WWJ (AM)

WWJ (Newsradio 950) is Detroit, Michigan's only 24-hour all-news radio station. Broadcasting at 950 kHz on the AM dial, the station is owned and operated by CBS Corporation-subsidiary CBS Radio. Although Pittsburgh's KDKA was the first to be licensed by the federal government, WWJ arguably made the first commercial broadcast in the United States. On August 20, 1920, the station was launched with a program of recorded music and news provided from the U.S. Naval Department. Owned at the time by the Detroit News, "8MK" as it was known, was the first station to broadcast news reports regularly as well as the first regularly-scheduled religious broadcast and play-by-play sports broadcast. WWJ is the only commercial all news radio station in Michigan (in a sharp irony, co-owned WWJ-TV is the only CBS O&O without a local news presence).

Station timeline

On August 20, 1920, the station was the first in the nation to take to the air with the call sign 8MK, assigned by its original owner, the Detroit News (the Federal Communications Commission was not assigning call letters at this point. It was not until October 10, 1921 that the FCC assigned call letters WBL. The original transmitter had a 100 mile range, on 200 meter wavelength (1500 khz). The use of this frequency shows that it was an amateur station at the time. It changed to a commercial frequency when it obtained a commercial license in 1921.

In early 1922, the call letters, WWJ, were assigned. originally an abbreviation for W (eastern United States), William and John Scripps, who owned the News. The channel was relocated later that year to 850 AM and was moved in, 1927, to 800 AM and increased power to 1,000 Watts. Following a 1930 move to 920 AM, the station's power increased to 5,000 watts in 1937.

On March 29, 1941 WWJ moved to 950 AM where it remains to this day. The programming throughout this time was focused on variety, with music making up a larger portion of its format as television programming eroded support for variety programming and the Golden Age of Radio ended in 1962. With the advent of FM radio and stereo broadcasting, WWJ dropped its middle-of-the-road music format in favor of all-news programming in 1973.

In 1987, American Broadcasting Corporation (not ABC]), run by the late David Herriman purchased WWJ, and WJOI after the Detroit news sold WWJ, and WJOI, but before CBS purchased WWJ, and WJOI.

On March 9, 1989, CBS bought the station, with its ownership being transferred to Infinity Broadcasting after CBS's 1996 acquisition of that group. On January 13, 2000, the station once again increased its broadcast power to 50,000 watts during the daytime, with nighttime wattage matching in August 30, 2000 after new facilities in Southfield, Michigan, allows the station to increase power to 50,000 watts during the nighttime. (The new facilities are located less than a mile from the WKBD/WWJ studios.) In March, 2005, WWJ began offering a 24-hour live webcast. In August 2005, the station began offering podcasts of newsmakers, interviews, and some of the station's feature programming. The station also recently began broadcasting an HD, or high-definition, signal, which gives an AM broadcast FM-like quality.