By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
August 12, 2016

It’s been a long time since former WDFN and WXYT  program director/radio host Gregg Henson has been on the air in Detroit. Unless you count a few fill-in appearances for Matt Shepard in the mornings on 1130 in recent years.

Well, according to what I’ve learned, that is about to change as Henson will be making a permanent return to the market. Where will he be reappearing? At this time I cannot confirm Henson’s landing spot but that announcement should come sometime next week.

And from what I have been told, Henson’s reemergence won’t be as a high school teacher at U of D Jesuit. Or as a candy store operator. Or as a proprietor of a hot dog stand or barber shop. Nope. Henson will be returning to the Motor City to talk sports and ostensibly troll Michigan State fans.

If you aren’t old enough to remember, Henson was a key part of WDFN‘s launch back in 1994. He eventually was named the channel’s PD and co-hosted a program with Jamie Samuelsen.

Eventually, Henson was lured away from 1130 by Rich Homberg of Infinity Broadcasting in 2002 to run 1270. At the time, WDFN was regularly killing WXYT in the ratings. Henson’s plan for his new station included bringing 1130 regulars Samuelsen, Bob Wojnowski and Michael Stone with him.

But when Stoney had cold feet about sitting out six months (due to his non-compete contract at 1130), the entire plan fell through and all three WDFN hosts remained at the original Detroit all-sports talker.

Things only got worse for Henson at 1270 when the station’s criticism of the awful Tigers organization constantly reached the tin-ear of Denise Ilitch and her lackey Jim Stapleton. Keep in mind, the Tigers and WXYT were broadcast rights partners back then as well. And there was not much good to say about Detroit’s baseball organization in the early aughts.

Also, this was long before Denise lost the family business power struggle to her brother, Chris Ilitch. Denise saw to it that Henson was bumped from 1270 to 97.1 and away from the Tigers/Infinity partnership.

In October of 2005 , Henson was fired by WXYT after a contentious battle over bonuses Henson felt he was owed from his original contract. Henson was successful in getting paid some of those bonuses but ended up out of a job in this market.

Since leaving Detroit nearly 11 years ago, Henson has worked radio gigs in Philadelphia, Austin, Dallas, Fort Wayne and Pittsburgh, where is currently employed by Clear Channel.

Is Henson’s return a harbinger for some station to fill the void left by the format switch of WMGC from sports to classic hip-hop?

We shall see.

In the meantime, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that Detroit is left with one “sports” station that barely discusses sports.