WXYT-FM

For the AM radio station, see WXYT (AM).

WXYT-FM

City of license	Detroit, Michigan
Broadcast area	Metro Detroit [1]
Branding	97-1 The Ticket
Slogan	"Detroit Sports Talk All Day"
Frequency	97.1 (MHz) (also on HD Radio)
First air date	May 10, 1941
Format	Analog/HD-1: Sports Talk HD-2: WWJ simulcast
Power	15,000 watts
HAAT	272 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	9618
Transmitter coordinates	42°28′58″N 83°12′19″W
Callsign meaning	WXYZ Talk Radio (original callsign and current format for AM sister station)
Former callsigns	1997-2007: WKRK-FM 1994-1997: WYST 1981-1994: WJOI 1948-1981: WWJ-FM 1945-1948: WENA 1941-1945: W45D 1936-1941: W8XWJ
Affiliations	Yahoo! Sports Radio NFL on Westwood One Detroit Lions Detroit Tigers Detroit Red Wings Detroit Pistons
Owner	CBS Radio
Sister stations	WOMC, WDZH, WWJ, WXYT, WYCD part of CBS Corp. cluster w/ TV stations WWJ-TV & WKBD-TV
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	Detroit.CBSLocal.com

WXYT-FM (97.1 FM) — branded 97-1 The Ticket — is a sports talk radio station in Detroit, Michigan. WXYT-FM's transmitter is located in suburban Southfield, Michigan at the intersection of Lincoln and Greenfield Roads and transmits its signal from an antenna 891 feet in height with an effective radiated power of 15,000 watts.

WXYT-FM can be heard as far north as Lapeer County and the Flint area. The station begins to sound unclear and with more static this far north.

WXYT-FM is the flagship station of the Detroit Lions, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers and Detroit Pistons. It also carries syndicated programming from Yahoo! Sports Radio, as well as live (non-Detroit) NFL games from across the country via NFL on Westwood One.

History

Early history

97.1 FM began broadcasting as an experimental Apex AM station called W8XWJ in 1936. In 1940, the station ceased broadcasting while owner Evening News Association (parent company of WWJ-AM 950 and The Detroit News) waited for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve its move to the newly created FM band. Approval came in late October 1940 and on May 10, 1941 the station (now renamed W45D) signed on at 44.5 MHz with 3,000 watts of power, becoming the first FM radio station in Michigan and the seventh in the United States. When the FCC created the new 88-108 MHz broadcast band, W45D was moved to 96.9 as WENA in September 1945. By 1948, the station had settled on its present 97.1 home as WWJ-FM, originally simulcasting WWJ-AM. In the 1960s and 1970s, WWJ-FM was one of several stations competing for Detroit's beautiful music audience, along with 95.5 WLDM and 96.3 WJR-FM.

Joy 97

In 1981, WWJ-FM changed its call letters to WJOI, which helped it distinguish itself more from its AM all-news sister station. WJOI's format remained beautiful music. 96.3 WJR-FM's change to "Hot Hits" WHYT in September 1982 left WJOI (nicknamed "Joy 97") as Detroit's only beautiful music station (fellow easy-listening stations WNIC, WOMC and WCZY having all evolved to adult contemporary formats by that time). As a result, WJOI enjoyed consistent top ten or top five showings in the Arbitron ratings through most of the rest of the 1980s, and even reached #1 12+ in the Arbitron results in the spring 1984 book (1), topping WJR, at a time when the beautiful music format was becoming endangered in other markets. During this time the station was programmed with Jim Schulke's syndicated beautiful music package.

However, most of the station's listeners were older than the demographics usually courted by advertisers. Thus, in early 1991, the station made some adjustments to its format, dropping the syndication and going to a stable of live announcers and at the same time adding more soft pop and rock vocals to the mix and replacing many of the traditional orchestral-based instrumentals with new-age and smooth jazz cuts. The "freshening up" of the format, however, did not reverse the station's fortunes, and ratings steadily declined.

The WJOI call sign is now in use at an AM adult standards music station in Norfolk, Virginia.

Star 97

Losing the Adult Contemporary battle, WJOI became WYST (aka "Star 97") in September 1994 and featured a 1970s oldies/classic rock format. WYST positioned itself as "The Greatest Hits of the '70s," although the station did branch its playlist out somewhat into the late '60s and early '80s. WYST was also Detroit's outlet for syndicated morning show host Don Imus.

97-1 K-Rock/Live 97-1 Free FM

In February 1997, Imus' show moved to AM sister WXYT 1270, making room for The Howard Stern Show. WYST switched its format to Active Rock, as "97ROCK" (later taking the calls WKRK and the on-air identifier "97-1 K-Rock" in June of that year). Competing with WRIF (Detroit's other active rock station), "K-Rock" caught the ears of fans of harder rock and metal. Unfortunately, K-Rock's penchant for making fun of WRIF, mostly for long stretches between songs, turned off many a listener just as quickly. Ratings continued to be less than impressive, and in late August 1998, WKRK repositioned itself as "Extreme Radio" with its format evolving toward Hot Talk.

By March 1999, the majority of the station's music programming on weekdays was gone and the station soon took on the name "97-1: Detroit's FM Talk Station". This was later changed to simply "97.1 FM Talk". During this period it carried syndicated talk shows such as Loveline, The Tom Leykis Show, and Mancow's Morning Madhouse, as well as local shows. WKRK relaunched as "Live 97.1" in May 2003. In August 2004, WKRK became the flagship radio station for the Detroit Lions.

In October 2005, WKRK added the "Free FM" identifier being used by CBS Radio on many of its hot-talk properties across the country. Once Howard Stern left for Sirius Satellite Radio on January 3, 2006, WKRK began simulcasting Rover's Morning Glory. Rover continued as the morning show until September 2006, when low ratings led to a switch to the syndicated Opie and Anthony.

Detroit's Sports Powerhouse/97-1 The Ticket

On October 1, 2007, at 3pm, WKRK ended its eight year run as a hot talk station, in favor of an all-sports format, starting with "The Sports Inferno" with Mike Valenti and Terry Foster. The station began simulcasting with 1270 WXYT, and changing it calls to WXYT-FM. Of its "Free FM" lineup, Bill McAllister remains.

On November 6, 2007, 1270 AM and 97.1 FM changed their names again from "Detroit's Sports Powerhouse 97-1 FM & 1270 AM" to "97-1 FM The Ticket." The 1270 AM frequency is only mentioned at the top of the hour. Another change was the names of the midday show "The Big Show" and afternoon show "The Sports Inferno". Both of the shows names were dropped and now the shows are named by the hosts last name, with the midday show now being "Karsch & Anderson", and the afternoon show now named "Valenti & Foster". A few months later, current morning show "Motor City Mornings" changed the name of the show to "Jay Towers & Bill McAllister Mornings". This was all done to "promote the personalities." Jay Towers left WXYT in December 2009, and the show is now named "The Morning Show" with Bill, Sara and Mike "Stoney" Stone filling in. In November 2010, the station changed the shows name to "Stoney & Bill"

On February 5, 2009, 97.1 The Ticket acquired the rights to become the Detroit Pistons flagship station starting in the 2009-2010 season. WWJ 950 AM will cover Pistons games which conflict with The Ticket's coverage of Lions, Tigers or Red Wings games.

97-1 The Ticket currently ranks at #1 (8.6) in the Detroit market according to the October 2011 PPM Ratings release.

The Lions and The Ticket renewed their partnership for three more seasons on October 9, 2009.

On July 23, 2010, WXYT-FM extended its broadcast agreements with the Tigers and Red Wings for multiple years.

Programming lineup

Local

Weekdays

The current lineup (as of November 1, 2010) is as follows

• Morning Show (5:30am-10am): Stoney and Bill - Mike "Stoney" Stone, Bill McAllister & Sara Fouracre. Tony Ortiz does sports updates and scores.
• Mid-Days (10am-2pm): Karsch & Anderson - Doug Karsch & Scott "The Gator" Anderson. Ortiz (10am-12pm) and Matt Dery (1pm) provide sports scores and news for this show, as well.
• Afternoon Drive (2pm-6pm): Valenti & Foster - Mike Valenti & Terry Foster; update anchor Matt Dery (updates also at the bottom of the hour, starting at 3pm)
• Evenings (6pm-9pm): Jamie & Wojo - update anchors are Matt Dery (6pm and 6:30) and Ryan Wooley (7pm and later)
• Late night: (9pm-12am) - Caputo & Fithian

Syndicated

• Late Nights (12pm-2am): Yahoo! Sports Radio - Todd Wright
• Overnights (2am-5:30am): Yahoo! Sports Radio - David Stein

Weekends

Weekend programming includes Lesson On Golf with Jeff Lesson and The Hardcore Mortgage Real Estate and Business Show with Alex Nefouse and Harvey Freed. Pat Caputo, Dennis Fithian, and Jeff Riger host shows on the weekends, all solo. On Sunday evenings, Jeff Riger and Eric Thomas host a show.

Sports

Play-by-play

• Lions Game Broadcasts: Dan Miller, Jim Brandstatter and Tony Ortiz
• Tigers Game Broadcasts: Dan Dickerson and Jim Price
• Red Wings Game Broadcasts: Ken Kal and Paul Woods
• Pistons Game Broadcasts: Mark Champion (or George Blaha) and Rick Mahorn

Sports reporters

Sports reporters for the station include Matt Dery, Jeff Lesson, Rhonda Moss, Tony Ortiz, Rob Pascoe, Pete Spivak, Rob Otto and Ryan Wooley.

External sources

• Michiguide.com - WXYT-FM History

External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WXYT
• Radio-Locator information on WXYT
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WXYT