Inside the Abandoned WWJ Radio Broadcast Studios, Detroit

WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter this property. By doing so you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing on private property.

Here is one of the more interesting abandoned places we've seen: the old WWJ radio broadcasting building in Detroit. Currently, WWJ is the only 24-hour news radio station in Detroit, and the oldest radio station – PERIOD - in Michigan.

WWJ was founded by the founders of the Detroit News, the Scripps family. William Scripps had the idea that the Detroit News needed its own radio station, so on August 20, 1920 a new station known as 8MK debuted on the air. The broadcast took place on the second floor of the Detroit News building, making 8MK the first radio station in the world that was owned by a newspaper.

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With radio becoming a bigger and bigger commodity across the state and country, it was necessary for WWJ to have a building all its own and move out of the Detroit News. WWJ's second location was constructed in 1936 at 600 West Lafayette Boulevard, just across the street from the Detroit News.

With a transmission reach of only 100 miles, it was the first radio station in Michigan and the first to broadcast sports. According to Detroit Historical, it was also “first to broadcast national election returns, and presented the first radio broadcast of humorist Will Rogers. The broadcast of a Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert on February 10, 1922 was the first symphony concert ever heard by radio.”

8MK was changed to WBL on October 13, 1921 and on March 3, 1922, changed to WWJ.

But what does WWJ stand for?

The call letters came from founder William E. Scripps and his son, William J. Scripps...William & William J: “WWJ”.

Now scroll down and take a look inside the old WWJ building on West Lafayette Boulevard.....now empty with the ghosts of broadcasts past.....