Keener 13

40 years ago, 23 year old Jose Feliciano sat before a public address microphone at Tiger Stadium. Detroit was playing in the World Series and Tiger broadcaster Ernie Harwell was assigned the job of selecting the talent to render The National Anthem. Jose followed Marvin Gaye, who sang a straight version after the Tigers directed Harwell to admonish the Motown superstar to keep things traditional. Today, Jose’s rendition sounds tame in comparison to the diverse interpretations we hear at almost every sporting event. But in the day it generated a firestorm of controversy. Here’s NPR’s excellent remembrance of how it happened. (Special thanks to Keenerfan Jim Feliciano for the picture and recording of Jose’s performance at Michigan and Trumbull.)

Bob Berry, Sunny 105’s exceptional afternoon guy, sent me this Starpulse article that wonders why the Republicans can’t get any good bands in their tent this election cycle. That took us back to the 1960 election when Ole Blue Eyes donated his pipes to help elect John F. Kennedy with this tune. As a bonus, here’s what a Kennedy TV commercial looked like, back before negative advertising dominated.

Detroit Garage Band enthusiasts will be interested in?Cicadelic Records new “Where You Gonna Go” collection. Two of the best garage bands from Michigan, The Unrelated Segments whose “The Story Of My Life”has appeared on Rhino’s Nuggets box set and The Tidal Waves who scored a number one hit with “Farmer John” take center stage in this collection. All of The Unrelated Segments and The Tidal Waves material are included on this CD, re-mastered from original elements. Also featued are The Boys, The Quintette Plus, The Unknowns, The District Six, The Couriers and The Lykes of Us.

Listen Here 4:29 – 8.4MB MP3

You heard him on Keener playing the drums on Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” and Roger Miller’s “King of the Road”. But Buddy Harman, who died August 21 at age 79 is being remembered as the Father of modern country drumming. That’s him on the skins on Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” Elvis Presley’s “Little Sister,” Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man,” and Ray Price’s “Crazy Arms.” He became the first well known percussionist in the country genre, was the Grand Ole Opry’s first staff drummer, and provided the back beat that made Country hot stuff during the rock era.

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.