final credits - dave shafer
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a station in Windsor, Canada forever changed radio and set the template for "music television" that came a decade later.
One of the voices heard on CKLW "The Big Eight" -- across most of Canada, across 35 states and all the way around the world from Helsinki to New Zealand -- is now silent.
Dave Shafer died May 7th, 2006 from complications following sinus surgery. He was 73.
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Born Dave Schiefer in Rochester, New York, Shafer served a stint in the U.S. Navy and later studied radio broadcasting at an extension school of Columbia University in New York City. He used Dave Shafer as his professional name throughout his career except for a short period in 1962.
After working at low-power stations in Dover, Delaware and Tucson, Arizona, Shafer moved to Detroit in 1961. He was hired as a record librarian at WJBK-AM, then known as "Radio 15 -- Where we start 'em and chart 'em," a top pop radio station.
Later that year, Shafer was pulled to fill the late night jock slot as "Jack the Bellboy."
WJBK's owner, Storer Broadcasting Inc., retained the rights to the "Bellboy" name and during the history of the station a number of different jocks were heard as "Jack." This aircheck from April 25, 1962 features Dave Shafer in the Bellboy role.
Shafer's laid-back personality, offbeat brand of humour and his knack for voices was a winner with fans. He used to break for the news with "We part to keep you smart."
He was loved for the high school record hops he hosted, giving early exposure to Motown acts such as Mary Wells, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas.
By May of 1963, Shafer moved across the Detroit River to do afternoons at CKLW, then known as the somewhat sleepy "Radio 80," with the jocks known as "The Good Guys." He helped popularise the soon-to-be radio giant among teenagers with a steady diet of Top 40 songs and minimal banter.
This Shafer aircheck from August, 1963 is indicative of the pre-Big Eight CKLW sound. Shafer was one of the few jocks to work at CKLW before and after it became a music powerhouse.
At the time, the Motown sound was evolving and the British invasion was just hitting North American shores. CKLW made the most of the bonanza created by the influx of the new sounds.
In 1967, CKLW adopted the "Boss Radio" format developed by Bill Drake and Les Cheanult and soon built the station up to its now legendary status.
Shafer left CKLW in 1968, returned in 1971, left again in 1974 and returned again later in the decade as program director for CKLW-FM.
Later in his career, Shafer served as program director at WCAR, WOMC and WCZY in Detroit. His broadcast career spanned three decades before he retired in 1992 and moved to Florida, happily playing golf four times a week.
At CKLW Shafer demonstrated his facility for dialects.
He once staged a "Gandhi Look-alike Contest" for his CKLW morning show and the winners all traveled to New York to see the somewhat risque show "Oh! Calcutta."
During the play's infamous nude scene, it was said you could hear a pin drop. During the performance CKLW listeners attended was suddenly heard in a German accent, 'Vat is dis?'
That was Dave Shafer.
Nicknamed the Big Eight for its spot on the dial, CKLW boasted a 50,000-watt signal originating from Windsor, Ontario -- one of Canada's southernmost points.
With Lake Erie acting as a giant ground plane, CKLW's tower was located on its shores (no doubt its radiating pattern pointed southward) and the station's signal and influence was heard throughout the northeastern U.S.
It was the most-listened-to radio station in Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo ... and Detroit hosted more Top 40 stations than any other city in the States.
CKLW used the Drake system -- where everything was tightly formatted, from music scheduling, to placement of ads and jingles, to what the jocks said and how they said it.
While some felt it was the beginning of the end of personality in rock radio, for others it was the launch of a new era.
Gone were the jocks with "pounds of sound" and "platter chatter" and "the best looking guys you'll ever hear." Soon it was "the music that mattered" and a time when every radio on every beach and in every car was playing the same song and sound -- the sound of the Big Eight. It was like a scene from "American Grafitti."
CKLW was also known for its notorious tabloid-style "20-20 News," read by announcers who used news stories like disk jockeys used music. Listeners were invited to contribute with teasers like "Whether it's a birdbath or a bloodbath, we want to know about it on the Big Eight hotline."
Les Garland, the program director who developed CKLW's "hot clock" programming wheel, went on to become MTV's first program director.
A documentary about CKLW, "Radio Revolution: The Rise & Fall of The Big 8," was produced by Markham Street Films. It was awarded a Gemini in 2005 for Best History Documentary and offers a fascinating insight into the station and its times.
The DVD edition includes extra scenes and outtakes not shown in the theatrical or televised versions. It is highly recommended by the Last Link for fans of radio that now sounds as if it had come from another planet.
For fans of Dave Shafer and CKLW, there is an abundance of material available on the internet.
WKNR Keener-13, a one-time CKLW rival, hosts a Dave Shafer tribute page.
From early in his career, Shafer can be heard as "Jack, The Bellboy" here and here on WJBK.
There are airchecks from The Classic CKLW page featuring Shafer in August, 1963 and broadcasting during a remote in late summer, 1964.
The WKNR site also hosts audio files of Shafer at CKLW in July of 1965, and "taking control" of the "20-20 Weather Watch" in 1996.
The Rock Radio Scrapbook features an aircheck of Shafer at CKLW in 1965.
Of note is the echo chamber sound the entire CKLW station seemed to be immersed in.
The Rock Radio Scrapbook has a page devoted to the The CKLW Years which features other jocks and airchecks of the era.
Wikipedia has an extensive entry for CKLW.
The Classic CKLW page has an exhaustive tribute to the station and an extensive collection of jingles, IDs and sounds as heard on the station.
Lastly, National Public Radio has a twenty-minute audio tribute to the "Big Eight" which features some classic examples of the "20-20 News" sound at about the 13 minute mark.
Other radio personality tributes can be found here.