Author: Jim Feliciano
FLASHBACK ADS: ‘GETTING READY’ LP * TEMPTATIONS * 1966
FLASHBACK ADS: “I’M IN LOVE” * WILSON PICKETT * 1968
WXYZ DUMPS TOP 40 ‘DETROIT SOUND SURVEY’ . . . MARCH 18, 1967
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1967
WXYZ-AM 1270 Switching Over to A ‘Good Life’ Sound; Drops Top 40 ‘Detroit Sound Survey’
From the MCRFB Jingles Archive:
WXYZ – The Good Life Jingle Package – 1967 (Click on for audio play)
DETROIT — Unable to carve a niche in the torrid rock and roll field here, WXYZ introduced a “Good Life” sound here last week in a drive by new operations manager Joe Bacarella to create the station’s own audience with a new format appeal, slated tentative for March 5. The new sound hinges almost entirely on uptempo songs from a playlist of 150 tunes.
WXYZ-AM, until recently, was a top 40 station in the Detroit market going against WKNR-AM and CKLW-AM. WJBK, currently an adult-oriented conservative music station, made the switch several years back, dropping top 40 music by August, 1964.
The records played will include everything from up-tempo tunes by Henry Mancini to records by Sonny and Cher and the Herman’s Hermits. But Bacarella emphasized that only the big band sounds of artists like Sonny and Cher and Herman’s Hermits will be played.
Records like Sonny and Cher’s “The Beat Goes On,” said Bacarella, features a big band sound. “Whereas at one time the Herman’s Hermits put out tunes featuring only the group, today their records features many more instruments than just the group itself. Ramsey Lewis’ ‘Wade In The Water,’ if you listen closely, contains that big band backing.
“It’s what’s happening in today’s pop music. It’s good to hear that rock beat, but nothing can compare with a Buddy Rich doing it.”
Bacarella, who came to WXYZ two months ago from Detroit’s WCAR, says the station will feature WNEW type deejays and a WIP (“work in progress”) format. The 150 tunes includes two selections each from 50 albums and 50 singles. Artists played, besides those already mentioned, include Peggy Lee, Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra, and Eydie Gorme.
The format features 12 albums in four categories — male vocal, female vocal, group, and instrumental. A new playlist is compiled anytime the station may feel the need.
As part of it’s new image, WXYZ recently brought in the deejay duo of Howard and Martin and have invested in a fantastic promotion campaign behind the team. Bacarella said the station was also out to establish a “show business” image to correlate with the “Good Life” music sound for a new Detroit audience.
When Tony Bennett recently appeared at the Roostertail nightclub, the entire deejay staff taped interviews with the artist and Howard and Martin did a show from a script with Bennett for their program.
So far, the reception to the new WXYZ changes overall “has been excellent as had been expected thus far,” Bacarella said. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; March 18, 1967)
“The Sound Of The Good Life”
WXYZ – The Good Life Song (Edit) 1967
WXYZ – The Good Life Song (Female) – 1967
WXYZ – The Good Life Song (Male) – 1967
A MCRFB Note: By the time Joe Bacarella arrived at WXYZ (from WCAR) on January 16, 1967, station manager Chuck Fritz had just finalized the deal in ink when hiring the duo of Martin and Howard from Cleveland’s WKYC as the new morning team on 1270.
From the MCRFB Aircheck Library:
WXYZ-AM – Harry Martin and Specs Howard 1st Show – 1967
It was a big investment. Reportedly, WXYZ agreed to pay the two personalities $48,000 each, with another $20,000 going to the team’s personal writer, an individual by the name of Ray Koeppen.
The very next day, on January 17, the duo was surprised after meeting with ABC brass from New York that WXYZ was dropping the top 40 format for MOR instead, much to their “devastation.”
With the new MOR format at WXYZ in place, Martin and Howard were never given the complete freedom the comedy team had celebrated during their eight-year run at Cleveland’s top 40 WKYC.
By early 1968, the highly-invested Martin and Howard team tanked within earshot of a dismal 4.0 rating for the morning drive. Shortly thereafter, after much anticipated acclaim, the comedy-duo were finally dumped by the ‘XYZ brass. Martin and Howard were finished and done in Detroit. Dick Purtan, who was hired at the station for afternoons after returning back to Detroit from a very short stay at Baltimore’s WBAL, was then promoted by Bacarella to be the new morning man at WXYZ.
COCA-COLA LAUNCHES TEEN SPOT DRIVE . . . JULY 10, 1965
From the MCRFB news archives: 1965
COCA-COLA UNCORKS RADIO AD DRIVE APPEALING TO TEENS; USE RECORD ARTISTS AS SHOWCASE FOR COKE
NEW YORK — The Coca-Cola Company is launching the biggest radio spot campaign in it’s history, featuring top-selling recording artists in an all-out drive to attract the teen market. Each attraction will be spotlighted in a different version of the sponsor’s jingle, “Things Go Better With Coke.”
Coke, seventh largest radio-ad spot buyer for it’s products in 1964, will pole vault into the No. 1 radio position this year as a result of the teenage splurge. McCann-Erickson, Coca Cola’s ad agency who created the teenage appeal campaign, is placing the singing commercials in saturation proportions on the nation’s leading “Top 40 format” stations. The Coke ad campaign, which will soon blanket the country, is being spread over 62 key market areas, using several hundred radio stations in covering the new ad’s outreach to maximizing sales potential.
While neither the sponsor nor it’s agency was willing to divulge the extent of Coke’s investment in this drive, but informed sources placed the teen-artist radio campaign estimated at nearly the $10,000,000 level.
Artists signed by McCann-Erickson for promoting the Coca-Cola beverage include Petula Clark, The Drifters, The Four Seasons, Freddie & The Dreamers, Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders, Jan & Dean, Freddie Cannon, Tom Jones, Roy Orbison, Lesley Gore, The Supremes, and Gary Lewis & The Playboys, The Vogues, just to name a few. Coca-Cola confirmed of their plans to sign other artists as the campaign moves forward into the immediate future.
*From the MCRFB Commercials archive, featuring (Click artist name for audio):
Lesley Gore sings for Coke
Freddie Cannon sings for Coke
Petula Clark (Downtown) sings for Coke
Gary Lewis & The Playboys sings for Coke
The Drifters sings for Coke
Jan and Dean sings for Coke
Tom Jones sings for Coke
The Vogues sings for Coke
The Supremes sings for Coke
Roy Orbison sings for Coke
Freddie & The Dreamers sings for Coke
Martha & The Vandellas sings for Coke
Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders sings for Coke
The Fortunes sings for Coke
Petula Clark sings for Coke
Lee Dorsey sings for Coke
The Four Seasons sings for Coke
The Newbeats sings for Coke
Broad Exposure
This marks the first time in the history of the record industry that its artists have been afforded air exposure on such a broad scale. At the same time, numerous artists and their managers see the new Coke drive as a means in further promoting the recording talent’s popularity and exposure.
Coke’s full-scale drive comes at the heels of a highly successful test carried on earlier this year. At the time, the “Things Go Better With Coke” jingle was recorded by the Shirelles with John Bubbles, and was placed on a handful of stations to determine the effectiveness of using teenage talent. The results were so rewarding that the company decided to expand further more of the ad’s limited trial run.
When stations reported that listeners were including the Coke ad jingle among their request — and in one case, it hit one station’s “Top 40” list — the sponsor decided to go all out.
Written by Backer
The jingle package was written by William Backer, associated creative director of McCann-Erickson’s Professional Advisory Council. This is a group of professionals comprised within the agency in various fields whose services are available to McCann’s clients for special projects. Backer is responsible for the selection of artists with top teen appeal, and will supervise production of all the jingles for the Coca-Cola Company.
Backer said he strives to retain the artist’s individuality in the recording of each version of the jingle. In that way, he said, the artist’s unique singing style and basis for her/his appeal is harnessed to capture the listener’s appeal.
This is achieved, he said, by adhering to the same conditions and procedures under which the artist’s hit recordings were made. The artist’s arrangers, favored sideman, and A&R men are used. In many instances, the jingles are recorded in the same studios — whether these be in Nashville or in the U.K. — where the respective artists’ hits were conceived, produced and were recorded. No effort or expense is spared in presenting the artist in their best possible light, Backer said.
“Two Stars” Offered
“We feel we are offering ‘two stars’ to the consumer — one is Coca Cola and the other is the performer — and we want each to be heard under the best possible conditions,” Backer said.
The purchase of radio time represents a joint effort on the part of Coca Cola and it’s franchise bottlers. Coke will provide the completed announcements with the artists for each ad take. The budget for purchasing air time in the various markets will be split between Coca Cola’s Atlanta headquarters and it’s regional bottlers around the country.
To facilitate this program at the grass-roots level, Coke has dispatched a team of representatives to work on the scene with the bottlers in purchasing time for local stations.
The harnessing of music’s appeal to capture a loyal following is not a new concept for Coca-Cola. During the 1940s, Coke was the major buyer of big bands, sponsoring weekly live band originations from the leading college campuses and service camps. The announcement that “the Coca-Cola spotlight points with pride to” — and then inserting the name of the band being featured — became a familiar radio slogan during that era.
The Kingston Trio sings Things Go Better With Coca-Cola (Full Version)
During “the golden era of the big bands,” a “Coke airshot” was a highly coveted booking, not so much revenue derived by the band leader, but for the extremely valuable promotion that resulted from the exposure. Indications are that Coke’s latest — and biggest — use of record disk talent may well equal if not surpass in importance yesteryear’s “Spotlight” series as a prime talent showcase for many of the best in today’s pop music scene in this country and England’s as well. END
(Information and news source: Billboard; July 10, 1965).
FLASHBACK ADS: “BABY WORKOUT” * JACKIE WILSON * 1963
FLASHBACK ADS: “WILD ONE” * BOBBY RYDELL * 1960
FLASHBACK ADS: “I SECOND THAT EMOTION” * MIRACLES * 1967
WKMH-AM ALBUM COVER: RONETTES
