Detroit Radio: Sports Rap Radio To Launch This Month on WXYT-AM

 

"Sports Rap Radio," a new format on WXYT 1270-AM is scheduled to debut May 16th.

Rob Parker, a former Detroit News columnist who is one of three co-owners of Metro Detroit's new sports-talk format, announced this week the lineup for the station's switchover.

Lindsey Hunter, a former Pistons guard who was part of the 2004 NBA championship team, will co-host the afternoon drive show, "The Pitbulls," from 3-7 p.m., with Detroit native Montezz Allen. Former Chicago Bulls guard B.J. Armstrong, another co-owner of "Sports Rap Radio," a Detroit native, Birmingham Brother Rice product and a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, will host a show from 10 a.m. to noon, and he will host the show solo. The noon-3 p.m. show, "The Bad Boys," will be co-hosted by Martin Weiss, a West Bloomfield High School alum, and JR Gamble.

Hunter, 53, a first-round pick by the Pistons in 1993 who's also coached in the NBA and college, most recently at Mississippi Valley State, is not a stranger to sports-talk radio in Metro Detroit. Hunter worked for Detroit Sports 105.1, which had a brief run ending in 2016. Naturally, he expects his show to lean pretty heavy on basketball. He also won an NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the Phoenix Suns interim head coach. He recently has been doing work for Bally Sports Detroit on Pistons telecasts.

Allen, 36, comes to "Sports Rap Radio" from a job as a TV sports anchor in Macon, Georgia. This will be his first sports-talk radio show. "I've been in Detroit my whole life, so people know me," Hunter said. "That's a good thing about it. My relationship with the fans of Detroit has always been tight. I'll be who I am and hopefully draw more people in.

Asked how to fix the Pistons, Hunter said, "That's a good question." In other words, stay tuned.

B.J. Armstrong, a Detroit native and three-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls, is a co-owner of "Sports Rap Radio," and will also host a show on the station.

Armstrong, 56, is one of the investors in the new format, which Parker said is the first all-Black sports-talk radio station in the country. Armstrong and Parker have known each other for decades, and have been talking about this idea for more than a decade. Talks got serious in the last three or four years, right around the start of COVID, and they made a strong push to get it across the finish line.

Under the lease agreement, "Sports Rap Radio" will have its own sales team and sell its own advertisements. WXYT 1270-AM is a part of the BetQL network, and will continue to be affiliated with betting content moving forward.