| City of license | Port Huron, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Port Huron, Sarnia, Sandusky [1] (Daytime) [2] (Nighttime) |
| Branding | AM 1380 WPHM Information Radio 1380 |
| Slogan | The Blue Water Area's #1 Station for News, Information, & More |
| Frequency | 1380 (kHz) |
| First air date | December 6, 1947 |
| Format | News/Talk/Sports |
| Power | 5,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Callsign meaning | Wonderful Port Huron, Michigan |
| Former callsigns | WTTH |
| Affiliations | ABC Radio Network, Blue Water News Network, WOR Radio Network, Special Event Coverage by Westwood One |
| Owner | Radio First |
| Website | http://www.wphm.net/ |
WPHM is a news, talk and sports radio station in Port Huron, Michigan that broadcasts on AM 1380 with 5,000 watts. WPHM is owned by Radio First. The station includes programming from Dr. Joy Browne, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Dave Ramsey, and local morning show host Paul Miller. WPHM has been known as "Information Radio 1380" for a large part of its life, showing its commitment to local news.
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For much of its early years, WPHM was known as WTTH, the original call letters standing for The Times Herald, the name of Port Huron's only daily newspaper. The newspaper operated the station from its debut in 1947 until 1970, when it was sold to Enterform, Inc (a name derived from the words ENTERtainment and inFORMation). The station continued to operate from the original WTTH studio location in the newspaper building after the sale to Enterform, which boasted a large front area originally used for performing live radio programs, and also which once hosted Paul Harvey doing his national news program at this remote location.
Following its acquisition by Enterform in 1970, WTTH's call letters were changed to WPHM, to more accurately reflect the station's commitment to community service. In 1978, Enterform moved the studio to the newly remodeled and outfitted location at 2379 Military Street, and updated the studio-transmitter audio link from the old telephone line to a microwave system. In 1986, Enterform sold WPHM to Hanson Communications.
Though much of WPHM's history did not involve a co-owned FM station to enhance its profitability, it didn't need one. Somewhat unusual for a market this size was that two AM stations dominated the radio landscape, both with programming that included highly competitive news departments. Its advantage over longtime crosstown rival WHLS (a single tower 1000 watt "Local" station) was its powerful "Regional" signal of 5,000 watts, boasting seven towers (six-tower parallelogram daytime, 4 towers inline at night), able to reach listeners north of Port Huron, known as the Thumb area. For this reason, the station was billed for years as "The Big Station in Michigan's Thumb".
WPHM had maintained a longtime agreement with the ABC radio network and the Associated Press, which gave the station the tools it needed to be a strong local news competitor against WHLS and sister station WSAQ. It was that, a highly talented sales force, and longtime morning personality John Hill (who has since retired) that established WPHM as a force to be reckoned with in St. Clair County. WPHM was also the first in the market (even among its Detroit counterparts) to invest in hard-disk computer-based on-air technology in the early 90's.
Despite WPHM's success on its own, Hanson Communications still aspired to buy or build a local FM property. That opportunity finally presented itself in June 1992, when Hanson acquired CHR-formatted WBTI 96.9 FM, licensed to the city of Lexington, north of Port Huron. The station had been on the air for less than a year. The FCC approved the $350,000 sale to Hanson from Martz Communications a month later. WBTI was then moved to WPHM's offices at 2379 Military Street in Port Huron.
As further proof of how dominant WPHM was over its new FM sister, WPHM outbilled WBTI 10 to 1 in 1993.
In 1997, Hanson Communications began negotiations with David Barr, owner and president of Barr/Schremp Communications in Marine City, about 12 miles south of Port Huron. Barr, who was operating syndicated talk-formatted WIFN (now WHLX), wanted to leave the Detroit radio business and pursue other radio opportunities north of Detroit in Traverse City.
Hanson Communications purchased WIFN the following year and, after a brief period of simulcasting WIFN with WBTI, replaced its talk format with one of classic country, provided by ABC/SMN's "Real Country" satellite-based format in Dallas, increasing its portfolio to three stations. Hanson then vacated WIFN's (then WHYT-AM) studio from its co-located transmitter facility at 5300 Marine City Highway and moved programming operations to 2379 Military Street as well.
In early 2000, Liggett Broadcasting entered into an agreement with Hanson Communications to purchase the three stations. Liggett also entered into another agreement to purchase Hanson's crosstown competitor, Wismer Broadcasting (whose owner and founder had died the previous year), licensee of WHLS and WSAQ. Liggett moved the operations of all five stations into Wismer Broadcasting's existing facility at 808 Huron Avenue, as the building at 2379 Military Street did not have the office or parking space necessary to accommodate all of the stations. WPHM, WBTI, WSAQ, WHLX, and WHLS are all owned by Radio First and are operated out of the same location in Downtown Port Huron.
WPHM-AM's seven-tower array is located south of the city of Marysville in Saint Clair Twp. off Range Road, located behind a Mobil gas station. The building housing the transmitter equipment is painted with the old WPHM logo. Through much of its early history, the transmitter building was staffed during hours of operation (at that time 6am to 11pm) by FCC licensed engineering personnel, which was a Federal Communications Commission requirement at that time for AM stations with complicated directional antenna systems. While there, the engineering staff would also perform other duties, such as set-up the long tape loops between two reel recorders to provide a "profanity delay" during call-in shows (before the advent of digital delay equipment), log exact times of commercial play to the program log, and take transmitter readings. The transmitter building was no longer staffed after the studio moved to Military Street in 1978, due to the installation of a new remote control system, and by that time, relaxed FCC rules regarding directional antenna system operator presence.
The seven-tower antenna system was more complicated than most AM stations, which required 24 miles (39 km) of #10 copper wire and over a mile of 4-inch-wide (100 mm) copper strap to be buried under the field as a "ground" system. The original transmitter was a Collins 21E, which was 3 connected cabinets approximately 10 feet wide, with the heavy power transformer located separately in the back room. This transmitter was 100% vacuum tube design. Then in 1980, a new, smaller, and more efficient Collins "Power Rock" transmitter was installed as the main, and the original 21E remained as the backup. The new transmitter was mostly solid-state design, with vacuum tubes in the power output section. Also by 1980, the microwave STL system had been upgraded to a stereo pair, partially for redundancy but also in preparation for AM Stereo broadcasting, which never fully materialized in the industry, and was not adopted by WPHM.
Chief engineering staff included George Carroll, from the WTTH days until his retirement in 1982 (d.1991), and David Huston from 1975 until 1987, who after the station's sale to Hanson, moved to northern Michigan to build a house and work with WAIR and WMJZ in Petoskey and Gaylord. Other part time engineers worked at the transmitter building until the remote control was installed.
Not long before WPHM changed hands, it gradually moved from its longtime format of adult contemporary and talk to all news and talk. Morning personality John Hill retired from the station in August 2002 upon completing 35 years of service. WPHM news director Paul Miller, another longtime tenured employee, assumed the morning show slot.
Tough competition for WPHM has come from CKLW and WJR, which are much larger stations, and feature some of the same programing.
At Noon and 6:00 pm, WPHM broadcasts the Information Hour, with local news, sports, weather, and commentary from Mike Huckabee and David Weiss.
Along with talk radio shows, WPHM broadcasts the Detroit Lions, Tigers, Pistons, Red Wings, and Michigan State Spartan athletics. If two games are on at the same time, they are usually moved over to sister station WHLS.
WPHM remains one of the most powerful and listened to station in the Thumb.
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