One thing about Crystal Mayo is that when she decides she wants to do something, that’s pretty much the end of the discussion. If you happen to be standing in the way after that decision has been made, you might want to consider altering your location because Crystal Mayo will not be changing course to accommodate obstacles
Mayo is the host of a relatively new oldies but goodies radio show, “Motown and a Cup of Joe,” airing Monday through Friday, 6-8 a.m., on WNZK, 690/680 on the AM dial. The show, which began its broadcast on May 9, is swiftly becoming a favorite among listeners of “a ‘certain age” who appreciate not only Motown but a wide variety of popular music crossing a wide variety of genres and artists, from Smoky Robinson and the Temptations to Gino Vannelli and even Frank Sinatra.
For Mayo, it’s all about what she qualifies as good music, and it’s also about using music as a healing force.
“My connection with the city is, born and raised, native Detroiter,” said Mayo. “I have one sister and two brothers. They all moved to California. I stayed in the city. There’s a rebirth in the city now. The music I’m bringing back is a rebirth of a time when the music really landscaped the city. Because I don’t care where you go, you say Detroit and they say ‘Motown.’ If you go out the country and you say you’re from Detroit, they say ‘Motown.’ It’s a connection to a better time, a safer time, a time when your neighbors were your godparents. That’s Motown.
Mayo has always been the entrepreneurial type, always seeing opportunities where others might only see walls. As a teenager she worked at one of the local Burger King restaurants owned by Brady Keys who, as Mayo recalls, owned about 12. That experience gave Mayo her first idea.
“Back in the early 80s I went to him (Brady Keys) and I said, ‘You know what? You have these 12 Burger Kings, you need a newsletter. What if you had a newsletter that connected all the Burger Kings and all the employees, then that would be a motivational piece. He said ‘That’s a good idea. Come back in two weeks and show me what you have.’”
He thought I was joking. So two weeks later I came back and I said, ‘I’m gonna name it the Community Access News. The CAN.’ He said ‘I like it.’ So from there I became editor in chief. It was a monthly.”
The newsletter was distributed in Detroit as well as in Georgia where Keys owned a number of KFC restaurants. Everything was going great for the next couple of years until Brady decided to sell his franchise.
“So at that time, I was like, so what do I do? I started my own paper, the Metro Star.”
Of course she did. And she also wrote a relationship book. Because why not, right?
“I knew that Steve Harvey was selling books because he’s syndicated. And when you’re syndicated, you can sell books because you sell yourself. And I read his book, and his book is no better than mine. So I said, you know what? I need to be syndicated. So what I did was… My first radio show was a spinoff from the book, ‘Chit Chat from the Cathouse.’ It was an adult, after-hours type of a show on AM 1200.
“We did the spinoff from the book, ‘Chit Chat from the Cathouse.’ I did that for three months on 1200. Just enough time so I could get some taped shows so I could put them in a pocket, still heading for syndication.
“From there, I came to where I am right now, still searching for syndication. So I went to WNZK and I said ‘You know what? I have an idea. People kept saying they were tired of listening to the same music in the morning, the disrespect, hearing all kinda craziness on the radio. The music not making a lotta sense, and I said no one is doing oldies but goodies or bringing back memories in the morning.”
Mayo proposed a 7-8 am slot, but the station countered slightly, saying that 6 am was open, so why not stretch it from 6-8? Mayo agreed that was a good idea, figuring her target audience would certainly be up and about at that time. Judging by the response, Mayo believes her fledgling show is on the rise.
But what makes her particularly pleased is that her listenership includes not only listeners from her own generation who grew up with Motown, but many younger ‘newbies,’ such as her 21-year-old rap-loving nephew (“Auntie, I’m listening and I am loving it,”), who are hearing much of this music for the first time.
“So of course I’m happy for old heads like us to be able to reminisce and to step down memory lane, but when I’m able to introduce a whole genre of music to a generation that never even knew it existed? Then I’m representing Motown and the whole essence of the word Motown.
“Motown and oldies, they have no color line. The diversity is in the music. I played Fleetwood Mac the other day. Frank Sinatra I’m playing tomorrow. Gino Vannelli. The Carpenters I played yesterday. And I played Luciano Pavarotti today with Barry White. So don’t think you’re just gonna hear African American soul oldies.”
“This is not a hobby for me. This is a career for me,” she said.
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