WLLZ Applies To Move To Diplex With WDET

[Ben Zonia]

The WXYZ-FM transmitter was on the Maccabees Building, which is near the North End of the Cass Corridor Area, on Woodward, one block from Cass Ave., though generally associated with WSU.

Lots of changes at the 5057 Woodward Maccabees site over the years.

WXYZ was there for years; the 15th floor had the studios for The Lone Ranger, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, and more. The studios are still there, pretty dusty and completely unused. Gives you a little shiver when you walk through them thinking what happened in them about 80 years ago.

Ben, Wikipedia claims 1270 was up there too.....any history cards on that?

After Wixie left, WDET was there for quite a while on the pylon, with WGPR moving there from Grosse Pointe and sidemounting just below the pylon with a ridiculously high gain multibay antenna that did NOT like the slope of the side of the tower.

When 'DET moved off to their own tower (don't know why that happened and the move south seems counterintuitive....but Detroit Public Schools owned the building at the time and that may have played into it) 'GPR moved to the pylon with a six bay 'Harris' ERI. That burned up about 15 years ago, and they now have a Shively main and a sidemounted standby.

I was up there a while back, and there was a plethora of very poorly installed point to point data WISP type antennas. IT guys don't do RF installation work really well.

Another interesting old site is Cadillac Towers. That had an AM array atop it for years. Ben, do you have the history cards on that available? Most of the info I have on that installation is from non-broadcasts and is suspect.

The Mott Building in Flint also had a horizontal AM longwire on it.....again, no good info on that in my dusty head.

WXYZ had two towers on the Maccabees Building at one time, from pictures I saw somewhere, but it was a "hammock" top loaded, center fed, vertically polarized nondirectional antenna. Many stations had this kind of antenna, some on buildings, some suspended from towers and poles on the ground. When WXYZ increased to 5000 watts Night circa 1940 with a DA, from 5000/1000 nondirectional, they moved to two vertical monopole towers on Joy Rd. near Greenfield. They moved to Broadcast House on 10 Mile Rd. with two new towers, in about 1959.

WREO Lansing, which only operated for a few years, had two supporting structures on the ground with such an antenna.

I don't know how many converted them to two element directional antennas. The height and orientations would only rarely have been suitable for a DA.

The WFDF towers, which supported the top loading wires, are still there, used for some type of rail utility transmitters from what I heard. The top of the towers is about 240 feet AGL. After Genesee Towers was demolished next door, the FAA required lighting them for the first time. The Mott Building was not completed until 1930. WFDF had a location next to it before that. It might have been in roughly that location starting in 1923. It moved to the Mott building in 1930, moved to three self supporting towers on Bristol Rd. in 1941. They collapsed in a storm in 1957, and were replaced with three guyed towers. Those were demolished after the License to Cover for the move to Carleton with the Farmington Hills COL was issued, in 2006.

This photograph is labelled with a lot of artistic license, with the top loading "hammock" and flag old school "photoshopped". The center feed wires were not drawn in, as they also wouldn't have been visible. Again, the antenna was nearby in 1923, but the building wasn't there until circa 1930.

[Ben Zonia]

Looking at the History Cards, I found that WXYZ operated on 1240 kHz with 1000 watts nondirectional at 5057 Woodward Ave. (Maccabees Building) from 1929 to 1939. It looks like they moved to 15505 Joy Rd. and operated 5000 Day/1000 Night Nondirectional, until they put up a second tower to be 5000 watts DA-N. It was originally authorized with the DA on 1240, but didn't operate DA-N until they moved too 1270 on March 29, 1941.

[Ben Zonia]

Here we go. That probably wouldn't have been ideal for a monopole DA protecting WHBF.

[Ben Zonia]

More Maccabees Building Tower History.

The first two towers were at the ends of the building. In 1960, they had been removed. In 1963, a new tower was built in the middle between the two penthouses.

https://historicdetroit.org/galleries/m ... old-photos

[Colonel Flagg]

I've noticed that WMXD locks in easily now. From the Book Cadillac it was very touchy on an analog tuner.

Not anymore.

[Ben Zonia]

I've noticed that WMXD locks in easily now. From the Book Cadillac it was very touchy on an analog tuner.

Not anymore.

Well, let's see all the fancy footwork under Section 73.213 and or Section 73.215 to WBGV 92.5 to be a permanent licensed facility there.

[MWmetalhead]

Is WMXD using auxiliary facilities right now? I am not finding any APP or CP for a permanent relocation, and the LIC on file is still for the Book Cadillac location.

Their signal did seem somewhat better than usual when I checked this morning. For much of the past year, decoding a clean stereo signal on my home theater receiver has been difficult at times, although that is due in part to my X1 DVR from Comcrap emitting a spurious signal on 92.7 MHz.

Even WDET is coming in clearly at the moment!

[Ben Zonia]

If that historical picture was taken in 1960, then it was only shortly thereafter that the new tower in the center between the penthouses went up. The License to Cover was filed in June, 1960, according to the History Card.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/ ... r_id=70041