WGPR Historical Society

Broadcast pioneer William V. Banks had a vision – he wanted to own and operate his own television station. In 1975, he achieved his goal with the launch of WGPR-TV62 in Detroit. At the helm of his new station – the first to be independently owned and operated by an African American – Banks ushered in a new era of broadcast media.

President Gerald Ford filmed a congratulatory message that aired on the station’s debut broadcast, “Big City News.”

Known as “The Gipper” to some followers, WGPR 107.5 FM was purchased for $40,000 by William V. Banks and the International Free and Accepted Modern Masons, Incorporated and Order of the Eastern Star from Ross Mulholland, a Grosse Pointe based owner and former WJR radio broadcaster. GPR originally stood for “Grosse Pointe Radio” but after Banks, an ordained preacher purchased the station, it became known as “Where God‘s Presence Radiates.”

The station was armed with a powerful 50,000 Watt antenna that could be heard from Windsor to parts of Ohio, especially at night. In the beginning, resources were meager. Nat Morris, an on-air personality at the station in 1972, recalled that the studio was in the basement of the Mason’s Hall in Detroit.

It didn’t have much of a record library, so he and other on-air personalities, including Ray Henderson, often brought in their own records to broadcast. Morris and Henderson later went on to become the first hosts of The Scene, one of WGPR-TV62’s most popular programs.

The radio station continued to grow throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, featuring entertainment on-air talent including Lee Garrett; Clarence “Foody” Rome, who earned the Michigan Chronicles’ Disc Jockey of the Year Award in 1984; J.C.Cage; Tiger Dan; “Marvelous” Marvin Taylor; Larry Bird; Billy T Thompson; Henry Tyler; R.J.Watkins; and Rosetta Hines.