In addition to local programs, WXYZ produced The Lone Ranger, Challenge of the Yukon and The Green Hornet for broadcast throughout the U.S. and Canada.

[12] In 1934, WXYZ was one of the founding stations of the Mutual Broadcasting System, along with WOR in New York City, WGN in Chicago, and WLW in Cincinnati.

On May 3, 1946, the station was purchased by the American Broadcasting Company,[7] which was recently formed from the NBC Blue Network by Edward Noble.

On May 2, 1946, Noble, ABC board chairman, announced the purchase of King-Trendle Broadcasting Corp. (which consisted of WXYZ, WOOD Grand Rapids and the Michigan Radio Network) for $3,650,000.

WXYZ carried ABC's dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio".

WXYZ had many of Detroit's most prominent radio personalities of the 1940s and 1950s including Dick Osgood, Fred Wolf, Ed McKenzie, Mickey Shorr, "The Lady of Charm" Edyth Fern Melrose, Jack Surrell (one of the earliest African-American air personalities on mainstream radio) and future CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Douglas Edwards.

WXYZ radio occupied studios on the second floor of the new facility, located at 20777 W. Ten Mile Road in Southfield, Michigan, built on the site of a former farm.

The transition to Top 40 was completed in 1958 with the station instituting an official playlist and taking away disc jockeys' privileges to play what they wanted.

Although many of the DJs were disenchanted with the changes (particularly Fred Wolf, who was notable for his distaste for rock and roll), WXYZ's move proved a success in terms of ratings.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, "Channel 1270", or "Wixie" (also spelled "Wyxie") as it was affectionately known, battled with Storer Broadcasting's WJBK (1500 AM) and RKO General's CKLW (800 AM, often known as 'the Big 8') for the Top 40 audience in Detroit.

Some noteworthy personalities during WXYZ's Top 40 era included: longtime morning drive host Fred Wolf; Lee Alan "On The Horn"; Joel Sebastian, (who later moved on to WLS);[16] Paul Winter; Fred Weiss; Dave Prince; Steve Lundy, Don Zee; and, for a short time in 1966, Joey Reynolds and Jim Hampton.

"Keener" had a tighter, faster presentation and a shorter playlist than the competition, and quickly took over as Detroit's number one rated station.

As an ABC-owned-and-operated station, WXYZ continued to be hurt by its ABC network commitments such as "The Breakfast Club" and an hour-long block of news and commentary during the evening drive period.

Although the disc jockeys continued to lobby to drop these programs to compete more effectively with WKNR, the network wanted to keep its shows on WXYZ.

As a result, the station changed direction, softening its music mix to an Adult Contemporary and Middle of the Road (MOR) approach known as "The Sound of the Good Life".

However, the station continued to flounder until Dick Purtan, formerly of WKNR, took over the WXYZ morning show after a short time at WBAL in Baltimore.

In the mid-1970s, WXYZ adopted the "Musicradio" slogan used by its sister stations WABC and WLS and continued to do well with an adult contemporary format and Purtan's morning show as the anchor.

The WXYZ call letters were retained by the TV station, which was sold two years later to Scripps-Howard to comply with divestiture requirements following Capital Cities Communications' purchase of ABC.

WRIF was also sold while Cap Cities retained WJR, WHYT, The Oakland Press and its cable television interests in Southeastern Lower Michigan.

WXYT continued with its talk format as "Talkradio 1270", airing local programs hosted by Denny McLain, Kevin Joyce, Bill Bonds, Mark Scott, David Newman, John McCullogh and weathercaster Rob Kress.

It also carried syndicated talk show hosts such as Don Imus, Larry King, Michael Jackson, and Rush Limbaugh.

In the early 2000s, WXYT's afternoon show, The Locker Room, was hosted by former Detroit Tiger Kirk Gibson, Gary Danielson and former WJBK-TV and WABC-TV sports anchor Eli Zaret.

On October 1, 2007, WXYT began a simulcast with FM sister station WKRK, which dropped its hot talk format in the process.

While WXYT-FM aired mostly local shows, WXYT (AM) largely carried network programming from co-owned CBS Sports Radio.

It added programming from the co-owned BetQL Network, with CBS Sports Radio shows remaining in late nights, early mornings and weekend hours.

[28] On February 23, 2024, it was announced Audacy would turn over operation of the station via a local marketing agreement to noted sports journalist Rob Parker, who had started his career in Detroit working at the Detroit Free Press, then becoming one of the first voices on the sports talk format of WDFN upon its launch in 1994; he had also worked with other local stations such as WXYT-FM and WCHB.

The station continued to broadcast from the Audacy Detroit studios and carry overflow programming from WXYT-FM, but had its own sales team.

[29] BetQL Network programming was moved over to WXYT’s HD3 channel at midnight on June 3, and 1270 AM began stunting for its upcoming launch.

Sports Rap would cease operations at 5 p.m. on August 27, after failing to obtain a second round of funding; Audacy then restored "The Bet Detroit" programming to WXYT.