WZPL (99.5 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 ...

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 ...

Greenfield, Indiana Greenfield is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Indiana, United States, and a part of the Indianapolis metropolitan area. The population was 20,602 at the 2010 census, and an estimated 23,006 in 2019. It lies in Center Township. ...

, and serving the

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

metropolitan area. The station airs a Top 40 (CHR) format. WZPL is owned by

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 87 ...

. Its studios are located on North Shadeland Avenue on the city's east side, with its transmitter north of the

Indianapolis World Sports Park Indianapolis World Sports Park is an American sporting complex in Indianapolis, Indiana. The site covers at the former Post Road Community Park and consists of three multi-use fields for the sports of cricket, lacrosse, hurling, rugby, Australian ...

on the east side of Indianapolis.

History

The station signed on as WSMJ on June 1, 1962 and remained as such until the spring of 1979 when WSMJ was sold to Heftel Broadcasting. They changed to a

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

music format and adopted 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 ...

WIKS-FM, "Rock Kiss 99 FM", on April 14,

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

. Later, a

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...

format was adopted which, aside from a brief experiment playing

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 ...

in 1989, has continued to this day. The station was added to both

Mediabase Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytic ...

and

Nielsen BDS Broadcast Data Systems (also known as BDS or Luminate BDS), is a service that tracks radio, television and internet airplay of songs. The service, which is a unit of MRC Data, is a contributing factor to North American charts published by co-owned ...

Top 40/CHR reporting panels in November 2012. The station is anchored by The Smiley Morning Show, hosted by Dave Smiley. In the early 2000s, the station was known as "Z 99-5." On February 13, 2019, Cumulus Media and

Entercom Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...

announced an agreement in which WZPL, WNTR, and WXNT would be swapped to Cumulus in exchange for WNSH (now

WXBK WXBK (94.7 FM, "94.7 The Block") is a classic hip hop-formatted radio station that is licensed to Newark, New Jersey and serves the New York City area. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc. WXBK’s studios are located in the combined Audacy faci ...

) in New York City and

WHLL WHLL (1450 AM) – branded 98.1 Hall of Fame Country – is a commercial country music radio station licensed to Springfield, Massachusetts. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the Springfield metropolitan area; and the Pioneer Valley of ...

and WMAS-FM in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...

. Under the terms of the deal, Cumulus began operating WZPL under a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...

on March 1, 2019. The swap was completed on May 9, 2019.

HD radio

In 2005, WZPL became one of the first Indianapolis-area radio stations to broadcast their signal in

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

. In 2006, they introduced a stream of ''All Comedy Radio'', a 24-hour comedy station, also known as "The Laugh Button," on their alternate HD 2 digital channel, and HD 3 as a simulcast of

WXNT WXNT (1430 AM) is a commercial radio station in Indianapolis, Indiana. The station is owned by Cumulus Media, and carries an all-sports radio format, as an affiliate of the CBS Sports Radio Network. WXNT's schedule consists of CBS Sports Radi ...

1430 AM,

CBS Sports Radio CBS Sports Radio is a sports radio network that debuted with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. CBS Sports Radio is owned by Paramount Global and distributed by Westwood One. Programmin ...

. Following the sale of

Radio Disney Radio Disney was an American radio network operated by the Disney Radio Networks unit of Disney Branded Television within the Disney General Entertainment Content, headquartered in Burbank, California. The network broadcast music programming ...

affiliate WRDZ-FM (now hip-hop formatted WZRL) to

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

(after the network started shuttering FM affiliates in the mid 2010s), WZPL had picked up the Radio Disney format for a year on the HD2 channel, until

's affiliation with Disney expired.

References

External links

Official websiteAll Comedy Radio
* {{Cumulus Media Contemporary hit radio stations in the United States ZPL Mass media in Indianapolis 1962 establishments in Indiana Cumulus Media radio stations