Mort Crowley

Mort Crowley was Keener’s first morning man. Hot off the heels of a succesfull run in the AM drive slot at WLS and just prior to a long career in St. Louis, the Mortacular Morning Show had a short, memorable run on WKNR. “(At Keener) We were hooked up in a battle with three other radio stations that were playing the same kind of music.. plus the rhythm and blues stations.. in perhaps one of the wildest markets.. I’ve ever been in,” he said. “It was up-and-at-em and get out of bed in the morning and go for that red meat everyday.”

Crowley remembered that the market was, “..highly competitive, highly spirited, tensions of course were very high. But personal drive and personal ambition were very high, too. There was a lot of esprit de corps at the radio station and that’s why they went so far with the people they had.”?

Bob Green recounted Keener’s sling-shot climb from nowhere to the top. “Within 30 days we went from a 3/10 of a percent rating to 6%. Within 2 months we were at 14% and within three months we were solid number 1.”

From the beginning, response to the new WKNR was overwhelming. And it lead to a quick change in the critical morning drive slot.

One of Mort Crowley’s morning show shticks was a call in bit he did with factory workers. The segment regularly jammed the local phone exchanges, prompting the Bell System to threaten to disconnect WKNR’s telephone service. Frank Maruca remembers that, “Mort went on the air accusing the telephone company of being a monopoly, threw in the gas and electric companies for good measure and.. ultimately resigned on the air.”

Mort Quits Keener 13 in February of 1964.LISTEN ] (9:42)

Mort Crowley / John Landecker / Art Vuolo. [ LISTEN ] (3:40)

In 1967, down the road in Ann Arbor, WOIA was the only commercial FM station in town that played popular music in stereo at night. Art Vuolo, who made a career out of creating radio guides for people who travel, and who is legendary in the industry as broadcasting’s video archivist, earned an on air slot in the late evenings. He was fond of the “drop cart” sound effects that guys like Dick Biondi had perfected over at WCFL and made the most of the station’s stereo signal by featuring an hour of the stuff during his shift. Even more instersting is the guy who reads the news in this ultra rare aircheck. It’s a young John Landecker, practicing his craft as the WOIA news guy.

PSAs were a part of every DJs job, and things were no different for Mort at WKNR. All voices are Mort’s and produced by Bob Green. [ LISTEN ] (5:18)

He anchored the stations rise from nowhere to the top of the ratings and generated a tremendous response to his listener call-in bits. His telephone shtick was so successful that it regularly jammed the Detroit exchanges, prompting the phone company to threaten to cut off WKNR’s telephone service.

This arrogant wielding of monopoly power was too much for Mort and he said so on his program one Friday morning in a tirade that ended up with is on-air resignation.

Mort's tirade on his last day at WKNR. [ LISTEN ] (9:42)

Detroit’s “Bad Boy” Mort Crowley who hit the front pages by quitting on the air at WKNR has since become the model of deportment. Mort joined Storz-owned WDGY, Minneapolis, in July 1964 and moved to St. Louis with Storz’s KXOG last January (1965). Mort told Billboard by phone he hopes to regain the ground he lost by his mistake and noted: “Thank God, I have an opportunity to do it.” - Source: Billboard, July 17, 1965.

Crowley went on to distinction in Denver and St. Louis before retiring from radio, a legend in his own time. He passed away at his home in Miquon, Wisconsin, on March 30, 1995. He died after a lengthy bout battling cancer. Mort Crowley was 63.