[Audio produced by Jim Davis a.k.a. Big Jim Edwards]
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LISTEN HERE: www.big8radio.com
ENCORE PRESENTATION BEGINS STREAMING AT 12 NOON EST
A Big 8 Radio exclusive CKLW audio presentation. Brought to you by Charlie O’Brien and Big 8 Radio! ?
[Audio produced by Jim Davis a.k.a. Big Jim Edwards]
The Top 100 Hits of 1967 Countdown begins today! Saturday, May 27, at 3pm eastern / Encore presentation streams Monday May 29 at 12 Noon eastern time.
LISTEN HERE: www.big8radio.com
A Big 8 Radio exclusive CKLW audio presentation. Brought to you by Charlie O’Brien and Big 8 Radio! ?
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NEW! A rare find! This will be our first WJBK Robert E. Lee inclusion for the Motor City Radio Flashbacks aircheck repository.
A special THANK YOU to the anonymous donor (from Allen Park, MI.) who expressed he remain as, ‘unnamed’. Thanks again for providing this rare Robert E. Lee audio gem recorded on WJBK Radio 15, as dated, 60 years ago.
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Audio recording was digitally enhanced by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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This WDEE chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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A sincere thank you, Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without your generosity, dedication, and your continuous support.
Above WDEE music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.
Gary Stevens, Top-Rated Deejay From Detroit, Has Become the Fifth Good Guy on New York’s WMCA. This Is What It’s Like
THE NEW SCENE. What’s it like for an out-of-town deejay to move into New York and try to become part of a team of Good Guys on a highly rated station in the big town? How does he react to the change of climate, change of scene, change of audience and a change of hours? How does he feel about four -sheets posted all over town reading “Is Gary Stevens really a good guy? No. He’s a great guy!”
Gary Stevens is the new Good Guy in New York. He comes from Detroit, from station WKNR where he was a top-rated disc jockey. He is now with Station WMCA in the 7 to 11 p.m. slot, the big slot, make or break slot.
He came into New York after the biggest radio night time shakeup in Gotham in the memory of most record and station people. The big guns, the big names who used to hold down the top posts and who made New York still seem like the swinging rock town it was when Alan Freed was creating all kinds of excitement at WINS in the mid -1950’s, have vanished.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW. Murray the K is no longer on WINS. WMCA’s B. Mitchell Reed, who had captured a big segment of the kid audience, has left to return to his old post at KFWB in Los Angeles. Scott Muni has been long gone from WABC. Only Bruce Morrow, the cousin Brucie of the laughs and the gimmicks is still swinging at night. The other big night names have fled, and the kids get their sounds via TV.
WINS has turned to news. WMCA let its night time slot be filled by swing-shifting its other good guys for almost two months. WNEW’s new policy of playing slightly more raucous records has led some radio-record people to intimate that the station might go rock all the way, a possibility that seems as distant as the moon landings.
The Good Guys at WMCA give away sweatshirts, appear in funny costumes, play baseball with the Playboy Bunnies, make all trade functions and are probably the closest group of guys working together since the Harlem Globetrotters.
Gary Stevens has been through all this before. He was a Good Guy at WFUN in Miami, which helped to originate the Goody Guy format. So he knows.
NEW YORK KIDS. What has surprised him is the New York kids. “They’re more hip than the kids in Detroit,” he said a while back at a luncheon at Sardi.” A lot of the things I used to do in Detroit have not made out here. I guess it’s because the kids are more sophisticated.
“It’s all part of being in New York, I think,” continued Gary Stevens. “In other cities you look for things that are happening–here anyone or anything that happens comes to you.
“I get calls from kids who want to talk to me about my show. They use words like gimmick and format, words you wouldn’t hear used in Detroit by anyone except radio people. One youngster called me up a few days after I started at WMCA and said “Man, you need more gimmicks.”
NEED TO BE TALKED TO. “Yet, in spite of all this, New York kids still need to be talked to, like normal youngsters anywhere. I’m willing to alter my style to fit the market, but I still want to be myself.
I’ll use my own gimmicks, the Wooleyburger, a ferocious animal that doesn’t talk, only growls. I have to interpret what he says. I’ll also introduce the Frog. He growls too, and I’ll have to explain what he is saying.
“And I won’t play Joe Nice-Guy, just because I’m in New York. Some jockeys come to the big city and try to please everybody. Not me. I’ll be me.
“Even though the New York kids are more sophisticated about things, they are not more hip musically. In fact they are not as aware of many of the new records as the youngsters in Detroit. That could be because they have so many radio stations in New York with all kinds of different formats. It also could be because there are so many things here to distract them from records.”
SHOW A MIXTURE. Stevens’ show is a mixture of up-to-date and on the way up rock discs, a mixture of rock and rhythm and blues that lies more in the old Alan Freed tradition than that of his predecessor B. Mitchell Reed. He intersperses his commercials and straight announcements with gags and sort-of-one line put-ons. He doesn’t sound like anyone else in town, so he has to make it on his own.
With the help of the Good Guy image that is.
Is Gary Stevens a Good Guy? Can he bring to his shows that mixture of freshness and audience appeal that WMCA wants to make that night time slot the top-rated of the pop music stations? He’s trying hard, with the Wooleyburger, one-liners, and smartly paced programming.
He’ll probably learn a lot from those smart New York kids. And they might learn a lot from him. If they like him he’ll be a Good Guy for a long, long time to come. END
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Information, credit and news source: Music Business, May 15, 1965
Gary Stevens WMCA April 8, 1965
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ON YOUR PC? To fully appreciate this WKNR Music Guide for the week of May 16, 1966 chart feature click on image 2x and open to second window. Click image anytime to return to NORMAL image size.
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The above WKNR chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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A sincere thank you, Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without your generosity, dedication, and your continuous support.
Above WKNR music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.
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TIGER NOTES: On Saturday afternoon, May 15, the Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, final score 6-2, before 6,514 fans at Tiger Stadium. Winning pitcher: Mickey Lolich. Losing Pitcher: Jim Lonborg. This was game #27 in the early season, and the Tigers were in third place in the AL standings. Tiger reliever, Larry Sherry, takes the save. The game took 2 hours and 50 minutes to complete.
Source: Baseball Reference. Detroit Tigers, 1965
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Above article/advertisement courtesy freep.com newspaper archive. Copyright 2023. Newspapers.com
The above featured Detroit Free Press article was digitally re-imaged by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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Missed any of our previous ‘Detroit Radio Back-Pages‘ features? GO HERE
A special thank you to senior MCRFB consultant Greg Innis, of Livonia, MI., for contributing the Newspapers.com archives (Detroit radio related) articles, ads, and images we have featured on this site since 2016.
Thank you, Greg Innis, for making these historic Detroit radio features possible. ?
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Missed any of our previous ‘Detroit Radio Back-Pages‘ features? GO HERE
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[Audio produced by Jim Davis a.k.a. Big Jim Edwards]
THE CKLW TOP 100 1967! Make plans to tune in Memorial Day Weekend for The CKLW Top 100 of 1967 Countdown. This Big 8 Radio special holiday presentation begins on Saturday, May 27, at 3pm eastern / Monday May 29 at Noon eastern time.
It’s another Big 8 Radio exclusive CKLW audio presentation. Brought to you by Charlie O’Brien and Big 8 Radio! ?
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The only place on the web you will find great audio recordings of legendary Motor City disk jockeys, great Detroit radio stations and radio personalities — spanning over six decades — archived here in one place.
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Newly-added to the Aircheck Library repository (as listed below): 05/12/2023
01. CKLW-AM – Dave Shafer – May 25-June 7 1967.mp3
02. WJR-AM – J.P. McCarthy – April 6 1994 [complete C-SPAN broadcast].mp3
03. WMXD-FM – Randi Miles – September 17 1998.mp3
04. WHFI-FM – Tom Clay – Guest Deejay (Date Unknown) – 1970.mp3
05. CKLW-AM – Radio 80 – Dick Smyth Newscast [The Bud Davies Show] – November 20 1963.mp3
06. WCZY-FM – Roy Stephens – September 1983.mp3
07. WKQI-FM – Kevin O’Neill – Q95 – September 11 1996.mp3
08. WMXD-FM – Gerald McBride – January 8 1996.mp3
09. WCZY-FM – Steve Kelly – October 4 1985.mp3
10. WLLZ-FM – Harv Blaine – November 24 1981.mp3
11. WHND-AM – Richard D. Haase – 560 Honey Radio – April 26 1982.mp3
12. WDRQ-FM – Lee Alan – New Year’s Eve Countdown (feat. Chuck Berry Walled Lake Casino Concert) – December 31 1977.mp3
13. WKNR-AM – Sounds Of Keener 13 – 1964-1967.mp3
14. WKNR-AM – Keener Top 13 Countdown [Bob Green Productions] – February 13 1967.mp3
15. WXYZ-AM – Fred Wolf Morning Show – Radio 1270 – December 10 1964.mp3
16. WMJC-FM – Jeff Elliot & Jerry St. James – September 28 1983.mp3
17. WCZY-FM – Dick Purtan – September 22 1983.mp3
18. WCSX-FM – Carl Coffey – June 18 1992.mp3
19. WKNR-AM – John Small – Is Paul McCartney Dead? – The Beatle Plot – October 19 1969.mp3
20. WKNR-FM – John Small – Is Paul McCartney Dead? – The John Lennon Interview – October 22 1969.mp3
21. WDRQ-FM – Bill Bailey – November 27 1974.mp3
22. CKLW-AM – Charlie Van Dyke [Million Dollar Weekend] – March 20 1976.mp3
23. WABX-FM – Dennis Frawley – August 16 1977 [Elvis Presley Remembered].mp3
24. WNIC-FM – Lee Alan – Reunion Weekend – May 19 1985 [EDIT].mp3
25. WHYT-FM – Karen Dalessandro – September 3 1984.mp3
26. WKNR-AM – Bob Green – Saturday, May 20 1967.mp3
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MCRFB Note: All of the 26 airchecks listed above were previously featured on this site and were transitioned to this repository page on May 12, 2023.
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WHND-AM – Richard D. Haase – 560 Honey Radio – April 26 1982
Compiled by the Music Popularity Chart Dept. of Billboard, from national retail store and one-stop sales reports, and radio airplay reports.
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Source Credit: 1966 (May) WiKipedia
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