WZEE (104.1 FM) 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 to

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th ...

and serving South Central

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Known on-air as "Z104," the station is owned and operated by

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

(formerly Clear Channel Communications until 2014) and broadcasts a Top 40 (CHR) music format.

Station history

The station originally launched in 1948 as WKOW-FM, sharing ownership with WKOW-AM (the current WTSO). New ownership in the early 1950s re-called the station to WMFM. In the mid-1970s, the station converted from classical music to its current Top 40 format, adopting the WZEE

call sign 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 ass ...

and "Z104" on-air brand as well. In its early years, "Z104" ran an automated Top 40 (CHR) format XT40 from

Drake-Chenault Drake-Chenault Enterprises (originally American Independent Radio Inc.) was a radio syndication company that specialized in automation on FM radio stations. The company was founded in the late-1960s by radio programmer and deejay Bill Drake (1937� ...

programming, but live-and-local content would be added to the station over the years. Z104 was original home to the popular morning drive-time pairing of "Connie and Fish" during the 2000s; the pair would move to Clear Channel's

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...

classic rock sister station WQBW in 2008, with the show remaining on WZEE in a simulcast. When WQBW became top 40 station WRNW in 2010, "Connie & Fish" became "Connie & Curtis" after "Fish" Calloway left Clear Channel to work for the competitor 931 Jamz (WJQM). On September 4, 2012, "Connie & Curtis" (who had left for

WLHT WLHT-FM (95.7 MHz) is a hot adult contemporary music formatted radio station in Grand Rapids, Michigan owned by Townsquare Media. WLHT's studios are located on Ottawa Avenue Northwest in downtown Grand Rapids, while its transmitter is located i ...

West Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Pe ...

, ironically a competitor of WZEE sister

WSNX WSNX-FM (104.5 MHz "104-5 SNX") is a Top 40 (CHR) radio station located in iHeartMedia, Inc. Grand Rapids, Michigan headquarters. The station has a Top 40 (CHR) format. The station is licensed to Muskegon, in Western Michigan with the statio ...

) would be replaced on both WZEE and WRNW by the nationally syndicated '' Elvis Duran and the Morning Show''. "Z104" schedule features voicetracked or syndicated programming (including ''Elvis Duran'' and fellow

Premiere Networks Premiere Networks (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a wholly owned subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. ...

show ''

On Air with Ryan Seacrest ''On Air with Ryan Seacrest'' is a weekday syndicated radio program hosted by Ryan Seacrest. It was launched in 2004 as a drive time show at the same time on Los Angeles Top 40 station 102.7 KIIS-FM as the television show with the same name, ...

'').

HD Radio

WZEE broadcasts a

HD radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

signal, with its HD2 subchannel originally carrying an

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban conte ...

/ hip-hop format to complement the main "Z104" format; that format was replaced in Fall 2013 by a simulcast of "Classical Highlights," a

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...

channel that is heard on iHeartMedia's

IHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbrella brand for iHe ...

platform. By December 2022, Classical Highlights would be replaced with "The Standard," iHeartRadio's channel devoted to music and artists of the adult standards and golden oldies genres. WZEE briefly aired a simulcast of sister sports station WTSO on its HD3 subchannel in 2012. The HD3 signal would be restarted by July 2021, carrying the

contemporary worship music Contemporary worship music (CWM), also known as praise and worship music, is a defined genre of Christian music used in contemporary worship. It has developed over the past 60 years and is stylistically similar to pop music. The songs are fr ...

network

Air1 Air1 is an American Christian radio network. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), it primarily broadcasts contemporary worship music, and is a sister to the EMF's K-Love network. History In 1986, KLRD began broadcasting Christian ...

and serving as the originating signal of low-power simulcast W277AE, which is owned by Air1 parent

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's largest ...

."FCC Monitor: New FM’s Sign On at Tip of Minnesota’s Arrowhead,"
from Northpine.com, 7/25/2021 (accessed 12/12/2022)

References

External links

* * * {{coord, 43.051, N, 89.487, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title ZEE Contemporary hit radio stations in the United States IHeartMedia radio stations