# How Detroit's Radio Stations Shaped a Generation | Living for the City Ep. 3

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/living-for-the-city-7841880/how-detroit-s-radio-stations-shaped-a-generation-living-for-the-city-ep-3
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/living-for-the-city-7841880/how-detroit-s-radio-stations-shaped-a-generation-living-for-the-city-ep-3.md
Podcast: [Living for the City](https://stenobird.com/podcast/living-for-the-city-7841880)
Published: 2026-05-27T14:16:00+00:00
Episode link: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/1468/tracking.swap.fm/track/GShUDppPATUMmMhYllkv/traffic.megaphone.fm/IMP9007998097.mp3
Audio file: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/1468/tracking.swap.fm/track/GShUDppPATUMmMhYllkv/traffic.megaphone.fm/IMP9007998097.mp3
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Duration seconds: 1896

## Resource

In Detroit, radio wasn't background noise. It was the whole conversation. In Episode 3 of Living for the City, host Hanif Abdurraqib traces the invisible infrastructure of Detroit's sound. Not the studios or the stages, but the airwaves. Kevin Saunderson remembers hearing the Electrifying Mojo and knowing, before he ever made a record, what music was supposed to feel like. Brian McCollum, the Detroit Free Press journalist who has spent decades refusing to let the city's music go undocumented, traces the arc from CKLW and the golden age of AM radio to the commoditized '90s that drove artists to make the music they couldn't hear on the dial. And Liz Warner, who returned to Detroit's airwaves in 2024, talks about what it means to inherit that responsibility. Hanif revisits the memory of waiting by the radio with blank cassette tapes, as he lands on the belief that he keeps coming back to: the best DJs don't play what you want to hear. They play what you need to hear before you know you need it. Electrifying Mojo understood that. So did Martha Jean “the Queen,” who carried the city through the 1967 riots with nothing but a microphone and a commitment to making people feel less alone. This one is about the frequencies that shaped everything else. CHAPTERS 00:00 - The Porch Lights Flicker: Electrifying Mojo and the Power of Detroit Radio 02:11 - CKLW and the Golden Age: When Detroit Was a National Radio Market 03:32 - The Segregation of Sound: Breaking Artists on Black Radio 05:41 - FM Radio Opens Up: Space, Songs, and the City 07:06 - Raised by Mojo and The Wizard: A Generation Built on the Airwaves 23:51 - Martha Jean “the Queen” and What Radio Owes a Community 27:42 - What Radio Gave and What Streaming Can Never Replace LINKS YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Livingforth…

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