WJR in Detroit is revamping its on-air lineup as the radio station prepares to celebrate its 100th year.
Following the retirement of WJR’s News Director, Dick Haefner, last December, the February death of Rush Limbaugh and the retirement of Frank Beckmann in March have resulted in these upcoming changes.
Since then, WJR has made a series of moves as the station announced several changes heading into 2022, including:
- Ann Thomas has been promoted from Senior Executive Producer to Assistant Program Director of WJR.
- Paul W. Smith is joined by co-host Sean Baligian, who has spent most of his career in Detroit sports, including a pre-and post-game host of WJR’s Detroit Lions coverage.
- Frank Beckmann’s former late morning shift sees a rebrand as “All Talk with Tom Jordan and Kevin Dietz.”
- Laura Hessen moves from the “Guy Gordon Show” to operate as Executive Producer of “All Talk with Tom Jordan and Kevin Dietz.”
- In June, Westwood One’s Dan Bongino was added to the WJR lineup, replacing the late Rush Limbaugh.
- Nick Roddy, a former Detroit Lions Broadcast Producer, takes the reins as Executive Producer of the 3 PM-5 PM “Guy Gordon Show.”
- Blake Majchrzak joins WJR as Studio & Audio Engineer for the “Mitch Albom Show.” Albom, NY Times Best Selling Author, philanthropist, and newspaper columnist, also celebrated his 25th year with WJR – making his show the longest-running afternoon show in Detroit – from 5 PM-7 PM.
- FOX News Radio has been added as the WJR network news provider. WJR news reporter/anchor Marie Osborne, WJR producer Chris Renwick, and former WJR news reporter Lloyd Jackson have signed on as the first WJR Senior News Analysts.
- Ken Rogulski joins Dayna Clark to provide in-house coverage of WJR’s Traffic and Weather First.
- WJR also announces significant upgrades on weekends by adding legendary Detroit Morning Show Host Jim Harper with his Great Michigan Weekend Show.
“We are extremely proud of this team, their credentials, their integrity, and their ability to represent WJR and Cumulus in the tradition expected by all Michiganders,” VP/Market Manager Steve Finateri said.
“The new talent we’ve added around our longtime superstars Paul W. Smith, Guy Gordon, and Mitch Albom makes WJR one of the most powerful and trusted media outlets among all peers. Individually they each are ‘A’ players with big brands, and as a collective group of broadcasters, we feel we have the absolute strongest lineup in Michigan radio, maybe anywhere in the country.”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
