WZRC, known on-air as "AM1480" (), 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 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting and airs

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

programming. It is one of two Cantonese radio stations serving the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...

, the other is Chung Wah Chinese Broadcasting Company. WZRC's transmitting facility is located in

Ridgefield Park, New Jersey Ridgefield Park is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the village's population was 12,729,portable broadcasting station, with the sequentially issued call letters of WIBS, to the

New Jersey National Guard The New Jersey Army National Guard consists of more than 6,000 Citizen-Soldiers. The New Jersey Army National Guard is currently engaged in multiple worldwide and homeland missions. Units have deployed to Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Germ ...

, 57th Infantry Brigade, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. (Portable radio stations were installed on movable platforms such as trucks, so they could be transported to various locations.) In early 1926 ownership of the station was changed to Lieut. Thomas F. Hunter, and in mid-1927 the station was reported to be "no longer portable". In November 1927 the station's owner became the New Jersey Broadcasting Corporation, located at 80 Broad Street in Elizabeth. On November 11, 1928, the

Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by t ...

(FRC) implemented a sweeping reallocation of station transmitting frequencies, as part of a reorganization resulting from its

General Order 40 The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, dated August 30, 1928, described the standards for a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting in the United States. This order grouped the AM radio band transmitting frequencies into thre ...

. The New York City area had a large excess of stations, and WIBS was ordered to begin timesharing on 1450 kHz with four other New Jersey stations: WNJ (Newark), WBMS (Union City), WAAT (Jersey City) and WKBO (Jersey City). WAAT (now

WNYM WNYM (970 AM) – branded "AM 970 The Answer" – is a commercial radio station licensed to Hackensack, New Jersey, and serving the New York metropolitan area. The station is owned by Salem Media Group and programs a conservative talk radio ...

) was able to quickly gain permission to move to 1070 kHz, but this still left WIBS in the tenuous financial situation of reduced operating hours and revenues due to having to share its frequency with three other stations.

WHOM and the Popes (1930 - 1960)

On April 12, 1930, the station's call letters were changed to WHOM, standing for owner Harry O'Melia, operated by the New Jersey Broadcasting Company, with studios in Jersey City. At the start of 1933 WHOM was still limited to one-quarter of the airtime on its shared frequency, however during the year it was able to achieve full time operation. In April, it expanded to use of three-quarters of the hours, after the FRC refused to renew WNJ's license, and WHOM's owners purchased and silenced WKBO. A few weeks later, WBMS was acquired and shut down, giving WHOM unlimited use of its frequency. The station's format was a combination of educational programming, ethnic programming, sports, and some music. Among the personalities who broadcast on WHOM was African-American sportscaster Jocko Maxwell; by the time he joined the station in 1934, it had studios in Newark, and would later add a studio in New York. By 1940, the station was known for mainly its foreign language programming. On March 29, 1941, WHOM moved from 1450 kHz to 1480 kHz, its location ever since, as part of the implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement. In 1944, WHOM was sold to the Iowa Broadcasting Company. But the new parent company, better known as Cowles Broadcasting, did not own the station long. Arrangements were made to sell it to

Generoso Pope Generoso Pope (April 1, 1891 – April 28, 1950) was an Italian-American businessman and the owner of a chain of Italian-language newspapers in major American cities. Family Generoso was born with the name Generoso Antonio Pompilio Carlo Papa. ...

, owner of the Italo-Americano Publishing Company, in late 1946. Pope finalized the acquisition, and then operated the station with a combination of news, ethnic music, and educational programs, as before. The Popes built a media empire, including:

The National Enquirer The ''National Enquirer'' is an American tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1926, the newspaper has undergone a number of changes over the years. The ''National Enquirer'' openly acknowledges that it pays sources for tips, a common practice in tabl ...

Il Progresso Italo-Americano ''Il Progresso Italo-Americano'' was an Italian-language daily newspaper in the United States, published in New York City from 1880 to 1988, when it was shut down due to a union dispute. In 1989, most journalists of ''Il Progresso'' reunited to crea ...

, Il Bollettino della Sera, Il Corriere d'America, and the Philadelphia daily L'Opinione. Pope used his influence through his media empire to secure the vote of the election of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, and

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

. In the late 1940s, WHOM introduced a new popular music program; it featured the city's only interracial deejay team, Willie Bryant and Ray Carroll. Their WHOM program lasted until 1954, at which time the general manager decided he wanted a change; Bryant believed it was due to a complaint from a sponsor. In 1950 the station's studios moved to New York City.

1960 – 1982

In 1960, WHOM evolved to mostly Spanish programming. In 1975 the station was sold to SJR Communications along with WHOM-FM (now

WINS-FM WINS-FM (92.3 MHz) is a radio station licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. WINS-FM simulcasts an all-news radio format branded as "1010 WINS on 92.3 FM"; with the call sign phonetically pronounced as "wins". The station ...

) and the call sign was changed to WJIT (Radio Jit). The format went from diversified Spanish to Spanish contemporary music. In the late 1970s WJIT was the leading salsa and merengue station on the New York dial. In 1982 the format was changed to Spanish adult contemporary and the station was sold, along with WKTU 92.3, to

Infinity Broadcasting Infinity Broadcasting Corporation was a radio company that existed from 1972 until 2005. It was founded by Michael A. Wiener and Gerald Carrus. It became associated with popular radio personalities like Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, Don Imus ...

1982 – 1998

In 1989, Infinity decided that with a new Spanish station on 97.9 that it should move 1480 WJIT (by then known as talk station 1480 Radio America) to an English format. The Spanish format was dropped on April 30, 1990, and the station began airing a heavy metal based satellite rock format "

Z Rock Z Rock was a nationally syndicated radio network based in Dallas, Texas, United States that, from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, played heavy metal and hard rock music. The format was one of several 24-hour satellite-delivered music for ...

". The call-sign was changed to WZRC (originally used in Chicago by the flagship station for the network, "Z-Rock 106.7 FM" from 1986-1987). On May 27, 1993, WZRC switched to

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

through Transtar's "Mainstream Country" satellite-delivered service."Rumbles"
''Radio & Records'', June 4, 1993, page 26 (americanradiohistory.com) This was short lived; a few months later, WZRC switched to Korean brokered programming. Infinity continued to own the radio station until after its merger with CBS in 1997. At that point, it owned 92.3 WXRK, 101.1

WCBS-FM WCBS-FM (101.1 FM) is a radio station offering a classic hits format licensed to New York City and is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are in the combined Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood in lower Man ...

, 102.7

WNEW-FM WNEW-FM (102.7 FM, ''NEW 102.7'') is a hot adult contemporary formatted radio station, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manha ...

, 660

WFAN WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, carrying a sports radio format known as "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New York metropolitan area while ...

, 880 WCBS, 1010 WINS, and 1480 WZRC. While it was not required to sell WZRC, it opted to anyhow, and sold the station to Multicultural Media in 1998.

After 1998

Multicultural initially kept the Korean format, but switched to Chinese in 2002 and now in Cantonese (to complement Multicultural's Sinocast network broadcast locally on 92.3 FM subcarrier).

References

External links