WZMX

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**WZMX**

City of license	Hartford
Broadcast area	Hartford/New Haven
Branding	"Hot 93.7"
Slogan	Hartford's #1 for Hip-Hop and R&B Blazin' At Least 18 Jamz in A Row!
Frequency	93.7 (MHz)
Format	Mainstream Urban
ERP	17,000 watts
Class	B
Callsign meaning	W Z MiX (former brandname)
Owner	CBS Radio
Website	http://www.hot937.com/

WZMX is an urban station licensed to Hartford, Connecticut. The CBS Radio owned outlet broadcasts at 93.7 megahertz. The station's current slogan is "Hartford's #1 Station For Hip-Hop And R&B". Its transmitter is located in Meriden, Connecticut.

1 History
2 Station Line-Up
3 Station Management
4 External links

[edit] History

The 93.7 frequency first signed on in the late 1960s as WLVH, the first Spanish language radio station in the state of Connecticut. Though the station had a loyal audience, the concept of a Spanish-language FM station in an area with a (then) relatively small Hispanic population was seen as being ahead of its time. With FM prices rising, WLVH later bought 1550 khz (today's WDZK) and in 1991 sold 93.7 to American Radio Systems with WLVH moving to AM. With ARS's takeover came the a change to a new format ([[Hot Adult Contemporary) and new calls, WZMX, chosen for the station's Mix format. The Mix format promised listeners a mix of different varieties of music with little talk or DJ chatter, a directive reflected in the slogan "Four Songs in a row - No talk".

In spite of being a "new" station for the majority of the market's listeners, the Mix format began well though started to flounder. The purchase of rival WTIC-FM by ARS in 1994 and it's subsequent conversion to a Hot AC fomat led ARS to flip the younger WZMX to an all-70s format in the middle of that year. To boost the station's listenership, WZMX hired popular morning drive host Sebastian away from WCCC in February 1995, engaged well-known announcer Chuck Reilly to be the the station's voiceover talent. After a downturn in 1996, the station added 1960s and 1980s music and reimaged itself as Classic Hits 93-7.

The Classic Hits period produced lot of creative programming, such as "Saturday specials" which followed a theme (i.e., all disco music, music of the 80's, management staff hosting shows), ran countdowns that at times featured hundreds of songs, and was the Connecticut home of New England Patriots football games and an overflow home of Hartford Whalers hockey games.

By 1998, Classic Hits ran its course and rumors of a format change circulated. After CBS Radio took over the ARS stations that Spring, WZMX's format evolved into a broad-based, classic-leaning, rock format as The Point.

Again, despite some early success, eventually the 70's format ran its course, causing another format change. This time, the format changed to more of a classic rock format under the nickname "The Point". This format never had any sort of success and in April 1999 WZMX flipped to a "Jammin' Oldies"-style format as Dancin' Oldies Z93.7. As with other stations in that format (and as with past formats of 93.7's existence), the format had early success but soon dropped in the ratings and was still the lowest rated station in the Hartford market.

On March 16, 2001, WZMX flipped to a urban-leaning Rhythmic format as Hot 93.7, based on that of sister station WPGC-FM in Washington, DC. The first station playing such a format on FM in the Hartford (and Springfield, Massachusetts) markets, WZMX would soon become a regular Top 5 station and often has been the #1 station in the market. Coincidentally, that same format had been proposed as a replacement twice before but was rejected for fear that it would not work in Hartford. The success of Hot 93.7 led to the launch of rival WPHH (Power 104.1) in 2003 which has had a limited effect on WZMX's success.

Hot 93.7 recently moved from Rhythmic to Urban.

WZMX logo from 1999 to 2001

[edit] Station Line-Up

Hot Morning Crew with DJ Buck, Nancy Barrow, and Marv-Lo, - 6-10AM
Da Bigg Mann - 10-2PM
Jenny Boom Boom - 2-6PM
Kid Fresh - 6-10PM
Linda Reynolds - 10PM-2AM (slow jams)

Note: The HOT 93.7 website still shows Jenny Boom Boom as being on-air 10AM-2PM even though she moved to 2PM-6PM More than a year ago.

Urban Voices with DJ Buck and Tony Guess - Sundays 5PM-7PM
The Hot Reggaeton Show with The Youngest in Charge DJ Extreme and DJ Bombero - Sundays 7PM-9PM

Regaee Rhythems with Lex and Trevor Da Engineer - Sundays 9PM-11PM

[edit] Station Management

General Manager - James Gomes
Program Director/Music Director - DJ Buck
Promotions Director - Jason "Nitelife" Ricketts

[edit] External links

Radio stations in the New Haven market (Arbitron #109)

AM Stations: 600 | 660 | 690 | 710 | 740 | 770 | 880 | 960 | 1050 | 1080 | 1220 | 1300 | 1340 | 1500
FM Stations: 88.7 | 89.5 | 90.5 | 91.1 | 91.5 | 92.5 | 93.7 | 94.3 | 95.7 | 96.5 | 97.5 | 99.1 | 99.9 | 100.5 | 101.3 | 102.9
104.1 | 104.9 | 105.9 | 106.1 | 107.9