ENTERTAINMENT
Dick Shafran reads some commercials and announces the upcoming music.
IN A
MELLOW MOO
WNIC's Dick Shafran helps make
afternoon drive time easier with
a little soft rock and soft talk
HEIDI PRESS
News Editor
ii
H
ere we go," he says
justing his head-
phones, checking
to see that the
next tape is cued
up before he flicks the microphone
switch. "Coming up, a remake of a
remake by Laura Branigan and some
Stevie Wonder and more of Detroit's
nicest rock?'
Dick Shafran removes the head-
phones, lines up a couple of commer-
cials and the aforementioned music
and relaxes for a few minutes to talk
about his job — afternoon drive time
disc jockey for one of Detroit's adult
contemporary radio stations, WNIC-
FM. After eight years of being the sta-
tion's overnight air personality,
Shafran is happy to be doing
afternoons.
"Ever since I've started working
here, I always wanted to work the
afternoon drive. I didn't want to work
mornings, I didn't want to work mid-
days. I wanted to work that afternoon
drive. That's the time for me. I'm
awake, I'm up and I'm really ready to
go and I just enjoy that time of the
day?'
Shafran said he likes the music he
plays, sort of soft rock, somewhere bet-
ween the blaring Top 40 and snooze
music. He calls it the "meat and
potatoes" of popular music. "That's
the James Taylor, the Carly Simon,
some Barbra Streisand, that kind of
stuff. But we're also playing stuff like
Madonna, the Whispers. That's what
I like."
When he's not on the air — his
shift is 2-7 p.m. Monday_ through Fri-
day — he'll often bounce around the
radio dial to hear what the competi-
tion is doing. However, when it comes
to serious listening, he likes
"everything but classical and coun-
try?' He also enjoys classic rock and
roll, a format which plays much of the
music popular during the mid to late
1960s and early 1970s, which more
and more radio stations are adopting
to appeal to their listeners who grew
up in that era.
Hes mildly critical of the Detroit
radio scene, explaining that he feels
there are too many radio stations try-
ing to copy WNIC's format, a style he
said his station "has been doing the
longest!'
The genial Shafran said he's hap-
py playing the music he does, and
can't imagine playing the hard rock
and heavy metal music played on
some competing stations. But, if the
right opportunity came along . . . "I
don't know if I could do AOR (album-
oriented rock). Never say never. I
mean if somebody offered me
something, but I enjoy this. Ever since
I heard WNIC I said 'this is what I
want to do, and luckily . . . " he knock-
ed the wood-topped desk.
A graduate of Southfield High
School, where he worked on the
school's radio station, WSHJ, Shafran
earned a B.A. degree at Wayne State
University, majoring in radio, TV and
film. He's still in his first radio job,
which he began ten years ago, first do-
ing the midnight shift, and two years
ago switching to afternoons. On Sun-
days at 10 a.m., he also does a show
called The Songs of Your Choice
Countown, the only locally-produced
countdown show in Detroit. (The
others are nationally syndicated.)
What inspired him to go into
radio? Mostly, it was the music and
the disc jockeys who were popular in
Detroit in the 1960s. "A lot of the guys
from Keener 13 (WKNR-AM 1310,
forerunner of WNIC), Gary Stevens,
Scotty Regan and those are people I
grew up listening to. I mean that real-
ly got me interested. And people from
CKLW"
Shafran's day begins by getting
daughter Megan ("she's the light of
my life") up and ready for day care,
while his wife, the former Debbie
Platt, goes to her teaching job. After
dropping Megan off, he'll go shopping,
do errands and then come to the
studio to do commercials before he
goes on the air. He slips on the head-
GOING PLACES
I ---
WEEK OF NOV. 20-26
MUSIC
MICHIGAN OPERA
THEATRE
Fisher Theatre, Detroit, Kismet,
8 p.m. now through Dec. 6,
admission, 874-SING.
FOLKTOWN
Southfield Civic Center, Parks
and Recreation Building, 26000
Evergreen, Rosalie Gerut and
Jeff Warschauer, 8 p.m. Saturday,
admission, 855-9848.
POWER SERIES
University of Michigan, Power
Center, Ann Arbor, La Rondine,
8 p.m. today and Saturday, 2
p.m. Sunday, admission,
764-0450.
BRUNCH WITH BACH
Detroit Institute of Arts,
recorder music, 10 and 11:30
a.m. Sunday, admission,
832-2730.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL
SOCIETY
University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Hill Auditorium, Elena
Obraztsova, 8 p.m. today; Vienna
Choir Boys, 4 p.m. Sunday,
admission, 764-2538.
SCANDINAVIAN SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
Southfield High School, Lahser
Rd., Southfield, Catherine Cho,
concert, 8 p.m. Saturday,
admission, 644-9203.
COBO ARENA
Cobo Arena, The Band of the
Grenadier Guards and the Pipes
and Drums of the Gordon
Highlanders, 8 p.m. Saturday,
admission, 567-6000.
GRAND RAPIDS
SYMPHONY
Cobo Arena, concert, 8 p.m.
Monday, admission, 567-6000.
WARREN SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
Warren Woods Community
Theater, 12 Mile Rd., Warren,
concert, admission, 754-2950.
20TH CENTURY
RETROSPECTIVE
Detroit Institute of Arts, Recital
Hall, "Music by British and
American Composers," 8 p.m.
today, admission, 832-2730.
CHILDREN
PEANUT BUTTER PLAYERS
Austin Hall, 18000 E. Warren,
Detroit, Pinocchio, lunch at
noon, 1. p.m. Saturday and
Sunday, through Dec. 12,
admission, 559-6PBP.
CITY OF SOUTHFIELD
THE DETROIT JEWISH
N.Q.12.1