WZKO
WZKO (1350 AM) is a radio station licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, United States. It airs an urban adult contemporary format branded as "107.5 Jamz".
City | Fort Myers, Florida |
---|---|
Frequency | 1350 kHz |
Branding | 107.5 Jamz |
Programming | |
Format | Urban adult contemporary |
Ownership | |
Owner | Aaron Howard (Genesis Multimedia Group, LLC) |
History | |
First air date | August 22, 1964 |
Former call signs | WXYC (1960–1964, CP) WCAI (1964–1986) WWWQ (1986–1988) WHYS (1988–1989) WCRM (1989–2016) |
Technical information | |
Facility ID | 39798 |
Class | D |
Power | 2,000 watts day 150 watts night |
Transmitter coordinates | 26°37′31″N 81°50′29″W |
Translator(s) | 107.5 W298CB (Fort Myers) |
Links | |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | 1075jamz.fm |
FM Translator
Call sign | Frequency (MHz) | City of license | Facility ID | ERP (W) | Class | FCC info |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
W298CB | 107.5 | Fort Myers, Florida | 150277 | 99 | D | FCC |
History
WCAI
On August 14, 1962, William H. Martin received the construction permit to establish a new radio station in Fort Myers, with the call letters WXYC. Martin sold the construction permit prior to going on air to Lee Broadcasting,[1] which changed the call letters to WCAI before signing on August 22, 1964.[2] The new daytime-only outlet broadcast middle-of-the-road music.[2] Operations were threatened in 1967 when a city controlled burn operation went out of control and blew toward the station; WCAI remained on the air, but its tower, which had just been painted red that day, was colored black with ash.[3]
WCAI remained mostly unchanged through the 1970s aside from a format flip to country, though it gave its listeners a scare when a 1977 promotion announcing "the end of the station" for a weekend of classic country prompted so many phone calls that a telephone exchange was blown out.[4] The next year, a disc jockey resigned after being implicated in a company that sold memberships in nonexistent department stores.[5] There were several transfers of ownership in 1980 and 1981, resulting in the station being sold to Ercona South for $600,000.[6] The principals of Lee Broadcasting had sold WCAI in order to pursue a new FM license on Estero Island,[7] which they won and launched in 1983 as WQEZ.[8] By 1984, WCAI was a talk station.[9]
In 1985, Charlie Frank reached an agreement to sell WCAI to Horizon Communications, which owned WQSA of Sarasota, for $700,000, with Horizon announcing plans to retain WCAI's talk programming.[10] However, ratings surveys showed it dead last in the Fort Myers market of 12 stations,[11] and in September, employee paychecks started bouncing as payment complications emerged in the sale to Horizon.[12] The wheels came off in November, two weeks after former owners Truman Morris and Helen Pierce foreclosed on Horizon,[13] when WCAI went silent while it searched for another new owner.[14]
Nine days after receiving authority to cease broadcasting from the Federal Communications Commission, WCAI filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.[15] One prospective bidder was Caloosa Television, which owned WEVU-TV in Naples.[15] The only bid for WCAI, at $51,000, ultimately came from Roger Coleman, owner of a station in Galesburg, Illinois, after Caloosa withdrew its bid.[16] However, Coleman backed out and withdrew his application with the FCC to buy WCAI in April.[17] Other parties that showed interest in WCAI included a local pastor, Eddie Grimsley, who wanted to broadcast religious programming.[18] After the license was transferred to WCAI's former creditors, Asti Broadcasting Corporation of Clearwater acquired WCAI for $400,000 late in the year.[13]
WWWQ and WHYS
To get their own identity in the market, Asti changed the call letters to WWWQ.[13] The station reemerged on March 15, 1987, as "3WQ" with an urban contemporary format—the only one in southwest Florida—primarily syndicated from the Satellite Music Network.[19] Only a year later, however, 1350 AM returned to talk, this time as WHYS, because it struggled to overcome its image as a "black" radio station with white listeners and advertisers.[20]
WCRM
In 1989, Asti sold WHYS to Manna Christian Missions, which had brokered out 34 hours a week on the station for Spanish-language programming, for $450,000. Manna changed WHYS to WCRM "Radio Consolación",[21] the first Spanish-language radio station in Lee County.[22] Yet again, however, the minority-oriented format proved problematic for potential advertisers, prompting Manna to flip WCRM to contemporary Christian in July 1990.[23] (One of the hosts on the new station was Eddie Grimsley, the same pastor that had attempted to buy it out of bankruptcy four years prior.[23]) Less than two years later, WCRM flipped back to a Spanish-language format as "Radio Manantial".[24]
WCRM remained a Spanish-language Christian station, with some brokered programming and gospel music on Sundays, under Manna's ownership; it gained national recognition when it was named among the top 5 Spanish Christian radio stations in the United States in 1996.[25] It suffered through a 1997 burglary in which $9,000 worth of equipment was taken or destroyed,[26] as well as a 2000 lightning strike that took out its transmitter site.[27]
In 2008, Manna sold WCRM to Vida Radio Ministries, a subsidiary of Christ Center International, for $950,000. Three years later, however, Manna bought back the land on which WCRM's studios and transmitter are located from Christ Center for $50,000 in a foreclosure sale;[28] in early 2012, it won back the license in a settlement of Manna's claims against CCI.[29]
While Manna took back the WCRM license, it decided to outsource the station's operations under a local marketing agreement. In late July 2012, Everglades City Broadcasting, owners of WBGY (88.1 FM) on Marco Island, began operating WCRM and flipped it to Fox Sports Radio.[30]
WZKO
In December 2015, Manna sold WCRM to Genesis Multimedia for $450,000.[31] Genesis paired the station with a translator it bought in Melbourne and moved to Fort Myers[32] as W298CB (107.5 FM), and relaunched WCRM as WZKO "107.5 Jamz".[33]
References
- "Lee Broadcasting Is Incorporated". News-Press. February 4, 1964. p. 5-B. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- "'Middle of Road' Music New Station's Specialty". Tampa Tribune. August 26, 1964. p. 1=B. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- "Fire Threatens Radio Station". Tampa Tribune. April 5, 1967. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Sloat, Bill (May 7, 1977). "Radio station gimmick panics loyal listeners". News-Press. p. 2B. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Johnson, Barbara (August 25, 1978). "Disc jockey resigns after publicity". News-Press. p. 2B. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Lieber, David (November 30, 1981). "Media". News-Press. p. 1E, 4E. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Klein, Ken (June 12, 1980). "License for Estero radio station generating lots of interest". News-Press. p. 2B. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Averill, Roslyn (October 13, 1983). "Easy-listening radio station to broadcast from Beach". News-Press. p. 2B. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- "Nixon interview to be aired". February 1, 1984. p. 2B. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Schroder, Tom (March 20, 1985). "Sarasota firm buys local radio station". News-Press. p. 15A. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Smarte, Charlotte (August 11, 1985). "WINK-FM is area's radio leader". News-Press. p. 1B, 2B.
- Schroder, Tom (September 19, 1985). "Low ratings, payment mix-ups causing static at WCAI-AM". News-Press. p. 17A.
- Ward, Judy L. (November 24, 1986). "Company aims to get WCAI-AM on air again". News-Press. p. 8. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Christie, Rick (November 27, 1985). "WCAI-AM stops broadcasting, looks for buyer". News-Press. p. 13A. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Christie, Rick (December 18, 1985). "WCAI-AM files under Chapter 7 bankruptcy". News-Press. p. 13A. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Christie, Rick (January 10, 1986). "WCAI-AM sells for $51,000". News-Press. p. 15A. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Christie, Rick (April 9, 1986). "WCAI-AM returns to sales block". News-Press. p. 9B. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Christie, Rick (April 12, 1986). "Black pastor bids on radio station". News-Press. p. 7B. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Williams, Frances D. (October 16, 1987). "Souled out". News-Press. pp. 1D, 4D. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Williams, Frances D. (April 2, 1988). "AM station's change more than just talk". News-Press. p. 1D. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Hirsch, Suzanne; Jeffries, Suzanne (September 27, 1989). "Radio station plans benefit for Hugo victims". News-Press. p. 22A. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- del Villar, Sandra G. (July 12, 1989). "Spanish radio station battles way to 24-hour schedule". News-Press. p. 9A. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Williams, Frances D. (July 16, 1990). "Tune in to the new tunes on WCRM radio". p. 1D. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- "WCRM-AM drops Twins games". News-Press. April 14, 1992. p. 4C. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Salmón, Efraín (October 20, 2006). "Radio Manantial 1350 AM cumple quince años". Gaceta Tropical (in Spanish). p. 16. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Brassfield, Mike (July 16, 1997). "Theft can't silence Christian radio". News-Press. p. 1B. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Scott, Denise L. (June 24, 2000). "Station tunes in listeners for help". News-Press. pp. 1E, 8E. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- "Nonprofit buys land in foreclosure sale". News-Press. October 13, 2011. p. B2. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- "Fort Myers AM goes back to original seller". RBR. March 19, 2012. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- "Station switcheroo". News-Press. August 6, 2012. p. D1. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Venta, Lance (December 18, 2015). "Station Sales Week Of 12/19". RadioInsight. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Venta, Lance (December 31, 2015). "Station Sales Week Of 12/31: Family Life Ministries Enters Syracuse". RadioInsight. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- Venta, Lance (October 12, 2016). "The Secret Format Changes Of 2016". RadioInsight. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
External links
- WZKO in the FCC's AM station database
- WZKO on Radio-Locator
- WZKO in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
- W298CB in the FCC's FM station database
- W298CB on Radio-Locator
- FCC History Cards for WZKO