WEJZ (96.1 FM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

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 ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

. It is owned by

Renda Broadcasting Renda Broadcasting (RBC) is a privately held Pittsburgh-based radio broadcasting company founded by chief executive, Tony Renda. Renda Broadcasting operates stations in Pennsylvania and Florida. Most stations are identified as “A hometown radio ...

and airs a mainstream

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

. WEJZ is the Jacksonville affiliate for the syndicated

Delilah Delilah ( ; , meaning "delicate";Gesenius's ''Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon'' ar, دليلة, Dalīlah; grc, label=Greek, Δαλιδά, Dalidá) is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved b ...

and

John Tesh John Frank Tesh (born July 9, 1952) is an American pianist and composer of pop music, as well as a radio host and television presenter. He hosts the ''Intelligence for Your Life'' radio show. In addition, since 2014, he has hosted ''Intelligen ...

. Between mid-November and December 26 each year, the station switches to all-

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

. WEJZ's studios and offices are located on Atlantic Boulevard in the Arlington district of Jacksonville, and the

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

, on a tower used by other radio and TV stations. WEJZ is a Class C radio station, broadcasting at 100,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...

(ERP) from an antenna at nearly 1,000 feet,

height above average terrain Height above average terrain (HAAT), or (less popularly) effective height above average terrain (EHAAT), is the vertical position of an antenna site is above the surrounding landscape. HAAT is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is ...

(HAAT). The signal stretches from

Brunswick, Georgia Brunswick () is a city in and the county seat of Glynn County in the U.S. state of Georgia. As the primary urban and economic center of the lower southeast portion of Georgia, it is the second-largest urban area on the Georgia coastline after Sa ...

, to

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

History

In 1948, the station first

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

as WMBR-FM,

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

to WMBR (now

WQOP WQOP (1460 AM) is a radio station licensed to serve Jacksonville, Florida. The station is owned by Relevant Radio, Inc., and broadcasts a Catholic radio format. History In Tampa Frank J. Reynolds established WMBR in Tampa in 1927; it was lice ...

). It was owned by the Florida Broadcasting Company, which the following year put WMBR-TV on the air, the second TV station in Florida (now

WJXT WJXT (channel 4) is an independent television station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It is owned by Graham Media Group alongside CW affiliate WCWJ (channel 17). Both stations share studios at 4 Broadcast Place on the south bank of th ...

). WMBR-FM

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

the programming of its AM counterpart. In the 1950s, the

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

bought the TV station, while the radio stations came under the ownership of WMBR, Incorporated. In 1965, 96.1 became WKTZ-FM, when it was bought by Jones College, and was paired with WKTZ. The two stations aired 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 of soft instrumentals, with limited talk and commercials. On October 1, 1985, 96.1 was bought by the Kravis Company, which already owned WRXJ (now WFXJ). The

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

became WLCS-FM, airing a

soft adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet sto ...

format. Meanwhile, WKTZ-FM, still owned by Jones College, became non-commercial, moving to 90.9 MHz (now K-Love station

WJKV WJKV (90.9 MHz) is a non-profit FM radio station in Jacksonville, Florida. It is owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) and airs the national " K-Love" Christian contemporary music radio format. WJKV broadcasts from a tower off Hogan ...

). On June 21, 1987, WLCS was bought by WIN Communications. The new owners changed the call letters to the current WEJZ, continuing its Soft AC format and rebranding the station "Lite 96.1." In June 1990, the station was acquired by

. In January 2015, WEJZ dropped the "Lite" in its name, rebranded as "96.1 WEJZ", and moved to a more upbeat

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs, but sometimes a loop. The term has sever ...

of mainstream

songs from the 1980s to current hits.

References

External links

WEJZ official website
* {{coord, 30.323, N, 81.643, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title EJZ Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Renda Broadcasting radio stations 1948 establishments in Florida Radio stations established in 1948