WBZZ
| City of license | New Kensington, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Pittsburgh metropolitan area |
| Branding | 100.7 Star |
| Slogan | "Today's Music" |
| Frequency |
100.7 HD-2 for 80s/90s hits |
| First air date | 1963 (as WPGH-FM) |
| Format | Adult Top 40 |
| ERP | 14,500 watts |
| HAAT | 280 meters (920 ft) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 20351 |
| Former callsigns | WPGH-FM (1963-1967) WNUF (1967-1985) WXXP (1985-1988) WMXP (1988-1993) WQKB (1993-1998) WZPT (1998-2011) |
| Owner | CBS Radio |
| Sister stations | KDKA, KDKA-FM, WDSY-FM part of CBS Corp. cluster with TV stations KDKA-TV & WPCW |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | starpittsburgh.com |
WBZZ (100.7 FM, "100.7 Star") is an American radio station licensed to serve the community of New Kensington, Pennsylvania. The station broadcasts a rhythmic-leaning Adult Top 40 format to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, market. Owned by CBS Radio, the station operates at 100.7 MHz with an effective radiated power of 14.5 kilowatts. Its transmitter is located in Pittsburgh.
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[edit] History
[edit] Beginnings as WPGH-FM
The station originally signed on the air back in 1963 as WPGH-FM, and with a power of 20,000 watts. In 1967 another FM license was dropped in Pittsburgh at 104.7. The WPGH calls went to 104.7 (and are currently still in the city on TV 53, the local Fox affiliate), and the station at 100.7 became known as WNUF. They had tried to get the callsign WFUN, but since it was already assigned to another station, they settled for "fun" backwards, hence the WNUF callsign.
For most of its early years, WNUF operated from downtown Millvale, about 12 miles south of its city of license, until the Telecommunications Act of 1996 went into effect. Millvale was the closest community to Pittsburgh that the station could legally move to at that time, since it was (and still is today) by definition not a Pittsburgh station. WNUF's offices were co-located with a weekly buy-sell-trade publication called The Green Sheet, both of which were owned by Milton Hammond. The station became famous for its format of Big Band music. WNUF did broadcast in stereo; however, since much of the Big Band music it played was recorded before the advent of stereo, many of the recordings were actually a form of "simulated" stereo or electronically re-recorded to simulate stereo.
Some of the announcers during the days when Hammond owned the station were: Tal Weimer, Bill Trushel, Darrel Deiter, and Christian Muro.
In 1985, the station flipped to alternative rock as WXXP ("Double X 100.7"). This was Pittsburgh's first station with this format. On August 22, 1988, the station flipped to Rhythmic top 40 as WMXP ("Mix Jamz"). This would last until March 3, 1993, when the station flipped to country as WQKB ("K-Bear"). In 1998, the station flipped to all-70's hits as "100.7 The Point" and adopted the WZPT call letters. WZPT would shift to Hot AC (and change names to "Star 100.7") in June 2000.
[edit] WZPT in the 2000s
During its tenure as a Hot AC, the station called itself "Pittsburgh's Best Variety of the 80's, 90's and Today." One of their more popular music features was "Flashback Friday," consisting of mostly 80s and some 90s music.
Despite airing more of a mix of current music with 80's and 90's, WZPT's format was similar to that of sister station WBZW-FM (B94). In fact, after that station initially dropped the Top 40 format for active rock in 2004, listeners who liked B94 but didn't care for the new rock format were encouraged on-air to go listen to WZPT.
[edit] WBZZ today
On January 19, 2010, due to B94 changing yet again, this time to KDKA-FM ("93.7 The Fan", a sports talk format), CBS Radio has announced that they have merged Star with B94 to bring B94's music onto Star for the listeners to continue to enjoy.[1] As a result, WZPT has eliminated the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s tracks in favor of Adult Top 40 music, playing current and recurrent music only. Star added more rhythmic material such as Lady GaGa, Ke$ha, and Timbaland in addition to artists such as Shinedown, Kelly Clarkson, and John Mayer.
On January 5, 2011, CBS Radio reacquired the WBZZ calls (of which they used January 19, 2011) from the former WQSH/Albany, New York and plans to use the calls to replace the WZPT calls.[2]
In October 2011, the station rebranded slightly as "100.7 Star." It is speculated that the station may drop the "Star" moniker in the near future. The station also introduced a new logo as well.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10020/1029443-67.stm
- ^ "WBZZ Returns To Pittsburgh" from RadioInsight (January 10, 2011)
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WBZZ
- Radio-Locator information on WBZZ
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for WBZZ
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