Rock Radio Scrapbook
AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of April 9,
2006
Weekly issue #371
Talent:
ROBIN SEYMOUR
Station: CKLW Windsor, Ont.
Date: December, 1965
Time: 3:29
"Bobbin' with the Robin".
"No more time for sobbin'"
"Go and let the mob in."
"Everybody flies ... sky high!"
Anyone familiar with Detroit radio in the '50s (or the Cruisin' 1956 album) would certainly remember those lyrics. It was the "Bobbin' with the Robin" theme song of Robin Seymour, one of the most revered Detroit-area radio-TV personalities of the '50s and '60s.
Seymour's career began in the Big Band era and continued into the psychedelic years. He got into radio in 1943 with some announcing and board work at Detroit's WJBK. After serving with Armed Forces Radio during the Second World War, he returned to Detroit in 1947 and landed an afternoon pop music show on WKMH Dearborn, Mich. The self-described "kid who wanted to get into radio" had an outstanding 18-year run at 'KMH, highlighted by his popular "Bobbin' with the Robin" afternoon show (he went to mornings in 1960). In the 1950s, Seymour became the first Detroit deejay to play sock hops and one of the first white deejays in the city to play black R&B doo-wop-style artists. He was also one of the first deejays in the U.S. to ask his listeners what they thought of new records.
Response was tremendous to both Seymour's radio show and his live stage appearances at Robin Seymour's Original Rock 'n' Roll Revue. His only big mistake appears to be his early assessment of Elvis Presley, who Seymour said "wouldn't last more than a year." Aside from that he was considered a good judge of talent, helping introduce many of the big acts of the day via radio or stage.
Seymour left WKMH in 1965 for a three-year stint as host of "Swingin' Time" on CKLW-TV, a show patterned after Dick Clark's "American Bandstand". For a short period at the end of 1965, he also appeared on CKLW radio. Seymour's TV show, which featured just about every local act of significance and many national stars, lasted until 1968.
In 1970, Seymour recreated his WKMH "Bobbin' with the Robin" show for Cruisin' 1956, part of the incredible LP record series of Top 40 radio re-creations conceived and produced by Ron Jacobs.
At last word (2000), Seymour was in the Los Angeles area where had had his own info-commercial production company.
Hear Robin Seymour on CKLW here.
(The Don Shuttleworth Collection)
Talent:
PAT HOLIDAY
Station: CKLW Windsor, Ont.
Date: August 6, 1973
Time: 9:14
One of CKLW's mainstays throughout the 1970s was Pat Holiday. The smooth-sounding Holiday was CKLW's midday host throughout most of the decade, starting in 1971. He went on to program CKLW-FM in the 1980s. Later, he held top programming/management jobs at Standard Radio at CJFM Montreal (Mix 96), CFRB and CKFM (Mix 99.9) Toronto and CJAY/CKMX Calgary.
Hear Pat Holiday here.
(The Tom Howard Collection)
For more super 'CK airchecks, visit The CKLW Years