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.

What do you remember about the winter of 1967? In New Orleans, District Attorney Jim Garrison said more than one person was involved in the Kennedy assassination. Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa began an 8 year sentence for jury tempering. And Albert Desalvo received a life sentence for murders committed by The Boston Strangler. Zero in on the month of March. On NBC, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock lose their inhibitions after being exposed to strange plant spores on Omicron Ceti III. Batman and the Monkees are at the height of their television fame. And on Keener, the airwaves are populated by a who’s who of 60s rock n roll acts: Buffalo Springfield, the Beatles, Herman’s Hermits, Martha & The Vandellas, the Four Tops, the Mama’s & Papa’s, the Royal Guardsmen, the Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Harpers Bizarre, Leslie Gore, Peaches & Herb, Elvis Presley, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Frank & Nancy Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, the Platters and The Turtles. Look at the WKNR Music Guide for the week of March 6th and you’ll see a songbook filled with hits that are still in heavy rotation on oldies stations today. Perhaps the most unlikely group on the survey was lead by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. The two Westchester high school buddies fronted a band called The Turtles, a group that was teetering on the edge of oblivion.. until a tune, offered to them by strangers, rejuvenated their career. Happy Together rocketed them back to the top of the charts and became a multi-million dollar franchise that is still tapping toes and throwing off revenue today.? Here’s how the Turtles looked and sounded when they appeared on the?Smothers Brothers show in 1967. But what’s the story behind the story of the Turtles’ biggest hit? Mix Magazine occasionally looks back to dissect the magical art that studio recording was in the day. Their classic tracks review of how Happy Together came to be paints a vivid picture of the combination of talent and luck that made hit records happen.

When Jim Jeffries left Keener for WQXI, part-timer Steve Robbins assumed the overnight chores. He was at the station for less than a year and had the distinction of writing a music column in one of the interim newspapers that published duing the 1967 newspaper strike. In January, the Monkees were riding high on the WKNR music guide, at number one with I’m a Believer. Their national tour was due to make a stop in Detroit the night after this aircheck was recorded on Friday, January 6th. In the top ten that week was an eclectic mix including Snoopy vs The Red Barron, Georgy Girl, Words of Love, Tell It Like It Is, Karate, Good Thing, Love’s gone Bad, I’m Gonna Miss You and Nashville Cats.

It’s hard to believe that its been 40 years since Haight Asbury and Monterey Pop. Some who watched it from Detroit were envious, but in reality much of the scene in California was myth. SFGate posted the first installment of a series about the culture and the events of 1967. It’s a terrific retrospective with many voices you’ll remember.