WJR


WJR is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by Cumulus Media and broadcasts a News/Talk format. Its studios are located in the Fisher Building in the New Center neighborhood of Detroit, while its transmitter is located in the Downriver community of Riverview.
WJR is a Class A clear channel station whose broadcasts can be heard throughout much of the eastern half of North America at night, operating with 50,000 watts, the maximum power for commercial AM stations. It is Michigan's primary entry point station for the Emergency Alert System.
WJR airs a mix of local and syndicated talk shows and local sports. Weekdays feature WJR morning personality Paul W. Smith, afternoon personality Mitch Albom and late morning host Frank Beckmann. It is the Detroit outlet for Westwood One syndicated talk shows Michael Savage, Mark Levin, John Batchelor and Red Eye Radio. WJR for many years has aired Rush Limbaugh from the Premiere Networks in early afternoons. WJR is also the flagship station of the Michigan State Spartans and the Detroit Lions Radio Network.

Studios and Transmitter

WJR's transmitter building and broadcast tower are located in Riverview, Michigan, in what is considered "one of the best Art Deco transmitter buildings ever." Its studios are located in the Fisher Building in Detroit's New Center area. A tower atop the Fisher Building is used for transmitting WJR's audio to the transmitter; at one time WJR-FM used that tower to broadcast its signal.

History

WJR began as WCX on May 4, 1922, owned by the Detroit Free Press newspaper, operating at 580 kHz from the Free Press Building. It shared this frequency with WWJ, another station owned by The Detroit News. WCX ceased to exist, and WJR acquired all its assets. On the same date, WJR's officials formally dedicated the station's new 50,000 W transmitter.
Richards died in May 1951, and in 1964, Goodwill Stations was sold to Capital Cities Communications, which later merged with ABC and later with the Walt Disney Company. Upon the sale, WJR's air slogan became "The Great Voice of the Great Lakes". Also in 1964, WJR acquired full rights to Detroit Tigers baseball games, with announcers Ernie Harwell and George Kell, who had begun broadcasting Tiger games in 1960. Previously, WJR had carried only night games with day games on WKMH and WJBK. The station became the flagship of the "Tiger Baseball Network." In the late 1960s, WJR also became the flagship station for Detroit Red Wings hockey and Detroit Pistons basketball.
The station is also remembered among many Metro Detroiters for its advertising campaigns and jingles including Another: "This is America's finest - AM stereo 76." Regularly on his show, J.P. McCarthy would state in a nonchalant way "This is the world's greatest radio station, WJR Detroit," with a manner that made it seem like the most obvious of facts. WJR broadcast in "AM Stereo" from 1982 to 2006, and was received in stereo AM at great distances at night. WJR's Detroit Tigers home games were broadcast in stereo, as were the Thanksgiving Day Parades.
Most of WJR's broadcast studios, along with its newsroom and offices, are in the Fisher Building. The station also has a satellite studio in the Wintergarden of the GM Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. Past WJR personalities included J.P. McCarthy, Jimmy Launce, Warren Pierce, Mike Whorf, Murray Gula, Joel Alexander, Jay Roberts and many others. WJR Program Directors during the Capital Cities era included Joe Bacarella, Curt Hahn and AC radio consultant Gary Berkowitz.
WJR signed on an FM outlet in 1948 at 96.3 MHz. The station was known as WJR-FM until 1982 when it became WHYT. It is now WDVD.
Music programming on WJR has been phased out almost entirely over the past two decades. As of June 2014, the only music-oriented show on the station is the Renfro Valley Gatherin', aired early Sunday mornings. In 2006, WJR picked up the nationally syndicated Handyman Show with Glenn Haege, which originates from Detroit, and previously aired on WXYT and WDFN. The Handyman Show is a nationally syndicated show, originating from WJR's own studios, as is also the case with several other weekend shows such as The C.A.R. Show and The Real Estate Insiders.
WJR was sold with other ABC Radio stations to Citadel Broadcasting in January 2006. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.
WJR broadcast an AM-HD Radio signal for about a two-year period , eventually eliminating night time AM-HD radio use, then dropping AM-HD and FM-HD radio broadcasts completely, returning to its 50,000 watt analog signal only. WJR is streamed via the web, and has since returned to HD Radio on WDVD-HD2. WJR is licensed to broadcast a digital hybrid signal.

Sports programming

For much of its history, WJR served as a powerhouse in Michigan sports radio. However, in 2001 the station lost its longtime flagship rights to the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings, both of whom moved to CBS-owned WXYT and WXYT-FM. Then, in 2005, the station dropped its status as the flagship station for Michigan Wolverines football and basketball in favor of a flagship rights deal with the Michigan State Spartans. WJR had served as flagship for Michigan State prior to 1976. On November 20, 2015, WJR announced it would take over as flagship station of the Detroit Lions in 2016, with the team moving over from WXYT-FM. Due to its commitment to live sporting events, regular programming may be pre-empted.

Personalities at WJR