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
[ LISTEN ]
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.