WFDF is a Class B station broadcasting on a regional (not clear-channel) frequency. By day, WFDF transmits with 50,000 watts, the maximum for AM stations in the United States. To avoid interference to other stations on 910 AM, it reduces power at night to 25,000 watts. It uses a directional antenna with an eight-tower array. The transmitter site is on Maxwell Road in Carleton, Michigan.[2] WFDF transmits in HD and is also simulcast on the second digital subchannel of WOMC.
History
WEAA and WFDF
The station first licensed on May 25, 1922. Its original call sign was WEAA and it was located in Flint. It made its first broadcast on July 8, 1922.[3] The callsign was changed to WFDF in 1925, in honor of the founder of the station, Frank D. Fallain (1890–1968).[4]
For many years[when?] the station featured a full service, middle of the road format of popular adult music, news and sports, targeting Flint. It experimented with a Top 40 rock format (using the nickname "Giant 91") for a time in the early 1970s, but the station shifted its music mix back toward Adult Contemporary by 1975.[4] In the 1980s, as popular music formats on AM were increasingly shifting to FM, WFDF became an adult standards station aimed at older demographics. The format shifted to talk radio in 1993. By 2001, the station was owned by Cumulus Broadcasting.[5][citation needed]
Move to Detroit market
In 2002, Cumulus sold the station to ABC Radio, a subsidiary of Disney. That August, the station began featuring programming from Radio Disney. In 2003, Disney began preparations to move WFDF to the Detroit radio market. It announced plans for a new eight-tower array in Monroe County, south of Detroit.[6] Originally, Disney applied to use the new site only for daytime operation with Flint in the northwest corner of the proposed daytime coverage area. It would continue using the existing transmitter site in Burton, east of Flint, during nighttime hours. (Providing an interference-free nighttime signal to Flint from the Monroe County site, without exceeding the 50,000 watt maximum power limit, would have been practically impossible.) Shortly after WFDF started broadcasting with this two-site operation, Disney applied to change WFDF's city of license to Farmington Hills, a Detroit suburb, with 50,000 watts of daytime power and 25,000 watts at night, both from the Monroe County site.
For this change to take place, two radio stations operating at AM 900 that would have interfered with a relocated WFDF had to be deleted. Disney purchased the AM license of WFRO in Fremont, Ohio, while its FM sister station was spun off to a new owner. In Gaylord, Michigan, WSNQ went silent shortly after its FM station, WMJZ, was spun off to a new owner. With the two AM 900 stations now silenced, this paved the way for WFDF to substantially increase its power and move into the more profitable Detroit radio market.
The new array still covers Flint with a city-grade signal during daytime hours. The FCC granted a license for the new facilities in January 2006.[7] The city of license changed in February 2006. The former towers in Burton were taken down and dismantled in April 2006.
The station's office is located in Southfield, moving away from Genesee County in the spring of 2006.
Transition and growth
On August 13, 2014, Disney put WFDF and 22 other Radio Disney stations up for sale, to focus on digital distribution of the Radio Disney network.[8][9]
On November 18, Radio Disney Group (the Disney subsidiary that held the license of the station) filed to sell WFDF to Adell Radio Group, Inc., an affiliate of The Word Network, owned by Kevin Adell. Adell also owns TV station WADL channel 38.[10][11]
On January 20, 2015, The Word Network closed on the purchase of 910 AM at a price of $3 million and changed the programming to its Christian radio format.[10] The changeover took place with no prior announcement at 5 p.m. on January 20.[12] WFDF was the last Michigan-based Disney O&O broadcast station.[citation needed]
On November 9, 2015, Adell re-launched the station as "the Superstation", with an African American talk radio format.[13] The station later carried ESPN Radio programming in the overnight hours.[14]
Switch to conservative talk
On August 11, 2023, Adell suddenly announced that the station would rebrand to an "all-sports format" with a local morning show host to be named,[15] though several media outlets speculated that Adell's financial issues (including the sale of WADL-TV to Mission Broadcasting) was a part of him selling off assets during a personal financial crisis.[16][17] At this time, the station began to carry Fox Sports Radio full-time.[14]
The format change would place the station in direct competition with WDTK and its similar Conservative talk format.[18] WFDF has an advantage in terms of signal coverage area[19][20] over WDTK, having a 50 kW daytime signal (and 25 kW night) that reaches from Monroe through Genesee counties, covering nearly the entire Southeast Michigan radio market and into the city of Flint day and night, giving WFDF cross-market coverage, while WDTK (with its constant 1kW signal[21]) and its FM translator have coverage that is restricted only into the densely populated areas of Northern Wayne, and southern Oakland and Macomb Counties.
Former personnel
WFDF formerly had a thirty-person staff during Adell's ownership. In the fall of 2017, the station hired reporters Andre Ash, Detroit News editorial page editor Nolan Finley,[22] and Steve Neavling, editor and publisher of the investigative news site MotorCityMuckraker.com.[23]
On October 5, 2016, morning show host Ralph Godbee quit in the middle of his show because of a content dispute over programming conflicts the two had regarding the Word Network.[24]
