WPWZ (95.5 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 an

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

. Licensed to

Pinetops, North Carolina Pinetops is a town in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Rocky Mount, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,374 at the 2010 census. History Vinedale was listed on the National Register ...

, United States, it serves the Rocky Mount area. The station is currently owned by First Media Radio.

History

WEQQ signed on in the 1990s, simulcasting the

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 ...

music WEQR. The station picked up the

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 and WKTC call letters of what is now

WPLW-FM WPLW-FM (102.5 Hertz, MHz) is a is a classic hits formatted commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Hillsborough, North Carolina, and serving the Research Triangle, including Durham, North Carolina, Durham and Ralei ...

in 1998. In late 2003, the station played

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 ...

and then became WPWZ "Power 95.5 FM", playing

music by artists such as

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

and Ludacris, while WDWG took over the country music format.Fred Marion, "Local radio stations switch, tweak formats," ''Rocky Mount Telegram'', July 21, 2005, Marquee section. Starting in 2004, they began to play R&B all day as well as the

Russ Parr Russ Parr (born 1959 in California) is an American radio DJ, film director, writer, actor and television personality known for such television shows as '' Rock 'N' America''. Career Parr began as a Production Services Director at ABC TV. Russ wa ...

Morning Show until 2006 when they switched to the Steve Harvey Morning Show.

References

External links

official website
* PWZ Urban contemporary radio stations in the United States {{NorthCarolina-radio-station-stub