CBS Radio consolidating ops in Detroit

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CBS RadioActually, it’s Southfield, MI, which is where most of the transmit towers and many radio and TV studios for the market call home. Equipment vendors take note: CBS is getting a five-year tax break with the $2.8M move. City council members approved 6-1 an industrial development district and awarded a five-year personal property tax abatement to the company.


The approvals pave the way for CBS to move its Farmington Hills, Ferndale and current Southfield ops into a building formerly occupied by Panasonic. The nearly 41,000-square-foot former Panasonic building is located next to CBS’s current Southfield facility.

Councilman Myron Frasier called the tax abatement a “pragmatic thing. The building is empty. …The tax abatement opens the doors for CBS.”

Those open doors will bring all of CBS’s stations, including WDZH-FM (Top 40), WOMC-FM (Classic Hits), WWJ-AM (News), WXYT-AM (News/Talk), WXYT-FM (Sports) and WYCD-FM (Country), into the new facility. Referring to television stations already in Southfield, several council members said that move continues to make Southfield a “communications hub.”

The tax abatement is on personal property, according to the city. CBS plans to bring in all new equipment from desks on up, Rochelle Freeman, business development manager for the city of Southfield, told The Observer & Eccentric. CBS reportedly plans to spend $2.8 million on gear and construction at the new location.

Freeman said that the consolidation will mean 164 more jobs for the city of Southfield that are being transferred in from Ferndale and Farmington Hills.

See The Observer & Eccentric story here