24 Thursday, November 14, 2024 BATTLE CREEK SHOPPER NEWS http://www.thebattlecreekshopper.comSee KEENER on 25Join Today!Join Today!
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must be completed by Nov 29, 2024.BY JIM MEAD
Guest Columnist
On Friday morning, Nov. 13, 1964,
at 5:30 a.m., listeners to WELL the
day before were awakened to WKFR
-- KEENER 14.
Yes, 60 years ago this month,
WELL--AM and 103.3 FM became
WKFR -- KEENER 14.
“I remember it well,” said Cathy
Lawrence on the Keener 14 Facebook
page. “I was working at the station
when it all took place; the phones
were ringing off the hook. There was
an instant negative reaction from the
‘older’ generation in Battle Creek.
Rock and roll was not popular with
the city’s elders. The rest of us loved
it!”
WKFR was Battle Creek’s intro-
duction to a relatively young contem-
porary radio format of Top 40 radio.
Keener 14 is no more, but some 60
years later, I can still hear the jingles
that helped bring the station to life;
still resonate in my head.
When Keener 14 hit the airwaves, itwas like a breath of fresh air, focused
on “hit music’ like that being played
in bigger cities on 50,000-watt clear
channel stations, such as Chicago’s
WLS and WCFL, New York’s
WABC and other cities throughout
the USA. These 50,000-watt sta-
tions after sundown would cover as
many as 14 or more states and parts
of Canada, and stations west of the
Mississippi River could be received
in Mexico and Canada.
Why the change to Keener 14?
Radio station WELL was owned by
the Knorr family, who also owned
WKMH 1310 A-M in Dearborn-
Detroit. On Nov. 1, 1963, WKMH
switched its call letters to WKNR
--KEENER 13, playing a “Top 40”
format.
WKMH played a middle-of-the-
road music format and was last in the
ratings of the Detroit area radio sta-
tions. With the change of call letters
and format, WKNR skyrocketed to
number 1 in 60 days.
With the success in Detroit, KnorrPopular radio station Keener 14
made the airwaves in Battle Creek
60 years ago. (Photo provided)60 years ago, Keener radio hit airwaves in B.C.
was willing to try the format change
in Battle Creek.
WELL was a small station also
playing the easy listening, middle-
of-the-road format with the power
of 1,000 watts days and 250 watts at
night as compared to the 50,000-watt
clear channel big city stations.
One of the other factors of the for-
mat change was surveys conducted
and showed that the 18- to 35-year-
olds were changing stations at night
and listening to those 50,000-watt
top 40 big city stations.
WKFR front office employee
Sharon Batterson stated from an
article in 2009 in the Battle Creek
Enquirer, “The station went from
playing our music two hours a day to
playing it all day.”
In the ’60s there were no i-Cloud
music storage, music streaming or
Sirius XM satellite radio; we had
transistor radios and tape recorders,
and our play list was a stack of 45
RPMs on a record player and the
radio was tuned to Keener 14 and
listening to our favorite disc jockey,
or as they were known to a Keener
listener as the “Keener Key Men of
Music.” The Key Men spoke with
enthusiasm and excitement; the lis-
tener could hear the smile in their
voices.
The Keener Key Men and format
change moved the station to the most
listened to station and inspired many
listeners to become radio DJs.
The Keener sound was contagious.
There were contests; instant pick-
and-play where listeners could call
in and be on the radio talking to their
favorite DJ and requesting a song
played instantly; high school sock
hops hosted by a Keener DJ. There
was the weekly WKFR Keener 14
Tunedex, a list of the top 40 songs in
Battle Creek -- the jingles, as some-
one referred to jingles “as the music
between the music.” Jingles also
hyped-up the DJ and listener for the
next song.
ho could ever forget “Cruising the
Gut” in downtown Battle Creek on a
warm summer night and having your
top down and listening to Keener 14?
WKFR even had a softball and bas-