WWJ (950
kHz) is a commercial
AM radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...
licensed to serve
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, featuring an
all-news
All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news.
All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news stations can run the ...
format known as "Newsradio 950 WWJ". Owned by
Audacy, Inc.
Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...
, the station services
Metro Detroit
The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its Southeast Michigan, surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the a ...
, is the market affiliate for
CBS News Radio
CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. ...
, and the flagship station for the
Michigan Sports Network
The Michigan Wolverines Sports Network is an American radio network consisting of 46 radio stations which carry coverage of Michigan Wolverines football and men's basketball. WXYT-FM (97.1 FM) and WWJ (950 AM), both in Metro Detroit, serve as ...
. Operating on a regional broadcast frequency, its studios are in the Panasonic Building in
Southfield, and its
transmitter site is near
Newport. WWJ is licensed by the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
to broadcast in the
HD Radio format, and is simulcast on an HD subchannel of sister station
WXYT-FM
WXYT-FM (97.1 MHz "97-1 The Ticket") is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan, serving Metro Detroit and much of Southeast Michigan. It airs a sports radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its studios and offices are located in th ...
.
On the air for a century, WWJ began daily broadcasts as the "Detroit News Radiophone" on August 20,
1920, while it operated under an amateur radio license with the
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...
"8MK". Over the years the station has claimed the titles of "America's Pioneer Broadcasting Station"
[WWJ](_blank)
(advertisement), ''Broadcasting'', April 1, 1939, page 25. and where "commercial radio broadcasting began."
[WWJ](_blank)
(advertisement), ''Broadcasting'', August 20, 1945, page 31.
Programming
WWJ is Michigan's only all-news radio station and features "traffic and weather together" every ten minutes "on the eights" around the clock. The exception is during live sporting events, which it often (though not always) includes during its programming. WWJ is the
flagship station for
Michigan Wolverines football. In cases where there are schedule conflicts, it also carries sports events normally broadcast by its sister stations. (For example, WWJ airs
Detroit Tigers baseball games when
97.1 The Ticket is broadcasting
Detroit Red Wings hockey.) In these cases the regular news programming can still be heard online.
In March 2005 WWJ began streaming its programming over the Internet. In August 2005 the station began offering podcasts of newsmakers, interviews, and some of the station's feature programming. In August 2006 it began broadcasting in the
HD Radio format. WWJ programming was live 24 hours a day until July 2015, when, to cut costs, it began airing pre-recorded reports overnight. By 2016 the station returned to live news around the clock.
WWJ broadcasts full-time with 50,000 watts, using a five-tower directional antenna system during daytime hours, and its entire six-tower array at night. WWJ has the highest field strength — 7,980 mV/m at a distance of 1 km — in a single direction (nighttime pattern) of any U.S. AM station. With this powerful signal primarily sent to the north, the station can be heard in parts of northern Michigan during nighttime hours, including the
Upper Peninsula
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...
and
Mackinac areas, and much of southern Lower Michigan during the day. The northeastern reaches of
Metro Detroit
The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its Southeast Michigan, surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the a ...
receive only a fair signal because of the need to limit WWJ's signal in that direction in order to protect a facility that once broadcast on AM 950 from
Barrie
Barrie is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada, about north of Toronto. The city is within Simcoe County and located along the shores of Kempenfelt Bay, the western arm of Lake Simcoe. Although physically in Simcoe County, Barrie is politically ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
.
History
In her 1960 review of the station's history, Cynthia Boyes Young cautioned that: "The actual beginnings of the Detroit ''News'' radio station, later to be known as WWJ, were not recorded at the time, and the story can only be partially pieced together from the reminiscences of radio pioneers." Three years later, Robert Preston Rimes found that "...fragmentary, incomplete, and sometimes, inaccurate histories existed".
Preparations
WWJ has traditionally recognized August 20, 1920 as its founding date. This was the day that the ''
Detroit News
''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...
'' inaugurated daily broadcasts from a studio established in the newspaper's headquarters building, located at the corner of Lafayette and 2nd Avenues. These initial broadcasts, by what was then called the "Detroit News Radiophone", were sent under an amateur station license operating with the call sign "8MK".
![Tecla Company of Detroit, Michigan radio advertisement (1922)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Tecla_Company_of_Detroit%2C_Michigan_radio_advertisement_%281922%29.jpg)
The person most responsible for establishing the Detroit News Radiophone service was the newspaper's vice-president and managing director,
William E. Scripps. The Scripps family had a long history of interest in radio developments. In 1902 Thomas E. Clark founded the Thomas E. Clark Wireless Telephone-Telegraph Company,
["Wireless Telephone-Telegraph Co.", ''Detroit News'', July 19, 1902, page 4.] in order to supply vessels in the Great Lakes region with radio (then commonly known as "wireless") communication equipment.
James E. Scripps, father of William E. Scripps and then-publisher of the ''Detroit News'', took his son to witness a demonstration, and was also an early investor in Clark's company. On April 4, 1906, the ''News'' publicized the receipt of an order, via radiotelegraphy, by the advertising department from the Clark-equipped steamer ''City of Detroit''. However, Clark was ultimately unable to compete with the predatory practices of the
United Wireless Telegraph Company
The United Wireless Telegraph Company was the largest radio communications firm in the United States, from its late-1906 formation until its bankruptcy and takeover by Marconi interests in mid-1912. At the time of its demise, the company was opera ...
, and around 1910 ceased the Great Lakes installations. He subsequently opened an electrical shop in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
, and remained in contact with the Scripps family.
In April 1917, due to the entrance of the United States into World War One, it became illegal for private citizens to own radio receivers. This wartime ban was lifted effective April 15, 1919, and William E. Scripps' son, William J. Scripps, became interested in radio as a hobby, spending hours listening for distant stations. Most radio transmissions at this time were still being sent with the dots-and-dashes of
Morse code. However, William E. Scripps later stated that it was his son's brief reception of an audio transmission that led to his initial investigation whether the ''News'' could set up its own broadcasting station. Drawing on advice from Thomas E. Clark, Scripps soon determined that the idea was in fact practical, primarily due to recent advances in radio transmitter technology, especially the development of vacuum-tube transmitters.
Sometime during 1919 Scripps and Clark prepared an expansive proposal that was brought before the newspaper's board of directors, requesting financing for the building of a powerful radio station capable of providing service throughout the Great Lakes region.
["Purpose of the Detroit News Radio Phone"](_blank)
(1919 interoffice memorandum prepared by William E. Scripps) reproduced in Rimes (1963) page 25 (MSU.edu) Although initially resistant, the board eventually approved the request. However, significant modifications had to be made to the original plan. The proposal specified a 3,000 watt transmitter that would be constructed locally by Clark's Tecla Company, based on the design of
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...
's CG 4000 transmitter. Clark was subsequently sent by Scripps to General Electric's headquarters at Schenectady, New York to make further arrangements, but he was unsuccessful in reaching an agreement.
[Young (1960]
page 413
After this Clark largely withdrew from participation, to the degree that his first visit to the station didn't take place until 1937.
At this point a new group of individuals became involved. Beginning in 1907, inventor
Lee de Forest had been the leading proponent in the United States trying to introduce organized radio broadcasting, especially by newspapers. However, due to technical and financial issues, he had made little progress in making converts to the idea. In late 1916 the DeForest Radio Telephone & Telegraph Company began broadcasting a nightly "wireless newspaper" entertainment and news program from its experimental station,
2XG, located in the Highbridge section of New York City. This station had to suspend operations during World War One, but was revived shortly after the October 1, 1919 lifting of the wartime ban on civilian stations.
![1920 The Thompson Company advertisement](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/1920_The_Thompson_Company_advertisement.gif)
In early 1920 Clarence "C. S." Thompson, a New York City associate of Lee de Forest, and John F. Hubbard formed Radio News & Music, Inc., which in March 1920 took up the promotion of newspaper-run broadcasting stations, offering local franchises and asking in national advertisements "Is Your Paper to be One of the Pioneers Distributing News and Music by Wireless?" The ''Detroit News'' would become Radio News & Music's first — and ultimately only — newspaper customer.
In a May 28, 1920 letter, the ''News'' made arrangements to lease a DeForest OT-10 radio transmitter through Radio News & Music, in order to develop a broadcasting service.
An initial equipment shipment was made the same day, and Radio News & Music hired a local teenaged amateur radio operator, Michael DeLisle Lyons, to install the transmitter in a second floor room of the ''News'' headquarters building, connected to an antenna constructed on the roof. The May 28th shipment never arrived, so a replacement was sent from New York on July 15. After Lyons did some initial installation work a financial dispute broke out between him and the newspaper's management, so the ''News'' hired Frank Edwards to take over engineering responsibilities. Elton M. Plant, an aspiring reporter who had a good speaking and singing voice, was drafted as an announcer.
De Forest had sold the commercial rights to his radio patents to the
American Telephone & Telegraph Company
AT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agen ...
(AT&T) in 1917. However, he retained the right to sell equipment for "amateur and experimental use", so the station operated under a standard amateur radio license, with the
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...
8MK. William E. Scripps was very enthusiastic about the project, and kept close track as the equipment was being tested. However, the work was done with very limited publicity, and there are reports that some at the newspaper worried that a radio station might adversely affect paper sales, thus measures were taken to hide the direct involvement of the Scripps family, including originally licensing 8MK in Michael DeLisle Lyons' name.
Scripps' original proposal had envisioned operating on an uncongested frequency somewhere within the 600 to 1600 meter (500 to 187.5 kHz) band normally reserved for government stations.
However, as an amateur station 8MK was required to transmit on the standard — thus interference-prone — amateur wavelength of 200 meters (1500 kHz), although contemporary newspaper accounts stated that it sometimes operated on other, less congested, wavelengths. In addition, the OT-10 transmitter was only rated for 20 watts, far less than the 3,000 watts contemplated in Scripps' original proposal.
Debut
![8MK inaugural broadcast announcement](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/8MK_inaugural_broadcast_announcement.gif)
8MK began nightly trial broadcasts on August 20,
1920, in order to check if the equipment was ready for regular service. However, because the station was still unpublicized the original audience consisted only of a small number of interested local amateur radio enthusiasts. The test programs proved satisfactory, so on August 31, 1920 the ''Detroit News'' announced on its front page that, starting that evening, nightly (except Sunday) broadcasts would be transmitted by the "Detroit News Radiophone" service. That evening's debut program featured regularly updated returns for a primary election held that day, plus vocal performances by Lois Johnson. Malcolm Bingay, managing director of the ''Detroit News'', was the broadcast's master of ceremonies.
The front page of the next day's ''News'' contained enthusiastic reports attesting to the success of the election night broadcast, which had begun "promptly at 8:10 p. m.", with the newspaper declaring: "The sending of the election returns by The Detroit News Radiophone Tuesday night was fraught with romance and must go down in the history of man's conquest of the elements as a gigantic step in his progress." The paper also reported receiving "numberless telephone calls to The News office asking for details of the apparatus".
Daily broadcasts, most commonly between 7 and 8 p.m., continued through September. Although the initial programs consisted mostly of phonograph records interspersed with news announcements, programming also included fight results from the heavyweight championship bout between
Jack Dempsey
William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983), nicknamed Kid Blackie and The Manassa Mauler, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926 ...
and
Billy Miske on September 6, and, in October, play-by-play accounts as the
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...
bested the
Brooklyn Dodgers in the
1920 World Series
The 1920 World Series was the championship series for Major League Baseball's 1920 season. The series was a best-of-nine format played between the American League (AL) champion Cleveland Indians and the National League (NL) champion Brooklyn ...
baseball championship. Weekly vocal concerts were begun on September 23, with Mabel Norton Ayers as the first featured artist.
["Edison Concerts By Radiophone For Detroit Homes"](_blank)
''The Talking Machine World'', January 15, 1921, page 46. By late October, the paper was boasting that "hundreds of Detroiters are now the possessors of wireless receiving sets by which they get the news bulletins, music and other features sent out by The News Radiophone", as the station prepared to broadcast returns for that year's presidential election on November 2.
Early years
![8MK (Detroit News Radiophone station) August 1920](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/8MK_%28Detroit_News_Radiophone_station%29_August_1920.jpg)
The station's costs were borne by the newspaper—there was no advertising until the mid-1920s—and by 1922 the station staff had increased to ten. Performers were not paid, however, the station was able to attract numerous "illustrious persons" to appear over the airwaves from the station's "phonitorium" studio, including
Lillian Gish,
Fanny Brice,
Ty Cobb
Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder. He was born in rural Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the ...
, and
Babe Ruth
George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...
. The station is believed to be the first to broadcast news reports regularly, and the first to present regularly scheduled religious broadcasts and play-by-play sports reports.
In the fall of 1921, the ''News'' purchased the DeForest OT-10 transmitter it had been leasing from Radio News & Music, and applied for a "Special Amateur" station license,
[, Joseph E. Baudino and John M. Kittross, ''Journal of Broadcasting'', Winter 1977, pages 75-76.] which would provide better coverage by allowing the station to move to a wavelength less subject to interference. However, on October 13, 1921 the government instead issued the ''News'' a "Limited Commercial" license, and early the next month the newspaper announced: "The Detroit News radio station is now operating under a limited commercial license with call letters WBL. The wavelength used is 360 meters
33 kHzand a special antenna has been erected to use this wave. The station will transmit as before beginning every evening, except Sunday."
[ "Radio Department", ''Detroit News'', November 6, 1921, page 17.] While this had the desired benefit of now being on a less congested wavelength, it also meant the station's continued use of DeForest equipment was technically in violation of the commercial radio equipment patent rights held by AT&T. This potential problem was soon resolved by the purchase of a 500-watt transmitter from AT&T
subsidiary Western Electric, which was installed on January 28, 1922.
The new WBL call sign was randomly assigned, and the ''News'' found that listeners had trouble hearing it correctly, so the newspaper asked the regional Radio Inspector, S. W. Edwards, to have it changed to something more phonetically distinct, requesting WKL or WWW. Neither of these call signs was available, so one similar to the paper's request, WWJ, was assigned on March 3, 1922.
![Detroit News Orchestra broadcasting over WWJ - 1922](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Detroit_News_Orchestra_broadcasting_over_WWJ_-_1922.jpg)
Effective December 1, 1921, the U.S. government for the first time adopted regulations formally defining "broadcasting stations". The wavelength of 360 meters (for which WBL and eight other stations already held licenses) was designated for entertainment broadcasts, while 485 meters (619 kHz) was reserved for broadcasting official weather and other government reports.
["Miscellaneous: Amendments to Regulations"](_blank)
''Radio Service Bulletin'', January 3, 1922, page 10. On March 3, 1922, WWJ was granted permission to transmit on 485 meters, in addition to its original 360-meter assignment. 1922 saw a rapid expansion in the number of broadcasting stations, most sharing the single entertainment wavelength of 360 meters, which required progressively more complicated time sharing schedules among stations in the same region. That May the ''News'' bristled at having to suffer the "handicap" of being required to give up some airtime to its competitor, the ''
Detroit Free Press
The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...
'', which had, in the words of the ''News'', decided to "break in" by establishing its own station, WCX (now
WJR). A front page "explanation" in the ''News'' complained about having to reduce its schedule of "unique, wholesome and delightful entertainment".
In late September 1922 a second entertainment wavelength, 400 meters (750
kHz), was made available for "Class B" stations, which had higher powers and better quality equipment and programming. Both WWJ and WCX qualified to use this new wavelength, on a timesharing basis. In early 1923 the United States further expanded the broadcast station allocations into a continuous band from 550 to 1350 kHz, with stations now using a single frequency, no longer having to broadcast entertainment and official reports on separate frequencies. Under the new allocations the Class B frequency of
580 kHz (516.9 meters) was designated for use by qualified stations in the "Detroit/Dearborn" area, and both WWJ and WCX were assigned to this frequency. In January 1925 WWJ was reassigned to an exclusive Class B frequency,
850 kHz (352.7 meters). A series of reassignments followed, as the government struggled to structure the broadcast band to accommodate an increasing congested environment. On November 11, 1928 the
Federal Radio Commission
The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by t ...
implemented a major AM band reorganization, under the provisions of its
General Order 40
The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, dated August 30, 1928, described the standards for a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting in the United States. This order grouped the AM radio band transmitting frequencies into thre ...
. This reallocation divided stations into three classes, which became known as "Clear", "Regional" and "Local". WWJ was tentatively assigned to a clear channel frequency of 820 kHz, which would have permitted operation with up to 50,000 watts. However, the station's management was unprepared to bear the cost of a major transmitter upgrade, and instead settled for assignment to one of the regional frequencies,
920 kHz (325.9 meters), with a transmitter power of 1,000 watts, the maximum permitted at the time for regional frequencies.
1930s and 1940s
![Dorothy Gish broadcasting over Detroit News Radiophone - 1920](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Dorothy_Gish_broadcasting_over_Detroit_News_Radiophone_-_1920.jpg)
In 1937 WWJ became one of the first stations to increase its power to the new maximum of 5,000 watts for regional frequencies. On March 29, 1941, as part of the
North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) frequency reassignments, the station moved to
950 kHz, where it remains to this day. The programming throughout this time was focused on variety. During the 1940s, WWJ transmitted most of the
NBC Red Network
The NBC, National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the Blue Network, NBC Blue Network it was ...
schedule, along with locally produced news, entertainment and music programming. After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, especially as television grew in household reach and popularity, music and regularly scheduled local news would make up a larger portion of its format as television eroded support for variety programming on radio and the
Golden Age of Radio gradually ended.
The
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
(FCC) was interested in increasing the number of broadcasting outlets, and began licensing
"Apex" stations, operating on higher transmitting frequencies than the original AM band. On January 29, 1936, the ''Detroit News'' activated its own Apex station,
W8XWJ
W8XWJ was a Detroit, Michigan "experimental audio broadcasting station", owned by the ''Detroit News'', which operated from 1936 to 1940. It was classified as an Apex broadcasting station, i.e. it provided programming intended for the general publi ...
, initially broadcasting at 31.6 MHz and relaying WWJ's programs. As with WWJ, W8XWJ used
amplitude modulation (AM), but it was also engineered to transmit in high-fidelity. The FCC ultimately decided that the second broadcast band would use
frequency modulation
Frequency modulation (FM) is the encoding of information in a carrier wave by varying the instantaneous frequency of the wave. The technology is used in telecommunications, radio broadcasting, signal processing, and computing.
In analog fre ...
(FM), so W8XWJ ceased operating in early 1940, as the '' News'' prepared to replace it with an FM station. On May 10, 1941 that new station, W45D, debuted as Michigan's first FM station, which would later undergo five call letter changes – to WENA, WWJ-FM, WJOI, WYST and WKRK – before becoming
WXYT-FM
WXYT-FM (97.1 MHz "97-1 The Ticket") is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan, serving Metro Detroit and much of Southeast Michigan. It airs a sports radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its studios and offices are located in th ...
. WWJ also got into the nascent medium of television when WWDT began service on October 23, 1946 for one day of demonstrative programming; regular programming commenced on March 4, 1947, with the call letters changing to match the radio station, WWJ-TV two months later on May 15, and has been affiliated with the
NBC television network
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
since its sign-on, owing to WWJ radio's longtime association with the NBC Radio Network. The station changed its call letters to
WDIV-TV
WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio facili ...
in 1978, and was Michigan's first TV station.
Adoption of news and talk format
![Radio station WWJ advertisement (October 18, 1971)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Radio_station_WWJ_advertisement_%28October_18%2C_1971%29.jpg)
With the increasing popularity of FM radio and stereo broadcasting, 950 WWJ phased out its daytime
middle of the road music programming in May 1971 and became a strictly news and talk station during the daytime hours (although for the first several years of the all-news format, the station simulcast the
beautiful music
Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator mu ...
format of WWJ-FM 97.1, during the overnight hours). The all-news format on WWJ has remained since then, enabling it to rank consistently among the Detroit area's most popular stations with adult listeners, occasionally finishing in first place in recent surveys.
In 1987, the Federal Broadcasting Corporation, run by David Herriman, purchased WWJ and its FM counterpart, WJOI, from the new owner of ''The Detroit News'', the
Gannett Company which was required to sell the stations immediately by the Federal Communications Commission because of cross-ownership rules in effect at that time. On March 9, 1989, CBS bought the stations, with its ownership being transferred to
Infinity Broadcasting
Infinity Broadcasting Corporation was a radio company that existed from 1972 until 2005. It was founded by Michael A. Wiener and Gerald Carrus. It became associated with popular radio personalities like Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, Don Imus ...
after CBS's 1996 acquisition of that group. (Infinity later returned to using the
CBS Radio name.)
Along with "97.1 The Ticket," WWJ was the flagship station for
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at L ...
basketball from 2009-2014. In 2013, all CBS-owned radio stations in Detroit moved their operations to the former Panasonic Building in
Southfield.
On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom. The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on the 17th. The company became Audacy, Inc. in 2021.
WWJ (AM) transmitter relocation and signal upgrade
When CBS acquired WGPR-TV in 1995, it changed its call letters to
WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV (channel 62) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, owned and operated by the CBS television network. Under common ownership with CW affiliate WKBD-TV under the network's CBS News and Stations group, both statio ...
(unrelated to the above-mentioned former WWJ-TV now known as WDIV), and needed a site for a new transmission tower in order to improve the UHF TV station's coverage, and the WWJ radio transmitter site in
Oak Park was partially dismantled (the taller north tower was razed) to make room for the television tower. The AM transmitter facility was subsequently relocated in late 1998, to a new six-tower array located in
Monroe County Monroe County may refer to seventeen counties in the United States, all named for James Monroe:
* Monroe County, Alabama
*Monroe County, Arkansas
* Monroe County, Florida
* Monroe County, Georgia
*Monroe County, Illinois
*Monroe County, Indian ...
, near
Newport. The new site allowed WWJ to upgrade from 5,000 to 50,000
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s, greatly improving its nighttime signal in the
Downriver
Downriver is the unofficial name for a collection of 18 cities and townships in Wayne County, Michigan, south of Detroit, along the western shore of the Detroit River.
The place is sometimes referred to as South Detroit.
Etymology
The name ...
communities, where it previously had a weak signal, due to the use of a
directional antenna that protected the coverage areas of other stations on 950 kHz, including
WNTD
WNTD (950 AM) is a radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois. It is owned by Relevant Radio, Inc. Its has separate day-time (1,000 watts; non-directional) and night-time (5,000 watts; directional) transmitter locations. It is currently one of ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
,
KKSE in
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
KPRC in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
, and
WKDN in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
. The move was not without its disadvantages, as the new site's distance from commercially important
Oakland County
Oakland County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is part of the metropolitan Detroit area, located northwest of the city. As of the 2020 Census, its population was 1,274,395, making it the second-most populous county in Michigan, b ...
meant the signal, though adequate for home and outdoor listening, was difficult to receive inside office buildings. Even though WWJ was now using the maximum power permitted to AM stations in the United States, it was still considered to be a Regional station, because
950 AM
The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 950 kHz: The Federal Communications Commission categorizes 950 AM as a regional frequency.
Argentina
* CNN Radio Argentina in Buenos Aires
* LT16 RSP in Presidente Roque Saenz Peña
Br ...
is classified as a regional frequency in the U.S., on which only Class B stations and Class D stations may be assigned.
Notable former on-air staff
*
Mark Champion
Mark Champion (born August 8, 1950) is an American radio sportscaster who is the current primary radio play-by-play voice of the Detroit Pistons, a position he has served in since 2001. When the Pistons are on national television, however, George ...
*
Hugh Downs
Hugh Malcolm Downs (February 14, 1921July 1, 2020) was an American radio and television broadcaster, announcer and programmer; television host; news anchor; TV producer; author; game show host; talk show sidekick; and music composer. A regular t ...
*
Bill Kennedy
*
Byron MacGregor
*
Paul Keels
Paul Keels is the current play-by-play announcer for Ohio State University's football and men's basketball teams for WBNS Radio and the Ohio State Sports Network.
A native of Cincinnati, Keels began his broadcasting career in his hometown as a n ...
*
Fred Manfra
Fred Manfra (born September 1946) is an American retired sportscaster, best known for radio and television broadcasts of the Baltimore Orioles. He has covered many other sports, including football, basketball, ice hockey, horse racing and the ...
Pioneer station status
Although WWJ is widely recognized as a pioneer broadcasting station, its exact status compared to other early U.S. stations, especially
KDKA in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
, has been a source of contention for nearly a century. (KDKA began operating on November 2, 1920, initially under a temporary "Special Amateur" authorization as "8ZZ"). The disagreement over WWJ and KDKA has been long-standing, and controversial enough that some have gone out of their way to avoid becoming involved. This was on public display after the September 3, 1945 issue of ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine included a short note that the
National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) had recently endorsed WWJ's "claim to being the world's first commercial radio station," by concluding that KDKA "was ten and a half weeks younger." This assertion brought a quick denial from NAB President J. Harold Ryan, who sent a letter to the magazine stating that ''Time'' had misconstrued informational material sent out by the association, and: "It was not the intention, nor is it the prerogative of the NAB to attempt to decide the relative claims of two pioneer broadcasting stations."
One complicating factor is that the U.S. government initially did not have a formal definition of "broadcasting" or any specific regulations. In particular, there were no restrictions about broadcasting stations operating under amateur or experimental licenses. It was only effective December 1, 1921 that formal standards for broadcasting stations were adopted, which essentially grafted a broadcasting service definition onto the existing Limited Commercial license category, as an authorization issued to a select number of designated stations.
(A license class dating back to 1912, not all Limited Commercial stations were authorized to make broadcasts. A specific "broadcasting station" license would not exist until one was established by the
Federal Radio Commission
The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by t ...
in 1927.)
This has led to varying interpretations about which stations should be considered the "first" and the "oldest surviving" broadcasters. In addition, numerous qualifiers have been proposed, leading to competing views about the relative importance of factors such as "regular," "continuous," "scheduled", "publicized," "commercial," and "real" — all in a challenging effort to develop a consensus about fast-moving events that were not always well documented. An example of the existence of competing standards occurred in 1923, when the Department of Commerce stated that "The first broadcasting license was issued in September, 1921", a reference to the September 15, 1921 Limited Commercial license issued to WBZ in
Springfield, Massachusetts, which appears to be the first to have stated that the station would be used exclusively for broadcasting, while transmitting on 360 meters, which would become the standard "entertainment" wavelength designated by the December 1, 1921 regulations. However, this particular interpretation has not been widely adopted.
In 1977, the ''Journal of Broadcasting'' published a study, "Broadcasting's Oldest Stations: An Examination of Four Claimants," authored by Joseph E. Baudino and John M. Kittross, which reviewed four early U.S. stations — KDKA, WWJ,
WHA in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
and
KCBS in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
— contending for the title of the "oldest
urvivingstation in the nation." The authors ultimately favored KDKA,
although unmentioned by the review was the fact that lead author Baudino had formerly been that station's manager.
Based on the somewhat limited information available at the time, the authors eliminated WWJ on the grounds that "the evidence of a direct relationship between the licensee of 8MK and the licensee of WBL is ''very'' tenuous", and because supporting WWJ as the oldest U.S. station could only be done through "tortured reasoning." They also concluded that the ''Detroit News'' had not been significantly involved with radio broadcasting prior to the issuance of WBL's first license on October 13, 1921.
Baudino and Kittross' contention that there was only a "tenuous" relationship between 8MK and WBL/WWJ was the opposite of what WWJ staff had been saying for over half a century. During the years that the ''Detroit News'' operated WWJ, the newspaper's reviews had always stated that 8MK and WBL/WWJ were effectively the same station, which, although there had been call sign and license changes, had a continuous history as the "Detroit News Radiophone" dating to August 20, 1920. After leasing 8MK's DeForest OT-10 transmitter through Radio News & Music, the newspaper had assumed total responsibility for constructing and running the radio station, including hiring engineers and staff. The transfer from operating under 8MK's license to that of WBL's had minimal effect. The same DeForest OT-10 transmitter was being used, operating from the same location, and under the control of the same ''Detroit News'' employees who had been responsible for the 8MK broadcasts. Moreover, at the time of the switchover from 8MK to WBL, the ''News'' had informed its readers that, although the call sign and operating frequency were changing, the paper's broadcast service would continue, and "The Detroit News radio station... will transmit as before."
Publicity issued by WWJ regularly listed August 1920 as its founding date, but varied greatly when describing the station's historical significance. In an early example, a 1922 advertisement for the ''
Detroit News
''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...
'' merely stated that the paper deserved recognition for having "installed the first transmitting set in use by any newspaper." (At this time there was at least one other broadcasting station with a strong claim to predate both 8MK/WWJ and 8ZZ/KDKA,
KZY
KZY was a radio station located in Oakland, California, that was licensed to the Atlantic-Pacific Radio Supplies Company from December 9, 1921, until its deletion on January 24, 1923. It, and the Preston D. Allen station, KZM, were the first bro ...
in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
, which was a re-licensing of an experimental station:
6XC in San Francisco, also known as the "California Theater Station." 6XC had begun a wide-ranging selection of daily broadcasts around April 1920, and in 1921 Lee de Forest wrote that this was the "first radio-telephone station devoted solely" to broadcasting to the public. However, KZY would be deleted in early 1923.)
Later reviews became more sweeping in their claims. In 1934, an advertisement for WWJ included the contention that it was "America's Pioneer Broadcasting Station."
While celebrating its 25th anniversary in August 1945, WWJ further claimed to have been the station where "commercial radio broadcasting began."
("First commercial station" status was also claimed by KDKA, in spite of the fact that both WWJ and KDKA were initially commercial-free and did not start to accept advertising until the mid-1920s, so in this case "commercial" appears to only mean that the station was under the control of a commercial enterprise.)
Largely ignored by WWJ and KDKA was a third station that had been reviewed in the Baudino and Kittross article, KCBS in San Francisco, which contended it was significantly older than both WWJ and KDKA. KCBS traced its history to a pre-World War One station operated by
Charles "Doc" Herrold in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...
. The station made test audio transmissions in 1909, and began broadcasting weekly concerts in 1912. Herrold's San Jose broadcasts were suspended during World War One when the U.S. government prohibited the operation of civilian radio stations, and after the war ended he did not return to the airwaves until May 1921. His experimental station was re-licensed in December 1921 as KQW, which later moved to San Francisco and became KCBS in 1949. Baudino and Kittross argued that this post-World War One gap disqualified KCBS from "oldest station" consideration, something neither KQW nor KCBS has agreed with, as program schedules for KQW appearing in 1925 included the slogan "Pioneer Broadcasting Station of the World." In 2009 KCBS celebrated its 100th birthday with a yearlong series of events throughout the Bay Area, including the public dedication of a plaque commemorating the "Centennial Celebration of the World's First Broadcasting Station."
KCBS Centennial Celebration commemorative plaque
June 11, 2009 (flickriver.com) At the same time, KCBS adopted the slogan "The World's First Broadcasting Station".
See also
*Media in Detroit
As the world's traditional automotive center, Detroit, Michigan, is an important source for business news. The Detroit media are active in the community through such efforts as the ''Detroit Free Press'' high school journalism program and the Old ...
* Detroit News Orchestra
References
Further reading
* ''The Life and Works of Dr. Lee De Forest'' by C. S. Thompson (New York: Smedley Press, 1931)
"WWJ, 'The World's First Radio Station': A History"
(Thesis for the Degree of Master of Arts) by Robert Preston Rimes, Michigan State University, 1963 (MSU.edu)
"WWJ—Pioneer in Broadcasting"
by Cynthia Boyes Young, ''Michigan History'', December 1960, (vol. 44, no. 4), pages 411-433,
External links
*
*
*
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