WTKA
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| City of license | Ann Arbor, Michigan |
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| Broadcast area | [1] (Daytime) [2] (Nighttime) |
| Branding | Sports Talk 1050 WTKA |
| Slogan | The Leaders and Best |
| Frequency | 1050 kHz |
| First air date | 1945 |
| Format | Sports |
| Power | 10,000 watts (Daytime) 500 watts (Nighttime) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 47116 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°08′46″N 83°39′36″W / 42.14611°N 83.66000°W |
| Callsign meaning | The TalK of Ann Arbor |
| Former callsigns | WPZA (12/87-2/93) WPAG (1945-12/87) |
| Affiliations | CBS Sports Radio |
| Owner | Cumulus Broadcasting |
| Sister stations | WLBY, WQKL, WWWW-FM |
| Website | wtka.com |
WTKA is a radio station located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that broadcasts on 1050 AM. Day power is 10 kW, night power is 500 W. The station covers most of southeast Michigan.
First on-air as WPAG in 1945, the station was the first licensed to Washtenaw County, with studios on the third floor of the Hutzel Building, at the corner of Main at Liberty Streets in Ann Arbor. (Currently, a digital service called A3 Radio netcasts from the old WPAG studios.) Owned by brothers Paul and Art Greene, the call letters WPAG were selected to reflect their names. (For many years there was a ladies lingerie and apparel store down on the Hutzel Building's first floor, which caused long-time University of Michigan football broadcaster Bob Ufer to joke that WPAG really stood for "Women's Panties And Girdles".) WPAG also briefly operated a television outlet, WPAG-TV on channel 20 in the 1950s.
In the 1960s, WPAG was one of several stations in the Ann Arbor featuring Top 40 musical fare. One of its most popular personalities was Dave Pringle, who later became a fixture on Detroit radio on various stations under the name "Dave Prince" (he adopted the name because Billboard magazine misprinted his name as "Dave Prince" instead of "Dave Pringle" in one issue, and he thought "Prince" sounded better). The station is also notable for being possibly the first to play Bob Seger; in 1961, Seger convinced the station to play a demo of "The Lonely One," a song he had recorded with his group at the time, the Decibels.
By 1970, WPAG had transitioned to a full-service format featuring MOR music. Another format change to country music came in the early 1980s.
In December 1987, WTKA was purchased by Tom Monaghan and had its calls changed to WPZA -- a nod to Monaghan's thriving Domino's Pizza business. In late 1992, Monaghan (who now owns Ave Maria Radio, including Ypsilanti's WDEO), sold WPZA to the MW Blue Partnership; eventually, it went to Cumulus Broadcasting and then to Clear Channel Communications, who flipped the station to all-sports WTKA ("The Ticket").
WTKA is now owned by Cumulus Broadcasting due in part to a multi-station swap between Cumulus and Clear Channel that involved stations in Michigan And Ohio.
Today, WTKA bills itself as "Sports Talk 1050 AM", the unofficial voice of the University of Michigan sports. Sports Talk 1050 AM carries U-M football, basketball and hockey as well as Detroit Tigers baseball games (a holdover from the WPZA era, as Monaghan also owned the Tigers at that time.
Go Blue Wolverine magazine editor Sam Webb and Ira Weintraub host "The Michigan Insider" weekday mornings from 6-10am. The show features many prominent guests, including sports writer John Bacon, ESPN The Magazine contributor Eric Adelson, and frequent interviews with University of Michigan coaches Brady Hoke, John Beilein, Carol Hutchins, Rich Maloney and more. One of the most popular features on "The Michigan Insider" is "Recruiting Roundup" with the latest information on Michigan football and basketball recruiting. The segment is recorded and available at any time on the station's website.
Webb also appears Sunday mornings from 9-10am on "The GoBlueWolverine Hour". The 10am-11am spot is then filled by author John U. Bacon and Jamie Morris. Morris is a former University of Michigan tailback. He played under legendary coach Bo Schembechler in the 1980s, becoming Michigan's all-time leading rusher in the process. Now, he ranks third on the all-time list. The show also features a segment known as "Winners and Losers", where both the co-hosts and interns give a look at the best and worst stories in sports that week.
During the 2011-2012 Michigan Hockey Season, Ira Weintraub and John U. Bacon host "The Red Berenson Show" with legendary Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson and other Michigan hockey coaches and Michigan hockey players. The show airs Tuesday nights at 6pm during the season from the Pizza House restaurant in Ann Arbor.
Mondays at 6pm Ira Weintraub hosts the Eagle Nation Insider, focusing on Eastern Michigan University athletics with guests like head football coach Ron English and women's basketball coach AnnMarie Gilbert. The show is rebroadcast Wednesday afternoon at 3pm.
Patrick Maly provides weekday traffic and sports reports in the afternoons, and occasionly sits in on "The Michigan Insider". On weekday afternoons, the station features ESPN Radio programming The Herd with Colin Cowherd from 10am-1pm, and The Scott VanPelt Show from 1-3pm.
Ann Arbor's Big Show runs weekdays from 3-6pm. The host of the show rotates throughout the week between Jeff Radford (Mondays and Tuesdays) Jeff DeFran (Wednesdays and Thursdays), and Jim Stark and Al Fellhauer (Fridays). The host is joined by Patrick Maly each day. The first hour of The Big Show is called the recap and features interviews from earlier in the day as well as replaying the popular morning show segment Recruiting Roundup with Sam Webb. The Big Show is live from 4-6pm.
WTKA airs two hours of a delayed version of The Huge Show with host Bill Simonson from 6-8pm. The station also airs a delayed version of the Dan Patrick Show from 8-11pm. The Huge Show and Dan Patrick Show are often preempted by live broadcasts of Detroit Tigers baseball and University Of Michigan basketball and hockey.
On April 23, 2007 WTKA fired former University of Michigan hockey player Dave Shand from the station. Shand served as the co-host for the morning show titled "In the Locker Room with Dave Shand." The station gave no reason for the firing. Shand claims University of Michigan athletic director Bill Martin pressured the station to fire him, but a lawsuit against Martin on this claim was dismissed for lack of evidence.[1]
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See also [edit]
References [edit]
Sources [edit]
- Michiguide.com - WTKA History
- Former Michigan QB Leach Rips Carr
- Audio of Rick Leach's criticism of Lloyd Carr from WTKA
External links [edit]
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WTKA
- Radio-Locator Information on WTKA
- Query Arbitron's AM station database for WTKA
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