History of Detroit Radio

Detroit has been the birthplace of many emerging musical styles that have gone international, from Motown to r&b-flavored rock to punk. Being the hub of the automobile industry makes it another interesting place in radio industry, in the sense that radio became mobile when it began being installed in cars, which started in Detroit.

Some of the earliest call letters in the market dating back to the early twenties included the Detroit Police Department's KOP, The Free Press' WCX and the Detroit News' WWJ. Stations moved around the dial the first two decades. With the FCC's reallocation of frequencies in the early forties, AM dial stability began to appear with WJR (760), WWJ (950), WXYZ (1270) and WJBK (1480).

HISTORY OF DETROIT RADIO
WDRQ-FM June 19-20, 1971

Everyone who is anyone in the radio biz knows “Radio’s Best Friend.” Art Vuolo is literally the video archivist of the broadcasting profession. But before Art perfected his video artistry, he was a key chronicler of Detroit radio history. His 12 hour magnum opus, ‘The History of Detroit Radio’ became an instant classic when it first aired on WDRQ. The still program stands up as one of the best radio documentaries ever...

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Television became a big reason radio completely changed in the fifties and sixties. Instead of being outlets for national network feeds, AM stations began to develop their own identities, serving the local market, first with block programming in the early fifties. Then with the popularity of rock and roll music beginning in the mid-fifties and the successful mass marketing of transistor radios in the late fifties, radio became very appealing to the teen market.

Stations began to adopt dedication to complete formats in the late fifties and early sixties. Middle of the Road stations served adults while top 40 stations served the younger audience. Formats divided further and expanded with experimentation on FM in the late sixties and early seventies. Once technology had improved to the point where FM radio could be picked up while moving in an automobile in the late seventies, the commercial formats migrated to FM.

A popular AM station heard in Detroit in the seventies was CKLW, which was actually based in Windsor, Canada. In certain areas it was drowned out by rocker WABX. In the eighties FM stations had captured the hearts of music listeners while AM stations that still did well, do so because they did some form of talk radio. An exception was adult contemporary station WJR (760) on AM, scoring the market crown frequently, sometimes even hitting double digits in the Arbitron ratings.

Documentary Of Detroit Morning Disc Jockeys c.1980 [ LISTEN ] (1:02:17)

WJR was owned by Cap Cities/ABC, one of the biggest and most successful radio giants at the time. Federal's WWJ (950) was a top five station, delivering news, sometimes outperforming its sister FM WJOI (97.1), which played beautiful/easy listening music. Another successful AM station was WXYT (1270), owned by Fritz. Most other AM stations had fallen to the bottom of the ratings by the end of the decade.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Motor City Radio Flashbacks, Detroit Memories.