Rosalie Trombley
Encyclopedia
Rosalie Trombley was a music director
of AM
Top 40 powerhouse CKLW
aka "The Big 8". Her influence not only affected the direction of CKLW but also led to an annual award named after her, and she was the subject of the song 'Rosalie' by Bob Seger
.
based Detroit
market AM Top 40 radio station powerhouse. With its 50,000 watt signal at 800 kHz on the AM dial, CKLW covered the midwest states including Michigan
, Ohio
, Pennsylvania
, Indiana
, Illinois
, as well as southwestern Ontario
. It has been stated that on night pattern the station could be heard in at least 23 US states and four Canadian provinces. A ratings leader in the competitive Detroit market, CKLW was at one time a part of the RKO General
chain of Top 40 radio stations that used the Bill Drake
"Boss Radio
" format. In its heyday in the early to late 1970s the station was the third or fourth most listened to station, cumulative audience, in North America, outranked only by WABC
, New York; KHJ
, Los Angeles; WLS
, Chicago.
The term "crossover
hit" owes much of its definition to Rosalie's uncanny ability to pick artists from urban
& rock
playlists and cross them over to CKLW and their CHR
Top 40 format, which in that era of radio, was the most listened-to format as defined by cumulative audience listenership and reach.
Trombley is legendary in the history of AM Top 40 radio and was known for her amazing ability to predict and pick future hits. Artists that have publicly acknowledged her pivotal role in their success through early belief and airplay include, but are not limited to: Alice Cooper
, Elton John
, Bob Seger
, Earth, Wind & Fire
, Tony Orlando and Dawn
, The Guess Who
, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chicago
, Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes, Gordon Lightfoot
, The Stylistics
, Anne Murray
, Parliament/Funkadelic, Aerosmith
and many, many others. A 1973 Billboard article specifically notes her role in promoting the Skylark
song "Wildflower
", playing it for over three months as an album cut before its release as a single.
Seger immortalized her in his 1972 song "Rosalie" from his Back in '72
album.
"She's got the tower, She's got the power / Rosalie, Rosalie Trombley"
are two lines from the lyrics of that song. The song has been covered by the band Thin Lizzy
, on their 1975 album Fighting. Trombley reportedly refused to allow the station to air the song, threatening to quit if the station added it to its playlist; thus, CKLW never played it, although the song did receive airplay on other Detroit stations.
.
Trombley has been inducted into the Motor City (Detroit) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Week Broadcaster's Hall of Fame. Now retired and still residing in Windsor, Ontario, Trombley's legendary status remains undiminished.
Toronto based Markham Street Films released a documentary on CKLW in 2003 entitled Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of The Big 8. The documentary is a look at the history of the station and Trombley's contributions to the station's success are among the focuses of the documentary.
On June 14th, 2011, a scholarship in Rosalie's name was officially announced by St Clair College, for their Music Theatre Performance program. On June 16th, Rosalie received an honorary diploma from the Music Theatre Performance program.
Music director
A music director may be the director of an orchestra, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the co-ordinator of the musical ensembles in a university or college , the head bandmaster of a military band, the head...
of AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
Top 40 powerhouse CKLW
CKLW
CKLW is a 50,000 watt AM radio station broadcasting on 800 kHz and located in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and serving Windsor and Detroit. Additionally, its signal can be heard as far west as Belding, Michigan; as far east as Batavia, New York; as far south as Edgewood, Kentucky; and as far...
aka "The Big 8". Her influence not only affected the direction of CKLW but also led to an annual award named after her, and she was the subject of the song 'Rosalie' by Bob Seger
Bob Seger
Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...
.
CKLW
CKLW was a Windsor, OntarioWindsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
based Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
market AM Top 40 radio station powerhouse. With its 50,000 watt signal at 800 kHz on the AM dial, CKLW covered the midwest states including Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, as well as southwestern Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. It has been stated that on night pattern the station could be heard in at least 23 US states and four Canadian provinces. A ratings leader in the competitive Detroit market, CKLW was at one time a part of the RKO General
RKO General
RKO General was the main holding company through 1991 for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganization in the 1980s, GenCorp. The business was based around the consolidation of its parent company's broadcasting interests, dating to 1943, and...
chain of Top 40 radio stations that used the Bill Drake
Bill Drake
Bill Drake , born Philip Yarbrough, was an American radio programmer who co-developed the Boss Radio format with Gene Chenault via their company Drake-Chenault.-Early career:...
"Boss Radio
Boss Radio
Boss Radio was the name of two radio programming formats, both launched in the early 1960s: One in the United States, and one in the United Kingdom. Although the names were the same, the formats were quite different.-Boss Radio in the United States:...
" format. In its heyday in the early to late 1970s the station was the third or fourth most listened to station, cumulative audience, in North America, outranked only by WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
, New York; KHJ
KHJ (AM)
KHJ Radio in Los Angeles, California broadcasts Spanish-language entertainment programming as La Ranchera. It was also one of America's most formidable Top 40 radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s as 93 KHJ before changing its format in 1980....
, Los Angeles; WLS
WLS (AM)
WLS is a Chicago clear-channel AM station on 890 kHz. It uses C-QUAM AM stereo and transmits with 50,000 watts from transmitter and towers on the south edge of Tinley Park, Illinois....
, Chicago.
Influence
Her career with the station began as a part-time switchboard operator on Labour Day weekend of 1963, before she was offered a full-time position in the station's music library a few years later. As CKLW's popularity boomed and Rosalie became more and more influential, her job title was changed to the more prestigious-sounding title of "Music Director". Trombley served as Music Director from 1968 through 1984, at which time the station changed formats.The term "crossover
Crossover (music)
Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes, or genres...
hit" owes much of its definition to Rosalie's uncanny ability to pick artists from urban
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...
& rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
playlists and cross them over to CKLW and their CHR
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...
Top 40 format, which in that era of radio, was the most listened-to format as defined by cumulative audience listenership and reach.
Trombley is legendary in the history of AM Top 40 radio and was known for her amazing ability to predict and pick future hits. Artists that have publicly acknowledged her pivotal role in their success through early belief and airplay include, but are not limited to: Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...
, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, Bob Seger
Bob Seger
Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...
, Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire is an American soul and R&B band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1969 by Verdine and Maurice White. Also known as EWF, the band has won six Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards. They have been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of...
, Tony Orlando and Dawn
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Tony Orlando and Dawn was a pop music group that was popular in the 1970s. Their signature hits include "Candida", "Knock Three Times", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", and "He Don't Love You ".-History:...
, The Guess Who
The Guess Who
The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Initially gaining recognition in Canada, they also found international success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with numerous hit singles, including "American Woman", "These Eyes" and "Share the Land"...
, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chicago
Chicago (band)
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...
, Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes, Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...
, The Stylistics
The Stylistics
The Stylistics are a soul music vocal group, and were one of the best-known Philadelphia soul groups of the 1970s. They formed in 1968, and were composed of lead Russell Thompkins, Jr., Herbie Murrell, Airrion Love, James Smith, and James Dunn. All of their US hits were ballads, graced by the...
, Anne Murray
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
, Parliament/Funkadelic, Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
and many, many others. A 1973 Billboard article specifically notes her role in promoting the Skylark
Skylark (Canadian band)
Skylark was a former Canadian pop/rock band active from 1971–1973 and based in the Pacific Northwest. The band formed from one of Ronnie Hawkins' backup groups and signed with Capitol Records, releasing a self-titled album in 1972 which spawned three singles...
song "Wildflower
Wildflower (Skylark song)
"Wildflower" is a song written by Doug Edwards and Dave Richardson in 1972. First performed by the Canadian band Skylark, it has been covered by many artists and more recently has been sampled in a number of hip hop songs.-Skylark recording:...
", playing it for over three months as an album cut before its release as a single.
Seger immortalized her in his 1972 song "Rosalie" from his Back in '72
Back in '72
Back in '72 is an album by American rock singer/songwriter Bob Seger, released in 1973 . It was the first new album on Seger's label, Palladium Records, to be released under their distribution deal with the Reprise division of Warner Bros...
album.
"She's got the tower, She's got the power / Rosalie, Rosalie Trombley"
are two lines from the lyrics of that song. The song has been covered by the band Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of thirteen studio albums...
, on their 1975 album Fighting. Trombley reportedly refused to allow the station to air the song, threatening to quit if the station added it to its playlist; thus, CKLW never played it, although the song did receive airplay on other Detroit stations.
Legacy
Trombley was unique in that she garnered much respect in a time where there were not many influential women in the radio business. Recording stars both established and aspiring regularly visited Rosalie to personally promote their latest single releases, and the walls of her office were lined with gold records. Trombley also made an effort to fashion a station that would appeal to black as well as white listeners by featuring soul and R&B product, especially the Motown sound for which Detroit was famous. The "Rosalie Trombley Award" honours women who have made their mark in broadcasting, and is presented during Canadian Music WeekCanadian Music Week
Canadian Music Week is an industry conference and music festival held over four days in various venues throughout Toronto, Ontario, Canada.-History:...
.
Trombley has been inducted into the Motor City (Detroit) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Week Broadcaster's Hall of Fame. Now retired and still residing in Windsor, Ontario, Trombley's legendary status remains undiminished.
Toronto based Markham Street Films released a documentary on CKLW in 2003 entitled Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of The Big 8. The documentary is a look at the history of the station and Trombley's contributions to the station's success are among the focuses of the documentary.
On June 14th, 2011, a scholarship in Rosalie's name was officially announced by St Clair College, for their Music Theatre Performance program. On June 16th, Rosalie received an honorary diploma from the Music Theatre Performance program.