Detroitmemories

Robin Seymour

Detroit's Former WKMH/CKLW Radio Personality and Television Music Show Host of ‘Teen Town” and “Swingin’ Time”

Starting with a career in radio as a child actor on the Lone Ranger show and later as one of the country's top ten disc jockeys for a number of years, Robin's career spanned everything from the big band era to Motown to the British invasion to the psychedelic era.

The Early Years

In 1947, after a stint with the Armed Forces Radio Network during World War II, Robin began an 18-year career with WKMH-AM 1310, a typical suburban full-service radio station located in Dearborn, Michigan that specialized in local news, information, sports, and mainly middle-of-the-road pop music. In the station's early years, Robin 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.

His afternoon "Bobbin' with Robin Show" featured all of 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, he was among the first of the nation's DJs to ask his listeners what they thought about new records and one of the first white DJs in the city to play black R&B doo-wop-style artists. He hosted some of the earliest sock hops and initiated commercial tie-ins with local record stores. His popular radio show and live stage appearances at Robin Seymour's Original Rock 'n' Roll Revue at the Fox Theater allowed him to enjoy increasing popularity. In 1956, The Four Lads, accompanied by the Percy Faith Orchestra, recorded Robin’s theme song:

Bobbin' with the Robin Bobbin' with the Robin. No more time for sobbin’ Go and let the mob in Everybody flies sky high!

Robin had an uncanny sense for spotting hot new artists, helping introduce many of the big acts of the day via radio or stage. He claims to have been the person who first debuted the hit song "Gee" by The Crows. In the mid ‘50s, he was quoted as saying that Elvis Presley "wouldn't last more than a year," but later clarified that the comment was a gimmick to grab some headlines…and it worked.

In 1953 he was named "Disc Jockey of the Year" by Billboard, the music trade magazine. The following year, he was given the same title by another publication, Hit Parader. In 1960, Robin's show moved to the morning slot.

Teen Town

In 1963, Seymour and three business partners, including co-producer Art Cervi, created Teen Town, a hip, local dance-party format similar to American Bandstand, with each show focusing on a different Detroit area high school. They secured advertisers and began shopping their concept to TV stations around town. CKLW grabbed the opportunity, and the independent show was off and running. A year and a half later, it morphed into Swingin Summertime.

Swingin Time

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

Swingin Time featured 50 to 75 local kids dancing six days a week to the top billboard hits. Each show, two teens were chosen to offer "yea" or "boo" opinions on new records. The 30-minute weekday shows were broadcast live, and the hour-long Saturday show was taped early in the day and aired at 3 pm.

Promoting Local Bands

Seymour introduced virtually all of the then-famous Motown artists. National touring acts passing through the Motor City, including Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, James Brown, Dionne Warwick, Wayne Cochran, and many more, performed on the its stage. But it was the local entertainers and the Motown artists such as Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas and The Supremes as well as Bob Seger and the Last Herd, Glenn Frey, Ted Nugent, and George Clinton's Parliaments who provided the local flavor. During those years, the lack of proper studio equipment meant no live performances, so all of the artists would lip-synch their records, which was both good and bad.

One band that appeared frequently on Seymour's show was Ann Arbor garage band, The Rationals. They enjoyed high record sales in the Detroit area, and Robin helped them get their final single and their one and only album to market in early 1970.

Life After Swingin Time

When Seymour left the show, he was replaced by another local and popular DJ, Tom Shannon. However, by then, the show had lost its momentum and ended in 1968.

In 1970, Seymour recreated his WKMH "Bobbin' with the Robin" show for Cruisin' 1956, part of a CD series of Top 40 radio re-creations conceived and produced by Ron Jacobs (available here).

Seymour left both broadcasting and Detroit in the late '70s and moved to the Los Angeles area where he owns a successful video production company.