Talkradio 1270
In 1984, the radio station was seeing its profits steadily declining along with its ratings. Station vice president and general manager Chuck Fritz, thinking he could operate it more profitably, offered to buy the station. ABC agreed and sold it to Fritz Broadcasting for $3 million (USD). The call letters were changed to the similar sounding WXYT, with the "T" standing for "talk." The WXYZ calls 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-FM was also sold while CapCities retained WJR-AM, WHYT-FM, the "Oakland Press" and numerous cable interests in Southeastern Lower Michigan. Fritz himself later bought the struggling 92.3 FM and converted it to the highly successful WMXD "Mix 92.3" (now a Clear Channel station), and founded the Radio Station Representative Association in Detroit.
WXYT-AM would continue 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; and syndicated talk show hosts such as Don Imus, Larry King, Michael Jackson, and Rush Limbaugh. Glenn Haege, known as "America's Master Handyman," hosted "Ask The Handyman", a weekend home improvement show that started on WXYZ in the mid-1980s, and lasted on WXYT until 2002. In 1998, after an unsuccessful campaign for Michigan governor, Geoffrey Fieger hosted an evening talk show that lasted less than a year.
In 1994 the station was sold again, this time to Infinity Broadcasting, which itself was acquired by CBS Radio in 1997, pairing WXYT with WWJ-AM and WKRK-FM (Infinity Broadcasting remained as the name of the radio division). Infinity Broadcasting would revert its name to CBS Radio by December 2005.