WCCQ (98.3 FM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

format. Licensed to

Crest Hill, Illinois Crest Hill is a city in Lockport Township, Will County, Illinois, United States. The 2020 census put Crest Hill's population at 20,459. The neighborhood of Stern Park Gardens, later incorporated with Crest Hill, renamed itself Lidice in 1942 fo ...

, United States, it serves the Joliet area. The station is owned by

Alpha Media Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , which ...

History

WCCQ began broadcasting on January 28, 1976, and originally aired an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...

format.Ghrist, John R. (1996). ''Valley Voices: A Radio History''. Crossroads Communications. p. 167-169. In February 1979, the station adopted a

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...

format. WCCQ adopted a country format in 1984, and was branded "Q-Country".Bob Zak
, cityofjoliet.com. Retrieved March 14, 2019. Bob Zak was the station's first morning host. Other announcers included Mark Edwards, Ted Clark, Larry Watts, Mike Baker, Jim Beedle, Bill Fortune, and Jim Felbinger. The current lineup features Roy & Carol in the morning (since 1994), Geno Brien middays (former morning show host of 95.9 the River) and Todd Boss (The Bossman) doing afternoons. Other weekend and fill-in personalities include Rich Renik (from WMAQ and WUSN), Brandon Jones, Jillian, and Laura Vaughn. In April 2011, it became one of the two Chicago-area stations to broadcast

NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

races. In January 2018, after recording a 0.5 audience share on the latest

Nielsen Audio Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...

ratings (tied for 30th in the Chicago market), WCCQ shifted to a gold-based

traditional country Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades. Repertoire The radio format specializes in hits from the 1950s through the early 1980s, and focus primarily on inno ...

format—featuring an emphasis on songs from artists active during the 1990s and early 2000s. This change differentiates WCCQ from the mainstream lean of its competitors WEBG and

WUSN WUSN (99.5 FM) is a country radio station in Chicago, Illinois. Owned by Audacy, Inc. and branded as "US✶99", it is based at Two Prudential Plaza in the Loop, and transmits from atop the John Hancock Center with an HD Radio signal. History ...

. WCCQ's studios are located in Crest Hill, and its transmitter is in

Channahon, Illinois Channahon ( ) is a village in Grundy and Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 13,706 at the 2020 census. Located in a rural area southwest of Joliet, Illinois, Channahon lies at the confluence of the Des Plaines, Ka ...

References

External links

* {{Alpha Media CCQ Country radio stations in the United States Will County, Illinois Alpha Media radio stations Radio stations established in 1976 1976 establishments in Illinois