Video: '8MK Calling: 100 Years Of WWJ'

(Friday, August 20, 1920) — The first commercial radio station in the United States, 8MK, began operations today in Detroit.

It was owned by William E. Scripps, owner of The Detroit News, and operated from the second floor of the Detroit News building.

Elton Plant, an office boy at the News, opened the broadcast as the first U.S. radio announcer “because he had a good speaking and singing voice.”

The initial broadcast was “thought to have been heard by listeners in at least 30 Detroit homes”.

Eleven days later, on Aug. 31, 1920, 8MK delivered the first radio news broadcast with an announcer telling results of that day’s Republican primary election voting in Michigan and around Detroit.

On the day of the broadcast, The Detroit News informed radio owners that the program could be heard within a 100 mile radius of Detroit and could be heard by tuning receivers to the 200 meter wavelength (equivalent to 1500 kHz on AM radio).

In 1921, 8MK would change its call letters to WBL and is now WWJ-AM, an all-news radio station.