WZAK
Spanish variety (WJMO) | |
| Affiliations | Cumulus Media Networks |
|---|---|
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | May 26, 1963 |
Call sign meaning | "Wonderful Muzak" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 74465 |
| Class | B |
| ERP | 27,500 watts |
| HAAT | 189 meters (620 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 41°16′50.00″N 81°37′22.00″W / 41.2805556°N 81.6227778°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast |
|
| Website | wzakcleveland |
WZAK (93.1
History
1960s
WZAK began as an ethnic radio station, signing on the air on May 26, 1963. The Ohio Music Corporation, the local franchise for MUZAK, had the original construction permit to build the station. Ohio Music Corporation, couples Xen and Lula Zapis and Joe and Betty Bauer teamed up with their friend Bob Stumpf to form Trans World Broadcasting to put WZAK on the air.
Both the Zapis and the Bauers had been previously involved with WXEN, an earlier ethnic programmer in Cleveland, which Zapis also was associated with (and which had call letters derived from Zapis' first name). WZAK was Cleveland's first full-time ethnic radio station, presenting programming in 17 foreign languages, including programs in Hungarian, German (hosted by station co-founders Joe & Betty Bauer and a second show hosted by co-founder Bob Stumpf), Italian, Slovenian, Greek (hosted by Xen and Lula Zapis), Irish, Arabic, Lebanese, and Hindi. Some groups had multiple different programs; there were, for example, five different programs offered in Spanish and five different German programs.
Most programs were brokered, that is, the program producers were not station employees, but independent producers who put the program on the air determined program content, and sold the advertising for the program. Although the program content varied, most programs primarily featured music from the homeland, along with some news or discussion. Although foreign languages seemed to dominate, English was actually used about half of the time during the station's broadcasts.[2] Owing to this practice, one of the more popular programs that aired on WZAK was not ethnic at all, but was an early progressive rock show hosted by Barry Weingart and Steve "Doc Nemo" Nemeth in 1967.[3][4]
1970s–80s
WZAK's only competition in the Cleveland market came from WXEN which also featured ethnic programming for a portion of its schedule. WZAK was the city's only full-time ethnic station - and its last. By 1979, the station, then owned by Trans World Broadcasting Corporation of Cleveland (whose president was Xen Zapis), found it difficult to maintain its ethnic format. The number of listeners was declining, several of the program hosts had died or retired, and the overall financial situation was discouraging. In 1980, Xen bought out his partners to become the majority owner of the station, forming his very own company Zapis Communications. WZAK began straying from its all-ethnic format, as Wayne Mack began programming beautiful music on the station.
Then, on March 2, 1981, at 6 a.m., WZAK was relaunched with an
1990s–2000s
In 1997, the station replaced "Lynn Tolliver & The Three's Company Morning Show" with the highly successful syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show". The January 1997 and January 1998 Arbitron ratings again showed that WZAK was the #1 station in Cleveland.
On August 12, 1998, Chancellor Media Corporation of Texas announced its purchase of WZAK from Zapis Communications, along with its purchase of five other Cleveland radio stations,
Current programming
Main
WZAK features nationally syndicated hosts
HD
- HD2 digital subchannel
- HD3 subchannel simulcasts the talk radio format of sister station WERE (1490 AM).[9][10][11][12]
References
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WZAK". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: WZAK". Ech.cwru.edu. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
- ISBN 0873387732.
- ISBN 0873386914.
- ^ "WZAK-FM is recipient of 3 Billboard awards (in CLENIX)". Catalog.cpl.org. September 11, 1993. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
- ^ "Company News; Chancellor Media To Buy Six Cleveland Radio Stations". The New York Times. August 13, 1998.
- ^ "#415: 07-20-00 JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REQUIRES CLEAR CHANNEL AND AM FM TO DIVEST 99 RADIO STATIONS IN 27 MARKETS Required Sale is Largest Radio Divestiture Ever". Usdoj.gov. July 20, 2000. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
- ^ "Urban AC" (PDF). Radio & Records. November 3, 2000. p. 69. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
- ^ "Show Schedules | 93.1 WZAK". Wzakcleveland.com. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
- ^ "Station Guide: Cleveland, OH". HDRadio.com. HD Radio. 2015. Archived from the original on September 27, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
- ^ Venta, Lance (March 27, 2013). "Skip Murphy To Replace Michael Baisden". Radioinsight.com. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
- ^ "Sam Sylk Moves to Middays At WZAK". AllAccess.com. April 3, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
External links
- Official website
- Facility details for Facility ID 74465 (WZAK) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
- WZAK in Nielsen Audio's FM station database
- Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: WZAK
- Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archives: WZAK timeline Archived 2003-02-01 at the Wayback Machine