 | |
| Broadcast area | Metro Detroit |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 1130kHz |
| Branding | Detroit's BIN 1130 |
| Programming | |
| Format | African-AmericanAll News |
| Affiliations | Black Information Network Motor Racing Network |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WJLB,WKQI,WLLZ,WMXD,WNIC | |
| History | |
First air date | December 17, 1939; 85 years ago (1939-12-17) |
Former call signs | WCAR (1939–79) WCXI (1979–92) WWWW (1992–94) |
Call sign meaning | Detroit's TheFaN (former branding) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 59969 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 50,000watts days 10,000 watts nights |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°6′39″N83°11′52″W / 42.11083°N 83.19778°W /42.11083; -83.19778 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | detroit |
WDFN (1130kHz) is acommercialAMradio station inDetroit, Michigan. Owned byiHeartMedia, it broadcasts anall-news radioformat underiHeartRadio'sBlack Information Network (BIN), targetingDetroit's African-American community. Itsstudios and offices are on Halsted Road in the Detroit suburb ofFarmington Hills.
By day, WDFN transmits with 50,000watts, the maximum for commercial U.S. AM radio stations.1130 AM is aclear channel frequency reserved forClass A stations inNew York City,Vancouver andShreveport, so to avoid interference, it reduces power at night to 10,000watts. It uses adirectional antenna with a nine-tower array. Thetransmitter is on Vreeland Road at West Jefferson Avenue in thedownriver community ofGibraltar.
The stationsigned on the air on December 17, 1939; 85 years ago (1939-12-17). It used thecall sign WCAR from its inception until 1979. WCAR was originally licensed to the Detroit suburb ofPontiac, Michigan. It initially broadcast on 1100 kHz with 1,000watts as adaytime only station. The owners were "a group of Pontiac citizens," including H.Y. Levinson, who owned half of the stock and managed the station. Levinson also was publisher of theFarmington Enterprise, a weekly newspaper inFarmington, Michigan.[2]
With the 1941 enactment of theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), WCAR moved to 1130 AM, still with 1,000 watts, and did not have authorization to broadcast after sunset.
For most of the 1950s and 60s, WCAR aired amiddle-of-the-road/adult standards music format, as Levinson insisted that his station play only "good music" and refused to allow anything even remotely resemblingrock and roll on his station'splaylist.[citation needed]
In the 1960s, WCAR was given permission by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) to move to the more lucrative Detroitradio market. The move came with a boost in power to 50,000 watts days and 10,000 watts nights. In 1964, it also added an FM station, 92.3 WCAR-FM (nowWMXD).[3]
Levinson would eventually relax his anti-rock stance when it became evident that the conservative "good music" approach wasn't making him enough money. By 1970, "W-Car" had transitioned to a personality MOR Contemporary format (what would be consideredHot Adult Contemporary today). The station played more hit singles and fewer MOR album cuts while shying away from very hard rock, and featuring newjingles and a "hipper" image built around slogans such as "W-Car Cares About Detroit and Its People" (including inventive homemade public service announcements and promos for local businesses such as marriage counselors). By the summer of 1971, the station had added harder rock and roll records to its format, and that fall the station made the full transition intoTop 40 as "All Hit Music, The Giant 1130," similar in presentation to market leaderCKLW. This incarnation of W-Car was consulted by Ken Draper, who at the time was programming similar formats onWFDF inFlint (which was known as "Giant 91") andWJIM inLansing.
W-Car's Top 40 incarnation featured an airstaff including Detroit radio veterans such as Dave L. Prince, Scott Regen, and formerCKLW andWIXYCleveland personality Steve Hunter. Hunter recalled on the CKLW tribute Website (http://www.big8radio.com/) that although WCAR sounded good, its locally based ownership didn't have the money needed to sustain cash giveaways and other prizes, and the format was changed just before a new ratings book came in showing promising growth in the station's ratings. W-Car would trudge through several more failed formats during the remainder of the 1970s, includingprogressive rock (being one of the few AM stations to feature this kind of music, now known asalbum oriented rock), all-news (using theNBC News and Information service), and another try at adult contemporary with new owners Golden West Broadcasters, which bought the AM and FM in the summer of 1977. The owners switched the station from news and talk back to music in October 1977.
From 1971 to 1974,George Noory, now host of the highly ratedCoast to Coast AMsyndicated overnight radio show onPremiere Networks, worked at WCAR.
In March 1979, WCAR changed its format tocountry and adopted the call sign WCXI ("Country 11"; the "C" stood for Country, and "XI" is "11" in Roman numerals). General Manager John Risher, who had run popular country stationWDEE during the early to mid-1970s, brought back popular award-winning morning personality Deano Day, Bob Burchett and a few others who had worked at "The Big-D" to the air staff. Program Director Bill Ford was held over from the previous WCAR AM 1130 adult contemporary format as well as new music director Bob "R.T." Griffin. After his success with WCXI, Ford left the station to programWKHK inNew York City. Dan Dixon (later of XM Radio), Larry Patton and Greg Raab were the following Program Directors, with Raab also being the station's Promotions Director from early 1979.
With WDEE gone and its only competitor in the country format beingWindsor, Ontario'sCKLW-FM (which focused its programming on the Canadian side of the border), WCXI became very popular for a year or two. However, WCXI took a hit onceWWWW changed its format from album-oriented rock to country in 1980, becoming (apart from CKLW-FM) Detroit's first live country station on FM sinceWDEE-FM a decade earlier. (WCAR-FM was automated country in 1977 until it became WTWR in early 1978.) To better compete with W4 Country, WCXI/WTWR-FM's owner, Gene Autry's Golden West Broadcasters, again changed Top 40/oldies-formatted WTWR to WCXI-FM, and was programmed separately from the AM - but simulcasting Deano Day for a short time when he returned again to the station after a brief run in Los Angeles in early 1982. WCXI-FM was unable to beat W4. New owner Fritz Broadcasting changed format in May 1986 to adult contemporary as WNTM (later becoming WVAE and thenWMXD). In the meantime, WCXI was sold to Shamrock Broadcasting, owners of W4, on the same date as the FM station and continued to suffer from low ratings through the 1980s. By the latter part of the decade, the station had adopted the "Real Country" branding and began to focus more onclassic country.
Finally, in 1992, WCXI became WWWW, staying with country music but nowsimulcastingWWWW-FM.
WWWW changed its call letters to WDFN in May 1994, and on July 11 of that year, it became asports-talk station branded as "The Fan".[4] For much of its run in the format, WDFN competed withWXYT (1270 AM), and laterWXYT-FM (97.1), for Detroit's sports-talk audience.
WDFN affiliated withFox Sports Radio in May 2003. Before then, it was affiliated withESPN Radio. The station was the Detroit outlet for national radio broadcasts ofNFL games viaWestwood One, including Sunday and Monday Night Football, NFL postseason games, and theSuper Bowl from 1997 through 2004. When theDetroit Lions were not playing that Sunday, it would occasionally air the afternoon doubleheader.
TheWCAR call sign is now in use at AM 1090 in the Detroit suburb ofLivonia, Michigan, which airs a sports format. AM 1160 inFenton, Michigan now uses theWCXI call letters, and can be heard in much of theMetro Detroit area.
WDFN's afternoon program,Stoney and Wojo, conducted comedic tournaments called "Stoney and Wojo Invitationals" several times each year. Similar to theNCAA Tournament, 64 "teams" would be represented in brackets split into geographic regions. These tournaments have featured such random items as body parts, soft drinks, cartoon characters, and even people with the first name of Mike. To determine the result, listeners called in and picked a winner in each game.
On December 18, 2005, prior to theDetroit Lions' final home game of the season (against theCincinnati Bengals), WDFN organized a "Millen Man March" outside Ford Field, in support of the many fans outraged by the leadership of then-team presidentMatt Millen, under whom the Lions were 20-57, with many of the losses coming in heartbreaking fashion. The station also purchased a billboard ad by the stadium which read "Not This Millenium - Rebuilding Since 1957" (the last year the Lions won an NFL championship).
On July 13, 2007, Stoney and Wojo were the substitute hosts on the popular nationally syndicatedThe Jim Rome Show (for the vacationing Jim Rome).
On January 20, 2009, WDFN's local sports programming was replaced withsyndicated programming consisting primarily of Fox Sports Radio.Sean Baligian signed off at noon, leading into coverage of the inauguration of PresidentBarack Obama, with no mention of changes at the station. After several weeks with no local programming aside from Pistons broadcasts,Matt Shepard returned on April 6, relaunching his live morning show,Shep, Shower and Shave. Longtime sports director and University of Detroit Titans basketball announcerMatt Dery left the station for competitorWXYT. Rob Pascoe also joined WXYT after being released from WDFN, and on April 28, 2009, Rob Otto was also given his release. In addition, WDFN would drop the "Fan" branding and rebranded as simply "Detroit Sports Talk."
From the 2001-02 season through the end of the 2008-09 NBA season, WDFN was theDetroit Pistons' flagship radio station. The Pistons qualified for the NBA playoffs during each of the 8 seasons, winning the2004 NBA Finals. On February 5, 2009, WXYT-FM acquired the rights to become the Pistons' flagship station starting in the 2009–10 season. The move came shortly after the aforementioned layoffs, switching to a line-up of nationally syndicated shows likeThe Dan Patrick Show and Fox Sports Radio'sMyers and Hartman. The Pistons also cited WDFN's weak directional signal, listeners were having difficulty receiving the station without interference.
On October 1, 2010, WDFN dropped the "Detroit Sports Talk" branding and returned to being "The Fan," but in 2013, it altered the on-air program format significantly, deviating from the former sports format.
On May 2, 2017, Matt Shepard, one of the few survivors of WDFN's 2009 layoffs, was released by the station after anchoring the morning drive for more than 8 years.[5] Shepard had also anchored the hourly sports updates from 2001 through 2007, and again starting in April 2008 after a brief stint at WXYT. On November 16, 2017, it was announced that Shepard was coming back to the station, with his morning show relaunched on November 20.[6]
On June 29, 2020, WDFN ended its 26-year run as a sports talk station, and beganstunting with speeches by prominentAfrican Americans. The next day, WDFN flipped toall-news radio asDetroit's BIN 1130.
WDFN is one of the charter stations ofiHeartMedia'sBlack Information Network. BIN is a multi-platform radio network serving theAfrican-American community.[7][8][9][10] The network has more than three dozen affiliates around the U.S.
