WZZI
- The radio station that was named WZZI until October 2009, is now WVMP.
| City of license | Bedford, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area |
Bedford, Virginia Bedford County, Virginia |
| Branding | "Fox Sports Radio" |
| Frequency | 106.9 MHz |
| First air date | December 12, 1990 |
| Format | Sports |
| ERP | 290 watts |
| HAAT | 389 meters |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 15188 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°19′14.0″N 79°37′59.0″W / 38.320556°N 79.633056°W |
| Former callsigns |
WYMY (1990-1996) WLQE-FM (1996-2001) WBWR (2001-2005) WLEQ (2005-2009) |
| Affiliations | Fox Sports Radio |
| Owner |
Todd Robinson (WVJT, LLC) |
| Sister stations | WZZU |
WZZI (106.9 FM) is a Sports formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Bedford, Virginia, serving Bedford and Bedford County, Virginia. WZZI is owned and operated by Todd Robinson's WVJT, LLC.[1]
History
WZZI signed in on December 12, 1990 as WLUB. The station transmitted from Thaxton Mountain in Bedford County, the same location as TV stations WSET and WWCW, and still does to this day.
On February 22, 1996, WLEQ switched its callsign to WLQE-FM and format to smooth jazz as "The Lake," Its callsign was named for its location near Smith Mountain Lake. However, the station has a weak signal in Lynchburg and mountains made reception in Roanoke problematic. W247AD was put on the air in 1999 to help the latter situation, but it was not enough to save the station from going up for sale.
On May 23, 2001, the station was sold and became a simulcast of classic rock WBRW in Blacksburg, taking the callsign WBWR. This made the station a direct competitor with WROV.
By 2005, Cumulus had decided to focus the station on Blacksburg, and sold WBWR to Centennial Broadcasting on August 31, 2005. After simulcasting Oldies "Bob-FM" with co-owned WZZI and WZZU for several days, the station played "lake" sounds before becoming "The Lake" once again, this time broadcasting a standards format with the callsign WLEQ, similar to the old callsign.
That format lasted just over a year before Centennial moved its "Bob-FM" oldies format from WZZI and WZZU in order to launch classic rock "The Planet" on those frequencies.
According to Virginia radio news information website, VARTV.com, on March 4, 2009, WLEQ and its translator W247AD dropped its oldies format and began simulcasting "The Planet" from WZZI and WZZU. As of 2012, it has broken away from that simulcast for the present Sports format. The translator has been sold to Mel Wheeler Inc. and no longer simulcasts WZZI.
WZZI and sister station WZZU were sold to Todd Robinson's WVJT, LLC at a purchase price of $523,000. The transaction was consummated on November 30, 2012.
References
- ↑ "WZZI Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
External links
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WZZI
- Radio-Locator information on WZZI
- Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WZZI
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