WPON
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| City | Walled Lake, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area |
[1] (Daytime) [2] (Nighttime) |
| Slogan | "Talk 'n Rare Oldies" |
| Frequency | 1460 kHz |
| First air date | December 1954 |
| Format | Currently Silent |
| Power | 1,000 watts (day) 760 watts (night) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 22045 |
| Callsign meaning | Pontiac |
| Owner | Birach Broadcasting |
| Website | wpon.com |
WPON (1460 AM) is a radio station in the Detroit market, broadcasting from a 6-tower array in Walled Lake, Michigan. WPON was founded in September 1954, with studios in Pontiac, Michigan, and towers located at the corner of Square Lake Road and Telegraph Road in neighboring Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
The station was owned for many years by Chief Pontiac Broadcasting, broadcasting such formats as top-40 and Country music. Broadcasting at 1000 watts omnidirectional, the station covered the majority of Oakland County. The station was sold in 1986 to Algis Zaparakis, who in turn sold the land containing the tower array in Bloomfield Hills to developers, and moved the tower array to a swamp near Wolverine Lake in Walled Lake, Michigan. The move forced WPON to change its power to 1000 watts directional daytime, and 760 watts directional nighttime. This change in power saw many of WPON's listeners unable to pick up the station's signal in much of its former coverage area. The format was changed to ethnic in 1986, and stayed this way until the station was purchased in 1995 by Foreign Radio Programs, Inc. Under the leadership of station manager Marie Fotion, WPON started a semi-successful "Talk and Oldies" brokered radio format in 1997, specializing in hard-to-find oldies from the 1950s through the early 1970s. More recently the station also began airing pre-rock "traditional" pop/nostalgia hits from the early and mid-1950s mixed in with the rock and roll oldies, possibly to appease fans of CKWW, a former adult standards station which now also plays rock oldies.
WPON was again sold in 2003 to Birach Broadcasting Corporation, who closed the old Bloomfield Hills studios and moved operations to Birach headquarters located in the Town Center Plaza in Southfield, Michigan. WPON is streaming their "Talk and Rare Oldies" format live through their website.
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Wikipedia