City Inkster, Michigan Format Urban Gospel Class B Frequency 1440 kHz | Branding Rejoice AM 1440 Power 1,000 watts Broadcast area (Daytime);(Nighttime) | |
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First air date November 1956 (as WCHB) | ||
WMKM is an AM radio station broadcasting at 1440 kHz licensed to Inkster, Michigan, and serving the Detroit radio market. Owned by Timothy Gallagher, through licensee Great Lakes Radio—Detroit, LLC, the station airs an Urban Gospel format branded as Rejoice 1440 AM. WMKM broadcasts with 1,000 watts of power with two different signal patterns for day and night (DA-2) from a six-tower array located near Ecorse and Merriman roads in Romulus, Michigan.
History
From 1956 to 1990, the 1440 spot on the AM dial was the home of WCHB, the Detroit area's first radio station to be built from the ground up by, and programmed one hundred per cent to, African-Americans. In February 1990, WCHB abandoned 1440 for the 1200 kHz frequency licensed to Taylor, Michigan. 1440 AM took the calls WMKM and broadcast brokered gospel programming. Eventually the station added a few hours of brokered Spanish programming during the afternoon hours (owner Davidson Media Group specializes in Gospel/Inspirational and Latino formats). The station's calls temporarily changed to WRJD to match the new "Rejoice" slogan (Rejoice Detroit) in November 2005, back to WMKM the following month, and then to WDRJ in April 2006.
In the summer of 2007, Davidson Media sold WDRJ to Communicom Corporation of America (CCA). CCA also owns WLNO New Orleans, and KXXT/KXEG in Phoenix, Arizona. WDRJ's format has not changed.
On October 6, 2014, WDRJ changed their call letters back to WMKM. At the same time, the sale of the station by Communicom to Great Lakes Radio—Detroit, LLC at a price of $375,000 was consummated.