Several version of postcards have been distributed through the 1930s of famous buildings throughout the United States. The Macabees Building was always a favorite since several floors contains the first studios of WXYZ television.. Many of the staff listed in our database were initially located here before the new studios were built in Southfield, Michigan.
The Maccabees Building was one of the early homes of WXYZ Radio, and the first home of WXYZ-TV, beginning in1947, although not concurrently. WXYZ Radio occupied the top floors of the Maccabees Building, at Woodward and Putnam, in Detroit, back in the late 1930s through the late 1940s. The studios there is where the legendary radio shows “The Lone Ranger” and “The Green Hornet’ were created and produced, and aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System network. Following World War II, when local radio stations were becoming less dependent on network programming, and moving to local talk and news and/or music programming, WXYZ Radio, by then owned by American Broadcasting Company (ABC), evolved to a “Top 40” popular music format that was a leader in the Detroit, MI market for many years.
In the late 1940s, WXYZ Radio no longer needed the large Maccabees building studio spaces for large network radio productions, and moved to a new, smaller location in an office building located on E. Jefferson Ave., at Burns St., in Detroit, with smaller, announce studios more appropriate to playing music, by disk jockeys.
Following WWII, ABC applied, and received a license to operate a television station in Detroit – WXYZ-TV, Channel 7. Since TV programming in the late 1940s through the late 1950s were not elaborate productions, WXYZ-TV converted a rather large auditorium on the ground floor of the Maccabees Building as its main TV studio for its early local programs, including “Rita Bell’s Prize Movie,” Soupy Sales Lunch time show and Curtain Time Theater, with Johnny Ginger, early in the morning. Each of those shows, among others did not typically have a live audience, and only needed eight to 10 feet of footage for a simple set background.
At the top of the Maccabees Building , WXYZ-TV repurposed the old, large WXYZ Radio Lone Ranger/Green Hornet radio, as a second broadcast studio, likely used as a permanent studio for its news programs. During the later 1950s. ABC decided it would be more economical to have its Detroit broadcast properties consolidated into on location, and in mid-1961, the stations moved to a new studio complex, on W. Ten Mile Rd., in Southfield.
In the postcard photo, the single tower on top of the Maccabees Bldg. replaced two towers that held the original antenna for the radio station. The single tower was erected post WWII to hold the original antenna for the TV station, and for the WXYZ-FM (later WRIF) antenna, which went on the air in the early 1950s.
wow amazing history. I actually work in maccabees as a custodian. I work the upper floors 12,13 and 14th floors. I actually browse the 15th floor and seen the old studio.
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