WCHB

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WCHB

City of license	Taylor, Michigan
Broadcast area	[1] (Daytime) [2] (Nighttime)
Branding	NewsTalk 1200
First air date	November, 1956
Frequency	1200 kHz
Format	Talk/Religious; Gospel
Power	50,000 watts (Daytime) 15,000 watts (Nighttime)
Class	B
Callsign meaning	Wendell Cox & Haley Bell
Owner	Radio One
Website	http://www.wchb1200.com/

WCHB is an American AM radio station licensed to Taylor, Michigan, at 1200 kHz, and serving the Detroit market. Owned by Radio One, WCHB identifies as News-Talk 1200 and airs talk programming oriented toward the African-American community as well as Urban Gospel music.

The WCHB call letters date back to 1956, when the station signed on as a 1,000-watt daytimer at 1440 on the AM dial licensed to Inkster, Michigan. The call letters stood for Dr. Wendell Cox and Dr. Haley Bell, who owned and operated the station under the Bell Broadcasting banner. WCHB was the first radio station in the United States to be built from the ground up by black owners, and with a full-service R&B format, quickly became a visible presence in Detroit's black community. Locally owned for many years by Bell Broadcasting, WCHB signed on an FM sister, 105.9 WCHD, in 1960, which later changed its calls to WJZZ and became Detroit's most popular jazz station. 105.9 is still co-owned with the AM station by Radio One as WDMK.

WCHB competed with WJLB-AM 1400 and WGPR-FM 107.5 for the R&B/soul audience in Detroit for decades. The station reached its peak of popularity during the mid- and late-1960s due to the nationwide popularity of Detroit's homegrown Motown sound. WCHB-AM also experimented with a disco-based format for a time during the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, WCHB saw its ratings sink during the 1980s as FM urban contemporary stations like WJLB-FM and WDRQ grabbed away much of its audience. The station would eventually move into a more full-service voice for the African-American community.

The WCHB calls moved to their current home at 1200 kHz in February of 1990, as AM 1440 moved into a gospel format as WMKM (now WDRJ). In 1998, Bell Broadcasting sold WCHB-AM and WCHB-FM (formerly WJZZ, later WDTJ and WDMK) 105.9 to Radio One. Radio One then set about the process of upgrading WCHB-AM's signal, which involved taking the station off the air for several months in August 1998 to upgrade the equipment and purchasing WKNX-AM 1210 in Frankenmuth and moving it to Kingsley, near Traverse City in northern Michigan (see also WLDR), to allow the 1200 signal to upgrade. WCHB resurfaced in March 1999 with a new 50,000-watt daytime/15,000-watt nighttime signal and with a format of mainly gospel music, with a morning talk show, "Inside Detroit," hosted by outspoken Detroit personality and former WJLB-FM newscaster Mildred Gaddis.

In April 2005, WCHB cut back its gospel programming to 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays and around the clock on weekends to make way for Radio One's lineup of urban talk show hosts, including The Reverend Al Sharpton and Michael Eric Dyson. Mildred Gaddis' "Inside Detroit" remains a part of the schedule and airs from 6-10 a.m. weekdays.