Windsor's Gateway Radio Market (1967-1999)
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University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Major Papers Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 2019 Breaking the States: Windsor's Gateway Radio Market (1967-1999) Ron Leary University of Windsor, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/major-papers Part of the Canadian History Commons Recommended Citation Leary, Ron, "Breaking the States: Windsor's Gateway Radio Market (1967-1999)" (2019). Major Papers. 105. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/major-papers/105 This Major Research Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers at Scholarship at UWindsor. It has been accepted for inclusion in Major Papers by an authorized administrator of Scholarship at UWindsor. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Breaking the States: Windsor’s Gateway Radio Market (1967-1999) By Ron Leary A Major Research Paper Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies through the Department of History in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2019 © 2019 Ron Leary Breaking the States: Windsor’s Gateway Radio Market (1967-1999) by Ron Leary APPROVED BY: ______________________________________________ M. Wright History ______________________________________________ G. Teasdale, Advisor History September 19, 2019 DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this thesis and that no part of this thesis has been published or submitted for publication. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. Furthermore, to the extent that I have included copyrighted material that surpasses the bounds of fair dealing within the meaning of the Canada Copyright Act, I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include such material(s) in my thesis and have included copies of such copyright clearances to my appendix. I declare that this is a true copy of my thesis, including any final revisions, as approved by my thesis committee and the Graduate Studies office, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. iii ABSTRACT Windsor, Ontario was the most important gateway radio market within Canada throughout the second half of the twentieth century. The successful integration of two of its commercial radio stations within the highly competitive Detroit radio market, CKLW “The Big 8” and 89X “The Cutting Edge,” provided Canadian recording artists with an exceptional opportunity to break into the potentially lucrative U.S. popular music market. While the Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission’s nationalist policies would prove challenging to implement within the borderlands context and require plenty of compromise, its Canadian content regulations nevertheless further enhanced the gateway radio opportunity for Canadian recording artists. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration of Originality ................................................................................................ iii Abstract .......................................................................................................................... iv Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Historiography and Methodology .................................................................................... 5 Canadian Content Regulations (Cancon) .......................................................................... 8 Why Still Go South? ....................................................................................................... 13 CKLW and the Blueprint for Breaking the States ............................................................ 16 CRTC and the “Windsor Radio Review” .......................................................................... 27 The Next Generation: 89X “The Cutting Edge” ............................................................... 32 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 45 References/Bibliography ............................................................................................... 49 Vita Auctoris .................................................................................................................. 53 v INTRODUCTION The Canadian content regulations imposed upon Canadian radio stations in 1971 opened the commercial airwaves to the country’s recording artists in an unprecedented manner, greatly improving the odds of sustaining careers domestically. However, a limited population and distantly separated major urban centres, combined with the allure of the rich American musical legacy, continued to drive Canadian artists’ attention south of the border. Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, one radio market in particular was uniquely positioned to provide an exceptional opportunity to break careers beyond national borders and into the potentially lucrative U.S. popular music market.1 Windsor, Ontario, located across the river from Detroit, Michigan, is the only Canadian city immediately adjacent to a major American city. With its proximity to the Detroit metro region, as well as Toledo and Cleveland, Windsor’s radio stations provided access to a potential audience of upwards 8 million, largely American listeners.2 In 1971, that would equate to an audience the size of nearly 40% of the entire population of Canada.3 Windsor was the only domestic radio market which could provide access to such a large American audience. This made it the gateway radio market of Canada. Numerous careers were significantly impacted, with some outright transformed, as a result of support from the market’s two most successful commercial 1 Kelli Korducki, “They’re Listening: Border-town Radio Stations Remain A Vital Southern Link for Canadian Musicians,” This 45, no. 4 (Jan/Feb 2012): 27; Ritchie Yorke, “Artist Claims CKLW’s Keen Interest Affects U.S. Hits in Popularity and In Sales,” Billboard, May 19, 1973, 58. 2 “Radio Station CKLW Renewal of Licence 1969,” Canadian Radio and Television Commission, Ottawa, February 4-6, 1969, 83. 3 The Canadian population in 1971 was 21,568,311; “1991 Census Highlights,” Statistics Canada, March 1994, 4, accessed September 11, 2019, http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2013/statcan/rh- hc/CS96-304-1994-eng.pdf. 1 stations, CKLW “The Big 8” and 89X “The Cutting Edge.” These stations have been credited, to varying degrees, with opening the American popular music market to artists such as The Guess Who, Skylark, Gordon Lightfoot, Edward Bear, Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies, Our Lady Peace and Sloan. CKLW “The Big 8” is Windsor’s most celebrated radio success story. It launched its rebranded format in the spring of 1967 and quickly came to dominate the Detroit radio market, remaining the #1 ranked station for five years.4 CKLW has been considered one of the most influential North American radio stations of the era and is recognized for its role in helping revolutionize the way in which modern radio was delivered.5 By the mid-1970s the station began its long and slow decline, finally folding its hit music format in 1983. The Canadian content regulations have been unfairly centred out as the main reason for the demise of the station’s popular music format. But an increasingly fragmented radio market, resulting from the rise in popularity of FM radio, combined with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)’s strict FM format regulations, also played critical roles in the AM station’s inevitable fall in ratings.6 CKLW was also not the only important commercial radio station of note within the border market, though its grand success has mostly overshadowed the others. The largely forgotten CJOM-FM, was the rebellious and experimental radio station throughout the 1970s and 1980s that agitated for the 4 Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8, DVD (Toronto: Markham Street Films Inc., 2005). 5 Ibid. 6 Charlie O’Brien, “The Demise of the Big 8: Laying a Giant to Rest,” The Classic CKLW Page, accessed August 1, 2019, https://www.thebig8.net/demise.html; “CKLW: Double Market Dilemma,” Billboard, August 7, 1982, CKLW-6. 2 regulatory changes which would pave the way for Windsor’s next great radio success story. In 1984, CJOM daringly stared down the CRTC, the radio regulatory and licencing body, blatantly disregarding its “Promise of Performance.”7 This forced the Commission’s hand to properly consider the unique challenges experienced within the highly competitive and tightly contested border radio market. Its bold efforts led to numerous exceptions created for the Windsor radio market alone, most importantly the development of a new class of experimental FM licence. Other key changes were a reduction in required Canadian content, news and talk, and permitting a higher hit music percentage than elsewhere within Canada.8 The resulting “flexible approach” towards the border market allowed for its two FM stations to more easily compete with the unregulated American stations