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| Broadcast area | Metro Detroit |
| Frequency | 950 kHz |
| Branding | Newsradio 950 WWJ |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English |
| Format | All-news radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | August 20, 1920 |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | None. Assigned after requesting a call that could be easily understood.[1][2] |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 9621 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°01′9″N 83°14′23″W / 42.01917°N 83.23972°W |
| Repeater(s) | 97.1 WXYT-HD2 (Detroit) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (via Audacy) |
| Website | www |
WWJ (950 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to serve Detroit, Michigan, featuring an all-news radio format known as WWJ Newsradio 950. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station services Metro Detroit, is the market affiliate for CBS News Radio, and the flagship station for the Michigan Sports Network. Operating on a regional broadcast frequency,[4] its studios are in the Panasonic Building in Southfield.
The station's transmitter site is near Newport. WWJ broadcasts full-time with 50,000 watts, using a five-tower directional antenna system during daytime hours, and its entire six-tower array at night. WWJ has the highest field strength – 7,980 mV/m at a distance of 1 km – in a single direction (nighttime pattern) of any U.S. AM station.[5] With this powerful signal primarily sent to the north, the station can be heard in parts of northern Michigan during nighttime hours, including the Upper Peninsula and Mackinac areas, and much of southern Lower Michigan during the day.
WWJ is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast in the HD Radio format, and is simulcast on the HD-2 sub-channel of sister station WXYT-FM.
On the air for over a century, WWJ began daily broadcasts as the "Detroit News Radiophone" on August 20, 1920, while it operated under an amateur radio license with the call sign "8MK". Over the years the station has claimed the titles of "America's Pioneer Broadcasting Station"[6] and where "commercial radio broadcasting began."[7]
- ^ "WWJ—Pioneer in Broadcasting" by Cynthia Boyes Young, Michigan History, December 1960, page 423.
- '^ Although later speculation has suggested that the new call letters might have stood for stockholders William and John Scripps, page 82 of the Detroit News 1922 station history, WWJ—The Detroit News, stated that "WWJ is not the initials of any name. It is a symbol." Also, the 1973 book The News of Detroit (page 83) stated: "The observant insider noted that the second two letters were the initials of Will's son. But the similarity in the governmentally issued call letters was just a happy coincidence."
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WWJ". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "AM Station Classes, and Clear, Regional, and Local Channels" (FCC.gov)
- ^ AM Query Results: WWJ (FCC.gov)
- ^ WWJ (advertisement), Broadcasting, April 1, 1939, page 25.
- ^ WWJ (advertisement), Broadcasting, August 20, 1945, page 31.