Robin Seymour

Robin Henry Seymour was born March 8, 1926, in Detroit, Michigan. He is fondly remembered as a radio personality and host of the television series Teen Town and Swingin' Time in Detroit. He started in radio as a child actor on the Lone Ranger Show and eventually became one of the country's longest-serving top ten disc jockeys.

In 1947, after serving in the Army and a stint with the Armed Forces Radio Network during World War II, Seymour returned home and started out working for 90 cents an hour at WKMH and had to ride two buses to reach the job in Dearborn. This began an 18-year run with WKMH. He quickly became its most popular on-air personality. His warm, confident demeanor combined with his disc jockey style appealed to audiences of all ages and ethnicities in the Detroit area.

Seymour in the news

Seymour's afternoon "Bobbin' with Robin Show" featured all the top records on the music press sales charts. He pioneered rock-and-roll on the Detroit airwaves long before the Top 40 format emerged. In the mid-50s, Seymour was among the first of the nation's DJs to ask his listeners what they thought about new records. He was also one of the first white DJs in the city to play songs performed by black rhythm-and-blues and doo-wop artists. Seymour hosted early "sock hops" and initiated commercial tie-ins with local record stores. He frequently hosted the popular "Robin Seymour's Original Rock 'n' Roll Revue" at Detroit's Fox Theater.

Bobbin' with Robin
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In 1956, The Four Lads, accompanied by the Percy Faith Orchestra, recorded Seymour's theme song.

Seymour had an uncanny sense for spotting new artists, helping introduce many of the big acts of the day via radio or stage. In 1953, Seymour was named "Disc Jockey of the Year" by Billboard, the top music trade magazine. The following year, he was given the same title by Hit Parader. In 1960, Seymour's show moved to the morning slot.

Swingin' Time: 1966

Swingin' Time was a music variety show, similar to American Bandstand, hosted by WKNR's Robin Seymour.

The show was broadcast on CKLW-TV Channel 9 in Windsor, Ontario Canada, from 1965 to 1968, and featured recording acts, both nationally and locally popular, performing their latest releases while teens showcased the latest dances on the show's dance floor.

The show featured acts Motown like Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, The Marvelettes, Martha & The Vandellas, The Four Tops, and non-Motown acts such as Bob Seger & the Last Heard.

1964

In 1963, Seymour and three business partners, including co-producer Art Cervi (Bozo The Clown), created Teen Town, a dance-party format similar to American Bandstand, with each show focusing on a different Detroit area high school. They secured advertisers and were eventually picked up by CKLW. A year and a half later, Teen Town morphed into Swingin' Time. The 30-minute weekday shows were broadcast live and the hour-long Saturday show was taped early in the day and aired at 3:00 pm.

The Robin Seymour show at WKNR on November 3, 1964. [ LISTEN ]

Seymour continued his radio gig at WKMH through its transition to WKNR; however, after being given an ultimatum by WKMH to choose between his DJ job or his television appearances, he left the station to devote himself full-time to Swingin' Time. For a brief period at the end of 1965, Seymour was given radio slot on CKLW radio which he used to help promote Swingin' Time.

Seymour featured several established Motown artists on his show, including Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, James Brown, Dionne Warwick, and Wayne Cochrane. He also introduced up-and-coming local artists like Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, and The Supremes.

He was the driving force behind KDB (Keep Detroit Beautiful) Teens in 1968 and spearheaded several beautification projects with a kickoff concert at Detroit's Cobo Arena.

October 12, 1968

When Seymour left Swingin' Time, he was replaced by another popular DJ, Tom Shannon. By then, however, the show had lost its momentum and ended in 1969. Seymour left both broadcasting and Detroit in 1980 and moved to the Los Angeles area where he owned a successful video production company until 2013. Into his nineties, he worked part-time from his home in Phoenix, Arizona.

The man and the book, 2019

Over the years, Seymour returned to Detroit for multiple reunions, including one in September 2019 when he also spent hours greeting hundreds of well-wishers while promoting his book, The DJ That Launched 1,000 Hits, The Robin Seymour Story. Seymour died on April 10, 2020 at an assisted living facility in San Antonio, Texas, following a heart attack. He was 94. Besides his daughter Deborah Seymour Young, other survivors included another child, Jenny Seymour, nephews Harvey and Irwin Gross, a grandson, Ryan Seymour, and a great-grandson, Ethan.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Detroit Memories, Internet Archive, Motor City Radio Flashbacks.

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Tom Shannon

They say "the sun never sets on the Shannon empire." And for half a century in radio and TV, that was certainly true.

Shannon started at the old WXRA in 1955 while still a student at Bishop Ryan High School. His big break came in 1957 when he was hired by 50,000-watt WKBW in the days of the Hound Dog, KB Cook, The Clock Watcher, and Spotlight Serenade. When the station went rock and roll in 1958, Tommy would dominate western New York, along with a multitude of other states.

Tom at WKBW on July 25, 1961
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He was a member of the staff that included Perry Allen, Russ "the Moose" Syracuse, Art Roberts and Dick Biondi along with Jack Kelly. In later years Tommy would also work with the like of Gene Nelson, Danny Neaverth, Sandy Beach, Jim Pastrick, Tom Donahue, John Summers, Hank Nevins, Bob Christian, Jim Flynn, Jack Armstrong, Irv Weinstein, and Bob Diamond.

It was also at KB, that Shannon teamed with Phil Todaro to write "Wild Weekend." A local group called the Rebels recorded the instrumental version, and it became a Top 10 hit.

Tom explains his theme song and subsequent recording of Wild Weekend.

After a short stint at WGR-AM in 1963, Tommy moved to the Motor City in 1964 and took a job at CKLW, another 50,000-watt AM monster with a vast audience, in Windsor, Ontario, near Detroit, where he established himself as one of the area's top night-time jocks during his five-year stay (1964-1969).

CKLW July 28, 1965 [ LISTEN ] (21:16)

CKLW August, 1965 [ LISTEN ] (5:47)

The physical station was in Windsor, Ontario, Canada (just a mile across the river from Detroit) and it was #1 in Detroit, Toledo, Ohio huge in Cleveland, Ohio and another long list of states at night. His work there won him the 1968 Bill Gavin Award, given to the nation's top disc jockey in the years before the Billboard magazine awards were established. He also did a morning show at WXYZ-TV in Detroit.

In 1969, Shannon moved to WXYZ radio in Detroit, then in 1972 it was on to Denver for TV work at KWGN-TV and radio at KHOW and KLZ. Shannon returned to 'CK in 1975, moving across the river to WTWR Detroit in 1980. He was back in Buffalo in 1982, with his outstanding Pure Gold midday show on WKBW.

Returning to Detroit in 1986 at WMJC, Shannon came back to Buffalo for a brief stay as WGR's morning man in 1988. But in 1989, he was back in Windsor-Detroit at CKLW-FM.

In 1993, Tom returned to his TV roots at the Shop at Home network in Tennessee before coming back to Buffalo in 1997. Tom spent eight years in afternoon drive at WHTT-FM (Oldies 104) before retiring from a full-time shift on March 13, 2005. He continued with the station doing special features.

He is a member of the Buffalo Broadcasting Hall of Fame and Buffalo Music Hall of Fame.

WHERE DID TOM WORK? Here is the list: WXRA, WKBW, WGR, CKLW, WXYZ, WTWR, and WHTT.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Buffalo Stories, Forgotten Buffalo, Rock Radio Scrapbook.

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