October 25 Radio History

➦In 1937...The radio soap opera "Stella Dallas" made its debut on WEAF in New York City. The 15-minute drama, with Anne Elstner in the title role, was picked up by the NBC radio network beginning June 6, 1938, and aired on weekday afternoons through 1955.

➦In 1958...Cliff Richard made his British radio debut on the BBC's 'Saturday Club.' The show had started life as Saturday "Skiffle" club in 1957 hosted by Brian Matthew and was broadcast from 10am to 12noon Saturday mornings on the BBC Light Programme.

In 1995, Cliff Richard received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. Sir Cliff was reputed to be a favorite of the 95-year-old Queen Mother.

➦In 1959...Chicago-based announcer & host Bob Murphy died at age 42. He was best known nationally for his announcing & substitute hosting on Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club on ABC.

➦In 1969...The Hot 100..The Temptations remained at #1 with one of their biggest career hits--"I Can't Get Next To You".  Sly & the Family Stone would have to settle for #2 this time with "Hot Fun In The Summertime".  The former #1 classic by the Archies--"Sugar, Sugar" was still at #3 after 14 weeks while Oliver's "Jean" was at #4 and Elvis Presley was moving up with "Suspicious Minds".

The rest of the Top 10:  Bobby Sherman's "Little Woman", "Wedding Bell Blues" the new smash by the 5th Dimension, Smith moved from 13 to 8 with "Baby It's You", the Cuff Links were up to 9 with "Tracy" and Lou Christie entered the Top 10 with "I'm Gonna' Make You Mine".

➦In 1969...The Album Chart..Green River by CCR was #1 on the Album chart for a fourth week but something was happening that even it couldn't contend with.  Johnny Cash At San Quentin was #2 and the Rolling Stones rolled backwards with Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Volume 2).  In one of the biggest chart moves in Rock Era history, the Beatles moved from #178 to #4 with Abbey Road.  Pretty good sign that it's an album for all-time.

The rest of the Top 10:  Blind Faith with their self-titled album, In-A Gadda-Da-Vida from Iron Butterfly, the great debut from Blood, Sweat & Tears, Isaac Hayes with Hot Buttered Soul (that sounds tasty...), the Best of Cream and Santana with their great debut.

➦In 1984...The summer ratings book…

Los Angeles – KIIS-FM (top-40) gets a 10.0 share. Rival KKHR is up to a 3.0. Talk KABC is up to a 7.9. Easy JOI – 4.4 and Easy KBIG – 4.1. Rock KLOS down to a 3.5 from a 3.9. Nostalgia KMPC at a 3.4 and AC KOST gets a 2.7. Rock KMET is at a #.1, All news KNX and  KFWB are tied at a 2.9.  A/C KFI is up to a 1.8 from a 1.4. KHTZ is at a 2.0.

In New York – WHTZ – 6.6 and rival WPLJ – 5.3.  WRKS gets a 5.4. WOR – 4.7. WINS – 4.4 and Easy WRFM – 3.7. Urban WBLS at a 3.5. WBLS is the “Quiet Storm” at night. WKTU – 3.1. WNBC – 3.0 and Country WHN – 2.9. WNEW AM and WNEW-FM both at a 3.1. WLTW and WYNY are tied at a 2.8. WABC gets a 2.6. WAPP – 2.4 and WMCA – 1.5

Chicago – Top-4- WBBM FM – 5.0. WGN-AM – 11.4 share. Easy WLOO – 6.8.

Boston – Rock WBCN – 8.6. A/C WHDH – 8.4. Top-40 WXKS – 7.5. WBZ – 7.4. Top-40 WHTT – 6.6. Talk WRKO – 4.7

➦In 1984...CKLW Windsor/Detroit is switched to a nostalgia music format.

Out is long-time music director Rosalie Trombley who served in that capacity since CKLW’s influential heyday in the ‘60’s. In the summer ratings book, CKLW dropped again, from a 1.2 to a .7.

Manybelieve that CKLW started to decline in popularity after Canadian content regulations went into effect. Although having to play some "CanCon" songs that generated little in the way of sales put the station at a competitive disadvantage compared to its U.S.-based competition, CKLW still managed to help break a number of Canadian songs and artists in the United States. Just as, if not more, responsible for the decline in CKLW's ratings as the 1970s wore on was the rise of FM radio as an outlet for contemporary music, as the station gained a direct FM Top 40 competitor, WDRQ, in 1972, and its listening audience was also fragmented between album oriented rock outlets such as WWWW, WRIF and WABX and adult contemporary stations like WNIC and WMJC.



The Canadian government's initial unwillingness to licence FM frequencies with pop or rock formats stranded Canadian stations on AM while an entire demographic of listeners began the exodus to US-based FM outlets anywhere the signals were in range. For many younger listeners by 1978, CKLW was the station they listened to only if they had an AM-only radio in their cars.

As a result, like many other powerhouse AM Top 40 stations, CKLW evolved during the late 1970s into an Adult Top 40 sound. The station's music softened to the point where by 1982 it gave no airtime to harder-rocking songs like Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", and jingles were initially phased out, with new jingles and a new slogan ("The Great Entertainer") being introduced in 1979.



Dick Purtan joined the station for mornings in 1978, coming over from WXYZ-AM. Largely due to Purtan's popularity, CKLW remained a moderately popular station into the early 1980s, but after Purtan departed at the start of 1983 for FM competitor WCZY, the station quickly tumbled to the bottom of Detroit's Arbitron ratings (its last appearance in the Top 10 was in 1981). In an attempt to go after longtime "full service" powerhouse WJR, CKLW converted to AM stereo in 1982 and even got the rights to broadcast University of Michigan football and NASL soccer, but in this it was also unsuccessful.

In 1984, the station's owners (Baton Broadcasting) sold CKLW-AM-FM to Russwood Broadcasting Ltd. Also in 1984, CKLW made an attempt to transfer its CHR format to its FM sister station, big band and jazz standards-formatted CKJY. These hopes were dashed when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) refused to approve the format change on anything more than an "experimental" basis, reasoning that FM was for "fine" music and that Top 40 music belonged on AM.

CLICK HERE for more about CKLW

The final death knell for the "Big 8" came in October 1984, when the station fired 79 staffers (including most of the remaining announcers and Rosalie Trombley), closed its American sales office in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Michigan, and announced that it would soon change format to Al Ham's "Music of Your Life" format of Jazz standards and big-band music and go completely automated.

Morton Downey - 1933

➦In 1985...one of early radio’s singing stars Morton Downey  died at age 83.

➦In 1987...radio correspondent Cecil Brown (CBS), one of Ed Murrow’s “boys” who reported from the Pacific front during WWII, died at age 80.

➦In 1991...rock promoter Bill Graham died in a helicopter crash after a Huey Lewis concert in Concord, Calif. He was 60. Among the events produced by Graham were the Live Aid concert, Amnesty International tour and US Festival. At times he managed the careers of the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison and Santana.

➦In 2002...British actor Richard Harris, who had a huge radio hit with his 1968 recording of Jim Webb’s classic MacArthur Park, died of Hodgkin’s Disease at age 72.