WZZT (102.7 FM) is a commercial

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 to

Morrison Morrison may refer to: People * Morrison (surname), people with the Scottish surname Morrison * Morrison Heady (1829–1915), American poet * Morrison Mann MacBride (1877–1938), Canadian merchant Places in the United States * Morrison, Colorad ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, serving primarily

Whiteside Whiteside may refer to: Places ;Australia * Whiteside, Queensland, suburb in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland ;Canada * Whiteside, Nova Scotia ;United Kingdom * Whiteside (Lake District), a fell in the west of the English Lake District * White ...

and Lee counties in the Rock River Valley. Owned by Fletcher M. Ford, through licensee Virden Broadcasting Corp., the station airs 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.

History

WZZT launched on April 10, 1991; as of 1992, the station was owned by Whiteside Communications, Inc., and was transmitting at 3,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s. In July 1993, it was announced that WZZT and its sister stations

WSDR WSDR (1240 AM) is an American radio station licensed to serve the community of Sterling, Illinois. The station is owned by Fletcher M. Ford and the broadcast license is held by Virden Broadcasting Corp. WSDR broadcasts a news/talk radio format t ...

and

WSSQ WSSQ (105.5 FM) – branded as Q105.5 – is a commercial adult contemporary radio station licensed to Sterling, Illinois, United States, serving primarily Whiteside and Lee counties in the Rock River Valley. Owned by Fletcher M. Ford, through ...

were to be sold to LH&S Communications, a company owned by Larry Sales and Howard Murphy which owned radio properties throughout the state of Illinois. In 1998, WSSQ was acquired by Withers Broadcasting. During the late

2000s File:2000s decade montage3.png, From top left, clockwise: The World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty during the 9/11 attacks in 2001; the euro enters into European currency in 2002; a statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled durin ...

and early 2010s, WZZT aired coverage of local

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

, including a 2011 playoff run by Newman Central Catholic. As of 2011, WZZT was airing a

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

format which also included

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

. On July 5, 2017, WZZT changed their format from classic rock to country, branded as "Big Country 102.7". Effective July 28, 2017, Withers Broadcasting sold WZZT,

, and

to Fletcher M. Ford's Virden Broadcasting Corp. for $400,000.

Current programming

Previous Logo

References

External links

* * {{Country Radio Stations in Illinois, state=collapsed 1991 establishments in Illinois Country radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1991 ZZT Whiteside County, Illinois