WLZW (98.7 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 ...

Utica, New York Utica () is a Administrative divisions of New York, city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The List of cities in New York, tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 ...

, serving the Utica-

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

radio market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television station, television and radio broadcasting, ra ...

. The station is owned by

Townsquare Media Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...

and calls itself ''Lite 98.7''. It is part of a cluster with news-talk station

WIBX WIBX (950 AM) is a commercial radio station in Utica, New York. It is one of Central New York's oldest radio stations, dating back to 1925. The station airs a talk radio format and is owned by Townsquare Media as part of a cluster with adult con ...

, country-formatted

WFRG WFRG-FM (104.3 MHz), branded as Big Frog 104, is a country music radio station licensed to Utica, New York. Owned by Townsquare Media as part of a cluster with news-talk station WIBX, hot AC-formatted WLZW, classic hits-formatted WODZ and classic ...

, classic hits station

WODZ WODZ-FM (96.1 MHz), branded as "The Eagle", is a radio station broadcasting a classic hits format. Licensed to Rome, New York, United States, the station serves the Utica-Rome market. The station is owned by Townsquare Media as part of a cluster ...

, and classic rock-formatted

WOUR WOUR (96.9 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Utica, New York. It broadcasts a classic rock radio format, with occasional recent rock hits, calling itself "The Rock of Central New York." The station is owned by Townsquare Media a ...

. WLZW broadcasts an

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, ...

, switching to

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 ...

for much of November and December. It carries the nationally 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 ...

'' call-in and request show in the evening.

History

Beautiful Music, Oldies and Rock

The station

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 ...

the air on . It was a

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 ...

950 AM The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on AM broadcasting, AM frequency 950 kHz: The Federal Communications Commission categorizes 950 AM as a regional frequency. Argentina * CNN Radio Argentina in Buenos Aires * LT16 RSP ...

and ran 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 using 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 ...

WIBQ. But in the 1980s, the beautiful music format was starting to attracting only older listeners, while most advertisers seek young to middle aged clients. Without warning, WIBQ changed its format in 1985 to

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 ...

as "Z 98.7" with the call letters WNYZ. After a while in the format, WNYZ next flipped to a rock-leaning

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

format, identifying as "New York's Z-98.7". The format began with

Twisted Sister Twisted Sister was an American heavy metal band originally from Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, and later based on Long Island, New York. Their best-known songs include " We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock", both of which were associated with m ...

's '' We're Not Gonna Take It'', followed by

Quiet Riot Quiet Riot is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band founded in Los Angeles in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni. The original lineup featured Rhoads and Garni with lead vocalist Kevin DuBrow and drummer Drew F ...

's '' Cum On Feel the Noize''. The Top 40 format could not, however, compete against powerhouse Top 40 station Power Hits Rock 107

WRCK WRCK may refer to: * WRCK (AM), a radio station (1480 AM) licensed to Remsen, New York, United States * WUTQ-FM, a radio station (100.7 FM) licensed to Utica, New York, United States, known as WRCK from December 2010 through March 2012 * WKVU, a r ...

. In 1989 the station again changed format. Originally the station planned to join the ''

Z-Rock Z Rock was a nationally syndicated radio network based in Dallas, Texas, United States that, from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, played heavy metal and hard rock music. The format was one of several 24-hour satellite-delivered music for ...

'' satellite delivered Heavy Metal format available at the time, but instead flipped to the current Adult Contemporary sound and current call sign WLZW, identifying as "Lite 98.7".

Lite 98.7

Lite 98.7's call letters WLZW and format are reflected in its first slogan "Lite and Easy Favorites". In its early years, Lite 98.7 competed with rival AC station and market leader KG 104 WKGW (now sister station

). WLZW quickly toppled WKGW from its position, and by 1993 WKGW had flipped to

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

as WKFM, formerly in Syracuse, taking over the 104.3 frequency. WLZW was then the only AC station in the Utica-Rome market until the spring of 1994 when WUUU (later WRNY & WUCL, now

Air 1 Air1 is an American Christian radio network. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), it primarily broadcasts contemporary worship music, and is a sister to the EMF's K-Love network. History In 1986, KLRD began broadcasting Christia ...

affiliate

WAWR WAWR (93.5 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Christian worship format airing programming from the nationally syndicated Air 1 feed. Licensed to Remsen, New York, United States, the station serves the Utica–Rome area. The station is owned ...

) switched frequencies from 93.5FM to 102.5FM with WKDY (later

WSKS WSKS (97.9 FM) and WSKU (105.5 FM) are radio stations simulcasting a (CHR) format. Licensed to Whitesboro, New York and Little Falls, New York, the stations serve the Utica-Rome area and are currently owned by Roser Communications Network. ...

& WRBY, now

WUMX WUMX (102.5 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a hot adult contemporary format. Licensed to Rome, New York, United States, the station serves the Utica–Rome area. The station is owned by Galaxy Utica Licensee LLC, the Utica division of Galax ...

) the previous year, flipped format from oldies to adult contemporary to become "Warm 93.5". While WUUU/WRFM was a softer AC station, WLZW was a bit more upbeat. After over 8 years of competition between the two stations, WRFM flipped format and call sign on December 26, 2002, becoming oldies station WUCL (identified as Kool 93.5) again leaving Lite 98.7 as the only AC station in the market. This lasted over a year until WRBY flipped to hot AC and call sign to

, identifying as Mix 102.5. In order to compete with WUMX's popular "Christmix 102.5" holiday programming, WLZW began switching to a Christmas Music format in 2009. Traditionally, WLZW switches on or around Thanksgiving Day and continues with holiday music until Christmas Day. In 2015, WUMX tweaked its format to Hot AC and dropped holiday music programming. That left WLZW as the only station in Utica-Rome to broadcast only Christmas music through much of November and December.

Alumni

* J.P. Hastings * I.V. Hamilton * Randy Jay * Morgan Daniels * Jeanne Ashley * Greg McShea * Linda Rae * Rich Lawrence * Trudy * Peter Naughton * Mark Richards * Geoff Storm * Rick Andrews * Chuck Knight * Tom Ryan

External links

* {{coord, 43.144, N, 75.179, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Townsquare Media radio stations LZW