WRQE

WRQE (93.5 FM) is "93 Rock," a mainstream rock radio station owned and operated by Midwest Communications, licensed to New London, Wisconsin, and serving the Northeast Wisconsin area, including Appleton, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Green Bay (the latter city through a repeater at 93.1 FM, W226BD). WRQE's main transmitter is located in Maine Township in Outagamie County, Wisconsin.

History

The station was previously under the WOZZ call sign; under those calls, the station started out with an adult contemporary format (using branding and imaging that alluded to The Wizard of Oz) before moving to a long-running classic rock format in the early 1990s ("93.5 WOZZ, The Classic Rock Station") that featured songs from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. WOZZ previously had studios in the former Fidelity Bank building in Appleton until 2008, when Midwest Communications moved all its Green Bay and Appleton-area stations under one roof in new facilities in Bellevue, Wisconsin, a Green Bay suburb; however, WOZZ (and later WRQE) continue to maintain a control room and sales office in Appleton to meet Federal Communications Commission requirements.

Classic rock would continue on WOZZ until the week of September 3, 2010; during that week, WOZZ ran an online stunt on Facebook under the user name "What Does It All Mean?" The profile page (see 'External Links' below) included short videos featuring WOZZ personality David Burns and painted rocks counting down days ("5 days," "4 days," etc.). Speculation was of a format flip to a mainstream rock format, which is what occurred at 5PM on September 3, after REO Speedwagon's "Time for Me to Fly" concluded; at that time, a brief audio montage introduced "93 Rock", promising a mix of classic rock music from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s in a less-sedate on-air presentation.[1] (Sammy Hagar's "There's Only One Way to Rock" was the first song played on "93 Rock.") With the format flip, the station adopted the WRQE call sign formerly found on its sister station at 99.7 FM (which adopted a classic hits format at the same time and day 93.5 FM adopted its new format). The Bob and Tom Show, a holdover from WOZZ, continues to air during 93 Rock's morning drive time (5-9AM). The "93 Rock" format had recently been adopted on Midwest Communication-owned sister stations in Duluth (on KDAL-FM) and Wausau (on WOZZ, the call sign was transferred from WRQE's previous classic rock format to the Wausau station at the time of the flip).

By the summer of 2011, "93 Rock" tweaked to a full blown mainstream rock format playing a mix of classic rock and rock from the 1970s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, to current active rock music, competing between heritage classic rock 105.7 WAPL and active rock 94.7 WZOR "Razor 94.7", as well as Oshkosh's WWWX "96.9 The Fox".

External links

• 93 Rock website
• "What Does It All Mean?", the Facebook page promoting WOZZ's changeover to 93 Rock
• From WisconsinBroadcasting.com: Audio of WOZZ's flip to "93 Rock"
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WRQE
• Radio-Locator information on WRQE
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WRQE
• Query the FCC's FM station database for W226BD
• Midwest Communications corporate webpage
• Virtual tour of Midwest Communications' facilities