Detroit's number one rated station. WJBK was the first of WKNR's competitors to fall, switching to a middle of the road (MOR) format in 1964. WXYZ battled for Top 40 listeners for over three years, but by the summer of 1966, WXYZ had fallen behind CKLW in the ratings. 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. In early 1967, WXYZ was third-ranked out of the three Top 40 stations. As a result, the station changed direction, softening its music mix to an adult contemporary/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. With Dick Purtan in the morning, WXYZ did respectably in the ratings through the 1970s using an Adult Top 40-Oldies hybrid. 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. By then, the former WXYZ-FM was known as WRIF and also doing well with its "Rock 'N' Stereo 101" album oriented rock approach. Talkradio 1270 The station dropped music in favor of an all-talk format in 1978, which was the same year Dick Purtan left for CKLW. Ron Cameron, Joel Zelle, Tom Hopkins, Tom Dean, Dr. Sonya Freidman, David Newman and others hosted talk shows during this timeframe, under Program Directors Bob Oakes and Michael Packer. News reporters and anchors included Tom Bell, Tom Adams, Lou Hebert, Kathy Jackson, Robert Lambert, Scott Lewis and Mike O'Neill. In 1977, WXYZ reporters, Lou Hebert and Tom Adams won a radio Peabody Award for Winter's Fear: The Children, The Killer, The Search, a presentation on the events surrounding the Oakland County Child Killer case. 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