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Happy 50th Birthday 101 WRIF

K

Kevin

Guest
WRIF will turn 50 on February 14th, and this station has been part of my life here in Detroit all that time. There has been many personalities at “The Riff“ through the years Arthur Penhallow, Jim Johnson, Anne Carlini, Karen Savelly, and many more. I started listening to WRIF from day one. Back in 1971, I was 15 years old and always had a radio with me tuned in to WRIF for the latest rock songs from Led Zeppelin to the Rolling Stones. I never thought that a radio station like WRIF would be around 50 years later. Again, Happy Birthday WRIF and let‘s look at 50 more years of being “Detroit’s Home of Rock’n Roll”.
 
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I remember when "The Riff" put out bumper stickers that had nothing more than Arthur P's catchword "Baby!" on them.

That was it. Just the word "Baby!" in place of the WRIF call letters. The stickers had become so ubiquitous and his personality had become so big enough that when you saw that sticker, you heard the word in his voice in your head. That's crazy. Almost as crazy as the fact that a character from J.J. and the Morning Crew named "Dick the Bruiser" became arguably more famous than the actual wrestler himself.
 
Deus Ex Machiato said:
I remember when "The Riff" put out bumper stickers that had nothing more than Arthur P's catchword "Baby!" on them.

That was it. Just the word "Baby!" in place of the WRIF call letters. The stickers had become so ubiquitous and his personality had become so big enough that when you saw that sticker, you heard the word in his voice in your head. That's crazy. Almost as crazy as the fact that a character from J.J. and the Morning Crew named "Dick the Bruiser" became arguably more famous than the actual wrestler himself.
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I remember the television commercials WRIF had for “Baby!” with Kelly Harmon and then later around 1997 or 1998 with Karen Newman. Those are definitely classics, they also had “Baby!” t-shirts as well, as they say “those were the days”.
 
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WRIF has had an impressive run; I applaud their format consistency over the years. They are one of a select few who have continued moving forward musically and have not suffered huge ratings erosion.
WRIF may also hold the mark for winning the most rock station battles (W4, WABX, WLLZ at 98.7, WDZR, CIMX).
Congratulations on 50 years WRIF!
 
People today criticize "corporate radio," but WRIF was owned by the biggest radio owner of the day: ABC. In 1970, they used the station for its national "Love" format. The programming pretty much followed WPLJ in New York, through a short progressive phase in the early 70s, to a more mainstream AOR focus overseen by national consultant Lee Abrams. ABC's Rick Sklar had intended the station to carry his national SuperRadio format (with former WABC DJs) in the early 80s, but it was determined the station was too successful on its own. Perhaps the only reason the station didn't meet the same recent fate as WPLJ or KLOS is that it was traded to Beasley.
 
The early format of WRIF was basically the same as the last year or so as WXYZ-FM. Arthur Penhallow preceded the new call letters by close to a year. Between the late 1960s and 1971, a period of programming chaos on FM ensued when the FCC decreed that at least 50% of programming AM-FM combos had to be separate. They hired a bunch of inexperienced air staff for low low prices, who also tended to be antiestablishment types, hippies if you will, because they really didn't get much revenue from FM in those days. Like you say, they started to get reined in about the time the big group owner programmers took over. They still purported to be "free form", "underground", "progressive", all the tracks from albums, etc., formats, but they really weren't. It was mostly a set of limited very specific B list tracks from albums, not the hits. The artists actually prided themselves when they had low charting Hot 100 singles, like a badge of honor. Having high charting Hot 100 single tracks was to them, "selling out to the establishment".
 
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I heard that the WRIF call letters were actually for 94.7 in Chicago, that there was some type of screw up and 101.1 in Detroit was supposed to get the WDAI call letters. Can anyone shed some light on this?
 
The History of WRIF podcasts are available on their website www.WRIF.com it’s a great listen, just click onto the podcasts page and you’ll find The History of WRIF page, there are currently 14 parts to the history so far. Good stuff if you grew up in the Detroit area and listened to “The Riff” you will enjoy this.
 
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Kevin said:
I heard that the WRIF call letters were actually for 94.7 in Chicago, that there was some type of screw up and 101.1 in Detroit was supposed to get the WDAI call letters. Can anyone shed some light on this?
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According to Wikipedia: On February 14, 1971, the station (WXYZ-FM) changed its call letters to WRIF. ABC had applied for WDAI (for Detroit Auto Industry) for WXYZ-FM, but the FCC assigned those to WLS-FM instead. The WRIF calls had been requested for WABC-FM in New York.
 
If you read stuff drawn up by lawyers in a hurry, they frequently have mistakes like this. So the story about them mixing up the stations and the call letters is believable. Never sign anything a lawyer draws up until you read it over carefully.
 
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