Owned by the International Free and Accepted Modern Masons, its studios and offices are on East Jefferson Avenue on Detroit's lower eastside.

The station's transmitter is atop the Maccabees Building on the campus of Wayne State University, on Woodward Avenue in Detroit.

It is reported that the station's call sign meant "Where God's Presence Radiates", but the original meaning was "Grosse Pointe Radio."

The station was originally based at a studio on 20233 Mack Avenue in Grosse Pointe Woods when it went on the air.

An independent television station focusing on shows aimed at African-American viewers was added in 1975, WGPR-TV.

On September 29, 1975, Amyre Porter, Doug Morrison and Sharon Crews became the nation's first African-American primetime news team.

Its ratings were not adversely affected by Detroit's switching from Arbitron's diary system to Portable People Meters (PPM).

On October 21, 2011, Radio One announced that it would take over WGPR under a local marketing agreement (LMA), and move WHTD's urban contemporary format to the station as Hot 107.5.

On October 24, WGPR signed off as Radio One assumed control, and began stunting with a loop of "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" by Boyz II Men.

This was interspersed with promos redirecting WGPR listeners to Radio One's urban AC station WDMK (whose competition was neutralized by the format shuffle).

[5][6] WIZF alum Big Greg (also known as Buckie Naked) was the first DJ on air, followed by future 106 & Park host Shorty Da Prince on nights and Paigion on mid-days.

The same day, Beasley Broadcast Group announced that it would acquire WDMK and its Detroit Praise Network stations for $13.5 million.

On April 20, 2011, WGPR launched two HD Radio digital subchannels, with a smooth jazz format on WGPR-HD2 as The Oasis and modern rock on WGPR-HD3 as The Bone.

Meanwhile, smooth jazz programming returned to the Detroit airwaves during the late evening and overnight hours via Radio One's WCHB and its FM translator.