WKZO (AM)

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WKZO

WTOU, WVFM, WZOX
History
First air date	April 28, 1923 (in Berrien Springs, moved to Kalamazoo in 1931)
Former call signs	KFGZ (1923–1925) WEMC (1925–1930)
Call sign meaning	W KalamaZOo
Technical information
Facility ID	54485
Class	B
Power	5,000 watts
Translator(s)	106.9 W295CL (Kalamazoo)
Links
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	wkzo.com

WKZO (590

and offices are on West Main Street in Kalamazoo.

WKZO's

Programming

Since late December 2021, weekday mornings have begun with an hour of America in The Morning at 5:00, followed by a four-hour morning show hosted by Ken Lanphear. Late mornings feature Michigan's Big Show with Michael Patrick Shiels.

The rest of WKZO's schedule is made up of syndicated conservative talk shows including The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, Markley, Van Camp & Robbins, The Mark Levin Show, The Ben Shapiro Show, and The Ramsey Show. Coast to Coast AM with George Noory is heard overnights seven days a week.

Weekends include shows on money, health, real estate, law, auto repair, home repair, travel, gardening and bird watching. Some shows are paid

.

Sports

WKZO is the Southwest Michigan affiliate of the Detroit Tigers Radio Network and Detroit Lions Radio Network.

The station previously was affiliated with the Michigan State Spartans, and has since become the flagship station for the Kalamazoo Wings.

History

8AZ, KFGZ, WEMC

The station traces its roots back to 8AZ, an experimental station founded by John Fetzer in 1922 while he was a student at Emmanuel Christian College (now Andrews University) in Berrien Springs.

The success of the experimental station, which was heard as far away as France, encouraged the college to look into starting a "real" radio station. The result was KFGZ, 'The Radio Lighthouse,' licensed in April 1923 and broadcasting at 1120 kHz with 500 watts of power. KFGZ's call sign was changed in 1925 to WEMC. KFGZ/WEMC operated as an independent radio station serving the St. Joseph River Valley with community information and Christian radio programming. The station was received across the eastern United States and into Canada, and a reception report once came in from a Dutch ship in the North Sea.

Despite the station's popularity, the fact that it operated non-commercially, with the college unwilling to allow the station to solicit financial donations from listeners, ultimately sealed its fate. By 1930, the college was looking to sell the station. (Andrews University returned to broadcasting in 1971, when the school

station at 90.9 (later 90.7) on the FM dial.)

Move to Kalamazoo

Fetzer purchased the station himself for $2,500. He essentially ran the station as a one-man job, serving as technician, engineer, disc jockey, and sales staff. When the Great Depression struck, Fetzer decided to move WEMC to Kalamazoo, which at the time was the largest city in Michigan that did not yet have its own radio station. The station began operations as WKZO in September 1931, and soon became a success. Famous alumni at WKZO include Paul Harvey, Tom Snyder, and Harry Caray.

In the 1930s, '40s and '50s, WKZO carried the

(MOR) station, with popular music, news and sports.

TV Station

In 1950, a television station was added. Channel 3 WKZO-TV began broadcasting on in July.[3] Because WKZO was a CBS Radio affiliate, WKZO-TV was primarily a CBS outlet, although as the only TV station in Kalamazoo, it also carried shows from NBC, ABC and the DuMont Television Network in its early days. In 1960, Fetzer expanded WKZO-TV's signal to cover all of West Michigan, and it became an exclusive CBS affiliate.

WKZO-AM-TV were the linchpins of a group of stations that, at its height, included two other stations in Michigan and television stations in Michigan, Nebraska and Iowa. Channel 3 was sold in 1985 and its call letters switched to WWMT.

AC Music and Talk

In the 1970s, WKZO's

named WKZO the "Adult Contemporary Station of the Year" in 1977, and the station was subsequently honored by the Michigan state legislature with a concurrent resolution of tribute.

Fetzer sold off most of his properties in the 1980s, but held onto WKZO, as well as WJFM (now

until his death in 1991. His estate sold the station off in 1992, earning a handsome return on Fetzer's purchase of the station more than 60 years earlier.

WKZO converted to its present news/talk format in the early 1990s. In 2006, WKZO was acquired by Midwest Communications, based in Wausau, Wisconsin.^[4]

See also

• Michiguide.com - WKZO History
• [1]

References

External links

• WKZO in the FCC AM station database
• WKZO in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
• W295CL in the FCC FM station database

42°20′55″N 85°33′48″W / 42.34861°N 85.56333°W / 42.34861; -85.56333