Fast Talkin’ Slow Walkin’ DJ Dude … It was June 1966 ...
WXYZ/Detroit – was BFYP DJ Joey Reynolds ahead of his time? This
guy can TALK and that he did – fast –
while grabbing records for the turntable and slapping down The Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.”
WXYZ was too proud to
give up the music biz through the highs and lows of the charts, but finally opened
the conversation for a talk format in 1984.
Back in 1966 the top 40 station followed the Rock & Roll crowd, beat
for formatted beat. Think Joey looks bored in his jock picture on WXYZ’s music chart? He was.
My 2008 interview with Joey
pinpointed when stringent
station formatting became unbearable. “I quit [radio] — in 1967-68. I
didn’t want any more of it, I hated it. I wasn’t going to be playing something
that someone thought the audience
wanted.” And there you have it! [Joey’s story and more in BFYP-Book 2, The Swinging
Sixties, coming this fall.] Ah, but did he stay retired ... ?