WGPR TV62 Museum: Telling Our Story

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 Hendersonlater 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.

· Perhaps the stations most notable on air personality was the "Electrifying Mojo," who drew legions of nightly radio listeners and took them on musical journeys ranging from techno to funk.

· He introduced Detroiters to the sounds of Prince, Parliament/Funkadelics, and many techno artists. In 2016, his hand-prints and signature were added to the Legends Plaza of the Detroit Historical Museum, a first for a Detroit Radio DJ.

· Strong Arbitron ratings placed WGPRin the market's top 10 in the 1980s, which was very impressive for an independent studio with far fewer resources than its major competitors: WDRQ and WJLB.

The WGPR-TV Historical Society is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit established by former WGPR employees, many of whom launched their careers at the station. The origin of Society came from a realization that the story of WGPR needed to be preserved and that a museum was the best cultural institution to collect, archive, and present the station’s history.

The WGPR TV-62 Historical Society established and operates the William V. Banks Broadcast Museum. Over a 24-month period the Society collected photographs, oral histories, artifacts, and memorabilia on station history. They worked with a museum designer to create an exhibit that was first seen at the Detroit Historical Museum’s Community Gallery from January to April of 2016. The exhibit story panels were designed to be portable and were stored while the original studio of TV62 was converted and renovated to create space for the William V. Banks Broadcast Museum & Media Center. Sponsorship support from the International Masons and WGPR Radio Inc. made this possible.

Organizational Timeline of Key Events
In the span of six years, the Detroit Historical Society went from organizing as a non-profit to opening a museum. Members of the Society, all former WGPR TV employees gave generously of their time, expertise, and funding to make the William V. Banks Broadcast Museum a reality.