Mike Whorf is known to countless Michigan and midwestern radio listeners as the long-time host of WJR's Kaleidoscope. The daily program which aired from the mid-1960s to the late 90s won the coveted Peabody Award in 1968...as well as numerous other statewide and national honors.
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Kaleidoscope brought listeners an hour-long journey into people, places and events - woven together with period music, archival news recordings, and Whorf's distinctive narrative.
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Kaleidoscope often showcased uniquely American topics. This was particularly so during America's 1976 bicentennial celebration.
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To mark the occasion, Mike chose to produce a series of programs devoted to composers of the Great American Songbook of the early to mid- 20th century. Through a friendship with famed song writer Gerald Marks, Whorf was able to conduct dozens of in-person recorded interviews in New York and Los Angeles... with the likes of Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Sammy Cahn and many more. The interviews were incorporated into Kaleidoscope as a weekly showcase of the composers and their music.
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Recently, the interviews and radio programs have returned as the subject of two books authored by Mike Whorf...American Popular Song Composers and American Popular Song Lyricists: An Oral History, 1920s to 1960s...published by McFarland Inc.
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WKAR's Peter Whorf visited with his dad earlier this week to talk about how the Kaleidoscope radio project of the mid-70's led to the books of today....