Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts an all-news radio format under iHeartRadio's Black Information Network (BIN), targeting Detroit's African-American community.

1130 AM is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A stations in New York City, Vancouver and Shreveport, so to avoid interference, it reduces power at night to 10,000 watts.

[citation needed] In the 1960s, WCAR was given permission by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move to the more lucrative Detroit radio market.

[3] Levinson would eventually relax his anti-rock stance when it became evident that the conservative "good music" approach wasn't making him enough money.

The station played more hit singles and fewer MOR album cuts while shying away from very hard rock, and featuring new jingles and a "hipper" image built around slogans such as "W-Car Cares About Detroit and Its People" (including inventive homemade public service announcements and promos for local businesses such as marriage counselors).

This incarnation of W-Car was consulted by Ken Draper, who at the time was programming similar formats on WFDF in Flint (which was known as "Giant 91") and WJIM in Lansing.

W-Car's Top 40 incarnation featured an airstaff including Detroit radio veterans such as Dave L. Prince, Scott Regen, and former CKLW and WIXY Cleveland personality Steve Hunter.

With WDEE gone and its only competitor in the country format being Windsor, Ontario's CKLW-FM (which focused its programming on the Canadian side of the border), WCXI became very popular for a year or two.

To better compete with W4 Country, WCXI/WTWR-FM's owner, Gene Autry's Golden West Broadcasters, again changed Top 40/oldies-formatted WTWR to WCXI-FM, and was programmed separately from the AM - but simulcasting Deano Day for a short time when he returned again to the station after a brief run in Los Angeles in early 1982.

In the meantime, WCXI was sold to Shamrock Broadcasting, owners of W4, on the same date as the FM station and continued to suffer from low ratings through the 1980s.

The station also purchased a billboard ad by the stadium which read "Not This Millenium - Rebuilding Since 1957" (the last year the Lions won an NFL championship).

Sean Baligian signed off at noon, leading into coverage of the inauguration of President Barack Obama, with no mention of changes at the station.

After several weeks with no local programming aside from Pistons broadcasts, Matt Shepard returned on April 6, relaunching his live morning show, Shep, Shower and Shave.

Longtime sports director and University of Detroit Titans basketball announcer Matt Dery left the station for competitor WXYT.

[6] On June 29, 2020, WDFN ended its 26-year run as a sports talk station, and began stunting with speeches by prominent African Americans.