|
WWZY
WWZY ("107.1 The Boss") is a classic rock-formatted radio station licensed to Long Branch, New Jersey, and serving the Northern Jersey Shore. It is owned by Press Communications and is simulcast on co-owned 99.7 WBHX in Tuckerton, New Jersey. Its studios and offices are on West Bangs Avenue in Neptune City, New Jersey. WWZY is a Class A station. It has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 5,000 watts. Its transmitter tower is on Broadway at Memorial Parkway in Long Branch.[2] History1960–1981WWZY first went on the air on June 1, 1960, as WRLB "Radio Long Branch".[3] At the time, the station's owner was afforded the possibility of broadcasting with 50,000 watts, but he declined, thinking that FM radio had limited potential. Therefore, the station signed on with 3,000 watts from a tower located in Long Branch, New Jersey. The studios were located adjacent to the tower. WWZY still uses the tower site, although the studios are now in Neptune, New Jersey. When the Long Branch 107.1 did not use 50,000 watts, the Federal Communications Commission subsequently assigned 107.1s to Briarcliff Manor, New York (north of New York City); Belvidere, New Jersey (near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania); and Hampton Bays, New York (Long Island). These area 107.1s would later haunt the Long Branch allocation with interference in fringe areas. The studios were located adjacent to the tower. WWZY still uses the tower site, although the studios are now in Neptune City. When the Long Branch 107.1 did not use 50,000 watts, the Federal Communications Commission subsequently assigned 107.1 to several more communities around New York City. One was Briarcliff Manor, New York (in Westchester County), another was Belvidere, New Jersey (near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania), and a third was Hampton Bays, New York (on Eastern Long Island). Having four stations near each other, all broadcasting on 107.1 MHz, caused interference for some listeners. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, WRLB was a "full-service" station, broadcasting big-band music, high school sports and local news. An Italian program aired on Sunday. Competition was mainly from the Asbury Park Press' radio station, WJLK-AM -FM, which aired similar full-service programming. In 1968, WRLB revamped its programming continuing with adult "middle of the road" music from 6 a.m. until midnight when it switched to rock/top40 music. 1981-1996In 1981, WRLB was sold to Monmouth Broadcasting and became contemporary hit radio, WWUU (known on-air as "U 107"). The station was programmed as contemporary hit radio, but without a strong local presence due to automation. The station was sold again to Jonathan and Elizabeth Hoffman (under the similar name "Mammoth Broadcasting"), and in 1982 became WMJY (Y-107), featuring live local talent playing the hits. Liners for the rechristened station highlighted the station's local presence by touting "The New Live Y-107". Radio personality Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton spent a short time doing afternoon drive at Y-107 in early 1982 before moving on to Z-100 in New York City. At first, Y-107 maintained U 107's CHR format. Within a few years, Y-107 was an album rock station, using the slogan "Rock Hits Home". It aired specialty programming on Sundays spotlighting new-age music, blues, psychedelic music, and The Beatles. The music gradually shifted to classic rock. In late 1988, Mammoth sold WMJY to K&K Broadcasting. At the time of its purchase, K&K operated two radio stations in Erie, Pennsylvania. Word had gotten out that a format change was in the works. On January 19, 1989, mention had been made on the air of a rally to be held the following afternoon at the station's studios in downtown Long Branch to save Y-107's rock format. In the early morning hours of January 20, 1989, K&K sent a security guard to remove overnight announcer T.J. Brustowicz from the premises and padlock the doors. The entire staff was fired (many reading of their job loss in the paper that morning), though some announcers and support personnel were eventually hired back. K&K then temporarily instituted a satellite-driven hard rock format called "Z-Rock." Many of WMJY's listeners objected to the firing of the local DJs and the hard-rock format, and petitioned K&K to change it back to classic rock. The new owners refused. In May 1989, WMJY changed to a local, soft adult contemporary format called "SeaView 107 FM." The new format featured soft-rock artists as well as some pop hits from the 1960s and 1970s. The call letters changed to WZVU in June 1989 to reflect the SeaView name. The station began to add more 1960s and 70s titles to the playlist, featuring "all-oldies weekends." Unfortunately, WZVU's corporate parent, K&K Broadcasting began to encounter financial problems. In 1992, all of the local DJs were terminated, and the station switched to a satellite-delivered oldies format. Curiously, this was the same satellite format that was aired on WJLK 1310 AM in Asbury Park. By this time, the Asbury Park Press had sold WJLK-AM-FM to D&F Broadcasting. In early 1994, the station became "Oldies 107.1." 1996–2003In mid-1996 the station was sold to Big City Radio. On December 5, 1996, the station became part of the Big City Radio trimulcast (and eventual quadcast) with other 107.1 stations, WRGX in Briarcliff Manor, New York and WWHB Hampton Bays, New York. WZVU and the other two multicast stations switched formats to country, known as "New Country Y-107."[4] Call letters of the Long Branch station were changed to WWZY. Later, WRNJ-FM the 107.1 in Belvidere, New Jersey was added to make Y-107 a four-station "quadcast." On May 7, 2002, the "Y-107" quadcast ended the country format, and after a day of stunting with construction sounds, the quadcast flipped to a tropical music format as "Rumba 107".[5] The format was ill-suited to the quadcast suburban signals, so the WWZY transmitter was moved to a tower in the Belford section of Middletown Township, in an attempt to improve its coverage of New York City. At the end of the year, Big City Radio filed for bankruptcy and sold the quadcast to Nassau Broadcasting, who broke up the quadcast and sold the individual stations. WWZY was then purchased by Press Communications LLC, moved back to the Long Branch tower, became The Breeze on June 30, 2003, and started simulcasting on WBHX FM 99.7 in Tuckerton, New Jersey. 2003–2013From 2003 to 2013, the station aired an adult contemporary format, and was branded "The Breeze".[6][7][8] The station was simulcast on 99.7 WBHX in Tuckerton, New Jersey from June 30, 2003, to November 1, 2015. The WBHX transmitter is located on Long Beach Island in the town of Beach Haven, New Jersey. The station is also played throughout most of the day in southern Ocean County on WCAT-TV, the public-access television cable TV channel serving Pinelands Regional High School. 2013–presentWWZY kept the Breeze branding until the fall of 2013 when it changed to 107.1 FM "A Music Radio Station." On July 1, 2014, 107.1 and 99.7 rebranded as Fun 107.1, shifting to a Hot AC format. The station featured the morning show known as "Pork Roll & Eggs," with other DJs Chelsea, Tom Farinaro, and Ali. It was played contemporary artists such as Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, Meghan Trainor, Ariana Grande, and One Direction. "107.1 FM" ended the WBHX simulcast on November 1, 2015. On March 1, 2017, WWZY began teasing a "Big Announcement" on air and on their Facebook page, which would occur the following Friday, March 3, at 5 pm.[9] At that time, after playing "Bye Bye Bye" by *Nsync, general manager Don Dalesio and PD Jeff Rafter launched "107.1 The Boss". They also revived the simulcast on WBHX, giving the format almost full market coverage over Monmouth and Ocean County. The only mention of 99.7 is at the top-of-the-hour station ID. The first song on The Boss was "We Will Rock You" by Queen.[10][11] On March 3, 2017, the station again began simulcasting on 99.7 WBHX. The first song on The Boss was "We Will Rock You" by Queen.[12][13] On March 3, 2017, the station again began to be simulcast on 99.7 WBHX. Former logo
References
External links
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
