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WXYT (AM)

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WXYT
File:WXYTlogo1.jpg
Broadcast areaDetroit, Michigan
Frequency1270 (kHz)
Branding1270-XYT
Programming
FormatSports
AffiliationsSporting News Radio
ESPN Radio
Ownership
OwnerCBS Radio
History
First air date
October 10, 1925 as WGHP
Call sign meaning
(WXY)-Z Talk
Technical information
Power50,000 watts
Links
Websitewww.wxyt.com

WXYT is an AM radio station broadcasting in Detroit, Michigan, operating on 1270 kHz. Its transmitter is in Monroe County at Ash Township and operations and studios are at CBS Radio's facilities in Southfield, Michigan. The station owned by CBS Radio Inc. (formerly Infinity Broadcasting) and uses the on-air nickname "1270-XYT The Sports Station"

WXYT has an all-sports talk format, with ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in morning drive. It carries programming from Sporting News Radio on evenings and weekends, and is the flagship station for the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings and (with sister station WKRK-FM) the Detroit Lions.

This station was previously known as WXYZ, an ABC-owned radio station from 1930 until 1984.

History

WXYZ

Early Years

The station first went on the air October 10, 1925 as WGHP - named after its owner, George Harrison Phelps. In 1930, the station was purchased by George W. Trendle's King-Trendel Broadcasting and switched the call letters to WXYZ which were acquired from a U.S. Army station. The station's new slogan "The Last Word in Radio" would tie-in with its call letters. Another former slogan was "WXYZ, Where the Best Comes Last."

WXYZ would be one of the founding stations of the Mutual Broadcasting System. The station, along with WOR in New York, WGN in Chicago and WLW in Cincinnati created the network with each holding an equal percentage of shares in Mutual. WXYZ would also launch several popular radio programs including the The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet, Sky King and Challenge of the Yukon, later known as Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. In the 1940s WXYZ and WGN sold their shares in Mutual.

By 1948 the station was purchased by the American Broadcasting Company, which was recently formed from the NBC Blue network by Edward Noble. That same year WXYZ personalities would contribute to launching programing on ABC's new Detroit television station WXYZ-TV, Channel 7, and WXYZ-FM also signed on at 101.1 MHz.. Dick Osgood of WXYZ radio was the first face on Channel 7. from their studios in the Macabees Building on Woodward Avenue in Detroit.

WXYZ had many of Detroit’s most prominent radio personalities of the 1940s and 1950s including Dick Osgood, Francis Langford, Paul Whiteman, Fred Wolf, Ed McKenzie, Mickey Shorr, "The Lady of Charm" Edyth Fern Melrose, and future CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace.

ABC moved WXYZ AM-FM-TV in 1959 from the Macaabees Building on Woodward Avenue across from the Detroit Institute of Arts to a new home known as "Broadcast House." WXYZ radio would occupy studios on the second floor of the new facility built on the site of a former farm in Southfield, Michigan until 1984.

"Channel 1270"

Over the next decade, as television grew in popularity, WXYZ was successful in replacing many of the declining ABC radio network variety features with local record shows hosted by personalities like longtime morning show host Fred Wolf, Paul Winter, and Mickey Shorr, one of the most influential of Detroit's early rock-and-roll disc jockeys.

Under the guidance of Hal Neal, WXYZ was the first ABC-owned-and-operated station to adopt the Top 40 music format in 1958. WXYZ's success in the format inspired ABC to convert two of its flagship stations, WABC in New York and WLS in Chicago, to Top 40 in 1960.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, "Channel 1270", or "Wixie" (also spelled "Wyxie") as it was affectionately known, battled with Storer Broadcasting's WJBK (1500 AM) for the Top 40 audience in Detroit. The "Wixie" persona and WXYZ calls is reputed to have been the inspiration for "WIXY 1260," itself a Top 40 powerhouse in Cleveland, Ohio during the late 1960's.

Some noteworthy personalities during WXYZ's Top 40 era included: longtime morning drive host Fred Wolf; Lee Alan "On The Horn"; Joel Sebastian, (who later moved on to WLS); Paul Winter; Fred Weiss; Dave Prince; Steve Lundy, Don Zee; and, for a short time in 1966, Joey Reynolds.

Transitions

In 1963, WXYZ and WJBK were the two dominant Top 40 music stations in town. However, the station were dealt a fatal blow with the launch of WKNR "Keener 13" (formerly WKMH) at 1310 on the dial. "Keener" had a tighter, faster presentation and a shorter playlist than the competition, and quickly took over as Detroit's number one rated station. WJBK was the first of WKNR's competitors to fall, switching to an MOR format in 1964.

WXYZ battled tooth and nail with WKNR for over three years, but by the summer of 1966, WXYZ had also fallen behind Windsor, Ontario's CKLW - by then programmed by Bill Drake - in the ratings. Im early 1967, WXYZ was third-ranked out of the three Top 40 stations. As a result, the station changed direction, softening its music mix to an adult contemporary/MOR approach known as "The Sound of the Good Life."

However, the station continued to flounder until Dick Purtan, formerly of WKNR, took over the WXYZ morning show after a short but eventful stint at WBAL in Baltimore. Meanwhile, WXYZ-FM still simulcast the AM sister up until 1970 when it switched to an all rock format - originally with ABC's "Love" format, and then with local personalities. (WRIF is now a Greater Media station.) WXYZ shifted from adult contemporary music to all-talk in 1978, which was the same year Dick Purtan left to work at CKLW.

WXYT

Talkradio 1270

In 1984, as part of a divesture necessitated by the ABC/Capital Cities merger (as ABC elected to keep Capital Cities' WJR and WHYT) ABC sold both WXYZ-AM and WXYZ-TV. The radio station was divested to its own vice president and general manager Chuck Fritz, and the call letters were changed to the similar sounding WXYT, with the "T" standing for "talk." The WXYZ calls have since been retained by the TV station, which was sold two years later to Scripps-Howard. Fritz himself later founded the Radio Station Representative Association in Detroit.

WXYT-AM would continue with its talk format as "Talkradio 1270" airing local programs hosted by Bill Bonds, Mark Scott, David Newman, John McCullogh and weathercaster Rob Kress; and syndicated talk show hosts such as Don Imus, Larry King, Michael Jackson, and Rush Limbaugh. Glenn Haege, known as "America's Master Handyman," hosted "Ask The Handyman", a weekend home improvement show that started on WXYZ in the mid-1980's, and lasted on WXYT until 2002. In 1998, after an unsuccessful campaign for Michigan governor, Geoffrey Fieger hosted an evening talk show that lasted less than a year.

In 1994 the station was sold again, this time to Infinity Broadcasting, which itself acquired CBS Radio in 1997, pairing WXYT with WWJ-AM and WKRK-FM. Infinity Broadcasting would revert its name to CBS Radio Inc. by December 2005.

The Sports Station

WXYT changed to an all-sports format in 2000 when it acquired the broadcast rights to Detroit Tigers baseball and Detroit Red Wings hockey from WJR. The station re-branded itself to "Team 1270," with Don Imus as the lone holdover of the previous format.

By 2002, WXYT would re-brand itself again as "AM 1270 The Sports Station." Power was also increased from 5,000 watts to 50,000 watts, though with a highly directional signal as opposed to non-directional WJR. In 2005, the station's nickname changed again, this time to "1270-XYT: The Sports Station."

WXYT's former afternoon show, The Locker Room, was hosted by former Detroit Tiger Kirk Gibson, Gary Danielson and former WJBK-TV and WABC-TV sports anchor Eli Zaret. Until the 2006 NCAA football season WXYT was the broadcast home for the Michigan State University Spartans. Opie and Anthony, upon their return to terrestrial radio, were also on WXYT from April to September 2006. Their show was moved to sister station WKRK, while WXYT picked up Mike and Mike in the Morning.

Like its Detroit sports radio competitor, WDFN, WXYT airs sports news updates, called "Sports Flashes" (patterned after Sporting News Radio, of which WXYT is an affiliate). However, these updates air at the top and bottom of every hour, as also WDFN does. This is unlike many other sports stations across the country which air their sports news updates three times an hour.

The station's original call letters, WGHP, are now used by a Fox O&O television station in North Carolina.

Program schedule

Monday-Friday

Time Show Hosts
6 a.m. - 10 a.m. Mike and Mike in the Morning Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg
10 a.m. - 2 p.m. The Sports Inferno Mike Valenti and Terry Foster
2 p.m. - 7 p.m. The Big Show Art Regner and Doug Karsch

Saturday

Time Show Hosts
7 a.m. - 8 a.m. Lesson on Golf Jeff Lesson
10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Hire it Done! Adam Helfman
10 a.m. - 11 a.m. The Handicapping Show TBA
11 a.m. - 4 p.m. The Book on Sports Pat Caputo
4 p.m. - 7 p.m. The Dennis Fithian Show Dennis Fithian

Show times vary depending on games airing.

WXYT staffers

Former WXYT staffers

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