  Douglasm Member Username: Douglasm Post Number: 968 Registered: 10-2003 |
Made me feel old. Ernie Harwell, Carl Haas, J.P. McCarthy, Bob Reynolds, Bud Guest, Jimmy Lance (sp.?) and others. Jam Handy produced. http://www.archive.org/details /WjrOneOfAKin | ||
65memories Member Username: 65memories Post Number: 490 Registered: 10-2003 |
Great memories...thanks, Douglasm. Unfortunately, we'll never see another personality station like the old WJR. | ||
Dodgemain Member Username: Dodgemain Post Number: 181 Registered: 04-2005 |
Stormin Norman, My favorite Tiger. Thanks for the memories. | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 1023 Registered: 08-2007 |
That was a great trip down Memory Lane. Detroit had lots of money then. | ||
Chitaku Member Username: Chitaku Post Number: 1713 Registered: 03-2006 |
man i wish i was around in the good ole days | ||
Xd_brklyn Member Username: Xd_brklyn Post Number: 348 Registered: 10-2003 |
Thanks for the link. What a trip. People talk about the sights and smells of Tiger Stadium, but listening to that Ernie Harwell broadcast reminded me of those distinct sounds that old ballpark could bring out in the crowd. Always loved listening to the end of the game wrap-up with Ernie talking over the sound of the ballpark emptying out. As kids, I remember often we would drive home from a game listening to Ernie finish up and then to the announcement "You are listing to W J R Detroit, from the golden tower of the Fisher Building" while looking out the car window at that yellow-lit gabled roof. Glad to have known WJR back in the day even if just a kid. | ||
Douglasm Member Username: Douglasm Post Number: 969 Registered: 10-2003 |
Acually, I have to thank a friend of mine in Oklahoma who e-mailed it to me. Thank you, Mike. WJR was truely "The Great Voice Of The Great Lakes". My college roommate and I had the honor of being interviewed by J.P. on the Focus show in early '69 about the carrier current radio station we were a part of. | ||
Michmeister Member Username: Michmeister Post Number: 268 Registered: 10-2006 |
15% "disposable" income!••• Four out of five cars having a radio- try finding ONE without some kind of sounds. On a side note, nothing but white folks back then? | ||
Ray Member Username: Ray Post Number: 1057 Registered: 06-2004 |
Stunning. Yes... I noticed the nearly total lack of persons of color. Boy, it's ironic that a news organization that prides itself on knowing what's going on was so oblivious to the socio-economic timebomb that was about to blow. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 1287 Registered: 12-2005 |
quote: The intended audience for this film was media buyers and WJR was promoting the fact that their audience reach included portions of three states and a large chunk of Ontario. Without looking up the 1966 demographics, I would hazard a guess that "white folks" constituted 85 to 90% of their potential audience and they would have held an even higher percentage of disposable income in the area reached by their signal. Also, every radio station designs their programming to appeal to specific audiences and the racial make up they attract is usually different than the regional demographics. There is nothing sinister about this - if WKNR or WCHB had made a similar promotional film, you would have had a similar reaction to the lack of diversity reflected in the portrayal of their typical audience. | ||
Hornist9 Member Username: Hornist9 Post Number: 63 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thanks Mike for posting this great memory! I can remember listening to 'JR at night when I was going to bed. The daily broadcasts of Mike Whorf's Kaleidoscope and Karl Hass Adventures in Good Music. Mr Hass' pronunciation of Karl Maria Von Weber used to slay me, as he was so very melodic in his pronunciation. I learned so much about the profession I now work and enjoy. Too bad radio has become so polarized in programming. Seems as if each station is playing the same stuff over again. I did some sports reporting a campus radio station KHCA,in Searcy, Arkansas while attending college. I always tried to pattern my sports report like Bob Reynolds ...only "It's Eleven O'clock and it's time for KHCA's Sports final". I also remembering listening to Bud Guest and Charlie Park just before trudging off to Kramer Elementary. Mom always enjoyed those two... | ||
Hornist9 Member Username: Hornist9 Post Number: 64 Registered: 05-2005 |
oops, sorry Douglasm...Too early, not enough coffee...I should credit you for this... Too bad PSIP isn't around to lend us some words on 'JR... | ||
Rooms222 Member Username: Rooms222 Post Number: 74 Registered: 04-2005 |
I think the father and his two kids at the zoo were the token Black family (perhaps to show WJR and Detroit's progressiveness in the pre-1967 utopia that was Detroit). Because of the graininess, I went back and looked on Hi-Res mode to see. Much like complaints about casting in the Cosby Show, the father does not look much like the kids. See around the 7 minute mark, where the father sits on the park bench to listen to football game and tells the kids to go on ahead. The later shot on the train itself is of a different family, also listening to the football game. | ||
Kingofdetroit Member Username: Kingofdetroit Post Number: 22 Registered: 10-2006 |
The father looked like a tan white guy to me. Haha. Either way going from not one black person, to today, where it's the largest black city in America. Who knew? Henry Ford knew, that's who. 5$ a day... | ||
Douglasm Member Username: Douglasm Post Number: 971 Registered: 10-2003 |
I wish someone had available an Arbitron breakdown of the WJR listener demos from 1966. My guess (an my guess only) is that JR's audience was middle and upper income whites, decision makers in the auto industry, for example. My guess is based on the fact that they had for advertisers companies like Illinois Tool Works, United States Steel and other suppliers who would have no need to advertise to the "retail" market. What I CAN tell you is that 1970 I worked for the FM side of the #2 locally rated station in Jackson, WIBM-AM. Alas, it was #3 in the market. WKHM was #2, WJR, based 120 miles away in the Golden Dome Of The Fisher Building was #1. Those 50,000 clear channel watts sure dominated the midwest.... | ||
Hornist9 Member Username: Hornist9 Post Number: 66 Registered: 05-2005 |
Douglasm, I can remember when I was living in Arkansas and not able to get any news of the Red Wings when Ted Lindsay was General Manager. One evening, I got a real weak signal of a Wings vs Montreal playoff game on a cloudy night in late April. I was nearly a thousand miles away from the signal... That night, I was thrilled to be able to hear Bruce Martyn do the call of the game. Also, when the board operator put in the cart of the station ID at the top of the hour "The Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR, 760 A.M. Detroit" This was in 1978. | ||
Douglasm Member Username: Douglasm Post Number: 974 Registered: 10-2003 |
Hornist9: Talk about signal strength. I would occasionally catch WJR at night in Colorado Springs, Colo. when I lived there in the mid 70's...... |
