WDFN

WDFN

City of license	Detroit, Michigan
Broadcast area	Metro Detroit [1] (Daytime) [2] (Nighttime)
Branding	1130 AM WDFN The Fan
Slogan	Detroit Sports Talk
Frequency	1130 kHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date	December 17, 1939
Format	Sports
Power	50,000 watts (Daytime) 10,000 watts (Nighttime)
Class	B
Facility ID	59969
Transmitter coordinates	42°06′39″N 83°11′52″W
Callsign meaning	Detroit's The FaN
Former callsigns	WWWW (9/14/92-5/20/94) WCXI (3/1/79-9/14/92) WCAR (12/17/39-3/1/79)
Affiliations	Fox Sports Radio
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Sister stations	WDTW, WDTW-FM, WJLB, WKQI, WMXD, WNIC
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	wdfn.com

WDFN is a sports-talk radio station in the Detroit, Michigan, market. It broadcasts in the AM radio band at 1130 kHz. WDFN is owned by Clear Channel Communications, and until the end of the 2008-09 NBA season, was the flagship station for the Detroit Pistons.

History

Early history

AM 1130 has been on the air since December 17, 1939 and bore the WCAR calls from its inception until 1979. WCAR was originally licensed to the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. For many years the station aired a middle-of-the-road/adult standards music format best known for its ownership by the quirky Hy Levinson, who insisted that WCAR air only "good music" and refused to allow anything even remotely resembling rock and roll on his station's playlist.

1970s: Giant 1130

Levinson would eventually relax his anti-rock stance when it became evident that the conservative "good music" approach wasn't making him enough money. By 1970, "W-Car" had contemporized somewhat and become a personality-oriented Adult Top 40 music station (what would today be called Hot AC), complete with new jingles and a "hipper" image based around the slogan "W-Car Cares About Detroit." In late 1971, the station made the full transition into Top 40 format as "All Hit Music, The Giant 1130," similar in presentation to market leader CKLW but with a more "adult" music mix.

W-Car's Top 40 incarnation featured an airstaff including Detroit radio veterans such as Dave L. Prince and former CKLW and WIXY (Cleveland) personality Steve Hunter. Hunter recalled on the CKLW tribute Website (http://www.thebig8.net) that although WCAR sounded good, its locally based ownership didn't have the money needed to sustain cash giveaways and other prizes, and the format was changed just before a new ratings book came in showing that the station's ratings were finally beginning to grow. W-Car would trudge through several more failed formats during the remainder of the 1970s, including progressive rock, all-news (using the NBC News and Information service), and another try at adult contemporary with new owners Golden West Broadcasters (who bought the AM and FM in the summer of 1977) switching the station from news and talk back to music in October 1977.

WCXI

In early 1979, WCAR changed its format to country and adopted the calls WCXI ("Country 11"; the "C" stood for Country, and "XI" is "11" in Roman numerals) in March. General Manager John Risher, who had run WDEE during the early to mid-1970s, brought back popular award winning morning personality Deano Day, Bob Burchett and a few others who had worked at "The Big-D" to the air staff. Program Director Bill Ford was held over from the previous WCAR AM 1130 adult contemporary format as well as new music director Bob "R.T." Griffin. After his success with WCXI, Ford left the station to program WKHK in New York. Dan Dixon (later of XM Radio fame), Larry Patton and Greg Raab were the following Program Directors, with Raab also being the station's Promotions Director from early 1979.

For a time after the former WDEE changed its format from country to easy-listening music as WCZY-AM (eventually becoming religious station WLQV), "Country Lovin' Country 11" was Detroit's primary country music station, with its only competition being CKLW-FM in Windsor, Ontario, which would soon change its format to adult standards as CKJY.

However, WCXI took a hit once WWWW changed its format from album-oriented rock to country in 1980, becoming (apart from CKLW-FM) Detroit's first live country station on FM since WDEE-FM a decade earlier (WCAR-FM was automated country in 1977 until it became WTWR - Tower 92 FM in early 1978). To better compete with W4 Country, WCXI/WTWR-FM owner, Gene Autry's Golden West Broadcasters, again changed Top 40/Oldies-formatted WTWR to WCXI-FM (programmed separately from the AM - but simulcasting Deano Day for a short time when he returned again to the station after a brief run in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s) in early 1982, but WCXI-FM was unable to beat W4 and new owner Fritz Broadcasting changed format in May 1986 upon ownership change to adult contemporary as WNTM (later becoming WVAE and then Urban as WMXD). In the meantime, WCXI-AM was sold to Shamrock Broadcasting, owners of W4, on the same date as the FM station and dropped in ratings when Country 92FM went off the air and continued to suffer from low ratings through the 1980s. By the latter part of the decade, the station had adopted the "Real Country" branding and began to focus more on classic country.

Finally, in 1992, WCXI became WWWW-AM, staying with country music but now simulcasting W4 FM.

The Fan

WWWW-AM changed its calls to WDFN in May 1994, and on July 11 of that year, the "Fan" sports-talk format was born, and has continued ever since. WDFN now competes with CBS Radio's WXYT 97.1 FM for Detroit's sports-talk audience.

Unlike many other sports stations across the country, which choose to air their sports updates three times every hour, WDFN airs its sports updates at the top and bottom of each hour.

WDFN is an affiliate of Fox Sports Radio. In October 2007, they broke ties with ESPN Radio.

The WCAR call signs are now in use at AM 1090 in the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Michigan, which airs a Catholic religious format. AM 1160 in Fenton, Michigan now uses the WCXI calls, playing, fittingly, classic country music, and can be heard in much of the metro Detroit area.

Notable station events

In 1971-1974, George Noory, now host of the highly rated Coast to Coast AM syndicated late night radio show, worked at WCAR.

In December 2005, fan outrage over the losing ways of the Detroit Lions led WDFN to organize an "Millen Man March" for the last Lions home game outside Ford Field.

WDFN's afternoon program, Stoney and Wojo, conducted comedic tournaments similar to the NCAA Tournament complete with 64 "teams" representing brackets split into geographic regions. Called Stoney and Wojo Invitationals, several times each year. These tournaments have featured such random items as body parts, soft drinks, cartoon characters, even people with the first name of Mike. To determine the result, listeners called in and picked a winner in each game.

On Friday July 13, 2007 Stoney and Wojo were the substitute hosts on the popular nationally syndicated The Jim Rome Show (for the vacationing Jim Rome).

On Tuesday, January 20, 2009 WDFN's local sports programming was replaced with syndicated programming consisting primarily of Fox Sports Radio. Sean Baligian signed off at noon, leading into coverage of the presidential inauguration, with no mention of changes at the station. After several weeks with no local programming aside from Pistons broadcasts, Matt Shepard returned on April 6, relaunching his live morning show, Shep, Shower and Shave from 6–9 am weekdays. Longtime sports director and University of Detroit Titans basketball announcer Matt Dery left the station for competitor WXYT. Rob Pascoe also joined WXYT after being released from WDFN, and on April 28, 2009, Rob Otto was also given his release.

Until the end of the 2008-09 NBA season WDFN was the Detroit Pistons' flagship radio station. On February 5, 2009, WXYT-FM "97.1 The Ticket" acquired the rights to become the Pistons' flagship station starting in the 2009–10 season. The move comes after WDFN laid-off most of its local on-air talent in January 2009, switching to a line-up of nationally syndicated shows like The Dan Patrick Show and Fox Sports Radio's Myers and Hartman. The change is also due to the fact that WDFN has a very weak directional signal, and listeners have complained that its hard to receive without interference.

The Fan returns

On September 8, 2009, WDFN was rechristened "1130AM Detroit Sports Talk" with a new local daily lineup and "The Fan" moniker was dropped.

Former midday mainstay Sean Baligian returned to the station and now hosts the morning show from 7-10am. After Baligian's show, Fox 2 sports reporter Ryan Ermanni hosts Ermanni Middays from 10-12. The Jim Rome Show was kept as part of the daily lineup and is heard from 12pm to 3pm. Matt Shepard left the morning slot to take over the afternoon slot of 3-6pm with Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp for the show Shep and Sharp. Also added to the daily lineup is Booth Newspapers Detroit Lions reporter and former WDFN contributor Tom Kowalski. Kowalski floats between all three shows as a co-host/insider. He also hosts a weekly hourly Lions show for the station, which he formerly did during the days of The Fan. Tom Kowalski passed away August 29, 2011, suddenly at the age of 51.

The station remains a Fox Sports Radio affiliate and carries national programming after 6 p.m. through the night on weekdays and around the clock on weekends. On October 1, 2010, WDFN dropped the "Detroit Sports Talk" branding and returned to being "The Fan."

WDFN also became the local affiliate of the Grand Valley State Lakers football team. The Lakers are a NCAA Division II program.

See also

• Media in Detroit

Sources

• Michiguide.com – WDFN history

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WDFN
• Radio-Locator Information on WDFN
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WDFN