WBZA (98.9 FM) is an adult hits station in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

. It is owned by

Audacy, Inc. 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 ...

(formerly Entercom Communications), who purchased the station from Sinclair Broadcasting in 1999. Before its current format, the station played

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as ...

as WBBF (and before that, WKLX) before that station moved to a lower-powered station broadcasting on 93.3 FM. The station's studios are located at High Falls Studios downtown, and its transmitter tower is on Rochester's west side.

History

The 98.9 frequency in Rochester has been in continuous use since 1947. Before signing on at its current frequency, the direct predecessor of WBZA, then known as WHFM, broadcast in the old 42-50 MHz FM band. Founded as a sister station to

WHAM Wham! was a British pop music duo. Wham may also refer to: Places * Wham, North Yorkshire, England, a hamlet in the Yorkshire Dales, United Kingdom * Wham, Louisiana, an unincorporated community, United States Stations * WHAM (AM), a talk radio ...

by Stromberg-Carlson, its daily operation dates back to 1939, making it one of the very oldest surviving FM stations in the United States. As WHFM, the programming format was top 40/CHR from the late 1960s until early 1985. In early 1985 the call letters were changed to WZKC, and the format changed to

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, ...

. In the summer of 1986 both format and call letters were changed again, with WKLX adopting a

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 1980 ...

format (primarily rock music from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s). In April 1988, the format was changed to "classic oldies" (pop music from the mid-1950s to early 1970s) and at the same time the transmitter site was relocated into the city of Rochester. It took on the WBBF call sign in 1998. In November 2000, WBBF's intellectual property moved to then-sister station 93.3 FM, and 98.9 flipped to all-80s hits as "The Buzz." This continued until 2004, when it shifted to

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, prima ...

, while retaining the "Buzz" moniker. With the demise of hard rock station WNVE in 2007, WBZA shifted from classic rock to

mainstream rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active rock ...

at roughly the same time when Entercom purchased classic rock station WCMF-FM from CBS Radio. In 2014, the station shifted back toward adult hits, changing its slogan from "All Kinds of Rock" to "Playing Everything, All the Time."

Morning shows

The Kimberly & Beck show (hosted by Kimberly Rae and Barry Beck) aired in morning drive until 2014. The duo were fired after making controversial comments about transgender people. The duo moved to WAIO later in 2014, and were fired from that station in 2020 after making racist comments. Since September 2014, the Spezzano & Sandy show has aired in mornings on WBZA. The show previously aired for 25 years on sister-station WPXY.https://radioinsight.com/headlines/90056/spezzano-sandy-move-from-wpxy-to-wbza/

Callsign history

The callsign had been that of WBZ's sister station in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, which was established in 1924; the callsign was switched with the original station in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1931, which carried a simulcast of the original WBZ until it went dark in 1962. Following the closure of WBZA in Springfield, the call letters were assigned to an AM station in Glens Falls, New York. That incarnation of WBZA broadcast on 1410 kHz with 1,000 watts of power. The station had signed on in 1959 with the call letters WSET.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Radio stations in Rochester, New York, BZA Audacy, Inc. radio stations Adult hits radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1946 1946 establishments in New York (state)