CKLW - Ed Mitchell (February1970) ... Month Corrected

Aircheck of afternoon drive. Lee Smith operating

[@GK-ev5rd]

Right and Tight baby! Top 40 Radio at its best....they never screwed up, you got the best always....Radio was great back then and I miss it so much.

[@IMunlucky]

Memories of summers in the late 60's and early 70"s working on tobacco farms around Tillsonburg, Ont. The great music made the hard work almost enjoyable.

[@LeeSmith-dv7wj]

Several cousins worked in the tobacco fields. Very hard work which paid very well ....(if you could stand up to the work) which paid for university. CKLW was the best station in SW Ont by far .... but, I admit to a very high degree of bias.

[@IMunlucky]

@@LeeSmith-dv7wj So true. I started driving boats at 12, was a primer at 13, and then hung kiln from age 18 to 24. It paid for six years of university but it was tough arriving 2 - 3 weeks after classes began. Good on your cousins for sticking it out. Loads of "city" boys came from the GTA but they usually quit. Over the years it became necessary to hire workers from Quebec and the off-shore to fill out harvest gangs.

[@ontarioobserver1287]

Listened to CKLW at night in North Bay Ontario during the 60s and early 70s...Great station...

[@newhotman1001]

This was the greatest radio station ever and anywhere. In college at Michigan State, I was weekend disc jockey at a Lansing, MI station where I patterned my style after the Big 8 jocks. I was so lucky to grow up then and it will never happen again.

[@josepha.sojajr.2725]

I thank you for this. It was an unforgettable time in life.

[@uckadalma]

Proud to have been raised with CKLW !! , I remember my first days in kindergarden ,thanks to Denise & Diane they had a little transistor radio with great great music from it and a big "8" on the dial. What very nice memories this brings me of my childhood and of a pulsing live Detriot that still lives only in my mind !! Goosebumps and lots of nostalgia.......

[@tommiesmith3191]

Best radio station on the planet. Whatever became of Steve Hunter? Always loved 20/20 NEWS.

[@DANNYBOY7797]

Radio today is so boring ,this was real radio i loved this station an wls too i got this statios all night Louisville Ky.

[@kaydee4296]

Growing up in Rochester, Michigan in the 60s-70s CKLW was on ALL the time. Great music of all kinds. 🌼❤💙🌼 Hearing them discussing drug addiction clinics- imagine what these guys would think now with addiction & fentanyl DEATHS being ignored. Hearing the updates on the declining auto industry too. Very sad. Funny, I don't remember the Zodiac Gypsy at all!😁

[@jetstreamguy]

He left CKLW when I was there. "Ed Mitchell" was a pleasure to work with, he knew exactly what to call for, almost never changed the planned layout of a set, and was reassuring when you'd make a slight mistake.

[@Doug326]

Ed Mitchell was also known as Mark Elliott when he was at KHJ Hollywood. Mark Elliott I was not only a great jock, he became a celebrated voiceover artist. He became a voice of various television programs and a TV network. He had a great career, and is now retired.

[@detroitjack0325]

Back when you had great music and disc jockeys!

[@robertorick6383]

When was the last time you seen a Boron gas station in Michigan (before it was swallowed up by Amaco, and then by BP?) Also, was Ed Mitchell the only one who did astrology on CKLW (with the Mystic Gypsy?) My sign is Gemini, by the way (June 18th.) Who in Michigan also remembers William Millikin as Governor? Also, Motown Records was still located in Detroit in February 1970. (two years later it would move to Los Angeles to get into the movie business.) I remember that "Dimension Dolls' " album from 1963 pictured at 12:50 with one of the DJ's. It was issued as a compilation album of Screen Gems/Dimension Records female singers (The Cookies, Little Eva, & Carole King) assembled by label founder Don Kirshner. Today that album is real tough to find, and is a collector's item on the market. I don't remember who the DJ is pictured with the album on the table. Any clues?

[@nanlisa]

I was only 12 back in February of 1970. I used to pick up this station here in Philly at night. Just like WFIL, CKLW was a darn good station.

[@DetroitLives313]

Boy does this bring back some very good memories!!!!

[@pwgasson]

when i hear the cklw jingles tears run down my cheek.

[@Tune-O-matic]

It brings back sad reflections of happier times spent so long ago north of Detroit.

[@Virgovixen10]

Tears for me too! Just mentioning the call sign breaks my heart! And I cry. Had I ever known that those were the best days of my life….❤️🔥🙏

[@Noel1960s]

I remember falling to sleep listening to CKLW.

[@kennethrussell1158]

People don't realize how much the DJs were celebrities, they were almost as popular than the music

[@jetstreamguy]

Thanks Ken glad you liked it.

[@markwilliams5606]

The Big 8. CKLW-! The best! Rolling in my 65 Buick Wildcat.425. Detroit radio station. Get some Top hat hamburgers.

[@jagpitt17]

Oh' the memories of attending Gannon College in Erie, PA and listening to CKLW day and night! The best!

[@redf1966]

I was only 6 years old in 1970 I have never tuned the Big 8 living on Vancouver Island BC, but I did tune to Vancouver,s CKLG.which had the same jingles (G instead of W) with similar pop music and talk. This recording brings back awesome memories of those days. In 1978 I discover CKLW while listening at night while in Saskachuan. I wish there were recordings of CKLG in the late 60s to late 70s.

[@essessessesq]

In Cleveland we loved CKLW, as the Big 8 came booming in across Lake Erie from the Motor City!!! "And the hits just keep on coming!"

[@411Rocco]

CKLW was kind of a showcase station in that their night signal covered the entire Eastern Seaboard and all states to the south and east. None of Drake's other stations had that kind of reach. Ed Mitchell, incidentally, left for KFRC in San Francisco where he changed his name to Mark Elliot. Later he was on KHJ in Los Angeles and has been the voice of Disney for quite a few years, and I believe he still is.

[@maryrafuse2297]

In 1970 the CKLW 50,000 Watt Transmitter was huge with gigantic power output tubes. Today's Nautel solid state transmitters are so much smaller and produce steady full power all the time. It is possible to run them over their rated power with no harm to the transmitter. When output tubes aged their performance diminished. Wealthy powerful stations like CKLW would have no need for remanufactured tubes. This was part of their advantage along with the class of their signal. Many factors including top rated on air personalities made this station # 1. You could be a great air personality and struggle during ratings at the 5,000 watt station in Detroit. Output power and efficiency does make a difference in radio.

[@jetstreamguy]

Your mention of "Serving 2 countrys, 4 Provinces, and 27 states" reminded me of the main announce booth. There were large sheets of paper with liners on them plastered all over the wall above the window that looked into the operator's position. One of those big hunks of paper was exactly your quote. Keep on keepin' on!

[@jetstreamguy]

Yup .... me too. I can't begin to count the number of times I had he radio under my pillow listening intently to everything about "The Big 8," until sleep would overcome me, and vowing I would work there one day.

[@dougclark7077]

I understand that around this time CKLW was neck and neck with WLS in Chicago for second place among the most listened to radio stations in the U.S. I live in North Central Ohio and listened to CKLW regularly from 1972 to 1976. CKLW unfortunately lost listenership in the late 70's to FM radio when more autos had FM radios installed in them. FM radio was more adventurous in music particularly AOR format stations like WMMS in Cleveland.

[@rgjraccoon]

Prior to CKLW, and a stop at WKYC Cleveland, Ed Mitchell was Sandy Shore at KIOA Des Moines in the mid 60s. He grew up in Cedar Rapids IA and started his radio career there in 1957 at KPIG 1450, moved across town to KCRG 1600, co-owned with KCRG TV 9, the ABC affiliate. While he was there, he went out to Philly to sub for Dick Clark on Bandstand. Google Sandy Shore Des Moines Broadcasting for a KIOA aircheck. Stuff I never knew before looking around a bit!

[@grebssie]

Loved that station!

[@themightyx5652]

CKLW WAS BOSS

[@miketheshanmanmangan]

The Big*8* CKLW serving two nations ,four Provinces and 27 states from The 50 thousand watt Blowtorch with the ground system in lake erie,Phil Yarborough(Bill drake)doing the lock in top and bottom of the hour liners,The music,The station sound,The Jocks.,The High Profile sensationalized News..There will never be another CKLW..The Motor Cities Live Wire!!The Shanman

[@oldiesgeek454]

This is my first time hearing Ed Mitchell. (I didn't grow up in Michigan) I can't get over how much he sounds like The Real Don Steele. Is Ed still with us by chance? 😊

[@Doug326]

Mark was aka Mark Elliott and he came the noon to three Jock on KHJ Los Angeles. He left radio to become a voiceover artist and the announcer for various television programs. Mark is now retired.

[@oldiesgeek454]

@@Doug326 Thanks for the info. I grew up in SoCal, so I'm sure I must've heard Marc at least a few times on 93KHJ.

[@ycdtotv2001]

The 20/20 news is from February 5 or 6, 1970, Rudy York died on the 5th.

[@tleparskas]

Lee, great memory of Ed Mitchell. Adding this this to the CKLW Big 8 page collection!

[@jetstreamguy]

Thanks for adding that info.

[@jetstreamguy]

Thanks for that date info .... I've amended the title.

[@jetstreamguy]

Thanks for the feedback. In my admittedly highly biased opinion, the finest of all the stations in the Bill Drake chain.of stations.

[@jetstreamguy]

Sorry, but I don't recall details of the site well enough to comment, but it was loocated at Harrow, Ontario on highly conductive soil but I` don't think the ground system was actually located in the lake..... this would be the first time I had heard of it, and I've been a CKLW fanatic since about 1964. That's not to say it isn't true though ......

[@bigstuff52]

Belated thank you...Been a fan since 68...

[@robertc9957]

Bob Losure way before his CNN days.

[@armandoflores5297]

cklw ,just like going back home to the farm on hull prarie road in perrysburg twp. northwestern ohio

[@sparkybluefox]

I love the Big 8 ! SBF

[@DANNYBOY7797]

Please play the who tapes music an all so we can relive it all again please

[@bigstuff52]

Can you tell me about the ground system using Lake Erie.

[@Nakedaza]

C K L W. . . Fifty Thousand Watts, Sounding Like A Million!

[@DJMTRAXXX]

gr8 memoriez Ed thank you! I grew up with thiz station