Lawrence native promotes ‘Dirty Dancing’ composer’s new box set

Ken Franklin grew up in Lawrence, where his mother, 94, and two older brothers still live. Inspired by the Broadway musicals his parents took him to and being part of then C.W. Post’s (now LIU Post) radio station WCWP-FM, Franklin got into radio and in 1981was doing radio promotion for a then unknown singer-songwriter Franke Previte and his band Franke & The Knockouts that scored a Top 10 hit with their first single “Sweetheart.”

Previte composed the Oscar- and Grammy-award winning songs “The Time of My Life” and “Hungry Eyes” for the classic 1980s movie “Dirty Dancing that starred Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey.

Franklin is now promoting the new Franke & The Knockouts anthology box set through his RadioActive Talent Inc. company. The collection includes hits and rarities and previously unreleased bootleg live recordings and studio demos. For every sale, $1 will be donated to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, in memory of Swayze who died of the disease in 2009.