Keener 13

What’s the ideal July 4th present for a Keenerfan? We got it when the red and green VU meter logo of Bob Green Productions graced our mailbox. The legendary WKNR production and programming ace found a box of cassettes in his vault that yielded these two 1970 Keener gems. There’s this extended Bob Green aircheck that gives you a feel for the Keener vibe during its second run for glory. The jingles are a mixture of Clyde and classic Keener jingles and an eclectic combination of current hits and WKNR gold. Bob’s presentation is straight ahead, playin the hits personality. His encyclopedic knowledge of the hits is in evidence and he makes it look all too easy, even when a planned record doesn’t want to play. Then we have Scott Regen, the night after R. Dean Taylor was his studio guest. Juxtapose this piece against his early Keener work and you’ll instantly feel the evolution into a more mature, yet perfectly executed performance. This was radio that you could leave on all day. Even as the playlists tightened up, the personality kept us coming back for more.

On June 10, Capitol released a box set with the Beach Boys US Singles from their 1962-1966 prime. This 66 track collection features both the A and B sides, the original mono mixes, stereo mixes and a ton of other goodies that we’ve come to expect with Beach Boy re-releases. It includes a 48 page hardbound book. Capitol has the new media marketing nailed too. The official Beach Boy website has a special section devoted to the box set that includes a flash player allowing you to listen to your favorite tune in its original glorious mono format.

At Keener13.com, we have all the original Beach Boy singles on 45, every Beach Boy LP?and just about every Capitol CD re-issue, including the first box set. Even though we haven’t bought one music CD during the last year, we’re headed to Borders to get this collection. The packaging and the aggregated content can’t be duplicated on ITunes and the product is created with such attention to detail and class, that it will be well worth the investment.

I’m thinking about how carefully the Disney folks manage their brands. They study every possible marketing channel and have found ways to package their products in every conceivable format to maximize the customer value add and associated cash flow. As the RIAA and record companies lament mp3 sharing, packages like this are the way to regenerate interest and supercharge sales.

From the AP: Dick Martin, the zany half of the comedy team whose “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” took television by storm in the 1960s, making stars of Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin and creating such national catch-phrases as “Sock it to me!” has died. He was 86.

Detroit had its share. And if you were looking for rare records during the WKNR era, you looked for the so-called “used record stores” that were occasional fixtures in strip mall corners across the Motor City. As we evolve from LP to CD to MP3, most have faded into history. Across the way in East Lansing, Dick Rosemont had his own iteration, calling it “Flat, Black and Circular“. Three decades later, he’s still in business and his web presence is expanding to include a site that track down original recordings of popular and hit records. Here’s keener13.com curator Scott Westerman’s appreciation.

The WKNR Forums are back and better than ever. Head right this way and you’ll be able to discuss 60s pop culture, Motown, Michigan Rock, Detroit radio & TV and anything remotely Keener connected. Please avoid the flames as we’re a friendly bunch, but have fun and make some new friends!

What if someone called you one evening and offered a collection of thousands upon thousands of carefully preserved jingles from the golden age of?Top-40 radio? Keener13.com curator Scott Westerman tells the tale of how he came to own over 300 hours of 60s rock radio jingles, including every cut that ever played on WKNR.

The morgue. In the radio news biz, that’s the place where you save all the raw tape, the typed copy and the actualities that contributed to each daily newscast. At the end of each year, news departments would cull the highlights for a special broadcast retrospective of the year that was.

From 1965 through 1970, WKNR News went a step beyond putting the program on the air. At the station’s expense hundreds of albums were pressed each year with a commercial-free 45 minute summary of the people, places, events and attitudes that contributed to our history as seen from the newsroom at 15001 Michigan Avenue in Dearborn.

Anchored by WKNR News Director Philip Nye, these LPs are now collectors items and have been utilized by current day broadcasters and historians?to look back at what Detroit was like in the 60s.

WKNR Newsman John Maher (Meagher) collected most of them and sent us rips of the 1965 through 1968 LPs which can be heard here.

Of the instrumentals that populated the WKNR Music Guide, Sounds Orchestral was unique. They were the only British instrumental group to top the Keener charts. Unlike EMI’s Sounds Incorporated, they never toured with the Beatles and worked primarily from the studio. Their line up in 1965 included a 40 year old keyboard guy and a 21 year old bassist. And it took a cover of American Vince Guaraldi’s “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” to get them traction in the crowded field that was competing for ears in the third year of Keener’s Detroit radio dominance. We remember Guaraldi as the music director for the Peanuts television specials. “Cast” made it to number three in Britain and went top ten on the national Billboard Chart. Although they released several additional albums and were recording into the 70s, they were a one hit wonder on WKNR with a seven week chart run peaking at number one for three weeks, ending on tax day in 1965.

Near the end of the Keener eara, the Partridge Family program was hot on Television and David Cassidy’s “I Think I Love You” and “It’s One of Those Nights” were top ten hits on the WKNR Music Guide. In this 1990 segment from Kelly and Company, a 1972 Keener Date with David promotion comes back to haunt him. We meet the winner and David does the right thing. Keener Fans, look closely and you’ll see a picture of Pat St. John in the clip. Pat remembers, “I emceed the show, then I went to the Edgewater Park office to get my fee.?I almost walked out with a lot more than I bargained for, as the guy thought I was Cassidy! The photo would’ve been taken at the Hotel in Downtown Detroit…I’m thinking The Leland, but I could be wrong.”

Long time WKNR engieering ace Jerry Martin was one of two Michigan broadcasters to be honored with The Michigan Association of Broadcasters Carl Lee Broadcast Engineering Excellence Award. Jerry began his career as a radio engineer in 1946, assisting in the construction of Keener’s predecessor, WKMH and holds the distinction of being the second employee hired by Fred Knorr at the station. His many accomplishments through the years include supervising the installation and construction of the present day transmitting facilities of WNIC-FM. Since retiring in 1985, Jerry has worked as a consultant and co-authored the operating information for what is now known as the Emergency Action System (EAS). He is a life member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers and Certified Senior Broadcast Engineer. And.. He built that incredible reverb unit that gave WKNR its distinctive sound.

For someone who grew up listening to J.P. McCarthy on WJR, tuning into Wally Phillips‘ shtick on Chicago’s WGN probably felt like entering an alternate universe. Whereas J.P. Was always urbane and on the level, it was anybody’s guess where Wally might take the listener. Whether it was breaking news or pranking Pavarotti, anything could happen when Walter Richard Aloysius Phillips was on the air. The Chicago radio legend was number one, almost from the moment he came to town and regularly pulled in a record share of the potential listening audience for the next two decades. He’s credited by many as a pioneer who helped define talk radio. Listening to a montage of his air work may seem tame by today’s standards, but his ability to tiptoe toward the edge of the envelope without going past it made his show a must-do for stars like Lucille Ball, Sophia Loren and hundreds of others. Phillips passed away on March 20. He was 82.

Let’s face it. It’s nearly impossible to create great radio in the age of homogenization. But if anybody can come close, its Detroits best consultant, Gary Berkowitz. Take a listen to Oldies 92.5 to see how he works his magic on the Florida Gulf Coast.