CKLW
Encyclopedia
CKLW is a 50,000 watt
AM
radio
station broadcasting on 800 kHz and located in Windsor, Ontario
, Canada
, and serving Windsor and Detroit. Additionally, its signal can be heard as far west as Belding, Michigan
; as far east as Batavia, New York; as far south as Edgewood, Kentucky
; and as far north as Posen, Michigan
.
It is best known for having been one of the most influential Top 40 stations in the world in the 1960s and 1970s. During this era, CKLW used a very tight Top 40 format known as Boss Radio
, devised by radio programmer Bill Drake
. However, CKLW never actually used the handle "boss" on the air, just the style. Rather than a "Boss 30", CKLW's weekly music survey was known as a "Big 30". And instead of calling itself "Boss Radio", CKLW called itself "The Big 8". During this period it was the top-rated radio station not only in Windsor, but across the river in Detroit, and even in cities as far away as Toledo
and Cleveland
in Ohio
.
In its current incarnation, CKLW is a news
/talk
radio station primarily serving listeners in Windsor and Essex County
in Ontario, Canada, with a mix of local and syndicated programs, including some programs from the United States
.
It is the co-flagship station (along with WOMC
) of the Michigan Wolverines Football Network.
and its station CJGC (now CFPL
), and became "Western Ontario Broadcasting", which was co-owned by Essex Broadcasters, and the London Free Press. The "LW" in the callsign is said to have stood for "London, Windsor", considered to be the two chief cities in the station's listening area. When the station's power increased to 50,000 watts, its listening area increased accordingly. In 1934, when London Free Press's station CJGC pulled out of the agreement, the station's ownership became wholly owned by Western Ontario Broadcasters. CJGC-AM later evolved into today's CFPL 980, while today's CBEF occupies the 540 kHz slot on the AM dial.
CKLW had been a popular station in the Detroit area for years before becoming "The Big 8". The station always sounded more American than Canadian, and for a number of years served as the Detroit affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System
, an affiliation which would last from 1935 until its purchase by RKO General
in 1963. Alongside its affiliation with Mutual, it also gained a dual affiliation with the Dominion Network
in 1935, replacing its CBS Radio
affiliation with that of Mutual/Dominion. Its affiliation with Dominion would last until 1950, when CBE 1550 launched.
The Mutual System's owner, General Tire and Rubber Company, purchased a controlling interest in CKLW and its owner at the time, Western Ontario Broadcasting in 1956, along with RKO General
(which had purchased a minority interest in 1954, and had controlled Mutual since 1952). RKO would later increase their stake to 100% in 1963.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, CKLW was home to Happy Joe's Early Morning Frolic with Joe Gentile and Toby David, which was one of the very first popular comedy-oriented radio morning shows in Detroit. The show continued strong after David left CKLW for Washington, D.C., in 1940, and was replaced by Ralph Binge.
Gentile and Binge kept listeners entertained with an endless stream of comedic sketches and situations. The show's sponsors got in on the fun as well, as Gentile and Binge's trademark was their ability to turn a standard 60-second commercial announcement into a comedy sketch which could run for three minutes or longer. A typical three-and-a-half-hour Gentile and Binge show might feature such comedic commercials for as many as fifty legitimate products, and some imaginary ones as well. Sometimes listeners didn't get the joke. For example, according to popular legend, after promoting a miracle weight-loss aid called "Dr. Quack's Slim Jim Reducing Pills" with the story of an obese woman who got stuck in a telephone booth, Gentile and Binge received over $3,000 from listeners requesting a $1 trial of the pills as advertised, and the station had to hire a clerk to return the money.
Gentile and Binge were a fixture on CKLW until moving to WJBK radio (now WLQV
) in 1948, attracting audience ratings as high as 80% at their peak. The duo disbanded their partnership in 1956, and Gentile returned to CKLW. Toby David also eventually returned to AM 800 to host the morning show in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Both Binge and David were also stars of early Detroit television kiddie shows: Binge was "Pirate Pete" on WJBK-TV in the mid-1950s, and David became CKLW-TV's (now CBET
) "Captain Jolly" later in the decade (a role which, ironically, Binge had originally been tagged to play).
As television's popularity boomed, CKLW, like many other stations, coped with the changes by replacing the dying network radio fare with locally based disc-jockey shows. Throughout most of the 1950s and into the mid-1960s, CKLW was basically a "variety" radio station which filled in the cracks between full-service features with pop music played by announcers like Bud Davies, Ron Knowles (who had a rock-and-roll show on AM 800 as early as 1957), and Joe Van. For a few years in the early 1960s, CKLW also featured a country music
program in the evenings called Sounds Like Nashville. This ended in 1963 when WEXL
1340 became Detroit's first 24-hour country station.
took over the station and its FM sister (93.9) in 1963, CKLW began to shed the variety-format approach and, as "Radio Eight-Oh", began focusing more aggressively on playing contemporary hits and issuing a record survey. Davies, Knowles, Dave Shafer, Tom Clay
, Tom Shannon, Larry Morrow (as "Duke Windsor"), Terry Knight
, and Don Zee were among the "Radio Eight-Oh" personalities during this time, and helped raise the station's ratings to the point where it was beating longtime hit station WXYZ (1270) by the summer of 1966 (though WKNR "Keener 13"
was still a solid number one).
However it took Bill Drake's "Boss Radio
" format and a roster of personalities such as Shannon, Shafer, Gary "Morning Mouth" Burbank
, "Brother" Bill Gable, Pat Holiday, Steve Hunter, "Super" Max Kinkel, Walt "Baby" Love
, Charlie O'Brien
, Scott Regen, Ted "The Bear" Richards, Mike Rivers, Duke Roberts, Charlie Van Dyke
, Johnny Williams, and newsmen Randall Carlisle, Grant Hudson, Byron MacGregor
(who had a three and a half million-selling #1 hit single with his recording of Gordon Sinclair
's commentary "The Americans
" in 1973) and Dick Smyth to raise the station—dubbed "The Big 8" on April 4, 1967—to number one in the ratings starting in July 1967, a position it would hold for over seven years. At its peak in the early 1970s, CKLW was the third most listened to (in terms of the number of listeners) radio station in world.
Before long, the station's top-of-the-hour ID, sung (as were all of its jingles) by the Johnny Mann
Singers, was on everyone's lips: "C-K-L-W, The Motor Cit-eeeee". WKNR would never recover, but put up a good fight against the awakened CKLW for five more years before switching to an easy-listening format as WNIC in 1972.
Initially, CKLW called itself "Radio 8" after the "Drake"-style format was adopted (later lengthened to "Fun Radio 8") and used jingles from PAMS
which sang "Radio 8, CKLW", but by the end of the summer of 1967 the Johnny Mann jingles were in place and the transformation into "The Big 8" was complete.
Long-time music director Rosalie Trombley
was also legendary for her ability to spot a potential hit record, and became the subject of a song by Bob Seger
titled "Rosalie". According to the documentary Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8, Trombley refused to allow the station to air the song, threatening to quit if the station added it to its playlist; thus, CKLW never played it, although the song did receive airplay on other Detroit stations. Her career with the station began as a part-time switchboard operator on Labour Day weekend of 1963, before she was offered a full-time position in the station's music library a few years later. As CKLW's popularity boomed and Trombley became more and more influential, her job title was changed to the more prestigious-sounding title of "Music Director". Trombley was unique in that she garnered much respect in a time where there were not many influential women in the radio business.
Recording stars both established and aspiring regularly visited Rosalie to personally promote their latest single releases, and the walls of her office were lined with gold records. Trombley also made an effort to fashion a station that would appeal to black
as well as white
listeners by featuring soul and R&B product, especially the Motown sound for which Detroit was famous. The "Rosalie Trombley Award" honours women who have made their mark in broadcasting.
This was perhaps one of the earliest examples of what would today be called "Rhythmic CHR", and it united both white and African American listeners behind the banner of a single station. As a result, CKLW has been called "the blackest white station in America", and many believe the integrated music mix helped bring Detroiters closer together in racial harmony, especially after the riots
of July 1967.
Another female employee of CKLW who helped break down gender barriers was reporter Jo-Jo Shutty-MacGregor (the wife of Byron MacGregor), the first female helicopter traffic/news reporter in North America. She remains one of the most respected Detroit Traffic Reporters to this day. She now works for Westwood One
's Metro Traffic in Detroit and continues to provide news and traffic reports for radio and television stations on both sides of the U.S.–Canadian border.
The Windsor-based station maintained a sales office in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Michigan
, where it picked up numerous sponsors for U.S. consumer products, some of which had to use the disclaimer and live announcer end-tag "Not available in Ontario". Possibly the best known of sponsors was Merollis Chevrolet, known for its comedic 30-second spots and the campy Al Jolson-styled jingle "that Merollis what a great great guy!"
Along with the current hits on the station's weekly "Big 30" lists, CKLW also featured lots of rock oldies dating back to the mid-1950s, which helped cement the station's appeal to adults as well as teenagers. The "Big 8" featured oldies especially heavily on its "Million Dollar Weekends", during which every other song played was a golden classic. The station used special jingles to introduce oldies: "CKLW — Golden".
The station's high-frequency compressed audio processing help set the standard for contemporary hit music formatted stations throughout the 1970s giving it near-FM clarity. Some hit songs surpassing three and a half minutes in length were edited down to accommodate more songs in rotation. This was evident in such early 70s hit songs as "Signs" by The Five Man Electrical Band
, "American Pie" by Don McLean
and "Are You Ready?" by Pacific Gas & Electric
.
Another feature of the "Big 8" was its "20/20 News", so called because it was delivered at 20 minutes after the hour and 20 minutes before the hour. The thinking behind the scheduling of the news was that while other stations featured news at the top of the hour or on the quarter-hour, CKLW would be playing music. To hold the audience's attention, the news would have to be presented in a style that was as exciting as the music the station played.
Hence, the "Big 8"'s newscasters — including Byron MacGregor, Jon Belmont
(later ABC), Bob Losure
(CNN), Dick Smyth, Grant Hudson, Joe Donovan (sports), Randall Carlisle, Keith Radford, and Lee Marshall — delivered imagery-laden news stories in a rapid-fire, excited manner, not sparing any of the gory details when it came to describing murders or rapes.
"20/20 News" had actually been a fixture of CKLW for a few years before the station adopted the Drake format, but when Byron MacGregor
became the station's youngest news director in 1969 (replacing Dick Smyth who had left for Toronto), the sound of the station's newscasts took on the familiar sensationalized "blood-and-guts" style that most listeners remember. Another memorable feature of the 20/20 newscasts was the incessant clacking of the teletype
in the background, which gave the newscasts a unique sound.
CKLW's newscasts were acknowledged for more than just their "flash," however—the station won an Edward R. Murrow Award for its coverage of the 1967 riots, helmed by Smyth. This was the first time that this particular award had ever been given to a Canadian broadcaster.
regulations went into effect. Certainly "CanCon" was a factor, particularly because many of the soul records on CKLW's playlist had to be sacrificed to make room for the Canadian content and because competing stations reacted by eliminating the "CanCon" songs from their own playlists and filling the holes with oldies or often stronger, American-originating new hits.
Still, CKLW dealt with the new regulations as best it could, breaking records by Canadian acts such as Gordon Lightfoot
, the Poppy Family, Skylark
, Anne Murray
, Joni Mitchell
, the Stampeders
, The Bells, Neil Young
, Five Man Electrical Band
, April Wine
, and the Guess Who
and helping them to all become well-known hit artists across the United States as well.
And even with CanCon, CKLW remained a solid #1 in the Motor City through 1973, so probably the biggest reason for the decline was because listeners in North America as a whole were abandoning AM radio
in favor of the clearer audio available on FM radio stations. WDRQ
(93.1 FM) grabbed away much of CKLW's teenage audience in the mid- and late 1970s, while older listeners migrated to FM album rockers like WWWW (106.7, now WDTW-FM
) or WRIF
(101.1) or to FM adult contemporary stations like WNIC
(100.3) or WMJC (94.7, now WCSX
).
The listening audience was becoming fragmented as music formats continued to splinter to appeal to narrower and narrower demographics, and a mass-appeal station like CKLW could no longer afford to be "all things to all people." 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, CKLW attempted to hold on to its adult audience by calling themselves "Rock N' Talk" using an adult-stylized logo "CKLW R8dio" and softening its playlist to a more adult-oriented sound (an early version of what would today be known as Hot Adult Contemporary) and hiring Dick Purtan
from WXYZ (which transitioned from its own AC format to all-talk around the same time, and is now WXYT) to host the morning show in 1978.
By 1979, CKLW had dropped all jingles (having already phased out most of the famous Johnny Mann Singers jingles, except for the fast "shotgun" jingle, starting around 1973), and had also begun to make use of "dead segues" (two songs played back-to-back with no station ID, announcement or jingle in between), which would have been a definite no-no on the station even five years earlier.
Soon afterward, the station adopted the name "The Great Entertainer", with new jingles to go along with the change. Purtan's strong numbers in morning drive helped keep CKLW's ratings respectable if not spectacular into the 1980s, but Purtan was basically the station's last line of defense, and after he left for WCZY-FM 95.5 (now WKQI
) in early 1983, the station's already-diminished ratings (CKLW's last appearance in Detroit's Arbitron
top 10 was in 1981) fell further.
Meanwhile, the already-fragmented listener pie got even more fragmented thanks to several new FM competitors in the early 1980s, including album-rocker WLLZ (now WDZH), top 40 WHYT
(now WDVD
), the resurgent WDRQ
(now an Urban Contemporary station after a disastrous try at all-disco from 1978 to 1980), urban WJLB
(which moved from AM 1400 to FM 97.9 in 1980), and Dick Purtan's new home, "Cozy-FM" WCZY-FM (which was reinventing itself as an adult-leaning Top 40). 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) had sold CKLW-AM/FM to Russwood Broadcasting Ltd. Russwood Broadcasting would later strike a deal with CUC Broadcasting
(owners of Trillium Cable) the following year, changing its name to Amicus Broadcasting Ltd., and would sell the station to CUC Broadcasting in 1988.
CKLW decided to jump on the FM bandwagon and made an attempt to put the contemporary hit format on its FM station (93.9, now CIDR-FM
) as CFXX, "94 Fox FM," in 1984, but it failed when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) refused to approve the format change from big band
music. The CRTC allowed the FM station to broadcast the "Fox" format for only four hours a day - two in morning drive and two in afternoon drive. The CRTC's rationale in this was that rock music belonged on AM and that FM was for classical, jazz and easy listening music.
Meanwhile, CKLW-AM continued to plod along with a low-key adult contemporary music mix and with many of the live announcers replaced by automation, as ratings and revenue continued to drop. By this time, the station had once again begun to call itself "The Big 8" and had brought back some of the Johnny Mann jingles, but was merely a shell of its former self.
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 pop standards and big-band music and go completely automated. The "Big 8" was finally laid to rest on January 1, 1985, and the station soon dropped stereo since most of the big-band and standards music in its new format was in mono anyway. CKLW's FM sister adopted a beautiful music
format with the calls CKEZ. At this time, both stations were also sold to CUC Broadcasting
, which would sell CKLW and CKEZ to CHUM Limited
in 1993.
CKLW was known as "K-800" during its "Music of Your Life" days and also became the radio home for the Detroit Pistons
. Ratings with the standards format were also a dramatic improvement over the station's final years as a contemporary outlet, although the station now attracted a significantly older audience than the "baby boomers" who had grown up listening to the Big 8. Longtime CKLW jock and Detroit radio veteran Dave Shafer was the K-800 program director during this time.
For a brief time under CUC Broadcasting ownership, it was a member of the NBC Radio network beginning in 1991 (which was by then a shell of its former self), and ending with the station's sale to CHUM Limited in 1993.
The Big 8 lives on today in a slightly different form, as many of the original disc jockey
s now work at Detroit's oldies
station WOMC-FM, where much of the same music is played. To further boost this link to the past, WOMC-FM has even began ( August 2007) airing historic jingles from CKLW's "Big 8" era, similar to TV Land
's "Retromercials". Competing oldies station CKWW (now CKLW-AM's sister station) also plays up its connections to the "Big 8" on the air, having appropriated CKLW's top-of-the-hour "Boss Radio" instrumental signature and mentioning that they broadcast "from the legendary studios of the Big 8." (CKLW-AM and FM were housed at 825 Riverside Drive in Windsor until 1970, when they moved to 1640 Ouellette Avenue, where all four of CTVglobemedia's Windsor stations, including CKLW and CKWW, are now housed.)
(88.7, formerly CJOM) in the Windsor/Detroit market, purchased CKLW-AM/FM in 1993 and subsequently swapped the formats of CKWW and CKLW, moving the nostalgic music down to 580 on the AM dial and planting CKWW's news-talk format on 800, and thus ending the music on AM 800 for good.
Today CKLW combines local talk radio
with U.S.-based syndication programs and those produced by CHUM. The station now goes by the name AM 800, The Information Station (or as AM 800 CKLW). The station boasts a fully staffed local newsroom and also airs hourly newscasts from the Canadian Press
radio network (formerly known as Broadcast News
), primarily at night. CKLW is a member of the WOR Radio Network
(an affiliation that hearkens back to when WOR
and CKLW were partners in the Mutual Broadcasting System
) and carries Dr. Joy Browne
live, one of the few stations in Canada that broadcasts an American program during daylight hours. The station also carries, like nearly 600 other AM stations in North America, Coast to Coast AM
with George Noory
and some brokered programming
.
Some people consider this format a waste of a high-powered station with a signal that reaches far beyond its immediate local area. CKLW is picked up clearly as far off as Toledo
and Cleveland
(where it was consistently a highly rated station during its Top 40 days), Lansing, Michigan
, and even the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio
, with reports of night-time reception as far off as Toronto/Oshawa, Ontario
, Pennsylvania
, New York City
, Little Rock, Des Moines, Iowa
, and San Antonio, Texas
. At one point, it was stated that CKLW-AM could be heard in at least 23 states and 4 Canadian provinces.
For the station to be heard as far west as Arkansas, Iowa and Texas is impressive, given the station is not a "clear channel" Class A station, and has extreme northward/eastward nighttime directional signal in order to protect stations on 800 kHz in Ciudad Juárez
(clear channel XEROK-AM across the river from El Paso, Texas
), Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles
(Trans World Radio
), and Montreal
(CJAD (AM)
).
During CKLW's Top 40 heyday, because of its nighttime directional pattern, the station was frequently heard in Scandinavia
, but was often rendered unlistenable just a few hundred miles to the west and south of Detroit because of interference from the Juarez and/or Bonaire stations. Nevertheless, the current news/talk format enjoys good ratings in Windsor, though it now hovers near the bottom of the Detroit Arbitron
reports.
In May 2006, it was announced that CKLW would be a co-flagship station for University of Michigan
football with Detroit
radio station WOMC
.
). Despite a powerful 100,000-watt signal, CKLW's FM sister has never been able to attract a sizeable audience, at least not on the American side of the border. In the 1970s, CKLW-FM programmed a country format, and then big band and jazz as CKJY in the early 1980s.
After the failed "Fox" format, the station became beautiful-music CKEZ in 1985, and then in 1986, the CKLW-FM calls were restored and the station made an attempt to mimick the sound of the classic "Big 8" formula with a playlist spanning the 1950s through 1980s and with many of the original jingles, features and personalities, but it lasted only a few years.
In the early 1990s, CKLW-FM again tried the "Big 8"-style oldies format, as "93.9 The Legend". Though the sound was again very faithful to the original CKLW-AM, it once again did not last long, as there was a lot of competition for the oldies market in Detroit at the time, with WOMC
(104.3) eventually emerging as the most popular oldies station. 93.9 is now CIDR-FM
, with an AAA (Adult Album Alternative) format as "93.9 The River", using the positioner "it's about the music".
The operation also included CKLW-TV, Channel 9 (now CBET
). For years, one of the TV station's most popular shows was an American Bandstand
-style show called Swingin' Time
(and later, The Lively Spot), hosted by Robin Seymour (and also Tom Shannon for a time) and featuring performances by national and local recording artists and teenagers demonstrating the latest dances. In fact, as early as 1956, Bud Davies hosted a "bandstand"-style show on CKLW-TV called Top Ten Dance Party. For the most part, though, CKLW-TV was overshadowed by its powerhouse sister radio station and mainly aired low-budget local shows along with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC) (and also CTV) network fare.
When the Canadian government requested RKO General
divest itself of its Canadian holdings in 1968, the stations were sold to a consortium of the CBC and Baton Broadcasting, which was finalized in 1970. Baton ran the radio station (and CKLW-TV) for several years (under its subsidiary, St. Clair Broadcasting), before selling to CHUM
in 1975. When the CBC took full ownership of the television station (CKLW-TV), it changed its call letters to CBET
.
CKLW-AM/FM then moved from the TV station's 825 Riverside Drive West location to its own studios and offices at 1640 Ouelette Avenue. CBET continues as Windsor's CBC English affiliate to this day, although recent budget cuts at the CBC have meant less local programming and more simulcasting of programming from Toronto.
CHUM continues to own CKLW and CIDR today, along with alternative rock station CIMX (88.7 FM, "89X") and oldies/nostalgia station CKWW ("AM 580 Motor City Favorites"). All four stations are located at the Ouelette Avenue address.
The 2004 film Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8, produced by Michael McNamara and aired on the History Television
in Canada and PBS
member stations WTVS
in Detroit (2005) and WVIZ
in Cleveland (2006), chronicles the history of CKLW's top 40 years. The film has been honored in Canada with the Gemini Award
(equivalent of an Emmy Award) for "Best History Documentary".
, the owner of Canadian television network CTV
and the successor of CKLW's former owner, Baton Broadcasting. On June 22, 2007 the sale became final.
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
station broadcasting on 800 kHz and located in Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and serving Windsor and Detroit. Additionally, its signal can be heard as far west as Belding, Michigan
Belding, Michigan
Belding is a city in Ionia County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 5,877 at the 2000 census. Belding is a small rural city surrounded almost entirely by farmland...
; as far east as Batavia, New York; as far south as Edgewood, Kentucky
Edgewood, Kentucky
There were 3,099 households out of which 44.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 78.4% were married couples living together, 6.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 13.1% were non-families. 11.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.5% had someone...
; and as far north as Posen, Michigan
Posen, Michigan
Posen is a village in Presque Isle County of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 292. The village is located within Posen Township....
.
It is best known for having been one of the most influential Top 40 stations in the world in the 1960s and 1970s. During this era, CKLW used a very tight Top 40 format known as Boss Radio
Boss Radio
Boss Radio was the name of two radio programming formats, both launched in the early 1960s: One in the United States, and one in the United Kingdom. Although the names were the same, the formats were quite different.-Boss Radio in the United States:...
, devised by radio programmer Bill Drake
Bill Drake
Bill Drake , born Philip Yarbrough, was an American radio programmer who co-developed the Boss Radio format with Gene Chenault via their company Drake-Chenault.-Early career:...
. However, CKLW never actually used the handle "boss" on the air, just the style. Rather than a "Boss 30", CKLW's weekly music survey was known as a "Big 30". And instead of calling itself "Boss Radio", CKLW called itself "The Big 8". During this period it was the top-rated radio station not only in Windsor, but across the river in Detroit, and even in cities as far away as Toledo
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
and Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
.
In its current incarnation, CKLW is a news
All-news radio
All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcast of news.All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried in some form on both major US satellite radio networks...
/talk
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
radio station primarily serving listeners in Windsor and Essex County
Essex County, Ontario
Essex County is a county and census division located in Southwestern Ontario and covers an area at the southernmost tip of Canada. The administrative seat is Essex...
in Ontario, Canada, with a mix of local and syndicated programs, including some programs from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
It is the co-flagship station (along with WOMC
WOMC
WOMC is a Classic Hits radio station broadcasting in the Detroit, Michigan, USA area. WOMC's transmitter and studios are located on Woodward Heights . near Interstate 75 in Ferndale, Michigan. WOMC broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 190,000 watts from an antenna height of 361 feet...
) of the Michigan Wolverines Football Network.
Before the "Big 8": Gentile and Binge
CKLW first came on the air on May 31, 1932 as CKOK on 540 kHz with 5000 watts of power, and was owned by a group of Windsor-area businessmen led by Malcolm Campbell, operating as "Essex Broadcasters, Ltd." CKOK became CKLW in 1933, when Essex Broadcasters, Ltd. merged with the London Free PressLondon Free Press
The London Free Press is a daily newspaper based in London, Ontario, Canada.The London Free Press began as the Canadian Free Press, founded by William Sutherland in 1847. It first began printing as a weekly newspaper in 1849. In 1852, it was purchased for $500 by Josiah Blackburn, who renamed it...
and its station CJGC (now CFPL
CFPL (AM)
CFPL, or AM980, is a radio station owned by Corus Entertainment and based in London, Ontario, Canada that transmits at 10,000 watts at 980 kHz on the AM dial. The station primarily airs news, talk and sports programming.-History:...
), and became "Western Ontario Broadcasting", which was co-owned by Essex Broadcasters, and the London Free Press. The "LW" in the callsign is said to have stood for "London, Windsor", considered to be the two chief cities in the station's listening area. When the station's power increased to 50,000 watts, its listening area increased accordingly. In 1934, when London Free Press's station CJGC pulled out of the agreement, the station's ownership became wholly owned by Western Ontario Broadcasters. CJGC-AM later evolved into today's CFPL 980, while today's CBEF occupies the 540 kHz slot on the AM dial.
CKLW had been a popular station in the Detroit area for years before becoming "The Big 8". The station always sounded more American than Canadian, and for a number of years served as the Detroit affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...
, an affiliation which would last from 1935 until its purchase by RKO General
RKO General
RKO General was the main holding company through 1991 for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganization in the 1980s, GenCorp. The business was based around the consolidation of its parent company's broadcasting interests, dating to 1943, and...
in 1963. Alongside its affiliation with Mutual, it also gained a dual affiliation with the Dominion Network
Dominion Network
The Dominion Network was the second English-language radio network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from January 1, 1944 to 1962.It consisted of the CBC-owned CJBC radio station in Toronto and a series of 34 privately owned affiliates from coast-to-coast...
in 1935, replacing its CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
affiliation with that of Mutual/Dominion. Its affiliation with Dominion would last until 1950, when CBE 1550 launched.
The Mutual System's owner, General Tire and Rubber Company, purchased a controlling interest in CKLW and its owner at the time, Western Ontario Broadcasting in 1956, along with RKO General
RKO General
RKO General was the main holding company through 1991 for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganization in the 1980s, GenCorp. The business was based around the consolidation of its parent company's broadcasting interests, dating to 1943, and...
(which had purchased a minority interest in 1954, and had controlled Mutual since 1952). RKO would later increase their stake to 100% in 1963.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, CKLW was home to Happy Joe's Early Morning Frolic with Joe Gentile and Toby David, which was one of the very first popular comedy-oriented radio morning shows in Detroit. The show continued strong after David left CKLW for Washington, D.C., in 1940, and was replaced by Ralph Binge.
Gentile and Binge kept listeners entertained with an endless stream of comedic sketches and situations. The show's sponsors got in on the fun as well, as Gentile and Binge's trademark was their ability to turn a standard 60-second commercial announcement into a comedy sketch which could run for three minutes or longer. A typical three-and-a-half-hour Gentile and Binge show might feature such comedic commercials for as many as fifty legitimate products, and some imaginary ones as well. Sometimes listeners didn't get the joke. For example, according to popular legend, after promoting a miracle weight-loss aid called "Dr. Quack's Slim Jim Reducing Pills" with the story of an obese woman who got stuck in a telephone booth, Gentile and Binge received over $3,000 from listeners requesting a $1 trial of the pills as advertised, and the station had to hire a clerk to return the money.
Gentile and Binge were a fixture on CKLW until moving to WJBK radio (now WLQV
WLQV
WLQV is a radio station serving the Detroit, Michigan market. The station's fifty-thousand watt daytime signal enables it to be heard from Michigan's Thumb area down to Northwest Ohio, and from Lansing, Michigan to Chatham, Ontario, Canada. WLQV has a Christian talk format.-WJBK:WLQV first signed...
) in 1948, attracting audience ratings as high as 80% at their peak. The duo disbanded their partnership in 1956, and Gentile returned to CKLW. Toby David also eventually returned to AM 800 to host the morning show in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Both Binge and David were also stars of early Detroit television kiddie shows: Binge was "Pirate Pete" on WJBK-TV in the mid-1950s, and David became CKLW-TV's (now CBET
CBET
CBET, channel 9, is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's owned-and-operated television station in Windsor, Ontario. The station's signal also covers the Detroit, Michigan area across the international border in the United States, and is counted as a Detroit station for the purposes of...
) "Captain Jolly" later in the decade (a role which, ironically, Binge had originally been tagged to play).
As television's popularity boomed, CKLW, like many other stations, coped with the changes by replacing the dying network radio fare with locally based disc-jockey shows. Throughout most of the 1950s and into the mid-1960s, CKLW was basically a "variety" radio station which filled in the cracks between full-service features with pop music played by announcers like Bud Davies, Ron Knowles (who had a rock-and-roll show on AM 800 as early as 1957), and Joe Van. For a few years in the early 1960s, CKLW also featured a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
program in the evenings called Sounds Like Nashville. This ended in 1963 when WEXL
WEXL
WEXL is an Urban Gospel station at 1340 AM licensed to Royal Oak, Michigan and broadcasting in the Detroit area. It's known as Glory 1340 and owned by Crawford Broadcasting with WMUZ 103.5 FM and WRDT 560 AM.-History:...
1340 became Detroit's first 24-hour country station.
Glory years
After RKO GeneralRKO General
RKO General was the main holding company through 1991 for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganization in the 1980s, GenCorp. The business was based around the consolidation of its parent company's broadcasting interests, dating to 1943, and...
took over the station and its FM sister (93.9) in 1963, CKLW began to shed the variety-format approach and, as "Radio Eight-Oh", began focusing more aggressively on playing contemporary hits and issuing a record survey. Davies, Knowles, Dave Shafer, Tom Clay
Tom Clay
Tom Clay was an American radio personality and disc jockey.Clay was born Thomas Clague in New York, and in the 1950s he was popular in the Detroit area on WJBK-AM both as a DJ, and for his on-air comic characterizations; he became a local celebrity...
, Tom Shannon, Larry Morrow (as "Duke Windsor"), Terry Knight
Terry Knight
Terry Knight , born Richard Terrance Knapp, was an American rock and roll music producer, promoter, singer, songwriter and radio personality, who enjoyed some success in radio, modest success as a singer, but phenomenal success as the original manager-producer for Grand Funk Railroad and the...
, and Don Zee were among the "Radio Eight-Oh" personalities during this time, and helped raise the station's ratings to the point where it was beating longtime hit station WXYZ (1270) by the summer of 1966 (though WKNR "Keener 13"
WDTW (AM)
WDTW is a Detroit-area radio station, operating at 1310 kHz with 5,000 watts. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and airs mostly syndicated progressive talk radio programs....
was still a solid number one).
However it took Bill Drake's "Boss Radio
Boss Radio
Boss Radio was the name of two radio programming formats, both launched in the early 1960s: One in the United States, and one in the United Kingdom. Although the names were the same, the formats were quite different.-Boss Radio in the United States:...
" format and a roster of personalities such as Shannon, Shafer, Gary "Morning Mouth" Burbank
Gary Burbank
Gary Burbank is an American radio personality. He was heard daily on WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio, from June 15, 1981 until December 21, 2007, when he signed off for the last time.-Career in Radio:...
, "Brother" Bill Gable, Pat Holiday, Steve Hunter, "Super" Max Kinkel, Walt "Baby" Love
Walt Love
Rev. Walter Shaw, who goes by the on-air nickname Walt "Baby" Love, is a radio host in the United States. Having been in the business for over 35 years, Walt ‘Baby’ Love hosts three syndicated radio programs, Gospel Traxx, The Countdown and The Urban AC Countdown. All three feature, at Love's...
, Charlie O'Brien
Charlie O'Brien
Charles Hugh O'Brien is a former Major League Baseball catcher who played for the Oakland Athletics , Milwaukee Brewers , New York Mets , Atlanta Braves , Toronto Blue Jays , Chicago White Sox , Anaheim Angels and Montreal Expos .While growing up in Tulsa, O'Brien attended and graduated...
, Scott Regen, Ted "The Bear" Richards, Mike Rivers, Duke Roberts, Charlie Van Dyke
Charlie Van Dyke
Charlie Van Dyke is a former radio disc jockey who is best known for the voice work he has done for numerous radio and television stations....
, Johnny Williams, and newsmen Randall Carlisle, Grant Hudson, Byron MacGregor
Byron MacGregor
Byron MacGregor was a Canadian news anchor and news director.-Career:Born Gary Lachlan Mack in Calgary, Alberta, by the age of nineteen, he became the youngest news director at the AM radio station, CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, which also served Detroit, Michigan as well as Toledo and Cleveland in...
(who had a three and a half million-selling #1 hit single with his recording of Gordon Sinclair
Gordon Sinclair
Allan Gordon Sinclair, OC, FRGS was a Canadian journalist, writer and commentator.-Early life:Sinclair was born in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. In 1916, before finishing his first year of high school, Sinclair dropped out to take a job with the Bank of Nova Scotia...
's commentary "The Americans
The Americans (commentary)
"The Americans" is a famous commentary by Canadian broadcaster Gordon Sinclair. Originally written for a regular broadcast on CFRB radio in Toronto on June 5, 1973, it became a media and public phenomenon, replayed several times a day by some United States radio stations, released as a hit audio...
" in 1973) and Dick Smyth to raise the station—dubbed "The Big 8" on April 4, 1967—to number one in the ratings starting in July 1967, a position it would hold for over seven years. At its peak in the early 1970s, CKLW was the third most listened to (in terms of the number of listeners) radio station in world.
Before long, the station's top-of-the-hour ID, sung (as were all of its jingles) by the Johnny Mann
Johnny Mann
Johnny Mann is an American arranger, composer, conductor, entertainer, and recording artist.-Career:...
Singers, was on everyone's lips: "C-K-L-W, The Motor Cit-eeeee". WKNR would never recover, but put up a good fight against the awakened CKLW for five more years before switching to an easy-listening format as WNIC in 1972.
Initially, CKLW called itself "Radio 8" after the "Drake"-style format was adopted (later lengthened to "Fun Radio 8") and used jingles from PAMS
PAMS
PAMS , based in Dallas, Texas, was the most famous jingle production company in American broadcasting. It produced identification packages for radio stations around the world, as well as some commercial music.-History:The company was founded by William B. Meeks, Jr. PAMS (an acronym for Production,...
which sang "Radio 8, CKLW", but by the end of the summer of 1967 the Johnny Mann jingles were in place and the transformation into "The Big 8" was complete.
Long-time music director Rosalie Trombley
Rosalie Trombley
Rosalie Trombley was a music director of AM Top 40 powerhouse CKLW aka "The Big 8". Her influence not only affected the direction of CKLW but also led to an annual award named after her, and she was the subject of the song 'Rosalie' by Bob Seger.-CKLW:...
was also legendary for her ability to spot a potential hit record, and became the subject of a song by Bob Seger
Bob Seger
Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...
titled "Rosalie". According to the documentary Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8, Trombley refused to allow the station to air the song, threatening to quit if the station added it to its playlist; thus, CKLW never played it, although the song did receive airplay on other Detroit stations. Her career with the station began as a part-time switchboard operator on Labour Day weekend of 1963, before she was offered a full-time position in the station's music library a few years later. As CKLW's popularity boomed and Trombley became more and more influential, her job title was changed to the more prestigious-sounding title of "Music Director". Trombley was unique in that she garnered much respect in a time where there were not many influential women in the radio business.
Recording stars both established and aspiring regularly visited Rosalie to personally promote their latest single releases, and the walls of her office were lined with gold records. Trombley also made an effort to fashion a station that would appeal to black
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
as well as white
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
listeners by featuring soul and R&B product, especially the Motown sound for which Detroit was famous. The "Rosalie Trombley Award" honours women who have made their mark in broadcasting.
This was perhaps one of the earliest examples of what would today be called "Rhythmic CHR", and it united both white and African American listeners behind the banner of a single station. As a result, CKLW has been called "the blackest white station in America", and many believe the integrated music mix helped bring Detroiters closer together in racial harmony, especially after the riots
12th Street riot
The 1967 Detroit riot, also known as the 12th Street riot, was a civil disturbance in Detroit, Michigan, that began in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 23, 1967. The precipitating event was a police raid of an unlicensed, after-hours bar then known as a blind pig, on the corner of 12th and...
of July 1967.
Another female employee of CKLW who helped break down gender barriers was reporter Jo-Jo Shutty-MacGregor (the wife of Byron MacGregor), the first female helicopter traffic/news reporter in North America. She remains one of the most respected Detroit Traffic Reporters to this day. She now works for Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
's Metro Traffic in Detroit and continues to provide news and traffic reports for radio and television stations on both sides of the U.S.–Canadian border.
The Windsor-based station maintained a sales office in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Michigan
Southfield, Michigan
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which 0.04% is water. The main branch of the River Rouge runs through Southfield. The city is bounded to the south by Eight Mile Road, its western border is Inkster Road, and to the east it is bounded by Greenfield Road...
, where it picked up numerous sponsors for U.S. consumer products, some of which had to use the disclaimer and live announcer end-tag "Not available in Ontario". Possibly the best known of sponsors was Merollis Chevrolet, known for its comedic 30-second spots and the campy Al Jolson-styled jingle "that Merollis what a great great guy!"
Along with the current hits on the station's weekly "Big 30" lists, CKLW also featured lots of rock oldies dating back to the mid-1950s, which helped cement the station's appeal to adults as well as teenagers. The "Big 8" featured oldies especially heavily on its "Million Dollar Weekends", during which every other song played was a golden classic. The station used special jingles to introduce oldies: "CKLW — Golden".
The station's high-frequency compressed audio processing help set the standard for contemporary hit music formatted stations throughout the 1970s giving it near-FM clarity. Some hit songs surpassing three and a half minutes in length were edited down to accommodate more songs in rotation. This was evident in such early 70s hit songs as "Signs" by The Five Man Electrical Band
Five Man Electrical Band
The Five Man Electrical Band was a rock group from Canada's capital city of Ottawa, best known for their 1971 hit single "Signs"....
, "American Pie" by Don McLean
Don McLean
Donald "Don" McLean is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".-Musical roots:...
and "Are You Ready?" by Pacific Gas & Electric
Pacific Gas & Electric (band)
Pacific Gas & Electric was an American blues rock band in the late 1960s and early 1970s, led by singer Charlie Allen. Their biggest hit was "Are You Ready?"-Career:...
.
Another feature of the "Big 8" was its "20/20 News", so called because it was delivered at 20 minutes after the hour and 20 minutes before the hour. The thinking behind the scheduling of the news was that while other stations featured news at the top of the hour or on the quarter-hour, CKLW would be playing music. To hold the audience's attention, the news would have to be presented in a style that was as exciting as the music the station played.
Hence, the "Big 8"'s newscasters — including Byron MacGregor, Jon Belmont
Jon Belmont
Jon Belmont is an American radio newscaster. For twenty years, he was a correspondent for ABC News Radio in New York City. He is now the morning anchor for AP Radio News in Washington, D.C. - References :...
(later ABC), Bob Losure
Bob Losure
Robert E "Bob" Losure was a weekend anchor on CNN Headline News from 1986-1997. Before that, he worked as co-anchor of the evening news at KOTV, the CBS affiliate in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma...
(CNN), Dick Smyth, Grant Hudson, Joe Donovan (sports), Randall Carlisle, Keith Radford, and Lee Marshall — delivered imagery-laden news stories in a rapid-fire, excited manner, not sparing any of the gory details when it came to describing murders or rapes.
"20/20 News" had actually been a fixture of CKLW for a few years before the station adopted the Drake format, but when Byron MacGregor
Byron MacGregor
Byron MacGregor was a Canadian news anchor and news director.-Career:Born Gary Lachlan Mack in Calgary, Alberta, by the age of nineteen, he became the youngest news director at the AM radio station, CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, which also served Detroit, Michigan as well as Toledo and Cleveland in...
became the station's youngest news director in 1969 (replacing Dick Smyth who had left for Toronto), the sound of the station's newscasts took on the familiar sensationalized "blood-and-guts" style that most listeners remember. Another memorable feature of the 20/20 newscasts was the incessant clacking of the teletype
Teleprinter
A teleprinter is a electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communication channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the use of radio and microwave as the...
in the background, which gave the newscasts a unique sound.
CKLW's newscasts were acknowledged for more than just their "flash," however—the station won an Edward R. Murrow Award for its coverage of the 1967 riots, helmed by Smyth. This was the first time that this particular award had ever been given to a Canadian broadcaster.
The decline and death of the Big 8
Some say that CKLW started to decline in popularity after Canadian contentCanadian content
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from...
regulations went into effect. Certainly "CanCon" was a factor, particularly because many of the soul records on CKLW's playlist had to be sacrificed to make room for the Canadian content and because competing stations reacted by eliminating the "CanCon" songs from their own playlists and filling the holes with oldies or often stronger, American-originating new hits.
Still, CKLW dealt with the new regulations as best it could, breaking records by Canadian acts such as Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...
, the Poppy Family, Skylark
Skylark (Canadian band)
Skylark was a former Canadian pop/rock band active from 1971–1973 and based in the Pacific Northwest. The band formed from one of Ronnie Hawkins' backup groups and signed with Capitol Records, releasing a self-titled album in 1972 which spawned three singles...
, Anne Murray
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, the Stampeders
The Stampeders
The Stampeders are a Canadian rock trio, consisting of Rich Dodson, Ronnie King, and Kim Berly.-Career:The band formed in Calgary, Alberta in 1964 as The Rebounds....
, The Bells, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, Five Man Electrical Band
Five Man Electrical Band
The Five Man Electrical Band was a rock group from Canada's capital city of Ottawa, best known for their 1971 hit single "Signs"....
, April Wine
April Wine
April Wine is a Canadian rock band formed in 1969. According to the band, they chose the name 'April Wine' simply because members thought the two words sounded good together...
, and the Guess Who
The Guess Who
The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Initially gaining recognition in Canada, they also found international success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with numerous hit singles, including "American Woman", "These Eyes" and "Share the Land"...
and helping them to all become well-known hit artists across the United States as well.
And even with CanCon, CKLW remained a solid #1 in the Motor City through 1973, so probably the biggest reason for the decline was because listeners in North America as a whole were abandoning AM radio
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
in favor of the clearer audio available on FM radio stations. WDRQ
WDRQ
WDRQ is an FM radio station in Detroit, Michigan. The station is branded as 93.1 Doug FM. Doug FM broadcasts from the Fisher Building just north of downtown Detroit and transmits its signal from an antenna 669 feet in length located at the intersection of Ten Mile and Greenfield Roads in suburban...
(93.1 FM) grabbed away much of CKLW's teenage audience in the mid- and late 1970s, while older listeners migrated to FM album rockers like WWWW (106.7, now WDTW-FM
WDTW-FM
WDTW-FM is a classic rock formatted radio station in Detroit, Michigan. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications. WDTW-FM is licensed for HD Radio operations; its secondary channel carries Clear Channel's "Pride Radio" format, which features music geared toward the LGBT audience...
) or WRIF
WRIF
WRIF — branded 101 WRIF: The RIFF — is a commercial active rock radio station licensed by the FCC to operate in Detroit, Michigan serving surrounding Metro Detroit. The station is currently owned by Greater Boston Radio, Inc. WRIF is a grandfathered Class B station with a signal equivalent to...
(101.1) or to FM adult contemporary stations like WNIC
WNIC
WNIC is an American radio station based in Detroit, Michigan broadcasting at 100.3 MHz FM. WNIC's studios and offices are located in Farmington Hills, MI. WNIC's transmitter is located near Schoolcraft and Livernois Avenue in the City of Detroit on the near west side. WNIC broadcasts with an...
(100.3) or WMJC (94.7, now WCSX
WCSX
WCSX is a Detroit-based FM radio station broadcasting a classic rock format. WCSX's transmitter is located in suburban Oakland County in Royal Oak Township near the intersection of 8 Mile Rd. and Wyoming Avenue. WCSX transmits its signal from an antenna 951 feet in height with an effective radiated...
).
The listening audience was becoming fragmented as music formats continued to splinter to appeal to narrower and narrower demographics, and a mass-appeal station like CKLW could no longer afford to be "all things to all people." 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, CKLW attempted to hold on to its adult audience by calling themselves "Rock N' Talk" using an adult-stylized logo "CKLW R8dio" and softening its playlist to a more adult-oriented sound (an early version of what would today be known as Hot Adult Contemporary) and hiring Dick Purtan
Dick Purtan
Dick Purtan is a former American radio personality. His last radio job was as the morning radio show host on Oldies 104.3 serving the Detroit, Michigan U.S. radio market. Purtan was also a disc jockey at WKNR-AM, WXYZ-AM, CKLW-AM and WCZY-FM which became WKQI-FM in 1989...
from WXYZ (which transitioned from its own AC format to all-talk around the same time, and is now WXYT) to host the morning show in 1978.
By 1979, CKLW had dropped all jingles (having already phased out most of the famous Johnny Mann Singers jingles, except for the fast "shotgun" jingle, starting around 1973), and had also begun to make use of "dead segues" (two songs played back-to-back with no station ID, announcement or jingle in between), which would have been a definite no-no on the station even five years earlier.
Soon afterward, the station adopted the name "The Great Entertainer", with new jingles to go along with the change. Purtan's strong numbers in morning drive helped keep CKLW's ratings respectable if not spectacular into the 1980s, but Purtan was basically the station's last line of defense, and after he left for WCZY-FM 95.5 (now WKQI
WKQI
WKQI — branded Channel 955 — is a commercial pop/CHR radio station in Detroit, Michigan, owned by Clear Channel Communications. WKQI transmits its signal with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts from an antenna 430 feet in height located at the intersection of Greenfield Road and 10 Mile...
) in early 1983, the station's already-diminished ratings (CKLW's last appearance in Detroit's Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
top 10 was in 1981) fell further.
Meanwhile, the already-fragmented listener pie got even more fragmented thanks to several new FM competitors in the early 1980s, including album-rocker WLLZ (now WDZH), top 40 WHYT
WHYT
WHYT is a non-commercial, contemporary Christian FM radio station licensed to serve Goodland Township and Imlay City, Michigan. The transmitter is located between Imlay City and Marlette, Michigan...
(now WDVD
WDVD
WDVD is a hot adult contemporary radio station in Detroit, Michigan, broadcasting at 96.3 MHz on the FM dial. WDVD's studios and offices are located in the Fisher Building near downtown Detroit. WDVD's transmitter is located in Oakland County in Royal Oak Township at 8 Mile Road and Wyoming Avenue...
), the resurgent WDRQ
WDRQ
WDRQ is an FM radio station in Detroit, Michigan. The station is branded as 93.1 Doug FM. Doug FM broadcasts from the Fisher Building just north of downtown Detroit and transmits its signal from an antenna 669 feet in length located at the intersection of Ten Mile and Greenfield Roads in suburban...
(now an Urban Contemporary station after a disastrous try at all-disco from 1978 to 1980), urban WJLB
WJLB
WJLB, is a Clear Channel-owned Urban Contemporary radio station in Detroit that broadcasts on 97.9 megahertz frequency. The station is known on-air as FM98 WJLB. This is the station that began the career of Urban radio legend and video jock, Donnie Simpson...
(which moved from AM 1400 to FM 97.9 in 1980), and Dick Purtan's new home, "Cozy-FM" WCZY-FM (which was reinventing itself as an adult-leaning Top 40). In an attempt to go after longtime "full service" powerhouse WJR
WJR
WJR is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It broadcasts a news/talk format. It is a class A clear channel station whose broadcasts can be heard throughout most of the Midwest, eastern United States and Canada at night, making it one of the most powerful radio stations in the...
, CKLW converted to AM stereo
AM stereo
AM stereo is a term given to a series of mutually incompatible techniques for wireless radio broadcasting stereo audio in the AM band in a manner that is compatible with standard AM receivers...
in 1982 and even got the rights to broadcast University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
football and NASL
North American Soccer League
North American Soccer League was a professional soccer league with teams in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984.-History:...
soccer, but in this it was also unsuccessful.
In 1984, the station's owners (Baton Broadcasting) had sold CKLW-AM/FM to Russwood Broadcasting Ltd. Russwood Broadcasting would later strike a deal with CUC Broadcasting
CUC Broadcasting
CUC Broadcasting was a Canadian media company. Primarily a cable television distributor which operated under the name Trillium Cable, CUC was also a minority investor in other smaller cable companies, including Northern Cable and UMG Cable....
(owners of Trillium Cable) the following year, changing its name to Amicus Broadcasting Ltd., and would sell the station to CUC Broadcasting in 1988.
CKLW decided to jump on the FM bandwagon and made an attempt to put the contemporary hit format on its FM station (93.9, now CIDR-FM
CIDR-FM
CIDR-FM is the callsign for a radio station, broadcasting at 93.9 FM in Windsor, Ontario. The station broadcasts a adult album alternative format using the brand name 93-9 The River. It is owned and operated by Bell Media. It is one of the few commercial adult album alternative stations in Canada...
) as CFXX, "94 Fox FM," in 1984, but it failed when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) refused to approve the format change from big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
music. The CRTC allowed the FM station to broadcast the "Fox" format for only four hours a day - two in morning drive and two in afternoon drive. The CRTC's rationale in this was that rock music belonged on AM and that FM was for classical, jazz and easy listening music.
Meanwhile, CKLW-AM continued to plod along with a low-key adult contemporary music mix and with many of the live announcers replaced by automation, as ratings and revenue continued to drop. By this time, the station had once again begun to call itself "The Big 8" and had brought back some of the Johnny Mann jingles, but was merely a shell of its former self.
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
Southfield, Michigan
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which 0.04% is water. The main branch of the River Rouge runs through Southfield. The city is bounded to the south by Eight Mile Road, its western border is Inkster Road, and to the east it is bounded by Greenfield Road...
, and announced that it would soon change format to Al Ham
Al Ham
Albert W. Ham was an American composer and jingle writer. He was notable as the composer of the Move Closer to Your World music package used since the 1970s on WPVI-TV's Action News broadcasts in Philadelphia, as well as many on many other newscasts in the United States throughout the 1970s and...
's "Music of Your Life" format of pop standards and big-band music and go completely automated. The "Big 8" was finally laid to rest on January 1, 1985, and the station soon dropped stereo since most of the big-band and standards music in its new format was in mono anyway. CKLW's FM sister adopted a beautiful music
Beautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
format with the calls CKEZ. At this time, both stations were also sold to CUC Broadcasting
CUC Broadcasting
CUC Broadcasting was a Canadian media company. Primarily a cable television distributor which operated under the name Trillium Cable, CUC was also a minority investor in other smaller cable companies, including Northern Cable and UMG Cable....
, which would sell CKLW and CKEZ to CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945 to 2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television affiliate, one...
in 1993.
CKLW was known as "K-800" during its "Music of Your Life" days and also became the radio home for the Detroit Pistons
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are a franchise of the National Basketball Association based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The team's home arena is The Palace of Auburn Hills. It was originally founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne Pistons as a member of the National Basketball League in 1941, where...
. Ratings with the standards format were also a dramatic improvement over the station's final years as a contemporary outlet, although the station now attracted a significantly older audience than the "baby boomers" who had grown up listening to the Big 8. Longtime CKLW jock and Detroit radio veteran Dave Shafer was the K-800 program director during this time.
For a brief time under CUC Broadcasting ownership, it was a member of the NBC Radio network beginning in 1991 (which was by then a shell of its former self), and ending with the station's sale to CHUM Limited in 1993.
The Big 8 lives on today in a slightly different form, as many of the original disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
s now work at Detroit's oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
station WOMC-FM, where much of the same music is played. To further boost this link to the past, WOMC-FM has even began ( August 2007) airing historic jingles from CKLW's "Big 8" era, similar to TV Land
TV Land
TV Land is an American cable television network launched on April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon...
's "Retromercials". Competing oldies station CKWW (now CKLW-AM's sister station) also plays up its connections to the "Big 8" on the air, having appropriated CKLW's top-of-the-hour "Boss Radio" instrumental signature and mentioning that they broadcast "from the legendary studios of the Big 8." (CKLW-AM and FM were housed at 825 Riverside Drive in Windsor until 1970, when they moved to 1640 Ouellette Avenue, where all four of CTVglobemedia's Windsor stations, including CKLW and CKWW, are now housed.)
CKLW today
CHUM, which already owned CKWW (580) and CIMX-FMCIMX-FM
CIMX-FM — branded 89X — is a commercial active-leaning alternative rock radio station based in Windsor, Ontario. 89X serves both Essex County, Ontario and Metro Detroit; its 100,000-watt signal reaches most of southwestern Ontario, southeastern Michigan, the Toledo metro area and the western Lake...
(88.7, formerly CJOM) in the Windsor/Detroit market, purchased CKLW-AM/FM in 1993 and subsequently swapped the formats of CKWW and CKLW, moving the nostalgic music down to 580 on the AM dial and planting CKWW's news-talk format on 800, and thus ending the music on AM 800 for good.
Today CKLW combines local talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
with U.S.-based syndication programs and those produced by CHUM. The station now goes by the name AM 800, The Information Station (or as AM 800 CKLW). The station boasts a fully staffed local newsroom and also airs hourly newscasts from the Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Canadian Press Enterprises Inc. is the entity which "will take over the operations of the Canadian Press" according to a November 26, 2010 article in the Toronto Star...
radio network (formerly known as Broadcast News
Broadcast News
Broadcast News may refer to:*News*Broadcast News , the 1987 movie*Broadcast journalism, the field of news and journals which are published by electrical methods...
), primarily at night. CKLW is a member of the WOR Radio Network
WOR Radio Network
The WOR Radio Network is a slate of nationally syndicated radio programming produced and distributed by flagship radio station WOR in New York City...
(an affiliation that hearkens back to when WOR
WOR (AM)
WOR is a class A , AM radio station located in New York, New York, U.S., operating on 710 kHz. The station has a talk format and has been owned by Buckley Broadcasting since 1987, after the station was sold by RKO. The station has conservative, or right-of-center hosts.Its call letters have no...
and CKLW were partners in the Mutual Broadcasting System
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...
) and carries Dr. Joy Browne
Joy Browne
Joy Browne also named Dr. Joy, is an American radio psychologist.-Early life:Browne was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and educated at Rice University in Houston, TX.-Career:...
live, one of the few stations in Canada that broadcasts an American program during daylight hours. The station also carries, like nearly 600 other AM stations in North America, Coast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM is a North American late-night syndicated radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was created by Art Bell and is distributed by Premiere Radio Networks. The program currently...
with George Noory
George Noory
George Ralph Noory is a Lebanese-American radio talk show host.As of 2010, he is the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show Coast to Coast AM. He is heard across the United States and Canada on many AM and FM stations as well as on XM Satellite Radio. His show is one of the most listened...
and some brokered programming
Brokered programming
Brokered programming is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot commercials...
.
Some people consider this format a waste of a high-powered station with a signal that reaches far beyond its immediate local area. CKLW is picked up clearly as far off as Toledo
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
and Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
(where it was consistently a highly rated station during its Top 40 days), Lansing, Michigan
Lansing, Michigan
Lansing is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located mostly in Ingham County, although small portions of the city extend into Eaton County. The 2010 Census places the city's population at 114,297, making it the fifth largest city in Michigan...
, and even the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, with reports of night-time reception as far off as Toronto/Oshawa, Ontario
Oshawa, Ontario
Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe. It is now commonly referred to as the most...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Little Rock, Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
, and San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
. At one point, it was stated that CKLW-AM could be heard in at least 23 states and 4 Canadian provinces.
For the station to be heard as far west as Arkansas, Iowa and Texas is impressive, given the station is not a "clear channel" Class A station, and has extreme northward/eastward nighttime directional signal in order to protect stations on 800 kHz in Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...
(clear channel XEROK-AM across the river from El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
), Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles
Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles , also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao , in Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint...
(Trans World Radio
Trans World Radio
Trans World Radio is a multinational Christian evangelistic broadcaster. TWR broadcasts from 14 countries using mediumwave or high-powered AM transmitters, shortwave as well as through local radio stations, cable, satellite, and the Internet to reach millions of people in 160 nations in their own...
), and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
(CJAD (AM)
CJAD (AM)
CJAD is an English language radio station, owned by Astral Media, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The station has a news/talk format and identifies itself as CJAD 800....
).
During CKLW's Top 40 heyday, because of its nighttime directional pattern, the station was frequently heard in Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, but was often rendered unlistenable just a few hundred miles to the west and south of Detroit because of interference from the Juarez and/or Bonaire stations. Nevertheless, the current news/talk format enjoys good ratings in Windsor, though it now hovers near the bottom of the Detroit Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
reports.
In May 2006, it was announced that CKLW would be a co-flagship station for University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
football with Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
radio station WOMC
WOMC
WOMC is a Classic Hits radio station broadcasting in the Detroit, Michigan, USA area. WOMC's transmitter and studios are located on Woodward Heights . near Interstate 75 in Ferndale, Michigan. WOMC broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 190,000 watts from an antenna height of 361 feet...
.
CKLW-FM and CKLW-TV
In 1948, CKLW started CKLW-FM on 93.9 MHz (now CIDR-FMCIDR-FM
CIDR-FM is the callsign for a radio station, broadcasting at 93.9 FM in Windsor, Ontario. The station broadcasts a adult album alternative format using the brand name 93-9 The River. It is owned and operated by Bell Media. It is one of the few commercial adult album alternative stations in Canada...
). Despite a powerful 100,000-watt signal, CKLW's FM sister has never been able to attract a sizeable audience, at least not on the American side of the border. In the 1970s, CKLW-FM programmed a country format, and then big band and jazz as CKJY in the early 1980s.
After the failed "Fox" format, the station became beautiful-music CKEZ in 1985, and then in 1986, the CKLW-FM calls were restored and the station made an attempt to mimick the sound of the classic "Big 8" formula with a playlist spanning the 1950s through 1980s and with many of the original jingles, features and personalities, but it lasted only a few years.
In the early 1990s, CKLW-FM again tried the "Big 8"-style oldies format, as "93.9 The Legend". Though the sound was again very faithful to the original CKLW-AM, it once again did not last long, as there was a lot of competition for the oldies market in Detroit at the time, with WOMC
WOMC
WOMC is a Classic Hits radio station broadcasting in the Detroit, Michigan, USA area. WOMC's transmitter and studios are located on Woodward Heights . near Interstate 75 in Ferndale, Michigan. WOMC broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 190,000 watts from an antenna height of 361 feet...
(104.3) eventually emerging as the most popular oldies station. 93.9 is now CIDR-FM
CIDR-FM
CIDR-FM is the callsign for a radio station, broadcasting at 93.9 FM in Windsor, Ontario. The station broadcasts a adult album alternative format using the brand name 93-9 The River. It is owned and operated by Bell Media. It is one of the few commercial adult album alternative stations in Canada...
, with an AAA (Adult Album Alternative) format as "93.9 The River", using the positioner "it's about the music".
The operation also included CKLW-TV, Channel 9 (now CBET
CBET
CBET, channel 9, is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's owned-and-operated television station in Windsor, Ontario. The station's signal also covers the Detroit, Michigan area across the international border in the United States, and is counted as a Detroit station for the purposes of...
). For years, one of the TV station's most popular shows was an American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
-style show called Swingin' Time
Swingin' Time
Swingin' Time was a music variety show, similar to American Bandstand, hosted by WKNR-AM personality Robin Seymour . It ran in syndication in the late-1960s...
(and later, The Lively Spot), hosted by Robin Seymour (and also Tom Shannon for a time) and featuring performances by national and local recording artists and teenagers demonstrating the latest dances. In fact, as early as 1956, Bud Davies hosted a "bandstand"-style show on CKLW-TV called Top Ten Dance Party. For the most part, though, CKLW-TV was overshadowed by its powerhouse sister radio station and mainly aired low-budget local shows along with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
(CBC) (and also CTV) network fare.
When the Canadian government requested RKO General
RKO General
RKO General was the main holding company through 1991 for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganization in the 1980s, GenCorp. The business was based around the consolidation of its parent company's broadcasting interests, dating to 1943, and...
divest itself of its Canadian holdings in 1968, the stations were sold to a consortium of the CBC and Baton Broadcasting, which was finalized in 1970. Baton ran the radio station (and CKLW-TV) for several years (under its subsidiary, St. Clair Broadcasting), before selling to CHUM
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945 to 2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television affiliate, one...
in 1975. When the CBC took full ownership of the television station (CKLW-TV), it changed its call letters to CBET
CBET
CBET, channel 9, is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's owned-and-operated television station in Windsor, Ontario. The station's signal also covers the Detroit, Michigan area across the international border in the United States, and is counted as a Detroit station for the purposes of...
.
CKLW-AM/FM then moved from the TV station's 825 Riverside Drive West location to its own studios and offices at 1640 Ouelette Avenue. CBET continues as Windsor's CBC English affiliate to this day, although recent budget cuts at the CBC have meant less local programming and more simulcasting of programming from Toronto.
CHUM continues to own CKLW and CIDR today, along with alternative rock station CIMX (88.7 FM, "89X") and oldies/nostalgia station CKWW ("AM 580 Motor City Favorites"). All four stations are located at the Ouelette Avenue address.
The 2004 film Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8, produced by Michael McNamara and aired on the History Television
History Television
History Television is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel that presents programming about history and some non-historical programming of military, science and technology interest. It is owned by Shaw Media. Its French language counterpart is Historia.The channel operates two...
in Canada and PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
member stations WTVS
WTVS
WTVS, branded as Detroit Public TV, is the Public Broadcasting Service member Public television station in Detroit, Michigan. Broadcasting since 1955, its vision statement is "educate, entertain and inspire — in partnership with our community." The viewer supported station produces many local...
in Detroit (2005) and WVIZ
WVIZ
WVIZ is a public television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was the 100th public television station to sign on in America. Its founder was Betty Cope, a former producer at Cleveland's ABC affiliate, WEWS, who recognized the value of non-commercial educational television for the schools...
in Cleveland (2006), chronicles the history of CKLW's top 40 years. The film has been honored in Canada with the Gemini Award
Gemini Award
The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
(equivalent of an Emmy Award) for "Best History Documentary".
CHUM sale to CTVglobemedia
On July 12, 2006, it was announced that CHUM would be absorbed by Canadian media conglomerate CTVglobemediaCTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia , was one of Canada's largest private media companies. Its operations include newspaper publishing , television broadcasting and production , radio broadcasting , and their respective Internet properties.Originally established by BCE and the Thomson family in 2001 combining CTV Inc.,...
, the owner of Canadian television network CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
and the successor of CKLW's former owner, Baton Broadcasting. On June 22, 2007 the sale became final.
See also
- RKO GeneralRKO GeneralRKO General was the main holding company through 1991 for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganization in the 1980s, GenCorp. The business was based around the consolidation of its parent company's broadcasting interests, dating to 1943, and...
- CKWW "AM 580", sister station
- CIMX-FMCIMX-FMCIMX-FM — branded 89X — is a commercial active-leaning alternative rock radio station based in Windsor, Ontario. 89X serves both Essex County, Ontario and Metro Detroit; its 100,000-watt signal reaches most of southwestern Ontario, southeastern Michigan, the Toledo metro area and the western Lake...
"89X", sister station - CIDR-FMCIDR-FMCIDR-FM is the callsign for a radio station, broadcasting at 93.9 FM in Windsor, Ontario. The station broadcasts a adult album alternative format using the brand name 93-9 The River. It is owned and operated by Bell Media. It is one of the few commercial adult album alternative stations in Canada...
"93.9 The River", sister station - WOMCWOMCWOMC is a Classic Hits radio station broadcasting in the Detroit, Michigan, USA area. WOMC's transmitter and studios are located on Woodward Heights . near Interstate 75 in Ferndale, Michigan. WOMC broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 190,000 watts from an antenna height of 361 feet...
"Oldies 104.3", cross-river station
Further reading
- Morrow, Larry (2010). This is Larry Morrow. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59851-069-0.
External links
- AM 800 CKLW
- The Classic CKLW Page
- Canadian Stations and History
- CKLW Big 30 Hit Lists, 1967-1979
- Boss 30 Gallery (including CKLW)
- CKLW-AM history at Canadian Communications FoundationCanadian Communications FoundationThe Canadian Communications Foundation is a history of Canadian broadcasting for radio and television chronicles and documents. It also provides a history of radio and television stations, including networks, programs, broadcasters and many others....
- RKO-General's History, and its relationship with CKLW-AM
- Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8 DVD site