Friday, October 9, 2009

Flint Artifacts: 1976 WTAC Music Guides




Click on images to enlarge.
Thanks to Clarke Ingram for the Flint Artifacts.





18 comments:

  1. With the amazing Peter C. always lurking here and always available for the praise he deserves, may I simply say that these artifacts trigger some of the best memories of my Flint boyhood.

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  2. Theme From S.W.A.T. is right where it should be at #1. Rhythm Heritage RULES!

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  3. There is a great site that has a lot of charts called ARSA. If you have charts, even if you don't want to part with them, you can make copies and send the information to them. If you have a collection you want to keep, you might just consider a few here and there. I'd like to see much more complete chart data for local stations, like they have for WKNR and CKLW online. Our local stations were also industry leaders in the 1960s and 1970s, and bigger stations paid a lot of attention to what was added each week.

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  4. The DJ pictured on the survey, Tom Roberts, worked at nearly every station in Flint under various names. Apprently, 440.com is inaccurate in showing Tom Roberts as Captain Z on WTAC in 1976.

    http://440.com/namesl.html#_tlawco

    It doesn't show him ever at WTRX. If this is accurate, is there a story behind the only AM in Flint he never worked at, Peter C?

    If you check out 440.com, you'll see that small daytime only stations like WAMM had some of the most interesting personalities, like Casey Kasem. Unfortunately, 440.com tends to leave out personalities that passed through Flint at WTRX like Joey Reynolds and John Landecker (as Dow Jones).

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  5. Dream Weaver all the way down at #17.

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    Replies
    1. Torrey Hammerberg XIIApril 13, 2013 at 8:09 PM

      You have to remember that Dream Weaver could have been on the way up or the way down the WTAC chart, Gordie. That's exactly why we need more charts from Flint stations. Look in your memorabilia collections folks, and let's complete the years! At that time, also, songs wouldn't stay too long on the local charts. 10 weeks was stale for even the biggest hits. There were also only 30 songs on this and many other station charts. Once they peaked, they often fell off within one or two weeks.

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  6. The amazing thing about these lists is that we can see four different genres of music sitting on the same playlist (adult contemporary, rock, soul/funk and disco/dance). There's even a hint of country (Let Your Love Flow) on the list.

    Try finding that on today's stations, outside of the top 40 countdowns.

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  7. Hi, Anonymous!

    Actually,to my knowledge, the only Flint station where Tom Roberts worked was WTAC, although he was there three separate times. Tom Roberts (real name) was one of the most talented DJ's with whom I ever had the pleasure of association, but he was a terror for technicians. Many a studio would have been better off as a padded cell.

    "Captain Zero" at both WTAC and WWCK-FM was Tom Lawcock (real name), A.K.A. "John McCrae" of WFDF fame. "The Captain" was an EXCELLENT performer and left us for a super career Phoenix. He is perhaps best remembered for his "Damaged Pet Warehouse" series on WWCK.

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  8. So there were at least two DJs that passed through Flint that used the name Tom Roberts? Tom Roberts and Tom Lawcock?

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  9. I can sing at least part of nearly all of the songs on those playlists and still have some of the playlists in the attic at home from about that same time. Is there a junior high or high school band that didn't have the SWAT theme in its football game repertoire? I doubt it. I think my KISS-phase was already in full swing by this point, much to mom's dismay...

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  10. You're bringing back a lot of WTAC memories with this music guide and the listener card (which had to be in the late 50s/early 60s.

    During my high school years, I use to help my buddy Dave Neff deliver the WTAC music guides every Thursday afternoon to record stores, department stores and 7-Eleven stores throughout the Flint area. Peter C put a picture of Dave and I on front of one of the music guides (with our hair greased back) standing next to our bicycles on and I would love to know if someone like redgirl had a copy of it and could scan it....it would bring back a memory or two and elicit a few chuckles, too.

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  11. I often wonder whether Dave Barber or somebody like him is sitting on some airchecks of some very famous DJs when they passed through Flint. Or maybe when you were young you tape recorded songs off the radio and you "inadvertently" recorded airchecks when taping songs. Who knows what lurks on those little reel to reel tapes and cassettes? Hey, if the technology exists to enhance audio on erased tapes, who knows what might be out there.

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  12. We all remember Peter C (hey Pete, we worked at Comcast together *shudder*), but how about Pete "Fat Cat" Flanders and Fred "Boogie" Brian?

    I use to love WWCK's "Shaun & Tom Show". Tom Easton was an incredible talent with all of his impersonations. I guess he went on to bigger and better things. This was all pre-Jeff Lamb. Shaun, aka Mike Gatlin is still in the area. His wife is on ABC 12 news in the morning.

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  13. Gordy. This is so cool. I lived just a half mile from the Big-6 studio on Center road, GB. and remember Peter C. and Flanders and how cool they were. They would let us right inside the studio to watch them as they spun a few tunes and did breaks. We were just awe struck. I was about 11 - 16 at those years, and it was just neat to say hi to them sometimes. Big-6 rocked!

    ~ Craig Smith
    Davison, Mi.

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  14. Hi, Craig!

    Thanks for the kind words!

    It seems like only yesterday!

    Rock 'n Rule!

    Peter Cavanaugh

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  15. I remember picking thw WTAC Music Guide up at the record store in the Bella Vista Mall. I was only 7 years old at the time. I would go there with my older brother.. he would bye an album and I would get a Music Guide (they were free!) lol

    I remember a DJ known as Gary Raymond from WTAC. He died in a house fire. Quite a tradgedy. He is sorely missed.

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  16. Trying to find WTAC air checks with Pete Flanders. Can anyone help?

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  17. In the mid to late 70’s I worked for a couple different record labels and had the good fortune to called on WTAC. I once had my ugly face memorialized on the back of a WTAC weekly music guide! I dreamed up a promotion and convinced the US Army to drop a giant boulder in front of the station to be an eternal Power Rock! Luckily Peter C. said no. We could have crushed the radio station. Oops! What a great crew there! Peter C, Fred Boogie Bryan and the rest. Great memories!

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.