WZUM (1590 AM) was 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 ...

Carnegie, Pennsylvania Carnegie () is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and is part of the Greater Pittsburgh Region, Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 7,972 in the United St ...

. WZUM was owned by Sovereign City Radio Services LLC.

History

After originally being awarded as WCNE but changing calls to WZUM before being licensed in 1964, the station signed on as an R&B and

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 ...

station, partly owned by popular Pittsburgh polka bandleader James Psihoulis "Jimmy Pol". During the 1970s, WZUM was a freeform AOR outlet from 10:00 a.m. until sunset, (broadcasting polkas in the morning from sunrise). "Powerful" Paul Perry, son of Pittsburgh TV personality Nick Perry, was one of the freeform disc jockeys; along with Kit Baron, "Laid Back" Larry Allen and Mark Wallace. WZUM switched to religious programming under the WPLW

callsign 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 ...

in 1975 after its purchase by Robert Hickling. In 1998, following Hickling's death, it was sold to Pittsburgh-area broadcaster Mike Horvath and returned to WZUM, changing 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 ...

, but went dark after just one year with the format. The station later returned after a major transmitter and studio overhaul with time-brokered programming, then oldies, with

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

programming added in 2002. Upon purchase of the station, Starboard converted it to 100% Catholic programming under the ''

Relevant Radio Relevant Radio (corporate name Relevant Radio, Inc.) is a radio network in the United States, mainly broadcasting talk radio and religious programming involving the Catholic Church. It is the largest Catholic radio network by owned station base. R ...

'' branding. In recent years, WZUM applied for an upgrade to its signal, which would have given the station minimal night power. Relevant Radio would cease programming on WZUM by early 2009. In its place, WZUM aired an Easy Listening format, and was in talks with the Delmarva Educational Association, an owner of a small group of religious stations in Virginia and Florida, for a more stable format or possible sale. By May 23, 2009, the station dropped its easy listening format for Gospel and picked up the branding "1590 WZUM, The Promise".WZUM has a name/PBRTV.com
/ref> The station ceased operations in March 2010, with the FCC approving a

special temporary authority Special Temporary Authority (STA) in U.S. broadcast law is a type of broadcast license which temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside of its normal technical or legal parameters. In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stat ...

a month later for the station to remain silent. The station's license was cancelled by the FCC on May 29, 2013.

References

External links

FCC Station Search Details: DWZUM
(Facility ID: 27137)
FCC History Cards for WZUM
(covering 1957-1981 as WCNE / WZUM / WPLW) ZUM Radio stations established in 1964 Radio stations disestablished in 2010 Defunct radio stations in the United States Defunct religious radio stations in the United States 1964 establishments in Pennsylvania 2010 disestablishments in Pennsylvania ZUM {{Pennsylvania-radio-station-stub