910 WFDF

[MWmetalhead]

I noticed their HD is now turned off, and the station appears to be broadcasting at reduced power. Signal has been weaker than normal in my locale dating back to last weekend at least.

[Ben Zonia]

They often are on a 10 kW backup transmitter.

[Colonel Flagg]

They often are on a 10 kW backup transmitter.

Did Disney ever sell the old WFDF transmitter site off Bristol Rd? Like so many other properties in the Flint area, the place looks like nature is taking over. As I recall, that site is considered to be in Grand Blanc, not Burton, but correct me if I'm wrong. I remember discussing that with the late Mike Fezzey, at WJR.

[Ben Zonia]

The building has been completely renovated, and looks good! For $695,000, you get the whole 18 acres and the building. There were nice pictures online, but the listing has been removed. It's in the City of Burton. Some people near there want to change their postal address to Grand Blanc. As Jeff Holbrook wrote, "...Grand Blanc, there ain't no place that can rank".

The late Mike Fezzey of WJR (and WFDF at the time), and the late Don DeGroot of the WWJ Stations former VP/GM, who started at WFDF, both lived in Farmington Hills at some point.

Mike Fezzey reportedly chose Farmington Hills for the COL because he lived there.

There should be a book about WJR with Mike Fezzey included in a few chapters, like Don DeGroot's "Living On Air" with WFDF/WWJ, and the late Peter C's "Local DJ". Along with Landecker's Autobiography, there's a huqe amount of SE Michigan and Radio History in those.

[k8jd]

Recalling Flint AM Stations
The tall tower of the three seems to have an FMBC antenna on top now. Pretty sure it's been there a while...
I Get up that way now and then and can still see the tall and two short towers.
OK....
I now recall the towers right at Dort hiway were WFNT 1470 and the three towers a half mile west down Bristol Rd are now gone and must have been WFDF.

Just tuned my Icom 7300 to 910. Seeing main audio sidebands +/- 7.5 kHz, and digi sidebands from 895-900 kHz and 920 to 925 kHz...Seems to be usual Strong signal strength here .

Down to 630 now and CFCO seems to have audio sidebands out to +/- 10 Khz pretty Hi-FI! With pretty good mod level without a lot of compression that I can see.
Just a quick peek at the scope here/.

[Ben Zonia]

The tall tower of the three seems to have an FMBC antenna on top now.
I Get up that way now and then and can still see the tall and two short towers.

Just tuned my Icom 7300 to 910. Seeing main audio sidebands +/- 7.5 kHz, and digi sidebands from 895-900 kHz and 920 to 925 kHz...Seems to be usual Strong signal strength here .

Down to 630 now and CFCO seems to have audio sidebands out to +/- 10 Khz pretty Hi-FI! With pretty good mod level without a lot of compression that I can see.
Just a quick peek at the scope here/.

The station with the tall North tower, now with WFBE 95.1 at the top, is WTRX 1330. The two towers are much shorter. Down the road about 1/2 a mile, WFNT 1470 has 3 175 foot towers, which no longer need to be lighted. WFDF was another 1/2 mile or so down the road. From around 1930 to 1941, WFDF was on 1310, and would have moved to 1340, and probably eventually would have moved to 1330 to get more than 250 watts. Except they had applied to move to 880, so they ended up on 910.

WBBC-FM 99.9 had a CP for 99.9 with 6000 watts Class B in 1948. They were going to use the tall North WBBC 1330 tower for that.

[k8jd]

OK finally fouund the third AM site, a mile west of Dort, down Bristol Rd. Looks all dug up where the towers once were , forgot that it was WTRX having the site right off Dort Hiway, with two short and one tall tower. !
Getting old and forgetting stuff
Your info is Gold !

[k8jd]

I got an earfull of Chicago radio history from some Radio folks I met there and worked with at WOPA. (WOPA is now history)

[Willie108]

The WTRX towers are on Bristol, just east of Dort, close to the tracks. The WFNT towers are about another 1/2 mile east on Bristol. The WFDF towers were farther down Bristol, past Center, at the corner of Howe Rd. I was in that WFDF building over 30 years ago. The place looked like a museum. They even had a small studio cobbled together.

[BillyChilly]

Curiosity led me to walking right into the old WFDF building, long abandoned, in September 2020. The lot was very overgrown, with the towers long gone. The garage door was unlocked, the basement was flooded, and the main floor was a ransacked mess. I didn't take many pictures, but from what I remember, it felt like I was in a house, complete with a kitchen. There was a small console, mostly gutted, in one room, with another (behind the empty equipment racks) with workbenches and cabinets. I ended up finding a WFDF mailer (showing broadcast area) from the late 70s, and some mail with their address from when they were co-owned with WDZZ and WWCK, with offices in Genesee Towers.

I went down a rabbit hole and found the following: the property, at 4244 Bristol Rd. in Burton, was purchased in May 2021 by Vash Investments Group. I haven't driven by in awhile, but Google Street View (from April 2022) shows a cleared lot and a building in much better shape. I found an expired listing online:

"IDEAL Commercial building on 2.2 acres of prime, corner lot with exposure off of Bristol & Howe Rd. The updated 2,000 sqft building features 3 sizable offices that wrap around a dual front office and lobby area. Hardwood floors run throughout the building. An oversized, 2 car garage, storage and utility room provide ample storage for surplus. The building itself has 3 entrances with freshly poured gravel, allowing access from both Bristol and Howe Rd."

[Ben Zonia]

Did they take the large original 5 kW RCA Transmitter out or other equipment?

I remember being told that they ransacked Genesee Towers before it was demolished. They got the WDZZ exciter, but the transmitter was too big and heavy. Somebody should have taken the antenna bays, but they didn't.

[BillyChilly]

Did they take the large original 5 kW RCA Transmitter out or other equipment?

From what I remember, the place was void of any equipment, save a broken speaker or reel-to-reel. I drove by yesterday, and the site is cleaned up, with the building restored, and a new parking lot with access from Bristol Road. There were people doing some sort of work, and I could see that the place was decorated inside through the windows. No signs at all of its past.