB Note

For everything that is WKNR, go to Scott Westerman and Steve Schram’s splendid WKNR tribute website at Keener13.com.

For more on WKNR on Motor City Radio Flashbacks, go here.

Motor City Radio Flashbacks would like to thank MCRFB contributor James Heddle for providing the (1964) WKNR audio aircheck above. ‘Keener’ LIVES!

Keener 13 “all-nighter” *Bill Phillips* in the WKNR AM studio, May, 1964.

WXYZ-AM 1270 * THE DETROIT SOUND SURVEY * OCTOBER 31, 1966

From the MCRFB archive files:

THE TOP 35 HITS ON WXYZ ON THIS DATE IN 1966

WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey; Week no. 29 issued October 31, 1966 under Lee Alan, Program Director; WXYZ

(WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey for October 31, this date 1966; survey courtesy the Jim Heddle Collection. For the previous weekly WXYZ October 24, 1966 survey click here).

DETROIT DEALERS DOWNPLAYS RADIO PLAYLIST VALUE . . . SEPTEMBER 3, 1966

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1966

Detroit Record Distributors Play Down Chart Value in Sound-Alike Market

DETROIT — While local record merchandisers claim that area radio “Top 40 Charts” are highly inaccurate, they say they are able to live with the situation because no one in the Motor City market uses radio charts as a buying guide.

This lack of direct chart influence on record sales, according to dealers, is due to the relatively high number of competing “Big Beat” radio stations in the area — all offering slightly different formats and none having a clearly dominant influence in effect in the Detroit pop market.

WKNR-AM radio survey, September, 1966 — **WKNR-AM** radio survey, Detroit, September, 1966 *(click image for larger view)*

Sam Press, co-owner of Ross Music Shops in Detroit, said that “There are actually three influential rock stations — WKNR and WXYZ here (Detroit) and one, CKLW, in Windsor, Canada, competing for the kids’ attention, plus two very strong R&B stations, WCHB and WJLB (Detroit). You have to remember that because of Motown, R&B (or Soul music) is a stronger product here than it might be in other markets. So what you have is kids constantly switching dials between all these stations and not being dominate by any of them. A (WKNR) ‘Keener’ chart might have some of the most popular songs in the area on it but it will be invariably late in listing a big English hit which the kids have been hearing on CKLW of Windsor, and will likewise be late in list a hot R&B number that has been exposed by one of the other stations.”

“What this means,” he said, “is that teen-agers choose the best of several stations. For this reason we don’t have to buy according to any one station’s charts. The independent dealers in this town wait until they start getting requests before they will order anything — except something by a very hot artist.”

Asked if his customers would not seek out a competitor who already had the hits in stock, Press said: “The racks are even slower in getting current singles out — we can move faster than our competition.”

NOT USED AS GUIDE

WXYZ-AM radio survey, September, 1966 — **WXYZ-AM** radio survey, Detroit, September, 1966 *(click image for larger view)*

Lou Salesin, a 35-year veteran of the business who owns Munford Music Shop, said he also does not use “radio charts as buying guides. I must ignore WKNR and the other lists; they are inaccurate for a number of reasons. Some of these inaccuracies could be eliminated — and I would like to see that happen, just for the principle of the thing.”

Sol Margolis, owner of the Ross Music Stores, told Billboard: “I only order what I get calls for, plus a minimum of new releases by established artists. To my knowledge, no Detroit dealers uses radio charts as any kind of a buying guide. We know better than to trust what these sheets say.”

Another dealer, who did not wish to be identified, said that “you simply cannot believe what the radio charts list. The problem is there are too many pop records being released. I think the manufacturers are working on some sort of percentage planning. They just keep churning the records out, hoping that 4 per cent or more will make money for them.”

“As far as local charts are concerned,” he added, “we often see a record that hasn’t been shipped already on the sheet. Other times, we see stations keeping numbers on the charts long after they have stopped selling. They do this, apparently because they got on a record too late, and then refuse to admit that their influence hasn’t been able to keep it a hot seller. There are many complicating factors, but the end result is inaccurate charts. All the dealers know this, and they depend on requests and their own experience in the business to tell the how to buy.”

CKLW-AM radio survey, Windsor, October 1966 (click on image for larger view) — **CKLW-AM** radio survey, Windsor, October 1966 (click on image for larger view).

Chet Kajeski, of Martin and Snyder, one-stop in Detroit, told Billboard: I find frequent discrepancies on the radio charts. As far as I am concerned, they hurt jukebox operators in the area. By failing to list, and expose on the air, what is a legitimate ‘adult’ hit, they can cut down play on the boxes. This happens when a record sells very well in the area, deserves to be listed on the charts, but doesn’t get listed because such a record does not get the additional push of air play, its life on the jukebox is sometime shortened.

“I don’t believe,” Kajeski added, “that many record dealers are affected by the charts in the Detroit area. By being inaccurate, these charts defeat their own purpose.” END

___

(Information and news source: Billboard; September 3, 1966)

CKLW * BIG 30 – OCTOBER 25, 1971

LOST 45 – 1968

WXYZ-AM 1270 * THE DETROIT SOUND SURVEY * OCTOBER 24, 1966

From the MCRFB archive files:

THE TOP 35 HITS ON WXYZ ON THIS DATE IN 1966

WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey; Week no. 28 issued October 24, 1966 under Lee Alan, Program Director; WXYZ

(WXYZ 1270 Detroit Sound Survey for October 24, this date 1966; survey courtesy the Jim Heddle Collection. For the previous weekly WXYZ October 17, 1966 survey click here).