CKLW – The Big 8
was a Windsor, Ontario radio station that put a killer AM signal over metro
Detroit. Canadian stations had
to be inventive because they lacked the deep pockets of their Detroit
competitors. So, CKLW rocked 24/7.
In those days stations were required to air a specific quota
of news. Most stations considered newscasts to be a tune out. CKLW saw news as an opportunity. At The Big 8 the news was performance art –
gritty and totally real.
You’ve got to hear it because there is nothing like it on
radio today:
Thank you to Don Gonyea and NPR for inspiring this
post. The idea for Don' story and the archive audio came from Dale Willman.
Check out his terrific story about CKLW from 1999 at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1057740
Check out his terrific story about CKLW from 1999 at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1057740
Also available: Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the
Big 8, a nifty video documentary at: http://radiorevolutiondvd.com/about.html
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