WXYT (1270
kHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...
) 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 radio ...
licensed to
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 ...
, broadcasting a
sports talk
Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...
format. The station serves the Detroit-Windsor market and the
Southeastern Michigan
Southeast Michigan, also called southeastern Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan that is home to a majority of the state's businesses and industries as well as slightly over half of the state's population, most of whom are c ...
and
Southwestern Ontario
Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake St. ...
areas. Its transmitter is 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 ...
at
Ash Township and operations and studios are at Entercom's facilities in
Southfield, Michigan
Southfield is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the city had a population of 76,618.
As a northern suburb of Detroit, Southfield shares part of its ...
. WXYT is a 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 Wa ...
, Class B station broadcasting on a regional frequency. It is not a clear-channel station because of its frequency and highly directional antenna.
The station is 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 ...
This station used to be known as WXYZ, an
ABC Radio-owned radio station from 1946 until 1984.
WXYT is licensed by the
U.S. 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 jurisdictio ...
(FCC) for hybrid (analog and
HD) broadcasting. The station's original callsign,
WGHP
WGHP (channel 8) is a television station licensed to High Point, North Carolina, United States, serving the Piedmont Triad region as an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and main ...
, is now used by a
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
-affiliated television station in
High Point, North Carolina
High Point is a city in the Piedmont Triad region of the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of the city is in Guilford County, North Carolina, Guilford County, with parts extending into Randolph County, North Carolina, Randolph, ...
.
WXYT is also broadcast on the third 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 ...
.
History
WGHP
The station went on the air in 1923 as WGHP – named after its owner, George Harrison Phelps, an adverting agency owner.
The radio station was licensed in Detroit, then moved to Mt. Clemens in 1927, and moved again to Fraser in 1928. The station was rated at 500 watts.
WGHP was a charter member of the
CBS Radio Network
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. It ...
, being one of the 16 stations that aired the first CBS network program on September 18, 1927.
According to FCC records, a predecessor company to Storer Broadcasting, also named the "American Broadcasting Company" actually owned WXYZ from 1929 until they had sold it to the
Kunsky-
Trendle Broadcasting Company in 1930.
[FCC History Cards For WXYT](_blank)
fcc.gov. Retrieved November 22, 2018. Storer would then go on to purchase WJBK in the late 1930s.
WXYZ
In 1930, the station was purchased by
George W. Trendle
George Washington Trendle (July 4, 1884 – May 10, 1972) was an American lawyer and businessman best known as the producer of the ''Lone Ranger'' radio and television programs along with ''The Green Hornet'' and '' Sergeant Preston of the Yukon'' ...
's
Kunsky-Trendle Broadcasting and switched the callsign to WXYZ which were acquired from a
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
station. The station was rated at 1,000 watts when it moved back to Detroit in 1930. Trendle moved the station to the
Maccabees Building
The Maccabees Building (sometimes called Wayne Tower) is a historic building located at 5057 Woodward Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and is currently owned by Wayne State U ...
on Woodward Avenue in
downtown Detroit
Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, downtown tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Lodge Freeway) to the west, Interstate 75 ( ...
, where it maintained facilities until 1959. Antennas and transmitter were located at the northwest corner of Joy and Greenfield Roads in western Detroit. The site was re-developed to a shopping center when the Broadcast House move occurred in 1959. However, most programming in the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s originated from the former Mendelson Mansion on East Jefferson Avenue. In addition to local programs, WXYZ produced ''
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture.
He first appeared in 1933 in ...
'', ''
Challenge of the Yukon
''Challenge of the Yukon'' is an American radio adventure series that began on Detroit's WXYZ and is an example of a Northern genre story. The series was first heard on January 3, 1939. The title changed from ''Challenge of the Yukon'' to ''Se ...
'' and ''
The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is a superhero created in 1936 by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell. Since his 1930s radio debut, the character has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media ...
'' for broadcast throughout the U.S. and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.
The station's slogan "The Last Word in Radio" would tie-in with its call letters. Another former slogan was "WXYZ, Where the Best Comes Last."
On June 1, 1932, WXYZ's affiliation with
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
ended. The trade magazine ''
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...
'' reported that the reason was "to make way for more local programs. In 1934, WXYZ was one of the founding stations of the
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...
, along with
WOR in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
,
WGN in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, and
WLW
WLW (700 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as The Big One.
WLW operates with around the clock. Its daytime signal provides ...
in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
. On September 29, 1935, WXYZ dropped out of the Mutual group to become an affiliate of the NBC Blue network. The following year, its parent company, Kunsky-Trendle, changed its name to King-Trendle. WXYZ was contractually obligated to provide ''The Lone Ranger'' to Mutual for another four years, so although the program originated from WXYZ, it was heard in the Detroit area on Mutual's new affiliate,
CKLW
CKLW (800 AM) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, serving Southwestern Ontario and Metro Detroit. CKLW has a news/talk format. It features local hosts in morning and afternoon drive times, with syndicated Canadian hosts in midd ...
.
On May 3, 1946, the station was purchased by the
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...
,
which was recently formed from the NBC Blue Network by
Edward Noble
Edward John Noble (August 8, 1882 – December 28, 1958) was an American broadcasting and candy industrialist originally from Gouverneur, New York, Gouverneur, New York (state), New York. He co-founded the Life Savers Corporation in 1913. He foun ...
. On May 2, 1946, Noble, ABC board chairman, announced the purchase of King-Trendle Broadcasting Corp. (which consisted of WXYZ,
WOOD
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
–
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
and
Michigan Radio Network
The Michigan Radio Network (or MRN) was a satellite-distributed news service that provides actualities, newscasts, and talk shows to affiliates in Michigan. It was most recently owned by Learfield Communications and had headquarters in Lansing, ...
) for $3,650,000. The sale was approved by FCC on July 18.
Some time prior to the end of 1939, the radio station's power was increased to 5,000 watts daytime, and WXYZ increased night power to 5,000 watts with a mildly directional night pattern by the end of March 1941.
In 1948, WXYZ personalities contributed to launching programing on ABC's new Detroit television station
WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Independent station (North America), independent st ...
, Channel 7, and WXYZ-FM (now
WRIF
WRIF (101.1 FM) is a commercial active rock radio station licensed in Detroit, Michigan and serving Metro Detroit as well as bordering city Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The station is currently owned by Beasley Media Group. WRIF is a grandfathered ...
) also signed on at 101.1 MHz. Dick Osgood of WXYZ radio was the first face on Channel 7 from its studios in the Maccabees Building.
WXYZ had many of Detroit's most prominent radio personalities of the 1940s and 1950s including Dick Osgood, Fred Wolf, Ed McKenzie, Mickey Shorr, "The Lady of Charm" Edyth Fern Melrose, Jack Surrell (one of the earliest African-American air personalities on an otherwise white-oriented station), and future
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
correspondents
Mike Wallace
Myron Leon Wallace (May 9, 1918 – April 7, 2012) was an American journalist, game show host, actor, and media personality. He interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his seven-decade career. He was one of the original correspo ...
and
Douglas Edwards
Douglas Edwards (July 14, 1917 – October 13, 1990) was an American radio and television newscaster and correspondent who worked for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) for more than four decades. After six years on CBS Radio in the 1940s ...
.
ABC moved WXYZ-AM-FM-TV in 1959 from the Maccabees Building to a new home known as "Broadcast House." WXYZ radio occupied studios on the second floor of the new facility, located at 20777 W. Ten Mile Rd., built on the site of a former farm, which housed WXYZ's AM transmitter in
Southfield, Michigan
Southfield is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the city had a population of 76,618.
As a northern suburb of Detroit, Southfield shares part of its ...
, until 1984.
Channel 1270
Over the next decade, as television grew in popularity, WXYZ was successful in replacing many of the declining ABC radio network variety features with local record shows hosted by personalities like longtime morning show host Fred Wolf, Paul Winter, and Mickey Shorr, one of the most influential of Detroit's early rock-and-roll disc jockeys.
Under the guidance of Hal Neal, WXYZ was the first ABC-owned-and-operated station to adopt the
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...
music format in 1958; although WXYZ had already been making moves toward Top 40 in terms of playing more music and less network programming, the music played on the station during the various disc jockey shows encompassed a wide variety of genres, from mainstream pop to
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
to
show tune
A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context.
...
s to
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
. The transition to Top 40 was completed in 1958 with the station instituting an official playlist and taking away disc jockeys' privileges to play what they wanted. Although many of the DJs were disenchanted with the changes (particularly Fred Wolf, who was notable for his distaste for rock and roll), WXYZ's move proved a success in terms of ratings. The station's success in Top 40 inspired ABC to convert two of its flagship stations,
WABC in New York and
WLS in Chicago, to Top 40 in 1960. Neal himself moved to New York to manage network flagship WABC, which during the 1960s became the nation's most listened-to radio station. WXYZ was still, however, as an ABC network station, obliged to carry ABC's weekday-morning traditional radio variety show, "
The Breakfast Club
''The Breakfast Club'' is a 1985 American teen coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by John Hughes. It stars Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. The film t ...
."
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, "Channel 1270", or "Wixie" (also spelled "Wyxie") as it was affectionately known, battled with
Storer Broadcasting
Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the Northeastern United States. It was incorporated in Ohio 1927, and was broken up in 1986.
History 1920s–1940s
In 1927, George B. Storer ...
's
WJBK
WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in 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 o ...
(1500 AM) and RKO General's
CKLW
CKLW (800 AM) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, serving Southwestern Ontario and Metro Detroit. CKLW has a news/talk format. It features local hosts in morning and afternoon drive times, with syndicated Canadian hosts in midd ...
(800 AM, often known as 'the Big 8') for the Top 40 audience in Detroit. The "Wixie" persona and WXYZ calls is reputed to have been the inspiration for "
WIXY 1260," itself a Top 40 powerhouse in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
during the late 1960s.
Some noteworthy personalities during WXYZ's Top 40 era included: longtime morning drive host Fred Wolf; Lee Alan "On The Horn"; Joel Sebastian, (who later moved on to WLS); Paul Winter; Fred Weiss; Dave Prince; Steve Lundy, Don Zee; and, for a short time in 1966,
Joey Reynolds
Joseph Pinto, better known as Joey Reynolds, is a long-time radio show host and disc jockey. Reynolds' broadcasting career started on TV in Buffalo at WGR TV 2 and he worked at various stations, including at WNBC.
Career
His first radio job was ...
an
Jim Hampton
Transitions
In 1963, WXYZ and WJBK were the two dominant Top 40 music stations in Detroit. However, both stations were seriously undermined by the launch of
WKNR
WKNR (850 AM) – branded as ''850 ESPN Cleveland'' – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland. Owned by Good Karma Brands, WKNR is the Cleveland affiliate for ESPN Radio and the AM flags ...
"Keener 13" (formerly WKMH) at 1310 on the dial. "Keener" had a tighter, faster presentation and a shorter playlist than the competition, and quickly took over as Detroit's number one rated station. WJBK was the first of WKNR's competitors to fall, switching to an MOR format in 1964.
WXYZ battled tooth and nail with WKNR for over three years, but by the summer of 1966, WXYZ had also fallen behind
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...
's
CKLW
CKLW (800 AM) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, serving Southwestern Ontario and Metro Detroit. CKLW has a news/talk format. It features local hosts in morning and afternoon drive times, with syndicated Canadian hosts in midd ...
in the ratings. As an ABC-owned-and-operated station, WXYZ continued to be crippled by its ABC network commitments such as "The Breakfast Club" and an hour-long block of news and commentary during the evening drive period, and although the disc jockeys continued to lobby to drop these programs to compete more effectively with WKNR, their pleas fell on deaf ears. In early 1967, WXYZ was third-ranked out of the three Top 40 stations. As a result, the station changed direction, softening its music mix to an
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
/MOR approach known as "The Sound of the Good Life."
However, the station continued to flounder until
Dick Purtan
Paul Richard "Dick" Purtan (born July 11, 1936) is an American radio personality. His last radio job was as the morning radio show host on WOMC serving the Detroit, Michigan, radio market. Purtan was also a disc jockey at WKNR, WXYZ, CKLW, WCZY ...
, formerly of WKNR, took over the WXYZ morning show after a short but eventful stint at
WBAL in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
. With Dick Purtan in the morning, WXYZ did respectably in the ratings through the 1970s with an adult Top 40/oldies hybrid. In the mid-1970s, WXYZ adopted the "Musicradio" slogan used by its sister stations WABC and WLS and continued to do well with an adult contemporary format and Purtan's morning show as the anchor. By then, the former WXYZ-FM was known as
WRIF
WRIF (101.1 FM) is a commercial active rock radio station licensed in Detroit, Michigan and serving Metro Detroit as well as bordering city Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The station is currently owned by Beasley Media Group. WRIF is a grandfathered ...
and also doing well with its "Rock 'N' Stereo 101"
album oriented rock
Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock.
Album-oriente ...
approach.
The station dropped music in favor of an all-talk format in 1978, which was the same year Dick Purtan left for CKLW. Ron Cameron, Joel Zelle, Tom Hopkins
Tom Dean Dr. Sonya Freidman, David Newman and others hosted talk shows during this timeframe, under Program Directors Bob Oakes and Michael Packer. News reporters/anchors included Tom Bell, Tom Adams, Lou Hebert, Kathy Jackson, Robert Lambert, Scott Lewis and Mike O'Neill.
In 1977, WXYZ reporters, Lou Hebert and Tom Adams won a radio
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
for ''Winter's Fear: The Children, The Killer, The Search'', a presentation on the events surrounding the
Oakland County Child Killer case.
Talkradio 1270
In 1984, the radio station was seeing its profits steadily declining along with its ratings. Station vice president and general manager Chuck Fritz, thinking he could operate it more profitably, offered to buy the station. ABC agreed and sold it to Fritz Broadcasting for $3 million (USD). The call letters were changed to the similar-sounding WXYT, with the "T" standing for "talk." The WXYZ calls were retained by the TV station, which was sold two years later to Scripps-Howard to comply with divestiture requirements following Capital Cities Communications' purchase of ABC. WRIF was also sold while Cap Cities retained WJR, WHYT, the "Oakland Press" and numerous cable interests in Southeastern Lower Michigan. Jock Fritz later bought the struggling 92.3 FM and converted it to the highly successful
WMXD
WMXD (92.3 FM ''Mix 92.3'') is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan, owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The station operates with 45,000 watts of power from an antenna located on the Cadillac Tower building in downtown Detroit. The studio ...
"Mix 92.3" (now an
iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
station), and founded the Radio Station Representative Association in Detroit.
WXYT continued with its talk format as "Talkradio 1270" airing local programs hosted by
Denny McLain
Dennis Dale McLain (born March 29, 1944) is an American former professional baseball player. He played for ten seasons in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher, most prominently as a member of the Detroit Tigers. In 1968, McLain became ...
, Kevin Joyce,
Bill Bonds
Bill Bonds (February 23, 1932 – December 13, 2014) was an American television news anchor and reporter, best known for his work at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Bonds became an Action News anchorman beginning in the early 1970s.
Early caree ...
,
Mark Scott, David Newman, John McCullogh and weathercaster Rob Kress; and syndicated talk show hosts such as
Don Imus
John Donald Imus Jr. (July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019), also known mononymously as Imus, was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. His radio show, ''Imus in the Morning'', was aired on various stat ...
,
Larry King
Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program ...
,
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
, and
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...
. Glenn Haege, known as "America's Master Handyman," hosted "Ask The Handyman", a weekend home improvement show that started on WXYZ in the mid-1980s, and lasted on WXYT until 2002. In 1998, after an unsuccessful campaign for Michigan governor,
Geoffrey Fieger
Geoffrey Nels Fieger (born December 23, 1950) is an American attorney based in Southfield, Michigan. Fieger is the senior partner at the law firm of Fieger, Fieger, Kenney & Harrington P.C., and is an occasional legal commentator for NBC and MS ...
hosted an evening talk show that lasted less than a year.
In 1994, the station was sold again, this time 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 an ...
, which itself was acquired by
CBS Radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...
in 1997, pairing WXYT with
WWJ and
WKRK-FM
WKRK-FM (92.3 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland Heights, Ohio, known as "Sports Radio 92.3 The Fan" and carrying a sports format. Owned by Audacy, Inc., WKRK-FM serves Greater Cleveland and surrounding Northeast Ohi ...
(Infinity Broadcasting remained as the name of the radio division). Infinity Broadcasting would revert its name to CBS Radio by December 2005.
The Sports Station
WXYT changed to an all-sports format in 2000 when the station, which had aired
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
starting in 1998, acquired the broadcast rights to
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
and
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...
hockey
Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
from rival
WJR. The station re-branded itself as "Team 1270".
By 2002, WXYT re-branded itself again as "AM 1270 The Sports Station". Power was increased from 5,000
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 Wa ...
s 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 Wa ...
s, though with a highly directional signal as opposed to non-directional
clear-channel
A clear-channel station is an AM broadcasting, AM radio station in North America that has the highest protection from Interference (communication), interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. The syste ...
WJR. In 2005, the station re-branded again, this time to "1270-XYT: The Sports Station."
WXYT's former afternoon show, ''The Locker Room'', was hosted by former Detroit Tiger
Kirk Gibson
Kirk Harold Gibson (born May 28, 1957) is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He is currently a color commentator for the Detroit Tigers on Bally Sports Detroit and a special assistant for the Tigers. As a player, Gibson ...
, Gary Danielson and former
WJBK-TV
WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter faciliti ...
and
WABC-TV
WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neighbor ...
sports anchor Eli Zaret. Until the 2006
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
season WXYT was the broadcast home for the
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
Spartans.
Opie and
Anthony
Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonia (gens), Antonii'', a ''gens'' (Roman naming conventions, Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were ...
, upon the return of their show, ''The
Opie and Anthony
''Opie and Anthony'' was an American radio show hosted by Gregg Hughes, Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia that aired from March 1995 to July 2014, with comedian Jim Norton (comedian), Jim Norton serving as third mic from 2001. The show origina ...
Show'', were also on WXYT from June to September 2006, after WXYT's local morning sports talk programming experiment fell through. Their show was moved to sister station WKRK, while WXYT picked up Mike and Mike in the Morning. In August 2007, WXYT became an
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...
affiliate, same as its Detroit sports radio competitor,
WDFN
WDFN (1130 AM) is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts an all-news radio format under iHeartMedia's Black Information Network, targeting Detroit's African American community. Its studios are located in the D ...
. The two stations simulcast ESPN content until the merger of WXYT with
WKRK in October 2007, at which point they picked up WKRK's affiliation with Sporting News Radio, dropping ESPN.
WXYT airs one-minute sports news updates, called "Sports Headlines", at the top of every hour, as well as a quick update at the bottom of the hour on weekends and from 3-9 p.m. Monday thru Friday. This is unlike many other sports stations across the country which air their sports news updates three times an hour.
In January 2007, WXYT announced that it had renewed its flagship-broadcast contracts with the Tigers and Red Wings. Beginning with the 2007 season, the Tigers would have their games simulcast on WKRK. The Red Wings' simulcast began in spring 2007. These contracts were extended in July 2010.
Detroit's Sports Powerhouse/The Ticket
WXYT began a simulcast with FM sister station
WKRK, which dropped its "hot talk" format in the process, on October 1, 2007. On WXYT's end, Mike and Mike in the Morning was replaced by
Deminski & Doyle, and the
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...
affiliation was dropped in favor of Sporting News Radio. The AM/FM simulcast took the name "Detroit's Sports Powerhouse: 97.1 FM & 1270 AM."
That November 6, the simulcast was renamed "97.1 The Ticket" (WKRK was also renamed WXYT-FM in the process). Any mention of the 1270 facility came during top of the hour legal station identification. Another change was the names of the mid-day show "The Big Show" and the afternoon show "The Sports Inferno" with the names changing to the last names of their hosts.
Along with WXYT-FM, WXYT served as the
flagship station (along with sister station WXYT-FM) for the
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...
,
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...
, and
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...
; and along with WWJ, the
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 Li ...
It also carried
syndicated programming from the Los Angeles-based Yahoo! Sports Radio, as well as live (non-Detroit) NFL games from across the country via
NFL on Westwood One
''The NFL on Westwood One Sports'' is the branding for Cumulus Broadcasting subsidiary Westwood One's radio coverage of the National Football League. These games are distributed throughout the United States and Canada (the latter through TSN Radio ...
. In February 2009, the station announced it would broadcast games for the Detroit Pistons, beginning with the
2009-2010 NBA season. All of these play-by-play rights remain with WXYT-FM to this day.
When 1270 wasn't simulcasting 97.1 FM (mostly during live sporting events with restricted contracts), 1270 used a different set of
station IDs.
Next generation of talk radio
WXYT AM and FM concluded their simulcast on September 12, 2011, with the 1270 facility reverting to a talk radio format and its former "Talk Radio 1270 WXYT" branding. Charlie Langton hosted a live, local morning show, Doc Thompson (formerly of
WMJI
WMJI (105.7 MHz) – branded ''Majic 105.7'' – is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. It is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts a classic hits r ...
in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
,
WLW
WLW (700 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as The Big One.
WLW operates with around the clock. Its daytime signal provides ...
in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
and
WRVA in
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
) in afternoon drive, and syndicated hosts
Glenn Beck
Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, entrepreneur, and television producer. He is the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his television and rad ...
,
Laura Ingraham
Laura Anne Ingraham (born June 19, 1963) is an American conservative television host. Gale Biography In Context. She has been the host of ''The Ingraham Angle'' on Fox News Channel since October 2017, and is the editor-in-chief of LifeZette. ...
,
Todd Schnitt
Todd Andrew Schnitt (born January 24, 1966) is an American conservative talk radio host. He currently hosts ''The Schnitt Show'', the afternoon drive time show whose flagship is Tampa radio station 1010 WHFS AM and is nationally syndicated by Co ...
, and
Rusty Humphries
Rusty Humphries (born August 29, 1965) is an American broadcaster, conservative political commentator and songwriter. He hosts the ''Rusty Humphries Rebellion'' podcast. Humphries' former nationally syndicated radio show, ''The Rusty Humphries ...
and
''Coast to Coasts George Noory
George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is syndicated to hundreds of radio stations in ...
on for the balance of the day.
[WXYT Going Back To Its Talk Roots](_blank)
The station also had frequent preemptions of talk shows to air college and professional games, as well as overflow from WXYT-FM.
Sometime in 2012, all CBS-owned radio stations 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 th ...
moved their operations in Detroit,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
to the former Panasonic building, in
Southfield Michigan.
Switch back to sports talk
On January 2, 2013, the station changed its format back to sports talk with programming from
CBS Sports Radio
CBS Sports Radio is a sports radio network that debuted with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013.
CBS Sports Radio is owned by Paramount Global and distributed by Westwood One. Programmin ...
.
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.
On June 21, 2021, WXYT began integrating more
sports gambling
Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basket ...
programming, and rebranded as "The Bet Detroit", with programming from the co-owned BetQL network. CBS Sports Radio programming remains in certain timeslots.
Audacy Flips Seven Stations To BetQL Network
Radioinsight - June 21, 2021
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 ...
References
Sources
*Alan, Lee
"Turn Your Radio On"
*Carson, David. ''Rockin' Down the Dial: The Detroit Sound of Radio from Jack the Bellboy to the Big 8'' University of Michigan Press
The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including L ...
*Hampton, Jim
WXYZ airchecks on Reelradio.com
Jim Hampton Collection.
*Osgood, Dick. ''W*Y*X*I*E* Wonderland: An Unauthorized 50-Year Diary of WXYZ Detroit''. Bowling Green OH : Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1981.
External links
*
{{Entercom
XYT
Sports radio stations in the United States
1925 establishments in Michigan
Radio stations established in 1925
Audacy, Inc. radio stations
CBS Sports Radio stations