A Florida professional with a track record in the Michigan telecom sector, Scott Westerman has an extensive background as a blogger and podcaster. Among Scott Westerman’s projects is the website RockAndRollRevisited.com, which explores the popular music trends of yesteryear. Through the site keener13.com and companion book Motor City Music - Keener13 and the Soundtrack of Detroit, he explores WKNR and one of Michigan’s most vibrant periods of radio.

Program director Frank Maruca was the mastermind behind WKNR’s years of success, as he envisioned radio as a pioneering sales and marketing machine. In crafting a new pop format in the 1960s, he undertook extensive market research. This research indicated that the R&B sound embodied by a fledgling Motown Records was what young audiences sought.

Despite resistance among the station’s ownership group, Maruca crafted playlists that featured R&B mainstays such as Marvin Gaye and Shirley Ellis, as well as artists such as Gene Pitney and Lesley Gore. The first ever Keener Hit Number One was on the rebellious side of the rock n’ roll ledger, The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie.”

Maruca also forged important partnerships, including one with Berry Gordy that led to “Motown Monday” performances in a Detroit venue. It also featured Motown artists in the critical 6-10 p.m. time slot most popular with teen listeners.

Despite a tight playlist and exacting standards, Maruca allowed talent the chance to bring creativity into the mix on-air. Examples ranged from Dick Purtan’s Mary Poppins Fan Club to announcers compiling clues that informed the “Paul McCartney Death Rumors” of the late 1960s. The latter reached such a wide audience that they ultimately had to be denied by the Beatles themselves.