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.

Radio enthusiasts who grew up listening to the superb execution of 60s rock n rollers like WKNR have a particular affinity for Johnny Rivers‘ Soul City Records. The label was the first to sign Jimmy Webb and spawned the careers of Al Wilson and the Fifth Dimension. Part of Johnny Rivers’ genius was his ability to bake good compositions, talented artists and electrifying arrangements into hit records. Listen to California Soul, Aquarius and Summer Rain and you get a feel for the hit making personality you could expect when you bought a 45 with the Soul City logo on it. One of my favorite Soul City smashes was the October, 1968 debut single from Al Wilson: The Snake. From the opening guitar riff and the Ludwig octoplex tom toms to the verses that build to a climax with key modulation and perfectly layered horns and background vocals, The Snake is a song you can listen to over and over again, finding another Rivers nuance each time. Add to the mix, Johnny’s innate understanding of how to build a mix that sounded just as hot on your Fisher stereo system as it did on your 6 inch car radio speaker and you have an exquisite example of an artist at the peak of his creative powers. Here’s a link to a good stereo rendition of The Snake.. Skip through the wannabe intro who over acts the part of a DJ.. turn your speakers up loud..?and enjoy!