 | |
| |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Metro Detroit |
| Frequency | 1200kHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | WMUZ The Salt 1200 AM[1] |
| Programming | |
| Format | Christian talk and teaching[2] |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WMUZ-FM,WCHB,WRDT | |
| History | |
First air date | February 22, 1990; 35 years ago (1990-02-22) |
Former call signs | WCHB (1990–2017) |
Call sign meaning | Taken from sister stationWMUZ-FM (103.5) |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 4598 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 50,000watts day 15,000 watts night |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°09′24″N83°19′56″W / 42.15667°N 83.33222°W /42.15667; -83.33222 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wmuzam1200 |
WMUZ (1200kHz) is acommercialAMradio stationlicensed toTaylor, Michigan, and serving theMetro Detroitradio market. Owned byCrawford Broadcasting, the station has aChristian talk and teachingformat.[4] Religious hosts heard on WMUZ includeDavid Jeremiah,Joyce Meyer,Alistair Begg,Chuck Swindoll andAdrian Rogers. Thestudios and offices are located near Burt Road and Capitol Avenue in the Weatherby section of Detroit.
By day, WMUZ is powered at 50,000watts, the maximum for commercial American AM stations. During daytime hours, it uses a four-tower array as part of itsdirectional antenna. Because1200 AM is aclear-channel frequency reserved forClass A stationWOAI inSan Antonio, WMUZ reduces power at night to 15,000 watts, using a ten-tower array, to avoid interference. Thetransmitter is on Middlebelt Road at King Road inRomulus.[5]
In 1956, WCHB signed on as a 1,000-wattdaytimer at 1440 AM. It was originally licensed toInkster, Michigan. Thecall letters stood for Dr. Wendell Cox and Dr. Haley Bell, who owned and operated the station under theBell Broadcasting banner.
WCHB was one of the earliest radio station in the United States to be built from the ground up by black owners. It featured anR&B format, and quickly became a visible presence in Detroit'sAfrican-American community. Early on, WCHB aimed to be an all-purposefull-service station for the community, featuring not only R&B hits, but alsourban gospel music,jazz, talk shows, and even a "Tweeny Time" show for two-to-six-year-olds. By the late 1960s, however, the popularity of theMotown sound, in addition to competition from WJLB (then an AM station at 1400 on the dial, nowWDTK) and FM upstartWGPR, led WCHB to adopt a moreTop 40-style presentation to thesoul music format. In 1960, Bell Broadcasting signed on an FMsister station, WCHD, which later changed its call sign to WJZZ, becoming Detroit's most popularjazz station. (WCHD is nowWDMK.)
WCHB experimented with adisco music format for a time during the late 1970s. However, WCHB saw its ratings sink during the 1980s as FM urban contemporary stations likeWJLB (which moved its format from the AM to the FM dial in 1980) andWDRQ grabbed much of its audience. The station eventually returned to its roots of being a full-service voice for the African-American community, adding more talk shows, gospel music, news and sports, while reducing its R&B music shows.
Bell Broadcasting moved the WCHB call letters to 1200 kHz in February 1990 as a new AM station for theMetro Detroit area.[6] (AM 1440 became an all-gospel station asWMKM, under different ownership.)
In 1998, Bell Broadcasting sold WCHB and WCHB-FM (formerly WJZZ, later WDTJ and nowWDMK) toRadio One, a black-owned broadcasting company. Radio One then set about the process of upgrading WCHB's signal, which involved taking the station off the air for several months in August 1998 to upgrade the equipment. The company purchased WKNX inFrankenmuth (at 1210 AM) and moved it toKingsley, nearTraverse City in northern Michigan (see alsoWLDR andWWMN), to improve WCHB's signal. Another occurrence which played a role was the nighttime reduction in power offirst-adjacent channelWOWO inFort Wayne, Indiana (at 1190 AM). WOWO also directionalized its nighttime signal towards the west and became aClass B station (formerly a Class A, clear channel with good nighttime coverage ofMetro Detroit). That change of the WOWO signal at least partially allowed WCHB to increase nighttime power to 15,000 watts from 700 watts.
WCHB resurfaced in March 1999 with a new 50,000-watt daytime/15,000-watt nighttime signal and with a format of mainly gospel music, with a morning talk show, "Inside Detroit," hosted by outspoken Detroit personality and formerWJLB newscaster Mildred Gaddis.
In April 2005, WCHB cut back its gospel programming to 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays and around the clock on weekends to make way for Radio One's syndicatedtalk show lineup. Beginning on January 30, 2006,Radio One debuted Syndication One, a joint venture of Radio One and REACH Media, which featured urban talk show hosts ReverendAl Sharpton,Michael Eric Dyson and Doug & Ryan Stewart – the2 Live Stews sports show. Mildred Gaddis' "Inside Detroit" remained a part of the schedule, airing from 6-10 a.m. weekdays. Another local show, "Your Voice with Angelo Henderson," hosted by Wall Street Journal columnist Angelo Henderson, also aired weekdays from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
The shows were simultaneously placed on other Radio One stations, includingWILD inBoston,WOL inWashington, D.C.,WVCG inMiami,WERE inCleveland andWROU inRichmond, Virginia. Cox Radio's Birmingham station,WPSB, also picked up each of the shows.
In March 2007,Michael Eric Dyson left Syndication One. He was replaced by The Warren Ballentine Show, hosted by attorney Warren Ballentine, who refers himself asThe People's Attorney and radioTruth Fighter.
On April 30, 2007, WCHB welcomed "Parker & the Man" to the weekly line-up. The show was hosted by sports journalistRob Parker and broadcaster Mark Wilson. Parker is a columnist forThe Detroit News and a regular contributor onESPN2'sFirst Take. Wilson is a formerAssociated Press and Michigan Association of Broadcasters' "Michigan Sportscaster of the Year." Parker & the Man, who were previously heard on Detroit FM stationLive 97.1 WKRK, initially ran from 9 p.m-12 a.m. They were consistently among the top shows with men 25-54 while atWKRK, which is now known as "97.1 The Ticket."
In the fall of 2007, after the 2 Live Stews syndication deal was not renewed by Syndication One, Parker & the Man shifted to 4-7 p.m. In June 2008, Parker and The Man was dropped from the station.
On June 9, 2008, at 10 a.m., News-Talk AM 1200 flipped formats to a full-time urban gospel music station. Of its News-talk line-up, only morning host Mildred Gaddis remained with the station, continuing her morningdrive time show. She was the only live host on the station. After her show, the station becameautomated. WCHB was known as "AM 1200 WCHB, Mildred In The Morning and Inspiration All Day."
In 2009, WCHB reimaged itself as a News/Talk station again after failing to attract listeners with its Gospel format. (The format was later relaunched in October 2011, this time on sister stationWHTD.) Gaddis remained in mornings, followed by Henderson, the syndicated Al Shapton, Ramona Prater's "F Club Radio Show" (a program geared towards a female audience), andGayle King. Both Gaddis and Sharpton's shows were repeated after 8PM on weekdays.
On October 15, 2011, WCHB moved an FM repeater station, W206BI, from 89.1 to 99.9 FM (becoming W260CB) and began testing on that frequency. W206BI/W260CB was a translator of Toledo'sNational Public Radio affiliate,WGTE-FM, owned by the Bell Broadcasting Company (headed by Haley Bell, former co-owner of WCHB). It was licensed to Hamtramck at 89.1 FM, with an application to move up to 99.9 and repeatWDMK-FM. W260CB is now on the air permanently. Technically, the station repeats WDMK-HD2, which was a slightly delayed simulcast of WCHB.[7] W260CB broadcasts with apower of 250 watts and anantenna of 245 meters.
During the summer of 2012, WCHB addedsmooth jazz programming during the late evening and overnight hours, restoring the format to the Detroit area on a part-time basis. Programming was fromBroadcast Architecture's Smooth Jazz Network.
On April 12, 2017, Radio One announced that WCHB would be sold toCrawford Broadcasting.[8][9] At the same time, the company also stated that much of WCHB's programming will move toWPZR.[10] Also with the sale, translator W260CB was retained by Radio One, simulcasting WDMK's HD2digital subchannel. It originally aired a classic soul format as "Soul 99.9"; it has since switched to Urban Gospel.
On August 3, 2017, WCHB wentsilent after the sale of the station to Crawford was completed. On October 1, 2017, WCHB changed call letters to WMUZ. The WCHB call letters were moved to 1340 AM, formerly WEXL.
According to a Crawford Broadcasting engineering newsletter, WCHB was undergoing upgrades, and was set to return to the air on November 1, 2017. At the time of the relaunch, the station flipped to Christian talk and teaching programming as "The Salt".[11][12][13][14] It began runningbrokered religious shows, where hosts buy time on the station and may request donations on the air to support their ministries.
Spanish programming
On April 1, 2025, Christian sermons debuted Monday through Friday 7pm-midnight translated in English and Spanish on WMUZ.[15]
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