WEZR (780

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...

) is an AM

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 ...

Rumford, Maine Rumford is a New England town, town in Oxford County, Maine, Oxford County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,858 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Rumford is home to both ND Paper Inc's Rumford Mill and the Black Mountain ...

. The station is owned by Stan Bennett, through licensee Bennett Radio Group. The station airs a

conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

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, ...

. As a sports station, it was the home of the

Portland Pirates The Portland Pirates were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). Their home arena was the Cross Insurance Arena in downtown Portland, Maine. The franchise was previously known as the Baltimore Skipjacks fr ...

American League hockey, and

Portland Sea Dogs The Portland Sea Dogs are a Minor League Baseball team based in Portland, Maine, playing in the Eastern League (1938–present), Eastern League. Established in 1994, the Sea Dogs are the Double-A (baseball), Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red ...

Eastern League baseball. On weekday mornings and middays, some Christian talk and teaching programs were also heard. The station was assigned the WTME call letters by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

on July 11, 2001. WTME's programming was previously simulcast with WCNM (1240 AM) in Lewiston and WKTQ (1450 AM) in South Paris. WCNM switched to

CNN Headline News HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the network primarily carries true crime programming. The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News ...

in July 2001 and is now

hot 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 ...

station WIGY, while WKTQ became

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, ...

station WOXO in August 2016 and is now WPNO, a simulcast of WEZR. On March 8, 2017, WTME changed its format to sports, with programming from

NBC Sports Radio NBC Sports Radio was a sports radio network that debuted on September 4, 2012. The network content was produced by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and distributed by Westwood One, which is the corporate successor to the remains of ...

. WTME, along with its sister stations, went off the air March 29, 2020, citing financial considerations that included expected reduction in advertising revenue attributed to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The stations had been up for sale following the death of owner Dick Gleason in February 2019. A sale of the Gleason Media Group stations to Bennett Radio Group was announced in May 2020, and was consummated on August 5, 2020, at a sale price of $500,000. On August 9, 2020, WTME changed its call letters to WIGY, and returned to the air on August 19, 2020, as

Hot AC 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 s ...

"WIGY", which it returned to simulcasting WEZR (the former WCNM) and WPNO (the former WKTQ) in the process. It changed its callsign to the current WEZR on September 7, 2020. However, in 2021, the format later shifted to

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

, as "105.5 & 96.9 WIGY". On October 26, 2021, WEZR and W252DS, along with WPNO and its translator, split from the simulcast with WIGY and flipped to

, branded as "The Patriot".Patriot Debuts In Maine
Lance Venta, Radio Insight, October 26, 2021.

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External links

* * EZR (AM) Radio stations established in 1953 1953 establishments in Maine Rumford, Maine Conservative talk radio Talk radio stations in the United States {{Maine-radio-station-stub