Detroit Radio History Help.

[thebeach33445]

Hey Guys:

Would anybody know or remember a station on 101.1 called WXYZ-FM Rock based Top 40 called "The Big Boss 101 FM"?

I am trying to find out the date it debuted?

In my notes that I got from Radio info discussion site (that is now gone) someone told me it started in LATE 1967 (before Christmas). The station was doing MOR/Pop Standards in October of 1967.

Can anybody help me on this one.

Thanks

T.J.

 

[jry]

That was before the WRIF days..... That is a tuffie.... It's not on Michiguide?

 

[thebeach33445]

No. It just mentions the change but does not give a date.

 

[Unregistered]

Hey TJ...

Given how all that hard work you did researching history went "poof" when this site shut down last fall, why keep trying to preserve history on an impermanent medium like a message board, and especially this inconsistent one? I think you'd get more help with your project if your information were available somewhere more stable. Didn't David Eduardo offer to host it on his site?

 

[Art Landing]

The exact datye I can't help you with, but according to Wikipedia your estimate of lsate 1967 is on target:

"101.1 FM signed on in 1948 as WXYZ-FM. For most of the station's early years, the station was simply a simulcast of WXYZ AM 1270 (now WXYT AM). That changed in 1966, when the FCC decreed separate programming for at least half of the broadcast day on FM stations that had previously been simulcasts of their AM sisters.

"WXYZ-FM separated programming and aired first a MOR/adult standards format, then later went to a rock-based Top 40 approach called "Boss 101," which featured mostly harder rock hits with little to no pop or soul product.

"Then in 1970, the station's then-owner, ABC made WXYZ-FM an affiliate of the "Love" network, a nationally syndicated underground rock format from ABC that predated today's satellite-fed radio formats (another "Love" affiliate was sister WLS-FM in Chicago). WXYZ-FM hired at least one local jock for this format - Arthur Penhallow"


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXYZ-FM

 

[umfan]

Baby!

 

[FredLeonard]

Eduardo's site does have back issues of Broadcasting Yearbook and Broadcasting from that period, which should help you narrow things down to the actual week at least.

 

[jry]

The exact datye I can't help you with, but according to Wikipedia your estimate of lsate 1967 is on target:

"101.1 FM signed on in 1948 as WXYZ-FM. For most of the station's early years, the station was simply a simulcast of WXYZ AM 1270 (now WXYT AM). That changed in 1966, when the FCC decreed separate programming for at least half of the broadcast day on FM stations that had previously been simulcasts of their AM sisters.

"WXYZ-FM separated programming and aired first a MOR/adult standards format, then later went to a rock-based Top 40 approach called "Boss 101," which featured mostly harder rock hits with little to no pop or soul product.

"Then in 1970, the station's then-owner, ABC made WXYZ-FM an affiliate of the "Love" network, a nationally syndicated underground rock format from ABC that predated today's satellite-fed radio formats (another "Love" affiliate was sister WLS-FM in Chicago). WXYZ-FM hired at least one local jock for this format - Arthur Penhallow"


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXYZ-FM

A technical question.... When did Cap Cities buy those stations? The mid eighties seems to ring a bell.
Penhallow.... Got his start in little old Howell Michigan.... WHMI..... It all started at a 500 watt daytimer in Howell, Michigan....

 

[FredLeonard]

CapCities acquired/merged with ABC in 1985. Cap Cities already owned WJR and WJR-FM/WHYT and opted to spin off WXYZ and WXYZ-FM/WRIF in keeping with then current ownership rules. Cap Cities had acquired "the great voice" from Goodwill Stations in 1964 (generating all sorts of rumors that 'JR would flip to top 40, like WKBW). The first thing Cap Cities did was to put Lowell Thomas back on the station (he was a principal in the company) and few months later they re-affiliated with CBS (once CBS sweetened the deal with more station compensation and allowed 'JR to delay Godfrey to afternoons). The next thing they did was to bring back J.P. from San Francisco (KGO morning drive) by allowing him to do commercial voice-overs (Goodwill had not allowed this, depriving J.P. of considerable outside income). J.P. never caught on in the Bay Area. ABC brought him out there to challenge Don Sherwood ("the world's greatest disk jockey; you don't believe it, just listen") on KSFO. ABC figured if he couldn't knock off Sherwood in San Francisco, at least Fred Wolf would have a clear field on Wixie. They also imported Elliot Field from then Top 40 KFWB in LA, who turned into a dud trying to do personality MOR reading liner notes off album covers for several months. Otherwise, Cap Cities pretty much left 'JR as it was. Booth announcers. Live music with a house band and singers. Daily documentary. Daily classical music show. Farm reports. Detailed weather for three stations and one province. Long form news without sound but with regular sponsors ("The Standard Oil News Round-up, brought to you by more than 10,000 Standard Oil dealers and agents throughout Mid-America. Now with HIS summary of late news from the WJR newsroom, here is..."). A glorious radio anachronism.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Interesting history of Arthur P, jry. Did you see my post on another thread in Classic Radio about "Arthur P"?

Here it is and a little background with it.

Tom Skaff of Skaff's Furniture fame majored in Electronics, and had been hired to teach our Electronics Class after completing his Student Teaching there. But he was called to do Alternate CO Service in Texas before he could complete the year, and they wouldn't defer it further. He told us interesting stories about radio. He was also working at WGMZ at the time Bob Liggett was VP of Programming for Metrocom and Don McComb had just completed the move from the WAMM tower to the Bristol Rd. and Center Rd. site with 50000 watts from 330 feet, where it still is today as WCRZ. WGMZ was doing PBP Local Sports, and Tom Skaff was a Commentator. He also told us about the lady in Lincoln Park whose whole house lighted up and had to be detuned when WJBK 1500 first went to 50000 watts, and how Harold Munn had beaten WYSI 1480, now WSDS, to the punch with nondirectional WYNZ 1520 just 400 feet away, and the mess WYSI had with their DA and having to detune it. Here's the other part from the other thread. They had to hire another Student Teacher to complete the year.

"Previous Electronics classes at my high school built a Heathkit FM Tuner and a Heathkit Amplifier, and wired speakers into the drop ceiling. Another Class mounted a Channel 6 Yagi pointed at Detroit FM stations such as WKNR-FM and WXYZ-FM, just as Arthur Penhallow started at WXYZ-FM. It changed to WRIF during the year I was in Electronics Class. I still remember these two kids in Electronics class imitating "Arthur P" and saying things like "Now we're going to play another cut from Mister Hendrix". Then the Student Teacher would come in and yell at us for turning the bass way up on the Heathkit Amplifier, doing his best to imitate Scotty from "Star Trek", "I don't know how much more Bass those speakers can handle", and presaging the role of Joel's father in "Risky Business" by noticing a "preponderance of Bass"."

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Anyway, in answer to your question, Wikipedia says WXYZ-FM changed to WRIF on February 14, 1971. The OCR search engines have problems with small print like in Broadcasting, and with words divided by hyphens, so a search of Broadcasting on Google or on americanradiohistory.com often won't turn it up. If you are really motivated, you can find it by going page by page online or in a library with back issues, if you know the approximate date. I found where Donald F. DeGroot, the first resident manager of WTCB for Trendle and Campbell, announced the change from WTCB to WTAC in 1948 that way. He was later the VP/GM of WWJ AM-FM-TV. Often Google book excerpts like DeGroot's "Living On Air", which discussed the change in some detail, won't have the page you want, and finding rare books like that is difficult. But it's fun trying. If you search for WTAC and WTCB on google books, it may not turn up what you want, but it will turn up some other fascinating historical facts that you didn't know.

 

[FredLeonard]

SC: If you haven't read it, you might find Harry Bannister's "Education of a Broadcaster" interesting. Bannister was GM at WWJ through radio's golden age and into early TV (at channel 4).

 

[jry]

CapCities acquired/merged with ABC in 1985. Cap Cities already owned WJR and WJR-FM/WHYT and opted to spin off WXYZ and WXYZ-FM/WRIF in keeping with then current ownership rules. Cap Cities had acquired "the great voice" from Goodwill Stations in 1964 (generating all sorts of rumors that 'JR would flip to top 40, like WKBW). The first thing Cap Cities did was to put Lowell Thomas back on the station (he was a principal in the company) and few months later they re-affiliated with CBS (once CBS sweetened the deal with more station compensation and allowed 'JR to delay Godfrey to afternoons). The next thing they did was to bring back J.P. from San Francisco (KGO morning drive) by allowing him to do commercial voice-overs (Goodwill had not allowed this, depriving J.P. of considerable outside income). J.P. never caught on in the Bay Area. ABC brought him out there to challenge Don Sherwood ("the world's greatest disk jockey; you don't believe it, just listen") on KSFO. ABC figured if he couldn't knock off Sherwood in San Francisco, at least Fred Wolf would have a clear field on Wixie. They also imported Elliot Field from then Top 40 KFWB in LA, who turned into a dud trying to do personality MOR reading liner notes off album covers for several months. Otherwise, Cap Cities pretty much left 'JR as it was. Booth announcers. Live music with a house band and singers. Daily documentary. Daily classical music show. Farm reports. Detailed weather for three stations and one province. Long form news without sound but with regular sponsors ("The Standard Oil News Round-up, brought to you by more than 10,000 Standard Oil dealers and agents throughout Mid-America. Now with HIS summary of late news from the WJR newsroom, here is..."). A glorious radio anachronism.

Wow. What i remember about Cap Cities was they were really austere, lean and mean. At the time this happened, i was at Gannett. I can remember the Managers of the acquired stations losing their expense accounts. Gannett was REALLY generous with such frills and those guys were crying the blues. That spinoff is how Fritz ended up with WXYT...

 

[jry]

Interesting history of Arthur P, jry. Did you see my post on another thread in Classic Radio about "Arthur P"?

Here it is and a little background with it.

Tom Skaff of Skaff's Furniture fame majored in Electronics, and had been hired to teach our Electronics Class after completing his Student Teaching there. But he was called to do Alternate CO Service in Texas before he could complete the year, and they wouldn't defer it further. He told us interesting stories about radio. He was also working at WGMZ at the time Bob Liggett was VP of Programming for Metrocom and Don McComb had just completed the move from the WAMM tower to the Bristol Rd. and Center Rd. site with 50000 watts from 330 feet, where it still is today as WCRZ. WGMZ was doing PBP Local Sports, and Tom Skaff was a Commentator. He also told us about the lady in Lincoln Park whose whole house lighted up and had to be detuned when WJBK 1500 first went to 50000 watts, and how Harold Munn had beaten WYSI 1480, now WSDS, to the punch with nondirectional WYNZ 1520 just 400 feet away, and the mess WYSI had with their DA and having to detune it. Here's the other part from the other thread. They had to hire another Student Teacher to complete the year.

"Previous Electronics classes at my high school built a Heathkit FM Tuner and a Heathkit Amplifier, and wired speakers into the drop ceiling. Another Class mounted a Channel 6 Yagi pointed at Detroit FM stations such as WKNR-FM and WXYZ-FM, just as Arthur Penhallow started at WXYZ-FM. It changed to WRIF during the year I was in Electronics Class. I still remember these two kids in Electronics class imitating "Arthur P" and saying things like "Now we're going to play another cut from Mister Hendrix". Then the Student Teacher would come in and yell at us for turning the bass way up on the Heathkit Amplifier, doing his best to imitate Scotty from "Star Trek", "I don't know how much more Bass those speakers can handle", and presaging the role of Joel's father in "Risky Business" by noticing a "preponderance of Bass"."

This is doggone crazy. AND A SMALL WORLD. I can tell you all about the lady in Lincoln Park as i worked for Gannett back when they owned 1500. We had to power down to like 10 KY because of a glowing house and hot walls. Turned out that Edison had a ground problem and it had nothing to do with the station. As most of you know, i ended up buying 1500 in 93 and inherited all of the archives.
Tom Skaff had done all he could to avoid joining the family business. Previous to entering the radio world as a paid worker, i worked for the Skaffs. I had hired in to the Carpet division (i had worked in Carpet Sales for quite a while) and was transferred to the Genesee Valley store from Downtown. Then, off to the warehouse store. Tom came in about 3 months after. I think he was working for Radio Shack at the time. We were the only two Born Again Christians in carpet sales and i helped break him in. Tom and his wife attended our wedding. I think we had about 26 guests. Tom taught me how to bounce a quarter.
Anyways, THANKS for posting this!!

 

[FredLeonard]

Wow. What i remember about Cap Cities was they were really austere, lean and mean. At the time this happened, i was at Gannett. I can remember the Managers of the acquired stations losing their expense accounts. Gannett was REALLY generous with such frills and those guys were crying the blues. That spinoff is how Fritz ended up with WXYT...

About two years after taking over, Cap Cities had Jam Handy do a film pitch for advertising agencies called: "WJR: One of a Kind." Lowell Thomas introduced. J.P. narrated. It featured most of the program hosts of the time. Somewhat ironic to hear now is the pitch to media buyers about the prosperity of the Detroit market.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxswozcNZnw

One segment on the film features singer Jack Harris, who hosted a daytime variety show on WJR. Shortly after this film was made, he moved out to LA to do commercial work (the variety show continued with live band and a girl singer). He did some commercials out there and Bing Crosby sued him and forced him off the air.

Cap Cities was lean and mean in a lot of ways. For many operations they took over, it was something of a culture shock. 'JR was very profitable then and I guess CapCities knew better than to mess with a good thing.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Well, another of the people in that class was Alan Miltich, who began at Radio Shack soon after High School, and became a legend in Radio Shack as a franchisee who got in when they were expanding greatly and had a great profit sharing incentive program for a while. You can also find Al on the INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE. And then there was another guy in the class who was a Novice Ham who dropped out of Amateur Radio and after HS pled down a murder charge to manslaughter, who I suspect became a DJ for a while fairly recently, at least he had the same name. But most of us from Electronics Class over the years ended up as Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Physicists, Chemists, and Biologists of one sort or another. A few years later, a guy from that school became a real life Ph.D. Caltech Physicist like on The Big Bang Theory. Which surprises most people when you tell them that it was the Flint Public Schools...

Anyway one day Al fell asleep in Electronics Class, and Tom Skaff was perturbed by it and told me to go get a pair of cymbals from the Band Room to wake him up. Al was not amused...

 

[jry]

Well, another of the people in that class was Alan Miltich, who began at Radio Shack soon after High School, and became a legend in Radio Shack as a franchisee who got in when they were expanding greatly and had a great profit sharing incentive program for a while. You can also find Al on the INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE. And then there was another guy in the class who was a Novice Ham who dropped out of Amateur Radio and after HS pled down a murder charge to manslaughter, who I suspect became a DJ for a while fairly recently, at least he had the same name. But most of us from Electronics Class over the years ended up as Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Physicists, Chemists, and Biologists of one sort or another. A few years later, a guy from that school became a real life Ph.D. Caltech Physicist like on The Big Bang Theory. Which surprises most people when you tell them that it was the Flint Public Schools...

Anyway one day Al fell asleep in Electronics Class, and Tom Skaff was perturbed by it and told me to go get a pair of cymbals from the Band Room to wake him up. Al was not amused...

Absolutely great stories. Fred... I remember the movie. One of our neighbors worked for Jam as a cartoonist. S.C., we had an extensive electronics class where i went to High School. Sophomore to Senior year and only if you had done a lot of math. I'll bet most High Schools don't offer such a class. The goal with our school was you could walk out, after graduation and get a good paying job. It was like a High School and Trade School, all in one. We had the usual automotive classes PLUS a complete building trades class where they built houses and sold them. The extensive electronics classes as well as graphics and printing. Heck, there were even marketing classes. Good times.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

From what I have been told and can gather, just about everything that would be taught is Computer Science and IT related now, and very little Basic Electronics and the Mathematics and Physics that are the basis of it. Our Electronics Class was mainly College Prep, but there were other people who went to the Skills Center and spent a large part of the day there. Our class generally required that people also be taking Physics and Calculus. You had to choose one path or the other, so most of the people in our class learned the nuts and bolts from Amateur Radio (both the murderer and the self taught corporate engineer were the ones I knew of), assembling Heathkits and Knight Kits, building simple circuits from dittoed schematics and books like Tom Knietel's "103 Simple Transistor Projects", and learning the basics of Resistance, Capacitance, Inductance, Basic Circuit Theory, Transmission Line and Waveguide Theory, and a whole lot of Power Supply Theory from Physics (Basic, Intermediate, E and M).

There was another guy you also might know, Benny "Ben" Hooker/aka Jeff Wade of WGMZ, WCRZ, WJOI, WWCK-FM and WRSR fame, but he wasn't in Electronics Class, and I don't recall much about him after 10th Grade. He had an Electronics Store, Hooker Electronics, on Corunna Road, and later worked at Radio Shack from what I have heard. I don't know if he converted the family store into a Radio Shack franchise or what.

Another guy in our class originally majored in Biology and Med Tech in College, but after working with "bodily fluids" for a few years in the 1970s and 1980s, went back to school and got a degree in Electronics. I guess a few electric shocks are preferable to working with deadly bacteria and viruses. He taught Electronics at Mott Community College for a while, but the last I heard, he was working as a Stockbroker.

Anyway, it was fascinating to grow up where I did, and go to school where I did, but I doubt if many would have the positive experiences I did if they were young today.

 

[jry]

From what I have been told and can gather, just about everything that would be taught is Computer Science and IT related now, and very little Basic Electronics and the Mathematics and Physics that are the basis of it. Our Electronics Class was mainly College Prep, but there were other people who went to the Skills Center and spent a large part of the day there. Our class generally required that people also be taking Physics and Calculus. You had to choose one path or the other, so most of the people in our class learned the nuts and bolts from Amateur Radio (both the murderer and the self taught corporate engineer were the ones I knew of), assembling Heathkits and Knight Kits, building simple circuits from dittoed schematics and books like Tom Knietel's "103 Simple Transistor Projects", and learning the basics of Resistance, Capacitance, Inductance, Basic Circuit Theory, Transmission Line and Waveguide Theory, and a whole lot of Power Supply Theory from Physics (Basic, Intermediate, E and M).

There was another guy you also might know, Benny "Ben" Hooker/aka Jeff Wade of WGMZ, WCRZ, WJOI, WWCK-FM and WRSR fame, but he wasn't in Electronics Class, and I don't recall much about him after 10th Grade. He had an Electronics Store, Hooker Electronics, on Corunna Road, and later worked at Radio Shack from what I have heard. I don't know if he converted the family store into a Radio Shack franchise or what.

Another guy in our class originally majored in Biology and Med Tech in College, but after working with "bodily fluids" for a few years in the 1970s and 1980s, went back to school and got a degree in Electronics. I guess a few electric shocks are preferable to working with deadly bacteria and viruses. He taught Electronics at Mott Community College for a while, but the last I heard, he was working as a Stockbroker.

Anyway, it was fascinating to grow up where I did, and go to school where I did, but I doubt if many would have the positive experiences I did if they were young today.

I'm pretty sure i was a customer of Bens. Yes, we had the Trig and Calc... Built the kits. Before H.S. i used to work on radios (mostly short wave) so i came to class with a little bit of a leg up.
These days, you cannot recite how we learned the resistance color code "... but violet gives willingly"....

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

In between Tom Skaff leaving and Doug Naylor and Fred Rachwitz coming to replace him, they had Julius Stern of Bayside Rolling Shutters at James Lumber filling in, who was studying Electronics at Mott Community College at the time. Julius taught us the mnemonic device for the resistor code, but we never recited it out of respect to "our" sweet Violet, who would have at the very least been a Penny understudy in our Electronics Class full of geeks like Sheldon, Leonard, Stuart, and "Kwipke", in our very own production of The Big Bang Theory Class Play. We had a guy like Howard too, but he wasn't in Electronics Class, and unfortunately, no Penny or Violet in our Class either.