WKNR vs. CKLW

[MickeyMac]

They were the two powerhouses in this area for ages. Which one did you like better and why???

[Mackenzie68]

CK at the cottage, and later when I had a car with a faulty radio [[string on dial messed up, could only get CK, WJR and WBZ on the skip). At home and in the boyfriend's car I could get from 810 to 1300 in one measured crank of the dial. Also listened to WJBK and WKMH, the forerunner of Keener.

Suggested Reading: Rocking Down the Dial; the Detroit Sound of Radio by David Carson. Dave Morrie, Michigan expat in San Francisco at the time it was published, mentioned it on his KFOG morning show. I sent a note to thank him for the info and he was kind enough to make a cassette of chronological Detroit radio promos. Good memories in those jingles.

[Ray1936]

That was my cousin, Fred Knorr, who started WKNR back in the very early fifties. WKNR stood for "Knorr". Fred came from a long line of insurance agents who served Detroit going back to around 1850. When Walter Briggs died and the family sold the Tigers, Fred was one of the buyers along with John Fetzer. Fred died accidentally in Florida of a fall in 1960 at age 47. His wife, Nellie, died five years ago this month.

[Johnlodge]

[Wingnatic]

I listened mostly to CKLW but flipped stations much like I do today if I didn't like the tune that was playing lol Remember Robin Seymour ? I met him at a Detroit Memories Reunion oh 4 years or so ago . He was the guest speaker at one of the many events they held . The group I was at was aboard the Detroit Princess for a diner cruise . Robin hasn't changed a bit except his hair is gray , and brought his 2 grown grand daughters along with him . He looked in good health and lives and owns a production company in California

[jcole]

Thanks for that song list, JL. I was 11 then, and I remember almost all of them. I still love 'Incense and Peppermints'

[douglasm]

Both. CK did play more music and was a lot tighter, but Keener had the personalities. Keener was right for it's time when it came on in '63, but CKLW had the better coverage [[Keener was highly directional at night) and a perfectly executed tight and bright "Boss Radio" format was far and away the better station.

[Blueidone]

I can't remember back that far :-[[

[gazhekwe]

KNR, and I think it was because of the DJs. They would create these call-in spots and sometimes you could get on the air. One day when I was flat broke and needed money for books, I won $13 in a game on KNR. Believe it or not, that paid for most of my books! Those were the days, my friends.

[gnome]

WKRP, always appreciated their turkey give aways.

[Corn.Bot]

WKRP, always appreciated their turkey give aways.

Last fall, driving along a rural road near where I live in SW Mi, a wild turkey flew across in front of us. It was so big, it blocked the entire view of my windshield. My husband and I said in unison, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

We had to pull over because we got to laughing so hard.

Oh, and for the record, it was KNR and CK interchangeably, sometimes depending on the DJ or time of day.

[Fury13]

WKNR had a better playlist but the signal could be weak, depending on where you lived in the metro area. CK was a powerful station and came in booming on the car radio. WXYZ was a good alternative to both.

[eriedearie]

I listened to both. However, I lived at Grandma & Grandpa's every summer. They lived high atop the Allegheny Mountains about an hour from the Pittsburgh area where I could get a clear signal for CKLW. That's what blasted from my transistor radio from June until Labor Day.

Keener radio was listened to very often throughout the school years, back and forth between the two stations. Detroit radio and their DJs could not be beat IMO.

[douglasm]

Wixie WAS a good alternative as long as it lasted as a rocker. Keener pretty much blew it out of the water. Fury 13's right about the playlist, though. Keener tended to play more local music than CK,

One way to consider the power of both stations is that they managed to knock out two upstarts during their reign. WJBK made an abortive attempt as a Top-40 station in the early 70's before they went country, and WCAR [[now WDFN) made a stab at Top-40 in the late 60's.

I often wonder if CHYR [[Leamington) made any dent in the Detroit book. I know Flint's WTAC was a player in northern Oakland County.

[Bobl]

Nice to see the songlist, JL.
I was given a t shirt, featuring the list from July, 1965, by a friend about fifteen years ago. Still wear it on special occasions. Might wear it to the Dally...

[Meddle]

Strange to see Hendrix, Diamond, The Who, Lulu and Gladys Knight on the same playlist.

[Downriviera]

Nice to see a local group, The Flaming Embers, at #16.

[Downriviera]

Cowsills at #2. Last month I was djing at the Wyandotte Street Fair when someone in the audience shouted, More Cowbell. So I said More Cowsills, no problem, and then I played this song.

[reddog289]

During the late 80's and 90's I would listen to Honey Radio WHND 560. They would play the top 12 at 12. Seemed like KEENERS list were almost always used, and I belive a few of the old Keener jocks were on that station.
Driving around in my 65 Comet back in 86/87 I listened to alot of oldies,country, and Tiger Baseball as I only had that AM radio.

[Vic_doucette]

CKLW was also hampered by the Canadian equivilant of the FCC's rules about Canadian content. A certain percentage of the music [[might have been 20 percent in this case) had to be performed or written by Canadians, recorded in a Canadian studio or published by a Canadian company. They used to try to get around this restriction by playing it all between midnight and 5 a.m., but the government disallowed that. This explains why, amid all the rock music, you'd hear Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, Paul Anka and a bunch of other lesser-known Canadian artists. It made for interesting variety, but violated the prevailing top-40 credo of "don't play anything they aren't already familiar with." This was one factor that helped bring about the eventual decline and failure of the station.

[douglasm]

Good point Vic, but Can-Con came in in 1971 and CK really didn't quiver until later in the decade. I don't know if The Doriens were benifited by CanCon, but groups like The Stampeders, Edward Bear, 5 Man Electrical Band, April Wine and Mashmakhan sure did, and I'm going to assume the Guess Who's career was extended due to Can-Con. Alas, Can-con also brought us The Poppy Family.

I believe that groups with Canadian members qualified, too. Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band was considered "Canadian" because their bass player was.

[mikefmich]

My earliest rock n roll radio allegiance was WJBK, then I flipped to Lee Alan & Joel Sebastian on WXYZ.

When Keener went rock, I liked them better but as was said, their signal could be weak.

I didn't like CKLW much because I despised Robin Seymour...that said I won a $100 call in prize circa 1967. In those days that was like a zillion bucks to a teenager. I was making a dollar an hour at the East Side Drive-In that year....90 cents an hour at the start of the year at the Harper-Gratiot YMCA.

[65memories]

Listened to both, but preferred WXYZ, 1270 as I cruised Woodward with Lee Alan on the Horn, 7 - 12 Midnight [["The Cream of the Crop, until 12 O'Clock" and "Somehow, I'm still a glum one...") and Don Zee [["Two E's if you please...," from Midnight to 6 a.m.)

But I preferred the Big 8 on weekends and was a Dick Purtan fan from the time he joined Keener in '64

[Meddle]

I know it's been 20 years, probably more, so why can I still hear [[remember) the jingle for both singing their call letters?

[lpg]

I liked them both. Tooling around in the summer of 1966 with my freshly issued drivers permit in my 1953 Ford, AM radio blaring. Those were the days.
I remember Joe Donovan being interviewed on Ch56 during one of their fundraisers being asked about the demise of the Big 8. He called the people in charge a "Bunch of pointy-headed bed wetters." I am not sure if he was refering to the people from Can-Con or CKLW. I thought the host was going to choke.