WJR - One of a Kind (ca. 1966)

I'm Lowell Thomas and for a moment I want to do something that perhaps is a little different and I hope you'll take that literally all my life I have been interested in the unusual the different different places unusual people unusual objects and what is wrong with that after all there can be only one Dalai Lama one Lawrence of Arabia one count left through the sea devil in World War 11 do little one Lindbergh unique ah but that is what has made the news worthy and most of my life has been spent in search of the newsworthy all over the world and in the past twenty-odd years I have seen many changes in the world of radio as you undoubtedly know there are now some 5,500 radio stations in the united states AM and FM and the chances are that you have heard the sales talks from literally hundreds of them and you may have discovered that those sales talks are discouragingly similar but there is one that is unlike any other station anywhere I happen to know a little about radio stations having been on the air for more than 35 years and on this unique station for more than 20 years in the name of that station wjr Detroit this is Detroit 12th largest city in the world it's river is part of the st. Lawrence Seaway the river brings coal and iron ore to Detroit's mills and factories and today those mills and factories are producing at an all-time high giving Detroit an unprecedented prosperity three miles from the river and downtown Detroit stands the fisher building headquarters for w jr the radio station that is one of a kind and here is one of detroit's best-known entertainers to tell you about it mr. JP McCarthy is JP McCarthy have a nice evening i'll see you tomorrow morning at the same time good night everybody I work here here being the 21st floor of the Fisher Building in the location for the main studios of wjr in Detroit you know there are lots of interesting ways to look at Detroit if you're interested in sales for example you can look at it as the nation's fifth richest market not a bad place to run a radio station right well not just an ordinary everyday run-of-the-mill radio station bite you but a radio station with a unique point of view in terms of programming now what makes w jr unique lots of things really but most importantly our unique method of programming with something for everyone every single day why do we let some of our own people tell you their own story the way they do every day for baseball fans wjr has veteran sportscaster ernie harwell what does it take to be a real good pinch-hitter al well this gotta be a fellow it doesn't strike out too much you'll find out once in a while but it's got to be a fella can get a piece of the ball and if he a long fly ball that much the better the ball on the ground the double play what's the toughest part of strategy and running the ball game I think personally is handling the fiction staff and handling the personnel par Wells pregame interviews with important people in baseball like al lopez the former great manager of the Chicago White Sox provide an interesting backdrop to the game itself Ernie's play-by-play of all tiger games is vivid very knowledge of inning the Tigers have managed only four hits off Johnny bizarre Norman cash coming to bat now trailing one to nothing in the sixth inning with nobody on base and one man down for Detroit Lazard about ready to go cash steps in here's the wind up by Jonny the pitch it's right in there for strike called on Norman cash now cash steps all the moment back in the batter's box bizarre it looks and to get his sign here's the windup the pitch there's a long drive to deep right [Applause] Norman and the Tigers have tied the game at well storyteller bud guest the Secretary of the sunny side of the street club and announcer Charlie Park morning you remember the big problem the big problem certainly we have big problems every morning monday through saturday well the one that i was referring to was the one we mentioned just the other day about which way the water goes down the bathtub drain well that's colossal the north and south of the Equator does if she go down clockwise north of the Equator or counterclockwise or vice versa at any rate radio dealer who started the whole mess is back in with us again he says since we talked about it the other morning he tried the bathroom tub 20 times and then to make sure he tried to kitchen sink 20 times and this was during his noon hour he writes to me dear but I had no time to eat my lunch the other day but I found out that the water did drain out in a counterclockwise fashion every time now then we have also heard from mrs. edward Durkee a good member of the sunny side club of long-standing who lives in help Rapids Michigan she writes to us that when she we heard our report the other morning she turned on the left-hand faucet in the wash bowl and the water ran out counterclockwise but the water from the right-hand faucet ran out clockwise so what do you make of that she says thankfully I don't know what to make of it do you German giving day wjr has football to third with the voice of sports director Bob Reynolds long as the flag or Y to the right max biggie is in fairly tight back throw again [Applause] [Applause] 36 yard touchdown run for Wayne Rasmus the stars are his arm was guard and just as he threw it and it was a wobble he won up in the air like a wounded duck and Rasmussen picked it off on the 36 yard line got a great block on the 15 on the far side from Wayne Walker and went in untouched for the touchdown well I think they had planned a crisscross pass pattern there and plumbing and McGee bumped into each other as they were going over the center and that certainly helped Rasmussen [Applause] the rookie from Purdue bar is the Frankie y to the left his time calculus without a little bit to the right I'm looking over the defense fakes watch next ice drop straight back in the hole looks for somebody's going to long bob kerrey burn down here and there he's doing the detroit area is full of sports fanatics football pro and college baseball basketball hockey you name it but there are also a lot of people here who like a very different kind of entertainment wjr supplies that too here is Karl Haas the station's director of fine arts and a member of the president's cultural Advisory Commission if any proof is needed that rhythm is the most important ingredient in music then what you just heard was that proof it was the beginning of the violin concerto by Khachaturian a composer who is particularly known for his predominance of rhythm I'd like to illustrate on the piano that very element that you just heard in the violin concerto there is rhythm above all unless you count the Sam Elodie it would be mighty monotonous to have this continued throughout the piece the toccata for piano by khachaturian but listen to it in its finished form listen to how khachaturian closes this skeleton of rhythm with a melody which is derived from the very rhythm that he so eminently this place you Carla's often appears as a recitalist and lecturer here is during a benefit for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra [Applause] many the anatomy of a best-seller what is it this is the focus show every daily Marie are women's editor and Jimmy Lodz interview the famous and the merely interesting on location or in the studio they focus in on a variety of people she became angrier and angrier and bothered and said I have heard that people who work in book departments are queer and they also have their idian Assam crises yes doctors authors artists lawyers even Indian chiefs Lee and Jimmy meet them all day after day they talked to people in the news from hayley mills to Detroit's mayor Cavanaugh you said human values mayor Cavanaugh give eight children and probably one of the busiest jobs in this country how do you maintain a good family relationship well it isn't an easy thing to do I don't have any advice I supposed to give to anyone in the raising of eight children because i think you know it's by accident that you almost get them raised and the help of god really I've learned to stay out of the way in the morning on those a to get up but I think the big thing is to try and devote at least part of your of your week maybe one day a week this is generally what I try to do set aside for these young children and particularly in a job that like this because of the publicity that's attached to it and so on it makes it more difficult to maintain that close relationship and you have to work just a little harder at it and so far I think we're succeeding I'm sure you are with w jr is respected for the thoroughness the completeness of its news reported there's not anything new on the defense bill no I got a tee here from Jerry Ford but I have been able yet to reach senator heart I know the Senate's adjourned trying Pat McNamara at his home we've got to have something from both sides before five o'clock get both sides that's the essence of w jr reporting but it's news philosophy goes much further than the political or the police feet Brent how did the market act yes joy well Dave yesterday was a pretty good day in the market here's a w junior reporter digging for facts for the daily program business barometer dollars 07 million shares it's pretty nice volume and things really looked nice about it was broad participation by various industry group complete news coverage also means keeping rural listeners informed daily that's the job of Marshall Wells w jrs flying farm editor who uses his plane in order to interview farmers County agents farm authorities all over Michigan northern Ohio and northern Indiana the boats are special news includes complete coverage of such important events as the Mackinac yacht race on Lake Huron we're over the fleet right now and we're going down a spot some of the early leaders the art sir pretty well spaced out that it appears that Apache is in the lead that's the half way around the world from the yacht's member here's another example of news in days on our news director Frank Tomlinson in Vietnam last year I spent five weeks in Vietnam much of it with Michigan's governor george romney i reported back daily to WJ our listeners the troubles of the governor as he met with brass talked to michigan g eyes and charmed the children of vietnam and with CBS network veterans like lowell thomas and walter cronkite w jrs news coverage is really complete or is we like to say one of a kind now here's an example of wjr programming that's also pretty unique Nikki Lana's back with us again today Mickey hills from a vocalist Jack Harris and guests along with Jimmy Clark and the boys uniquely but you know a live orchestra isn't something you find around many stations these days good well while you're here Nikki we'd like to have you do a little vocalizing with me do what wires do you feel up to it sure do okay let's be away there we go oh anna says come marchin in wednesday's come march man it's tomorrow I want to join that pill what if they go I wanna wear a happy smile I wear a happy smile I wanna sing and shout hallelujah minus chillin early game I wanna see and but they throw on Wednesdays come a jail Wednesday's come March I wanna you'll find that kind of carrying on every day here on WJ are supplemented of course by the variety programs of Arthur Godfrey and art Linkletter now you've seen some of the people on w jr what about some of the people who listened well their homeowners mostly I'd say Detroit's a city of homeowners seventy percent of the people in the metropolitan area own their own homes that's a record among major US cities and Detroiters have money to spend the metro area has fifteen percent more disposable income than the national average and when they're not at home they're on wheels as you know four out of five cars have a radio and w jr penetrates deeply into that in car audience actually michigan has more freeways than New York or California very few commuter trains or buses most everyone drives to work and it's the same throughout WJ ours primary day time coverage area 112 counties in Michigan Indiana Ohio and Pennsylvania plus 24 counties in southern Ontario however penetration is what counts and the last Nielsen coverage study shows these counties as having fifty percent or more homes tuned into w jr but it doesn't stop there wjr penetrates thirty-five to forty nine percent of homes in these counties and twenty to thirty four percent in these and these figures were established before CBS programming and full baseball coverage substantially increased w jrs penetration although no research is available wjr reaches loud and clear in these southern ontario counties where one-fourth of all Canadians live over 20 million persons live in this overall area no two are quite alike in there listening tastes yet wjr manages to keep most of them happy it recognizes that its listeners are individuals such as tourists tourism has grown to a billion-dollar industry in Michigan especially since it's become famous as the water winter under land people come from all over to vacation here and the first station they're likely to pick up because of the strength of its 50,000 watt clear channel signal is w jr and once they start listening they stick with us now what about the typical w jr audience the kind of individuals they are and what they do for a living we found there all sorts of people in all sorts of different situations banks in chicago today announced their increasing their prime rates of interest on commercial loans with burning with ambition to become the next julie harris i think a technique can be learned i think you can be taught to speak correctly to move correctly the good enjoy steers 24 and three-quarters up to 25 and three quarters on the Chicago drain future trade as of the noon hour wheat is one-quarter lower 18 higher corn 18 there's news about an important White House visitor about new developments in the Kremlin and a major announcement from City Hall Palace the Count de Luna enters he has come hoping to see the lovely Leonor Maria's barely approached the interest of the palace when the son of a lute and then the voice of the mysterious troubadour is heard serenading leanora the count hides and listens leanora comes out here's a set by Mickey he delivers it's a line drive to centerfield Sammy comes over he'll make the catch his attack by YC third and in focus tomorrow's green star Charlton Heston in a slightly rusting suit of armor and we'll take a nostalgic far out to the right car deal to the left plum calling the signals grabs the ball drop straight back pretty good protection is divergent in the end zone oh I'd love to hear from Jimmy em yes sir and they have a little toe tapper this thing moves along about oh what 65 and the 45 miles i do i'll have trouble keeping my feet still whether it's another opinion about which direction water swirls down a drain or on any subject right to me but guests the sunny side secretary and i'll see that is brought to the attention of our membership no matter the age for the income or the taste wjr has something for everyone that means the cumulative one week audience is in the millions and that's the reason that local advertisers get results the reason the national advertiser who wants deep daytime penetration of 112 counties gets results every bit of responsible research confirms that wjr is not only the best radio station but the best single medium to sell this big prosperous market a unique operation you bet it is core series in fact i say the wjr with something for everyone is certainly one of a kind you