Reviewed by Peter Berk, President and Chief Media Strategist, Berk Marketing · Last updated 31 October 2026
Detroit
A car market with a real all-news station, a heritage news talk AM that still reaches across Michigan, and the Lions on one sports FM. Berk Marketing buys Detroit for advertisers and represents no station in it.
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Short answer. Detroit is a driving market, and it rewards spoken word. WWJ Newsradio 950 is a true all-news station with traffic and weather every ten minutes, WJR 760 is the heritage news talk signal, and 97.1 The Ticket is the sports buy and the home of the Lions. University of Michigan games moved to WCSX 94.7 in 2025, and Michigan State stays on WJR. On the music side WCSX, WNIC, Mix 92.3, WOMC and 99.5 WYCD are the big signals. Long commutes across Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties make drive time valuable here. The practical entry point is about five thousand dollars a week.
Station by station
The table below lists the commercial signals most plans here start from. Our top 100 markets page lists every market we buy, and radio stations by market covers the largest markets in full.
The market at a glance
The commercial stations most Detroit plans start from. Formats and owners as of October 2026.
| Station | Dial | Branding | Format | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WWJ-AM | 950 AM | Newsradio 950 WWJ | All News | Audacy |
| WJR-AM | 760 AM | News Talk 760 WJR | News Talk | Cumulus |
| WDTK-AM | 1400 AM / 92.7 FM | 92.7 The Answer | Talk | Salem |
| WXYT-FM | 97.1 FM | 97.1 The Ticket | Sports | Audacy |
| WCSX-FM | 94.7 FM | 94.7 WCSX | Classic Rock | Beasley |
| WNIC-FM | 100.3 FM | 100.3 WNIC | AC | iHeartMedia |
| WMXD-FM | 92.3 FM | Mix 92.3 | Urban AC | iHeartMedia |
| WOMC-FM | 104.3 FM | 104.3 WOMC | Classic Hits | Audacy |
| WYCD-FM | 99.5 FM | 99.5 WYCD | Country | Audacy |
| WJLB-FM | 97.9 FM | FM 98 WJLB | Urban | iHeartMedia |
Stations change formats and owners often, so we confirm every station against the current Nielsen book before a proposal goes out. A plan built for you shows the current audience for each station on it.
How Detroit listens
WWJ and WJR are two different news buys. WWJ is all-news, built on traffic and weather every ten minutes, and its listener tunes in for a few minutes at a time, often in the car. WJR is news talk with longer listening and a loyal, established audience across a wide area. The first suits frequency and short messages. The second suits a story that takes sixty seconds to tell.
The college teams split. University of Michigan football, basketball and hockey moved to WCSX 94.7 in 2025, while Michigan State stays on WJR. 97.1 The Ticket remains the Lions station under an extension signed in 2026. A Detroit sports schedule is chosen by which team your customers follow, not by one station’s share on the year.
It is a car market. Detroit runs on long drives across Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, and radio is heard in the car more than almost anywhere. Morning and afternoon drive carry a premium for a reason. Ann Arbor and Flint are rated as separate markets, and Windsor stations carry across the river, so the service area decides which signals matter.
The listener is following a story or a game, so fewer commercials a day do the job. In Detroit that means WWJ or WJR for news, and 97.1 The Ticket for sports.
The listener is half attending, so the message needs repeating, which means weight on one station rather than money spread across four. WCSX, WNIC, Mix 92.3 and WOMC each reach a large habitual audience bought for frequency.
Why format decides frequency, in full, is on the local radio advertising page.
Money
Audacy owns WWJ, The Ticket, WOMC and WYCD, iHeartMedia has WNIC, Mix 92.3 and WJLB, Cumulus holds WJR, and Beasley has WCSX. Each group prices its stations as a package built for its own inventory. We buy the station, negotiate each group against the others, and take remnant inventory where it exists.
The practical entry point for a terrestrial campaign here is about five thousand dollars a week, the same floor as every market we buy, and it needs to run long enough to build frequency rather than a week or two to see what happens. What sets the rate, what moves it and how remnant inventory changes the arithmetic is covered on the radio advertising costs page.
Berk Marketing represents advertisers and holds no Detroit inventory. We go to the stations and the groups for availability and price, negotiate each against the others, write and produce the commercial in house, place the schedule and track what it returns by station. Where a station has unsold airtime, we buy it as remnant, typically 40 to 60% below the published rate card, and you are refunded or credited for any spot that does not run.
Fit
Worth knowing first
We work with advertisers who have not already been in contact with a radio station’s sales rep. We are not in the business of taking clients away from stations, and once an advertiser has been quoted directly, our ability to bring remnant pricing on that station is compromised.
The consequence lands on you rather than on us. If Detroit is on your list and you have not spoken to anyone yet, that is exactly when this is worth a call.
We will run a competitive monitoring report at no charge and with no obligation. It shows which Detroit stations your competitors are on, at what times of day, how many spots, and it includes the actual audio of their commercials.
In many cases nothing shows up at all, and that is worth knowing too.
Get the ReportQuestions
For a considered purchase, WWJ, WJR or The Ticket bought properly usually does more than a music station. Which one depends on whether your message is short and frequent or needs a full minute. For a broad consumer offer, one music station with enough weight beats several bought lightly.
They do different jobs. WWJ suits frequent, short messages to people checking traffic and news. WJR suits a longer story told to an established, loyal audience. Many plans use one or the other rather than both.
Since 2025 University of Michigan athletics air on WCSX 94.7, and Michigan State remains on WJR 760. The Lions are on 97.1 The Ticket.
Plan on about five thousand dollars a week as the practical entry point for a terrestrial schedule, run long enough to build frequency. The rate on any one Detroit station depends on daypart, season and how much inventory is unsold, and remnant airtime can bring it down considerably. What sets a rate is covered on our radio advertising costs page.
No. Berk Marketing represents advertisers and holds no inventory on any Detroit station. We negotiate with every group on your behalf and are paid to get the schedule right for you, not to fill a station’s airtime.
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