Public Media from Michigan State University

Detroit Museum Dedicated To First Black-owned TV Station To Celebrate Anniversary

promotional photo from WGPR-TV
Detroit Public Television

A Detroit interactive museum dedicated to the achievements of the nation's first black-owned television station will hold its anniversary on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The WGPR-TV62 Historical Society says the Jan. 15 event at the William V. Banks Broadcast Museum & Media Center will include a black media history quiz and video clips of speeches by King, a civil rights icon.

The museum is named after WGPR's founder and is located in the Jefferson Avenue building where the station's original television and radio studios operated.

WGPR-TV started broadcasting on Sept. 29, 1975 and remained on-air until it was sold in 1995 to CBS Inc.

Banks also was president and general manager of radio station WGPR-FM, which became Detroit's first black-owned radio station in 1964.

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