My parents had CKLW tuned to every radio they had when I was growing up. The CKLW jingle was the very first thing I remembered growing up. It had Detroit all over it, even though it came from across the border in Windsor. There will never be another one like it again. Ever.
The best radio station in America in the 1960's. They had the dj's, the sound and the jingles that still remain in my mind. How great it is to hear the voices and the jingles from that special era. Thank you.
With out a doubt greatest radio station I ever heard. I only got to listen to this station when my wife and I use to go visit her mother who lived in Erie, PA.Is there a radio station today that does things like CKLW use to.
I also remember hearing CKLW on a transistor radio, while I was at a now-defunct psychiatric boarding school, located some 100 MILES west of the Detroit/Windsor area, between 1975 and 1980! MEMORIES!!!
I used to listen to CKLW around 67-68 and fondly remember the song lists. Because I lived closer to Toronto, the competing radio stations hogged the airwaves, so I could only tune in late at night. Lots of motown - it was great! Refreshing because the other stations didn't play that much of it. Wow, that was such a different time (from today) music-wise. Thanks for posting this - a blast from the past!!
This was the radio station in early teens and I followed those top 40 lists religiously. Would love to hear even more of the golden years of CK from 67 to 77
I grew up on Staten Island in the 1960s and 70s, and CKLW would weave in and out late at night. I listened for years, now there was some Great radio stations back then, like WABC 77 AM in New York City and WNBC 66 and KRLA in Los Angeles but nothing like CKLW was in a league all by itself nothing close it was the best thing on the radio by far the jingles, commercials and DJs were exciting as hell. You felt left out if you weren’t tuned in
We were spoiled by CKLW in Ontario. We listened to it all day in the fields as we worked all summer 1968 - 1975. At night we could pick up WLS Chicago and WABC NYC, which we all thought were quite exotic.
I grew up west of Cleveland and CKLW came in clear as a bell on my litle Radio Shack transistor radio. When I was a kid, I thought all of the DJ's were the same guy because they all sounded alike. Thanks for posting!
One of my most distinct childhood memories is of my older brother washing his car on a hot summer day, while listening to CKLW on his car radio. Awesome memories! Oh, and we picked it up as clear as day way down here in Lima, Ohio.
Loved CKLW in the late '60's & early '70's. Even though I lived in New Jersey, I loved DXing. I got a couple of posters, one for the "CKLW Top 500", from 1966 - 1970.
From high atop the snow belt in Chardon Ohio I was in my bedroom listening to the Top Eight at Eight on the Big Eight CKLW. Whoever put this together - THANK YOU. This was like reliving my childhood from the 70s. You can't see me sitting here with this huge grin on my face and some misty eyes listening to this. What a trip back to a time when radio was FUN!
MY MOM,BROTHER,SISTER AND I LISTENED TO CKLW ALL THE TIME IN CLEVELAND AND SANDUSKY IN THE '60'S. WE GOT THEM NEARLY ALL THE TIME DAY AND NIGHT. WE USED TO GAUGE WHEN THE BIG STORMS WERE COMING ACROSS THE LAKE IN THE SUMMER BECAUSE CKLW WOULD DISAPPEAR INTO THE STATIC....THEN WE WOULD LOOK TO THE NORTHWEST AND SEE THAT HUGE PURPLE LINE COMING TOWARDS US, GREAT MEMORIES.......EXCELLENT STATION......THAT WOULDN'T LAST AN HOUR WITH ALL OF THE GOOFY PEOPLE IN CHARGE OF U.S.A. RADIO TODAY, TOO BAD.....I'M GLAD I AM OLD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ROB MCRAE
Imagine a format change in Windsor Ontario, the PD of 50.000 Watt CKLW walks into master control and says, listen up, format change we are returning to glory. This talk format is gone as of now! People are tired of complaining COVID has changed the personality of our tiny audience, they want to ROCK! Stop flapping your gums and play music, long live ROCK & Soul! To make it clear to you all please note "The Big Eight" is back! Just something from my imagination about how things should be.
As a college student at Bowling Green in NW Ohio late 60s/early 70s, CKLW could be heard in nearly every dorm room and every car radio. It was like listening to a party 24/7. It was great music, great DJs and great entertainment. There wasn't another station around that could match it. Miss the sounds and miss the fun
AM CKLW rocked back in the day. We listened to it all the time late 60s, early 70s, Toledo OH. It was an awesome station back then and brings back lots of memories. Byron MacGregor had an awesome news cast... "This is Byron MacGregor with 20/20 news. It was another bloody day in the Motorcity today for the meat wagon." He was great, never forget it. For FM, W4 - WWWW in Toledo rocked in the 70s. Good times, great memories.
Thanks for the great memories! I'm a baby boomer and I fondly recall back in the mid 60's listening to CKLW and WCFL here in East Tennessee! They played music that wouldn't show up on my local station's playlists until weeks later. They were the greatest stations ever! Brings back fond memories. All the best and thanks again!
CK was our mainline to the outside world in the 60s. Living in rural northwest Ohio, it was our window to the world. The British Invasion and the magic that was Motown came to us via CK. It was an essential part of our teens and a common thread among all young people of the era.
Because this day = the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first album release, it brought back 50yo memories of breathlessly awaiting CKLW's playing of the entire thing .. Strolling the Lake Huron beach, praying my transistor radio's battery would hold out ! Wow. LOVED the Big 8, back then ! Thanks for the memories !!
Listened to CK all the time in Erie, PA while attending college. At home in Pittsburgh in the summer, I listened in the evening. Still love to hear the old jingles.
You know this radio aircheck clip took a lot of patience and talent! This station was one of my favorites in my young years of the 60's and some of the '70's. I'll say this...those DJs of that era had a lot of gusto excitement!
Hearing that promotion call, " CKLW, THE MOTOR CITY", has great memories for me. Got my first AM transistor radio in the 60's, and this was the station I listened to walking to school and back, as I was that " COOL JERK". Thanks for the memories, and I had the great pleasure to meet Pat StJohn a few years back.
Thank you so much for posting this and bringing back all the good old memories of listening to CKLW - Detroit, MI - USA & Windsor, Ontario - Canada :) These were great times !
My dad is always saying how the 70s were just a great time in terms of entertainment. Music was amazing and so was TV. I am so jealous. If I had a time machine one of the 1st places I would go would be the 70s and I would immediately turn on the radio to listen to some CKLW. I watched a documentary on this amazing station in class and I am so mad at the CRTC laws!
My dad grew up enjoying summers along the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Erie. He always said that CKLW ruled and 19 out of evrey 20 transistor radios were tuned into CKLW. He has several homemade oldie cd's and always slips in a few CKLW call songs. Anyone got a copy of the "This is CK country" call sign.
Big Jim is now on 5085WTWW. This is like taking a trip back in time. This presentation is awesome. Makes me remember my own hometown stations and some others: Not just CKLW, but also KXOK, WLS, WABC, KAAY And lots of others.
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! Thanks for posting this fantastic video as it generates so many pleasant memories. Proud to say I actually got to interview Byron McGregor when I worked at a college newspaper in Windsor, Ontario -- the home of CKLW. Byron had just recorded The Americans and his release was receiving immense air play around the world. He was down to earth and humble and bent over backwards to make this nervous college cub reporter feel comfortable and at home. Top marks for this video!
i bet i have listen to this 30 times! lol i lived about an hour from detroit back in the late 60's and all of the 70's. this throws me back so very much...i always had the radio on...huge music lover. ... i even won a tshirt off there...i was a certain number caller with a rotary phone to boot!! hahaha ...ahhh the good ole dayz !
when FM came around i was a WIOT 104.7 fan out of toledo ohio. we lived down by the border. i never knew about swingin time! but a huge fan of american bandstand! oh and sooooul train. i sure miss the good ol days when times were simple.
Times were simpler; they were also bloodier up in Detroit and down in Toledo. Radio was certainly more creative then. Do you remember when then WMHE 92.5 FM was Toledo's BEST Rock - before 104? I will say this: back then radio was not as secure (at least in Toledo). Many of the stations locally have been formatted the same for several decades...WIOT being one of them! While stability is a plus, the staleness is definitely not! WIOT 104.7 has become a senior citizen in broadcasting - going on 45 years as a rock station! Even the legendary CK lasted about half that time.
Hot summer days at the beach, nights in a small town, trying to sleep ( no a/c!!!) with the transistor dialed to CKLW...nothing better!!! Best memories!!
I grew up (70's & 80's) listening to 77WABC, and later after they changed formats 66WNBC, and after hearing this I have come to the conclusion radio sounded so much better back then, I always thought it was NY that only had great sounding radio, I was wrong. I miss the AM radio days!!
Oh Lord! I flunked high School in Windsor '76!!! WooHoo!!! We saw Alice Cooper in studio after a football game! Bob Seger did Live Bullet across the river as I listened to everyone cheer but that was all... This station ruled!!!
Excellent quality! One of the BEST stations..ever! Too bad I could only get it DXing lat at night or early morn out in my Mom's Dodge Dart! When I needed a title or artist..I'd call Rosalie Trombley and she not only gave me the info..she sent me a copy! The world's BEST Music Director and most famous! Thanks for posting The Big 8!
Thanks for posting ... good quality audio on that example of "The Big 8," The picture of the station on Riverside Drive at the 1:00 mark was great. A couple of years ago, on a return to Canada from vacation, I stopped and had my picture taken outside the front door 40 years after I worked there. Trust me ... I was thinner and had darker hair back in 1970! The CKLW sign was quite bright and with the floodlights illuminating the building, you could see it from a long way off. Looked dynamic!
The greatest radio station ever. I listened to the Big 8 mostly at night because it came in better in Lansing (MI). Every weekend was the Million Dollar Weekend where every other song was "golden". Didn't have anything in Lansing until the late 60's when WILS did their Flashback Weekend. Loved the jingles, the records and the dj's. It will never again be duplicated.
Does anyone recall being able to pick CKLW in Chicago or anywhere in Illinois,Wisconsin or Indiana? I wonder how far west did the signal travel. My sister from West Side Detroit (Joy Rd off of Southfield Frwy) LOVED CKLW THE BIG 8!!!!
I miss those funny little jingles. They were all a part of listening to all the awesome music, and we had our favorite disk jockys who were fun as well!! Got to tune to woky in Milwaukee on my am radio now.🎼📻📻📻
Back in 1967 or 68 I could pick up cklw from Elmira new york only around 2:00am in the morning but the music was the very very best. Old skool and rock.
+MrGreenmustang1 I grew up in Jamestown, N.Y. and could hear them most of the time after sunset. I took over the attic in my folks home, where I had my sound system, amateur radio station, did my homework. One night I hooked my long wire antenna, well over 100 feet, to the AM radio and CKLW came pounding in! Great memories there thanks for stirring the memory pot. Peace to you and yours.
Don't these air checks make you wonder if you could bring back this format say every Saturday night from 7:00 to 3:00am....I'd be willing to bet that many of us that grew up with this woud tune in.....CKLW was the greatest
In the mid sixties I was ten years old and I had a crystal radio that didn't require batteries and I lived in Brunswick Hills, Ohio. One night while laying in my bottom bunk bed I was looking up at the wire grid the upper bunk was supported by and I wondered if it would enhance the reception of my crystal radio which derived it's power from the vibrations of broadcast airwaves. SO while everyone else was sleeping I got dressed and went out to the old garage and found what seemed to be a suitable wire. When I got back into my bed and twisted the wire ends around the 3 inch radio antenna and then to the wire of the upper bunk, the volume increase in the single earbud almost blew out my eardrum! I had to lower the volume dramatically and then as I searched for a station I came across CKLW for my first time. From that moment until I left my parents home ten years later I was a devoted listener to CKLW! Everynight while everyone was sleeping I would be taken places through the magic of radio and learn about places like Detroit, Windsor, and LOL Gratiot Road, wherever that is! This spring, just for shits and giggles, I RU-vidD the call letters from my youth of CKLW and am I ever glad I did! I now listen to all my favorite music from back in the day! Thank you to whomever is responsible for making The Great CKLW available again! I love it! Ronster
I was fortunaty lucky to directly exepience the great atmosphere with this extraordinary radio station. CKLW was the most listend station of my childhood ,and boy I can say that I've been lucky to have been there at that time , the right time !!!
CKLW was owned by RKO - a legendary broadcast company with monster stations from coast to coast. The thing that really killed CK was "Can-Con" (the Canadian 40% content law). It was forced to swing away from Detroit and wall to wall American programming and became a Windsor radio station. Later, it became a "talker" - but still Canadian focused.
