I've written a post on my blog before about the TV channels in my area, so here's a post about the radio stations in my listening area. Below you will find a list of the FM radio stations I was able to pick up on my radio when I listened to it yesterday and today. (I decided to limit the list to FM stations because of the work involved in putting this together, without adding AM channels to the mix.)
Many of the channels in the Detroit, Michigan area are actually Canadian, being broadcast from nearby Windsor, Ontario. Some stations refer to themselves as located in "Windsor-Detroit" and in fact many Detroit listeners may not actually realize that they are listening to a Canadian radio station due to how prominent they are on the dial. Detroit is also near the border of Ohio, and therefore stations from the nearby city of Toledo, Ohio can also be received, although usually less clearly.
For the most part, I limited my list of Detroit-area stations to channels that I was able to receive easily without having to struggle with the antenna to bring it in. I did include a few "staticky" stations below, however, if I thought that they were particularly interesting -- but if they have a weak signal where I live, I usually note that in the list.
The embedded links in the entries below lead to the website of the station, where you can usually "listen live" to the channel. If I didn't hear the station give its call letters on the air during the time that I listened to it yesterday or today, I have included the call letters in brackets below, having found that information online. Many channels prefer to use a phrase like "Mix 96.7" on the air, rather than the station's actual call letters (CHYR, in this case).
I might add that one of the stations that I listen to the most lately is not on the list below. That's because I only listen to it online (usually on my phone) since I don't think I can receive it on my radio. That station is Zoomer Radio 740 AM, broadcasting from Toronto, which airs an hour of old-time radio at 10pm EST every weeknight.
If you have an interest in Detroit-area broadcasting industry news, you will want to check out the Michigan Radio and TV Buzzboard for the latest about what is going on locally.
DETROIT-AREA FM RADIO STATIONS (as heard by me on June 15-16, 2023):
This Windsor station used to be "89X" in the 1990s, home of alternative rock music, until becoming a country music station in 2020. You can read about the station's history on its Wikipedia page. Back on March 8, 2015, 89x played a song by Canadian band Mother Mother, who I'd never heard of before -- but who have since become my favorite current band.
89.1: WEMU (NPR) (public radio) Eastern Michigan University station, in Ypslanti, MI.
89.3: WHFR (college radio) Henry Ford Community College station, in Dearborn, MI. A block of old-time radio shows can be heard Tuesday mornings on the "Radio Vault" program.
89.5: [WDTP] "Smile FM" (contemporary Christian music)
Same as 103.9 FM.
Windsor station. Formerly CBC Radio 2, back when CBC Radio 1 was on the AM dial. (See 97.5 below for more on that.) In the 1990s this was home to alternative late-night shows "Brave New Waves" and "Night Lines." They would also play new radio drama on "Monday Night Playhouse" back then, before CBC dismantled their radio drama unit in the 21st century due to budget cuts. These days they have made more of an effort at inclusion and representation, so that the hosts and music selections are more ethnically diverse than they were in the past.
90.5: WKAR (public radio) 90.5: [CJAH] (UCB Canada) (contemporary Christian music) On Thursday, when I had the radio facing one direction, I was receiving WKAR. On Friday, I tuned in to the same channel, with the radio antenna moved, and I was hearing UCB instead, a Canadian Christian music station. Both come in staticky.
90.9: WRCJ (classical & jazz) Back in the 1990s, this was WDTR, the Detroit public schools channel, which would occasionally play old-time radio.
91.3: WGTE (NPR) (public radio) Toledo, OH. WGTE is also the call letters of Toledo's PBS TV channel 30 (which unfortunately I don't receive with my TV antenna).
91.7: WUOM (NPR/Michigan Radio) (public radio) Ann Arbor, MI.
92.3 [WMXD] "Mix" (R&B/soul music)
(also AM 1500)
Staticky reception. Occasional bleed-through, depending on the angle of the antenna, with "Windsor's Country" which airs on the same channel, 92.7 FM [CJSP], as well as 95.9 FM [CJWF] where it comes in better.
Windsor station. Used to be "The River." According to its Wikipedia page, there are no Virgin Radio stations broadcasting in the United States. But there are 12 in Canada -- including CIDR 93.9 FM. Nostalgic note: Back in 1982-1985, CKJY was at 93.9 FM and had a "big band" format. On weeknights around 9pm, the station aired "The Golden Age of Radio Theatre" hosted by Vic Ives, which was my introduction to such radio shows as Fibber McGee and Molly, The Hall of Fantasy, Screen Directors' Playhouse, The Weird Circle, and more.
94.7: WCSX (classic rock) Birmingham, MI station.
95.1: [CKUE] "Cool FM" (rock music)
Canadian station, poor signal. "Cool FM" also broadcasts on 100.7 FM (see below). According to CKUE's Wikipedia page, 95.1 FM is broadcasting from Chatham-Kent, Ontario, and 100.7 is a repeater station covering the Windsor area.
95.5: [WKQI] "Channel 955" (iHeart Radio) (modern pop music/hits)
Windsor station.
96.3: WDVD (modern pop music/hits) Back in the 1980s, this was WHYT.
96.7: [CHYR] "Mix" (pop music) Canadian station playing "hot adult contemporary" music. The Wikipedia page can be found here.
97.1: WXYT "The Ticket" (sports) This is the FM channel of longtime AM radio station WXYT. The AM station first aired 100 years ago, in 1923, and beginning in 1930 was known by the call letters that would become famous: WXYZ, eventual home of radio heroes like The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet. In 1984, the call letters were changed to WXYT, to reflect its talk-radio format, and in the 1990s would air the Rush Limbaugh program (who eventually moved over to another long-running AM station, WJR). In 2000, WXYT-AM became an all-sports station, and in 2007 WXYT-FM 97.1 went on the air. (This info obtained from the Wikipedia entries of both stations.) Not being a sports fan, though, I have rarely listened to it.
Windsor station. This is the main CBC radio channel, which used to be available only on the AM band (where I usually ignored it). The content is similar to NPR, with interviews, documentaries, news, etc.
Same as 99.9 FM (see below).
In the 1980s-90s, this used to be the home of WLLZ, Detroit's heaviest hard rock station. WLLZ was later revived on 106.7 FM (see below). This current "Alt 98.7" appeared following the demise of "89X," so that there was still a prominent alternative rock station on the dial.
99.1: CJAM ("community radio") University of Windsor, Ontario radio station, although they do say that they are broadcasting from "Windsor-Detroit." Staticky reception, but worth the effort because of the weird and obscure music they play.
99.5: WCYD (country music) Around 1985, this was the home of WDTX, which would play a lot of cool indie type bands. I think this was where I first heard Lou Reed's song "Walk on the Wild Side."
According to the station's Wikipedia page, 99.9 FM is a "translator" station, repeating a signal that is also aired on 98.3 FM (see above).
100.3: WNIC (adult contemporary, 1980s music) Dearborn, MI station. The call letters used to stand for "Detroit's Nicest Rock," because they would play "soft rock favorites." It was kinda funny in the 1980s that they were sandwiched between two of the hardest rocking stations, WLLZ and WRIF.
This is a repeater of 95.1 FM (see above), serving the Windsor listening area. It comes in better than 95.1 in my area.
Sort of a cross between WLLZ and WCSX, in that they would play some classic rock stuff, too, not just the latest metal bangers.
Depending on how you turn the antenna, this station comes in. I used to listen to it a couple years ago for the Sean Hannity show (after WJR dropped him), but preferred to listen via the website rather than the radio itself, due to the poor signal.
Toledo, Ohio station.
101.9: WDET (NPR) (public radio) Wayne State University station. If memory serves, it was when listening to this station circa 1986 that I first heard a song by Canadian singer Jane Siberry, and in 1999 first heard a song by one of my favorite local Detroit-area bands, Outrageous Cherry. (The cool thing about the latter is that when I went out and bought the CD, based on the song I'd heard on the radio, it turned out that that song was one of my least favorite tracks on the album!)
102.3: CINA (foreign-language music, mostly Arabic) Windsor station.
102.7: [WDKL] "K-Love" (contemporary Christian music) Mt. Clemens, MI station. Back in 1987, ironically, 102.7 FM (when it was WKSG) aired the paranormal talk show Psychically Speaking, which you can hear an example of here. The Wikipedia page notes that WDKL operates a repeater on 107.1 FM, and indeed it can be picked up interfering with the signal of the Ann Arbor-based WQKL operating on the same frequency, depending on how you turn your antenna.
103.5: WMUZ (Christian talk/music) Perhaps best-known for the long-running Bob Dutko Show. (Around 20 years ago, I actually called in to the show once when they were discussing some topic that I thought I could chime in on. I didn't get on the air, though, because by the time I got up the nerve to call, the screener told me that they had already moved on to another topic.)
103.9: W280EL "Smile FM" (contemporary Christian music) At the top of the hour of 8pm and 9pm (roughly) on Friday, an announcer gave the call letters WCSX in Birmingham, MI and W280EL in Yates, MI. I was a little confused about that since WCSX is a classic rock station, not CCM. But Wikipedia's page about WCSX explains that it carries W280EL as an HD subchannel. According to Wikipedia's page about Smile FM, 103.9 FM is a "translator" station, repeating the signal of WVMV (91.5 FM, which I don't receive). Another "Smile FM" station is on 89.5 FM.
104.3: WOMC (1980s-90s music) This used to be known as an "oldies" station. Back in the 1980s, "oldies" meant 1960s music, but that definition has steadily been going forward in time, to the point that one is no longer surprised to hear a Green Day song being played. (I thought that I was making a joke here, but when I checked their playlist after writing that sentence, I found that they had indeed played a Green Day song around 30 minutes ago.)
Toledo, OH station.
"Detroit's Wheels," a revival of the famous heavy metal station of the 1980s & 1990s.
107.1: [WQKL] "107one" (classic alternative rock) Ann Arbor, MI station. (Also see 102.7 above for another station operating on this frequency.)
107.9: [W300DI] (Spanish-language talk/music) According to Wikipedia, this is "a low-powered FM translator" of WDTW 1310 AM.
