Growing up in the shadow of the Motor City, everyone eventually listened to CKLW. Its 50,000 signal blanketed 28 states and 5 Canadian provinces with the famous Top 40 format promoted by Bill Drake and guided locally by Paul Drew.
One dimension of the CK sound was 20/20 News (Video), a high energy newscast at 20 and 40 past the hour that presented the stories of the day in a breathless, tabloid manner that shocked and delighted Detroit audiences. Byron MacGregor, born Gary L. Mack on March 13, 1948 was a central figure at 20/20 news (video). At the height of CKLW’s popularity, he recorded a Gordon Sinclair editorial, entitled “The Americans”. It resonated with our psyche and peaked at number 4 on the Billboard pop charts in 1974.
Byron donated every penny earned from the record to the Red Cross.
He went on to anchor television news at Detroit’s WKBD-TV and became an afternoon news fixture on WWJ Radio before succumbing to complications related to pneumonia on January 3, in 1995. He was just 46.
