WJR: One of a Kind (1966)

★★★★★ · Great film for a great station · Myron Falwell · 2009-03-19

The shame of it is, most of the unique features about WJR would go away in time: CBS Radio would give way to NBC Radio in the late 70's, then over to ABC with the ABC/Capital Cities merger (Capital Cities bought WJR in the early 60's from G.A. Richards' estate; the "Goodwill" group). Karl Haas took his classical music show to Cleveland, where it was syndicated until well after his death. Focus continued with JP (and his successor, Paul W. Smith) until the late 90s, the news blocks would go away in 2006, and all music programming disappeared with Mike Whorf's retirement in 2004. Not to mention…

★★★★★ · A rich view of Detroit life in 1966 · Rebeccca Gribbs Lawson · 2009-08-08

I love the long, slow approach to the sales pitch here, intended for potential advertisers I'm sure, but so valuable to those of us who grew up in this era in Detroit. I especially like the news room scene, where the 2 reporters decided they must get both sides of the story by 5pm. Hard to believe a news room really looked like this. I wish i could jump right into that scene and show them how to put a news scoop on Twitter!

★★★★★ · Once There Were Giants! · donwert · 2010-03-06

This is a marvelous promotional film produced by WJR Radio, Detroit, to lure advertizers. Not only did WJR dominate Detroit radio, it was a major ratings factor in Toledo, Cleveland and Toronto. At night, its signal could clearly be heard almost everywhere east of the Rockies. When this film was made in the mid-60s, Detroit was probably the most prosperous big city in the country and WJR one of the best radio stations with a stable of personalities, live music, sports (we see in this film the incomparable Ernie Harwell broadcasting a Tigers game) and a great news department. I can still hear…

★★★★★ · Includes a clip by Ernie Harwell · Jilly9 · 2005-02-20

This clip features a clip of Ernie Harwell in the broadcast booth, calling a play by Norman Cash and also Ernie interviewing Al Lopez.

★★★★ · One of a kind penetration! · Spuzz · 2005-02-21

Lov\ingly made film about the radio giant WJR. The film which is introduced of course, by Lowell Thomas, who only stays long enough to introduce the real narrator, J.T. Mccartney who takes off his sweater (yikes!) AND butts out his cigarrette before he tells us about the wonders of WJR radio. And what a radio station it is! He introduces nearly everyone broadcasting, from sports announcers to women's news broadcasters. Everyone wants to listen to WJR! Fathers ignore their kids while they're at the zoo! People on train rides bring their loud radios on board with them! It almost becomes a…

★★★★ · A real time capsule · DJason · 2009-08-08

The introduction from Lowell Thomas is just weird. It boils down to "I'm Lowell Thomas, I think WJR is interesting, and therefore, so should you!" Given that I had to look up just who Lowell Thomas was, the gambit didn't work. Ah, but then we get to see (incredibly young) J.P. McCarthy, who was truly one of the greats. All of what was shown was well before my time, except for J.P., and of course the great Ernie Harwell, whose voice IS baseball to anyone who grew up listening to the Tigers play. Everything else is damned interesting to anyone curious about Detroit history, especially anyone…