Rosalie Trombley

Trombley was born in Leamington, Ontario. She worked for Bell Canada while in high school. ==Career==

Trombley and her then-husband Clayton moved to Windsor, and she was hired in 1963 to work as a part-time switchboard operator and receptionist at CKLW. After becoming familiar with how a top 40 station worked, she accepted a position in the music library, and in the fall of 1968, she was offered a full-time position as CKLW's music director, a job she later attributed to "being in the right place at the right time." as in the case of the Skylark song "Wildflower", playing it for over three months as an album cut before its release as a single. Another example is The Carpenters' 1977 cover of Canadian band Klaatu's "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft". With so much Canadian content, the station's popularity in the United States began to fade. Trombley served as music director of CKLW from 1968 to 1984, through the station's top 40 years and into the era when CKLW changed format to appeal to an older audience. After leaving the station, she worked at WLTI-FM in Detroit and then CKEY in Toronto. ==Influence==

Many recording artists visited Trombley to promote their latest single releases, and the walls of her office were lined with gold records. Among the artists she is credited with helping are Earth, Wind and Fire; Elton John; Kiss; Ted Nugent; The Guess Who, Among the hits that CKLW was first to play were the Guess Who's "These Eyes" and the Main Ingredient's 1972 hit "Everybody Plays the Fool". She persuaded Elton John to release "Bennie and the Jets" as a single, because she believed, correctly, that it would be a cross-over hit, appealing to both black and white listeners. Trombley was immortalized by Bob Seger in his 1973 song "Rosalie", which appeared on the ''Back in '72'' album ("She's got the tower, she's got the power / Rosalie"). There are differing stories concerning Trombley's reaction to the tune: some claim she hated "Rosalie" and refused to allow her DJs to play it; others insist the programmer was flattered, but worried about a potential conflict of interest. Either way, CKLW never played "Rosalie", although the song did receive spins on other Detroit stations, as well as Top 40 outlets as far away as Idaho. ==Legacy==

Trombley granted interviews only occasionally, including for the 1971 WDRQ documentary The History of Detroit Radio and for the 2004 documentary Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8, produced by Toronto-based Markham Films. Much of the documentary was about her contributions and influence. The film's co-producer Eugene McNamara noted that unlike others who worked at CKLW, she did not go on to additional successes after her years at the Big 8. "I think it was because she was a woman in a male-dominated environment," McNamara stated. The "Rosalie Trombley Award", which honours women who have made their mark in broadcasting, is presented during Canadian Music Week. Trombley was inducted into the Motor City (Detroit) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Week Broadcasters Hall of Fame. On June 14, 2011, a scholarship in Trombley's name was announced by St. Clair College, for their Music Theatre Performance program. Trombley died from complications of Alzheimer's disease on November 23, 2021, at the age of 82 in a long term care centre in Leamington. A statue of Trombley was unveiled in Windsor along its riverfront, in September 2023. ==References==