WCHB

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WCHB

City of license	Taylor, Michigan
Broadcast area	Metro Detroit (Daytime) (Nighttime)
Branding	NewsTalk 1200 & 99.9 FM WCHB
Frequency	1200 kHz
Translator(s)	W260CB 99.9, WDMK 105.9 HD2
First air date	November, 1956
Format	News/Talk days, Smooth Jazz nights
Power	50,000 watts (Daytime) 15,000 watts (Nighttime)
Class	B
Facility ID	4598
Transmitter coordinates	42°09′24″N 83°19′56″W / 42.15667°N 83.33222°W / 42.15667; -83.33222
Callsign meaning	Wendell Cox & Haley Bell (founding owners)
Affiliations	Smooth Jazz Network (Broadcast Architecture)
Owner	Radio One
Sister stations	WDMK, WPZR, WGPR
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	wchbnewsdetroit.com

WCHB is an American AM radio station licensed to Taylor, Michigan, at 1200 kHz, and serving the Detroit market. Owned by Radio One, WCHB identifies as NewsTalk 1200 and 99.9 FM WCHB, and airs a News/Talk format, with Smooth Jazz during the late evening and overnight hours.

History

AM 1440 WCHB

The WCHB call letters date back to 1956, when the station signed on as a 1,000-watt daytimer at 1440 on the AM dial licensed to Inkster, Michigan. The call letters stood for Dr. Wendell Cox and Dr. Haley Bell, who owned and operated the station under the Bell Broadcasting banner.

WCHB was one of the earliest radio station in the United States to be built from the ground up by black owners, and with an R&B format, quickly became a visible presence in Detroit's black community. Early on, WCHB aimed to be an all-purpose full-service station for Detroit's African-American community, featuring not only R&B hits, but also gospel music, jazz, talk shows, and even a "Tweeny Time" show for two-to-six-year-olds. By the late 1960s, however, the popularity of the Motown sound, in addition to competition from WJLB (then an AM station at 1400 on the dial, now WDTK) and FM upstart WGPR, led WCHB to adopt a more Top 40-style presentation to the soul format. Locally owned for many years by Bell Broadcasting, WCHB signed on an FM sister, 105.9 WCHD, in 1960, which later changed its calls to WJZZ and became Detroit's most popular jazz station. 105.9 is still co-owned with the AM station by Radio One as WDMK.

WCHB experimented with a disco-based format for a time during the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, WCHB saw its ratings sink during the 1980s as FM urban contemporary stations like WJLB (which moved its format from the AM to the FM dial in 1980) and WDRQ grabbed much of its audience. The station eventually returned to its roots of being a full-service voice for the African-American community.

AM 1200 WCHB

The WCHB calls moved to their current home at 1200 kHz in February 1990, as AM 1440 moved into a gospel format as WMKM (now WDRJ).

In 1998, Bell Broadcasting sold WCHB-AM and WCHB-FM (formerly WJZZ, later WDTJ and now WDMK) to Radio One. Radio One then set about the process of upgrading WCHB-AM's signal, which involved taking the station off the air for several months in August 1998 to upgrade the equipment and purchasing WKNX-AM 1210 in Frankenmuth and moving it to Kingsley, near Traverse City in northern Michigan (see also WLDR and WJML), to allow the 1200 signal to upgrade. WCHB resurfaced in March 1999 with a new 50,000-watt daytime/15,000-watt nighttime signal and with a format of mainly gospel music, with a morning talk show, "Inside Detroit," hosted by outspoken Detroit personality and former WJLB-FM newscaster Mildred Gaddis.

NewsTalk 1200 WCHB

In April 2005, WCHB cut back its gospel programming to 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays and around the clock on weekends to make way for Radio One's syndicated lineup.

Beginning on January 30, 2006, Radio One debuted Syndication One, a joint venture of Radio One and REACH Media which featured urban talk show hosts Reverend Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson and Doug & Ryan Stewart – the 2 Live Stews sports show. Mildred Gaddis' "Inside Detroit" remains a part of the schedule and airs from 6-10 a.m. weekdays. Another local show, "Your Voice with Angelo Henderson," hosted by Wall Street Journal columnist Angelo Henderson also airs weekdays from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

The shows were also simultaneously placed on other Radio One stations, including WILD 1090 in Boston, WOL 1450 in Washington, DC., WVCG 1080 in Miami, WERE 1300 in Cleveland and WROU 1240 in Richmond, Virginia. Cox Radio's Birmingham station, WPSB 1320, also picked up each of the shows.

In March 2007, Michael Eric Dyson left the show and Syndication One. He was replaced by The Warren Ballentine Show, hosted by attorney Warren Ballentine, who refers himself as The People’s Attorney and radio Truth Fighter.

On April 30, 2007, WCHB welcomed Parker & the Man to the weekly line-up. The show, hosted by sports journalist Rob Parker and broadcaster Mark Wilson. Parker is a columnist for the Detroit News and a regular contributor on ESPN2's First Take. Wilson is a former Associated Press and Michigan Association of Broadcasters' "Michigan Sportscaster of the Year." Parker & the Man, who were previously heard on Detroit FM station Live 97.1 WKRK, initially ran from 9 p.m-12 a.m. They were consistently among the top shows with men 25-54 while at WKRK, which is now known as 97.1 The Ticket.

In the fall of 2007, after the 2 Live Stews syndication deal was not renewed by Syndication One, Parker & the Man shifted to 4-7 p.m.

In June 2008, Parker and The Man was dropped from the station.

Gospel goes full time on AM 1200

On June 9, 2008, at 10AM, News-Talk AM 1200 flipped formats to a full time gospel music station. Of its News-talk line-up, only morning host Mildred Gaddis remained with the station continuing her morning drive show. She was the only live host on the station; after her show, the station became automated. WCHB was known as AM 1200 WCHB, Mildred In The Morning and Inspiration All Day.

Return of NewsTalk 1200

In 2009, WCHB reimaged itself as a News/Talk station again after failing to attract listeners with its Gospel format (the format was later relaunched in October 2011, this time on sister station WHTD). Gaddis remained in mornings, followed by Henderson, the syndicated Shapton, Ramona Prater's "F Club Radio Show" (a program geared towards a female audience), and Gayle King. Both Gaddis and Sharpton's shows are repeated after 8PM on weekdays. Gospel programming has been reduced to two hours, airing from 4 to 6 AM daily.

At some time during Saturday, October 15, 2011, WCHB moved an FM repeater station, W206BI, from 89.1 to 99.9 FM (becoming W260CB) and began testing on that frequency. W206BI/W260CB was a translator of Toledo's National Public Radio affiliate, WGTE-FM, owned by the Bell Broadcasting Company (owned by Haley Bell, former co-owner of WCHB) and licensed to Hamtramck at 89.1 FM, with an application to move up to 99.9 and repeat WDMK-FM. W260CB is now on the air permanently; technically, the station repeats WDMK-HD2, which is a slightly delayed simulcast of WCHB.

During the summer of 2012, WCHB added smooth jazz programming during late evening and overnight hours, restoring the format to the Detroit area on a part-time basis. Programming is from Broadcast Architecture's Smooth Jazz Network.

References

Michiguide.com - WCHB History

External links

Query the FCC's AM station database for WCHB

Radio-Locator Information on WCHB

v t e Radio stations in the Detroit, Michigan market (excluding Canadian stations)

By FM frequency	88.1 88.1 88.1 88.1 88.3 88.3 88.3 89.1 89.3 89.3 89.5 89.5 89.5 89.5 90.9 91.5 92.3 92.7 93.1 93.5 93.5/98.3/105.5/106.3/107.1¹ 94.3 94.7 95.5 96.3 97.1 97.5 97.9 98.7 99.5 99.9 100.3 101.1 101.9 102.7 103.5 104.3 105.1 105.9 106.7 107.5

By AM frequency	560 680/690 760 910 950 1030 1090 1130 1200 1270 1310 1340 1400 1440 1460 1500 1590

NOAA Weather Radio frequencies	162.425 162.450 162.550

Digital radio	560 950 1130 1200 1270 1340 92.3-2 93.1-1 93.1-2 94.7-1 94.7-2 95.5-1 95.5-2 96.3-1 96.3-2 97.1-1 97.1-2 97.1-3 97.9-1 97.9-2 98.3-1 98.7-1 98.7-2 99.5-1 99.5-2 99.5-3 100.3-1 100.3-2 101.1-1 101.1-2 102.7-1 103.5-1 103.5-2 103.5-3 104.3-1 104.3-2 104.3-3 105.1-1 105.1-2 105.9-1 105.9-2 106.7-1 106.7-2 107.5-1

By callsign	KEC63 KKJA W208BB W224CC W232CA W252BX W260CB W288BK W292DK W296CG WAHS WBFH WBLD WCAR WCHB WCSX WDET-FM WDFN WDMK WDRJ WDRQ WDTE WDTK WDTP WDTW WDTW-FM WDVD WDZH WEXL WFDF WGPR WHFR WHMI-FM WHPR-FM WJLB WJR WKQI WLQV WMGC-FM WMUZ WMXD WNIC WNZK WOMC WOVI WPHS WPON WPZR WRCJ-FM WRDT WRIF WSMF WSDP WSHJ WUFL WVMV WWJ WXOU WXYT WXYT-FM WYCD WYDM

Defunct	WBRB 1430

Michigan radio markets Battle Creek Detroit Flint Grand Rapids Kalamazoo Lansing-East Lansing Muskegon Traverse City-Petoskey Other Michigan radio regions Alpena Ann Arbor Benton Harbor-St. Joseph Houghton The Irish Hills Iron Mountain Jackson Marquette Saginaw-Bay City-Midland Sault Ste. Marie The Thumb Area See also List of radio stations in Michigan Radio stations in Southwestern Ontario Radio stations in Toledo, Ohio ¹ The Detroit K-Love transmitters (such as W296CG) are fed by WMXD-HD2, as stated on their on-air identifications

Radio One

Key people

Cathy Hughes (Chairman and CEO)

Radio shows

The Tom Joyner Morning Show (via Reach Media under contract)
Russ Parr Morning Show (via AURN)
The Yolanda Adams Morning Show

Radio stations

Mainstream urban	WCDX WENZ WERQ-FM WGPR¹ WHHL WHTA WIZF WKYS WPHI-FM WQOK

Urban adult contemporary	KMJQ KSOC WAMJ WDMK WFUN-FM WFXC WFXK WXMG WKJM WKJS WMMJ WRNB WTLC-FM WUMJ WWIN-FM WZAK

Urban gospel	WJMO WNNL WPPZ-FM WPRS-FM WPZE WPZR WQNC/WPZS WPZZ WTLC WWIN WYCB

Urban talk	WCHB WDBZ WERE WILD WOL WOLB WTPS

CHR	WNOU

Rhythmic CHR	KBFB KBXX WCKX WHHH

Rhythmic Oldies	WOSL

Adult Hits	WTOH

News	KROI

Other

WDNI-CD (Telemundo) TV One (joint venture with NBCUniversal)

¹ Owned by International Free and Accepted Modern Masons and operated by Radio One under an LMA.

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