By Scott Westerman When I read Susan Whitall’s piece on John Fogerty, it brought back vivid memories of putting on the headphones in my Ann Arbor basement, stepping behind my Ludwigs and playing along with Creedence. CCR charted 13 times on WKNR over a three year period between August of 1968 and July of 1971. [...]

Jeff Smith sent us this link to an NPR story about the past, present and questionable future of Muzak. For example, did you know that Lyndon Johnson owned a Muzak franchise and sold a subscription to the White House? Ken MacDonald, Sr., the erstwhile owner of radio stations in Saginaw, Cadillac and Petoskey once told [...]

By Susan Whitall – From her Blog at DetNews.com I’ve gotten more than a few calls from angry musicians this week, in the wake of publicity about the radio protests going on against Rep. John Conyers’ proposed fee for performers that AM and FM radio would have to pay. Conyers’ Performance Rights Act passed through [...]

By Scott Westerman If you read Mike Austerman and Art Vuolo in January of 2009, you know that their love affair with satellite radio is diminishing as the unified brands struggle to find profitability by cutting personality and tightening the 60s play list. It seems that the decade channels at Sirius/XM are falling victim to [...]

By Susan Whitall – From her Blog at DetNews.com Singer/songwriter Cat Stevens, known now as Yusuf Islam, performed in Los Angeles Monday night in his first U.S. show in 33 years. The concert was invitation-only and packed with famous musicians (Van Morrison was reportedly on the list) and celebrities. Here’s the Billboard report.

The “Reel” Tom Ryan reports that you can now peruse every issue of Billboard Magazine, from 1942 to 2008, on line over at Google Books.. for free. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Do a WKNR word search at Google Books and you’ll find 628 references across hard covers, paperbacks and magazine articles. [...]

After his departure from the Monkees, Mike Nesmith charted on the WKNR Music Guide with “Joanne“, a tune that helped cement his reputation as a pioneer in the country rock genre. The song had echoes of “Different Drum“, which became a one hit wonder for the Stone Poneys, and a catalyst for Linda Rondstadt’s solo [...]

By Susan Whitall – From her Blog at DetNews.com As much as I read online, there’s always something I discover I can’t quite live without. This week it’s Bill Bentley’s Sonic Boomers website. I found out about Sonic Boomers from a fellow Creem editor who had an old story picked up and republished in the [...]

By Scott Westerman – Curator May 6th, 1945. The Second World War in Europe ends as the Germans announce that they will sign surrender documents. While most eyes are focused overseas, life goes on in Detroit. At Henry Ford Hospital, Robert Seger is born. By the time he was six the family had relocated to [...]