WQMZ (95.1 FM) is an

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, quie ...

formatted broadcast

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 Charlottesville, Virginia, serving

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

and Albemarle County, Virginia. WQMZ is owned and operated by the Charlottesville Radio Group subsidiary of Saga Communications.

History

Charlottesville Broadcasting Corporation signed on WINA-FM as the city's first FM radio station in October 1954. The station began on 95.3 MHz and was a 24-hour relay of co-owned

WINA WINA (1070 AM broadcasting, AM) is a News radio, news/Talk radio, talk/Sports Radio, sports formatted Broadcasting, broadcast radio station licensed to Charlottesville, Virginia, serving Charlottesville, Virginia, Charlottesville and Albemarle Co ...

's full service programming and middle-of-the-road music. In the late 1960s, the

Federal Communications Commission 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 jurisdicti ...

began scrutinizing the practice of a co-owned AM-FM pair broadcasting a common programming day. In 1964, such simulcasting was limited to half of the broadcast day. WINA-FM was initially exempt because the rule only applied to markets with a population of over 100,000. However, when Charlottesville Broadcasting was sold to new owner Laurence G. Richardson in 1969, the FCC made adherence to the programming separation rule a condition of the sale. Accordingly, on March 15, 1971, the station flipped to a new format broadly described as light

. At the time, this was closer to what is now considered

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 ...

: soft pop music, standards,

show tunes A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context. T ...

, and an evening block of light music. This was followed in May by a callsign change to WQMC. Simulcasting with WINA continued during morning drive until 1984. The station adopted the current WQMZ callsign in December 1987, and moved to 95.1 MHz in order to proceed with a power upgrade the following year. The station remained its light adult contemporary format for 20 years. In the early 1990s, the station changed its format to

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 ...

, and was rebranded as "Heat 95" or "95 FM The Heat". Later in the decade, it changed its branding to "Lite Rock Z95" and its format to

soft 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 sto ...

. The "Z95" branding was renamed "Z95.1" in 2003, and would later upgrade its format to its current adult contemporary format. WQMZ is currently owned by Saga Communications. Saga purchased WQMZ, WINA and WWWV from Eure Communications, which merged with Charlottesville Broadcasting in 1998.

References

Previous logos

External links

z951.com
* QMZ Radio stations established in 1954 Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Mass media in Charlottesville, Virginia {{Virginia-radio-station-stub