WZBA (100.7 FM, "100.7 The Bay") is a commercial FM

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 radi ...

licensed to serve

Westminster, Maryland Westminster is a city in northern Maryland, United States. It is the seat of Carroll County. The city's population was 18,590 at the 2010 census. Westminster is an outlying community within the Baltimore-Towson, MD MSA, which is part of a great ...

. The station is owned by

Times-Shamrock Communications Times-Shamrock Communications is an American media company based in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The company, owned by the Lynett and Haggerty families of Scranton, lists among its assets four daily newspapers, six weekly newspapers, and nine radio stat ...

and broadcasts a

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, prima ...

format. Its studios are in Hunt Valley and its broadcast tower is located near

Owings Mills Owings Mills is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. Per the 2020 census, the population was 35,674. Owings Mills is home to the northern terminus of ...

at (). The station's service contour covers the

Baltimore metropolitan area The Baltimore–Columbia–Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as Central Maryland, is a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in Maryland as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB). As of the 2010 Census, t ...

and southern portions of

South Central Pennsylvania South Central Pennsylvania is a region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the fourteen counties of Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Mifflin, Perry, Snyder, and York. Portions of w ...

. The station markets itself as the only station in the Baltimore market dedicated to the

format.

History

Engineer Russ Morgan signed on the station for the first time on November 1, 1959 as WTTR-FM. Shamrock Communications purchased the station on April 7, 1981 and changed the format to

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

. The station's call sign was changed to WGRX in 1984, with a format change to "Eclectic Oriented Rock", a hybrid format created by Radio Consultant John Sebastian. The format changed to

in May 1987. WGRX changed its format to

modern rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. Radio format Mod ...

on December 2, 1994, branded as ''The X''. In April 1996, the station fired its program director and six DJs, then aired a weekend-long stunt of disco music as "Polyester 101" before switching to 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 on May 6, 1996, branded as "Froggy 100.7". The station later rebranded as "New Country 100.7". On December 1, 1999, due to declining ratings, the station switched its call sign to WZBA, rebranded as ''100.7 The Bay'' and changed formats to "Rock AC" (Rock Adult Contemporary), similar to

WMMO WMMO (98.9 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in Orlando, Florida. It is owned by the Cox Media Group, and airs a classic hits radio format that leans toward classic rock. Most songs heard on WMMO were hits from the 1970s, 1980s and 19 ...

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

with the slogan "Rock Without the Hard Edge". In 2001, WZBA relocated its transmitter closer to Baltimore. The station changed its format to

when WXFB changed formats from classic rock to

smooth jazz Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. History Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...

on September 5, 2003. Jefferson Ward, the station's general manager, retired in 2021.

Signal note

WZBA is short-spaced to two other Class B stations operating on 100.7 MHz:

WLEV WLEV (100.7 FM, "100.7 WLEV") is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Allentown, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Cumulus Media, Inc., through licensee Radio License Holding CBC LLC, and broadcasts an adult contemporary music forma ...

''100.7 WLEV'' (licensed to serve Allentown, Pennsylvania) and

WZXL WZXL (100.7 FM, "100.7 ZXL") is a radio station also known as "South Jersey's Rock Station", playing classic rock. WZXL is licensed to Wildwood, New Jersey. Operating with 38,000 watts, WZXL serves the greater South Jersey area including Atlanti ...

''100.7 ZXL'' (licensed to serve

Wildwood, New Jersey Wildwood is a city in Cape May County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area and is a popular summer resort destination along the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's year-ro ...

). The distance between WZBA's transmitter and WLEV's transmitter is only , while the distance between WZBA's transmitter and WZXL's transmitter is only , as determined by FCC rules. The minimum distance between two Class B stations operating on the same channel according to current

FCC 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 jurisdictio ...

rules is 150 miles.

Translators

WZBA programming is broadcast on the following

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

References

External links

* * * * {{Times-Shamrock ZBA Classic rock radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1959 1959 establishments in Maryland