More Music … CKLW:The Rise and Fall of the Big 8

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In the 1960’s news reports became mandatory to all radio programming. For most radio stations in the 60’s and even today when the news comes on, people usually change the station. The exception to the rule was CKLW. Their 20/20 news report would happen twenty minutes before the hour and twenty minutes after the hour. This was very different format; CKLW is credited for changing radio broadcasting of news forever with this particular format. When all other stations were reporting the news at the top of the hour, CKLW was still playing rock and roll music.
It wasn’t just when the news was delivered but also how it was delivered. It had an influence because of the great personalities of Dick Smyth, Lee Marshall, Grant Hudson and others who dramatically and entertainingly delivered the news. They reported the news “dramatically” and with the “same energy as disk jockeys had snappy writing with alliterations, and a lot of short sound bites.” They were deejays without music. This dynamic combination of news reporting made for an amusing news report; that not only captured the audience, but also kept them tuning in.
The journalism used for the news casts was not like normal journalism of the decade or even in the present. For the news reporters, they would write a story in the “most descriptive way we could.” Keith Radford explains that at journalism school they would use examples from the CKLW 20/20 newscast to show students what not to do. News reports were heard by a big booming voice exclaiming:
The hitless Tigers could use this guy’s talents. Mount Clemens police have a 36-year-old man in custody. It seems he got home about 5 o’clock this morning from an all-night spree, that ticked off the little lady, who unleashed a v...

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...to $10-60$. Live audio recordings are also shared across the internet through fan pages. A Facebook page, an unofficial CKLW webpage and a CKLW online scrapbook are still constantly active of people reminiscing over the glory days of their favourite childhood radio station.
Today, CKLW is a news and information station for the Windsor-Essex community. Now in Windsor, Detroit radio dominates once again. Now, 68% of Windsorites listen to Detroit radio stations. The Big 8 still had a tremendous influence in shaping the face of radio, in creating megahits in music industry, and held a huge community presence in its hometown of Windsor, Ontario. CKLW was a small town radio station that became one of the biggest radio sensations of the 1960’s and1970’s. The Big 8 developed into an icon for not only music and radio; but, also brought out the music fanatic in everyone.

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