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Thursday, August 20, 2020

Detroit Radio: WWJ Celebrates 100 Years

One hundred years ago today, WWJ radio — Detroit's very first station — was born when Detroit News publisher and radio enthusiast William E. Scripps had a 200-watt transmitter set up in a corner of the sports department. (Today? It's 50,000 watts.) WWJ will air a special show, "WWJ at 100, a Century of News," at 7 p.m. Thursday to celebrate.

The Detroit News reports WWJ wasn't just first in Detroit. Depending on how you slice things, it was the first commercial broadcaster in the U.S., though when it went on the air that Aug. 20 a century back, it was probably picked up by only a few dozen households in possession of what was, at the time, shockingly high-tech radio equipment.

Asked where he'd locate WWJ in American broadcasting history, Specs Howard, founder of the School of Media Arts in Southfield that bears his name, said without hesitation, "Oh, right near the top."

One-time WRIF program director Fred Jacobs, now head of Jacobs Media Strategies in Bingham Farms, agreed, saying, "It's really been a remarkable run, especially in a world where brands come and go."

Despite WWJ's launch on Aug. 20, regular broadcasting didn't begin until Aug. 31, 1920, when The Detroit News announced on its front page that the "Detroit News Radiophone" service would be on the air every evening, except Sundays. Programming that first night included regularly updated primary election returns, and a recording of singer Lois Johnson.

While The News founded WWJ, it no longer owns it. After Gannett bought the newspaper in 1986, it had to sell the station to comply with an FCC ruling that a single company could no longer own a newspaper and broadcast outlet in the same market.



Full on-air programming schedule for Thursday is as follows.
  • 8:20 a.m. ET:  David Field, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Entercom
  • 9:30 a.m. ET:  Ajit Pai, Chairman, FCC
  • 12:30 p.m. ET:  Ike McKinnon, former Detroit Police Chief
In addition to on-air programming, WWJ News Radio 950 will also be featured during a one-hour special following local CBS News at 7:00 p.m., where host Jason Scott will spotlight some of the major stories covered by WWJ as well as the importance of local news.

WWJ News Radio 950 launched on August 20, 1920 and served as a vital news source for Detroit during the world’s most trying times, including World War II, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and the Detroit race riots in 1967. Most recently, the station has been a crucial lifeline throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout its history, the station has achieved a long list of illustrious and groundbreaking accomplishments, including being the first radio station to broadcast election returns on August 31, 1920, the first sportscast on September 1, 1920, the first missing person report on March 15, 1922, the first Detrioit Tigers play-by-play broadcast on April 19, 1927, and more.

It should be noted however that the question of the 'first' publicly targeted licensed radio station in the U.S. has more than one answer and depends on semantics. Settlement of this 'first' question may hang largely upon what constitutes 'regular' programming


It is commonly attributed to KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which in October 1920 received its license and went on the air as the first US licensed commercial broadcasting station on November 2, 1920 with the presidential election results as its inaugural show, but was not broadcasting daily until 1921. (Their engineer Frank Conrad had been broadcasting from on the two call sign signals of 8XK and 8YK since 1916.) Technically, KDKA was the first of several already-extant stations to receive a 'limited commercial' license.

On February 17, 1919, station 9XM at the University of Wisconsin in Madison broadcast human speech to the public at large. 9XM was first experimentally licensed in 1914, began regular Morse code transmissions in 1916, and its first music broadcast in 1917. Regularly scheduled broadcasts of voice and music began in January 1921. That station is still on the air today as WHA.

On August 20, 1920 8MK, began broadcasting daily and was later claimed by famed inventor Lee De Forest as the first commercial station. 8MK was licensed to a teenager, Michael DeLisle Lyons, and financed by E. W. Scripps. In 1921 8MK changed to WBL and then to WWJ in 1922, in Detroit. It has carried a regular schedule of programming to the present and also broadcast the 1920 presidential election returns just as KDKA did.[90] Inventor Lee DeForest claims to have been present during 8MK's earliest broadcasts, since the station was using a transmitter sold by his company.

The first station to receive a commercial license was WBZ, then in Springfield, Massachusetts. Lists provided to the Boston Globe by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed that WBZ received its commercial license on September 15,  1921; another Westinghouse station, WJZ, then in Newark, New Jersey, received its commercial license on November 7, the same day as KDKA did.  What separates WJZ and WBZ from KDKA is the fact that neither of the former stations remain in their original city of license, whereas KDKA has remained in Pittsburgh for its entire existence.

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