WCAR
| City of license | Livonia, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | [1] (Daytime) [2] (Nighttime) |
| Branding | ESPN Detroit 1090 |
| Frequency | 1090 kHz |
| First air date | October 23, 1963 |
| Format | Sports Talk |
| Power | 250 watts (daytime) 500 watts (nighttime) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 73397 |
| Callsign meaning | Car (a reference to Detroit's automotive industry) |
| Former callsigns | WIID (?-7/18/79) WTAK (?-?) WERB (1963-?) |
| Affiliations | ESPN Radio |
| Owner | Birach Broadcasting |
| Website | wcarradio.com |
WCAR, 1090 AM, in the Detroit market, is a 24-hour sports radio station based out of Livonia, Michigan. The station airs a variety of sports programs, including Mike and Mike in the Morning.
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[edit] History
For the history of the station formerly known as WCAR from 1939 to 1978, at 1130 on the AM dial, see WDFN.
1090 AM was originally WERB in Garden City, Michigan, co-owned with the now-defunct WBRB 1430 AM in Mount Clemens and airing a full-service middle of the road format aimed at the western suburbs of Wayne County. In about 1966, WERB became WTAK, notable for being the Detroit area's first all-talk radio station; the WTAK air staff included such Detroit radio notables as Tom Clay, Vic Caputo and Paul Winter. WTAK's talk format went under in about 1970, however, due to many advertisers pulling their business from the station because of the controversial nature of some of the topics discussed.[citation needed] WTAK changed to WIID and went back to a suburban-oriented MOR format, and then to ethnic programming by the mid-1970s.
For years afterward, the bulk of AM 1090's programming, as WIID and later (starting in 1979) WCAR, consisted of ethnic programming and some English-language talk. During the mid-1990s, WCAR 1090 was also briefly the Detroit affiliate station for Radio AAHS, a now-defunct nationwide radio network featuring programming for children, and then (after Radio AAHS shut down in 1998) a simulcast of the Minneapolis-based dance music format Beat Radio (which replaced AAHS on all ten of the company-owned former-AAHS stations around the country).
In recent years, much of WCAR's programming had been simulcast on sister station WOAP 1080 AM in the Lansing area. WOAP now airs separate content.
[edit] Current Programming
On May 2009, WCAR and WOAP were sold to Birach Broadcasting. Michigan Catholic Radio ended its broadcasts on WCAR on July 31, 2009 when Birach took over the station. Beginning in 2009, the station aired News / Talk with Imus in the Morning, Brian Kilmeade, Robert Wuhl, Jim Bohannon and Red Eye Radio with News content from CNN, Fox and MarketWatch.
A new afternoon drive show featuring local legendary broadcasters Bill Bonds & Rich Fisher (Bonds & Fisher) debuted on October 3, 2011. Co-hosting and producing was Rachel Nevada, a respected Detroit radio veteran. The show was cancelled late December 2011. The talk format was supposed to be retooled, but it became evident that the talk format would not work.
The most recent Arbitron ratings showed a 0.0 for WCAR as a talk station, indicating few people were listening.[citation needed]
On February 1, 2012, WCAR switched from a talk format to a sports format featuring ESPN Radio programming. [1][2] The change was announced on Detroit websites the day before the change. It was also mentioned during the Illinois-Michigan State basketball game that night on ESPN.
WCAR is now directly competing with WXYT (FM) and WDFN as the three sports stations in Detroit.
WCAR is programmed and operated by Birach Holdings Corp. and by the team put in place by its Chairman and CEO, Sima Birach Jr. Russell "Buzz" Van Houten was recruited in late 2011 as WCAR's General Manager.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
[edit] External links
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WCAR
- Radio-Locator Information on WCAR
- Query Arbitron's AM station database for WCAR
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