WEAV

WEAV
City Plattsburgh, New York
Broadcast area Champlain Valley
Branding The Zone 960 AM
Slogan The Champlain Valley's Home For Sports
Frequency 960 kHz
First air date February 3, 1935 (as WMFF)
Format Sports
Power 5,000 watts
Class B
Facility ID 52806
Transmitter coordinates 44°34′27.0″N 73°26′54.0″W / 44.574167°N 73.448333°W / 44.574167; -73.448333
Former callsigns WMFF (1935–1948)
Former frequencies 1310 kHz (1935–1941)
1340 kHz (1941–1948)
Affiliations CBS Sports Radio
NBC Sports Radio
Owner Vox AM/FM, LLC
Sister stations WEZF, WCPV, WXZO, WVTK
Webcast Listen Live
Website 960thezone.com

WEAV is an English-language American radio station in Plattsburgh, New York, with studios in Colchester, Vermont. The station broadcasts a sports format.

Owned and operated by Vox AM/FM, the station broadcasts on 960 kHz with a power of 5,000 watts as a class B station, using a directional antenna with slightly different daytime and nighttime directional patterns in order to protect various other stations on that frequency. Both daytime and the tighter nighttime patterns of WEAV are directed mostly to the north and west of Plattsburgh, with not a lot of signal strength reaching deep into Vermont.

History

The station signed on February 3, 1935[1] as WMFF, owned by Plattsburgh Broadcasting Corporation (in turn controlled by the Bissell family), and operating on 1310 kHz.[2] The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement in 1941 moved the station to 1340 kHz.[3] On October 23, 1948,[4] the station changed its call letters to WEAV;[5] two months later, on December 29, the station relocated again, this time to the current 960 kHz.[6] At one time an affiliate of ABC Radio[7] and its predecessor, the Blue Network,[3] WEAV switched to CBS Radio in the late 1950s.[8] The station inaugurated FM service on February 3, 1960,[1] with the launch of WEAV-FM (99.9 FM) as a simulcast of the AM station.[9]

By 1972, WEAV had a contemporary format, with only some of its programming simulcast on the FM (which had largely switched to another format).[10] Within a year, the station was mixing in some country and rock music,[11] and by 1974 WEAV-FM had ended the remaining simulcast periods and become WGFB.[12] Soon afterward, WEAV became a top 40 station.[13]

WEAV had again begun simulcasting with WGFB, this time relaying its soft adult contemporary format, by 1994;[14] WEAV-exclusive programming consisted entirely of Montreal Expos games.[15] However, by 1995, ownership was expressing concern that the high costs of running the station could not be justified given the economic conditions in the market;[16] after WGFB was leased out and became WBTZ in 1996, WEAV went dark and was put up for sale.[15][16][17]

WEAV returned to the air in February 1997; after briefly relaying the talk format from WZBZ (1070 AM; now WPLB),[18] the station was leased to WXPS (96.7 FM) that July to serve as a relay, first with sports talk,[19] and later with country.[20] Because of WEAV's patterns, the station's signal was the perfect complement to WXPS, as WEAV reaches well into the much larger metro area of Montréal, Québec.

Separate programming returned to WEAV in April 1999, when the station flipped to a talk format.[21] This began to be simulcast on 96.7, renamed WXZO, two years later, at which point the current "Zone" branding was adopted.[22][23] A few months later, Plattsburgh Broadcasting Corporation finally sold the station, to Clear Channel Communications (which had already been operating the station via the local marketing agreement).[24]

Clear Channel announced on November 16, 2006 that it would sell its Champlain Valley stations after being bought by private equity firms,[25] resulting first in the addition of a third station, WTSJ (1320 AM) in Randolph, Vermont, to the simulcast in 2007 (following the sale of its previous parent station, WTSL, for the same reason),[26] and then in a sale to Vox Communications in 2008.[27] Vox largely removed WXZO from the simulcast on September 17 by converting it to an oldies station; both stations continued to simulcast First Light and Imus in the Morning for two years afterward.[28] WTSJ also left the simulcast for a time in 2008 and 2009 when Vox attempted to sell the station;[29][30] the simulcast ended for good in March 2010 after another deal to sell WTSJ, soon renamed WCVR, was reached.[31] WEAV shifted to sports talk on January 2, 2013, when CBS Sports Radio launched (though it carries some NBC Sports Radio programming as well).

References

  1. 1 2 Broadcasting Yearbook 1981 (PDF). 1981. pp. C–161–2. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  2. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1935 (PDF). 1935. p. 46. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  3. 1 2 Broadcasting Yearbook 1943 (PDF). 1943. p. 120. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  4. ↑ "WMFF Now WEAV" (PDF). Broadcasting. November 8, 1948. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  5. ↑ "WEAV reception acknowledgement" (PDF). Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  6. ↑ "WEAV Ups Power" (PDF). Broadcasting-Telecasting. January 10, 1949. p. 70. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  7. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1958 (PDF). 1958. p. A-331. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  8. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1959 (PDF). 1959. p. B-197. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  9. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1960 (PDF). 1960. p. A-197. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  10. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1973 (PDF). 1973. p. B-138. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  11. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1974 (PDF). 1974. p. B-145. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  12. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1975 (PDF). 1975. p. C-131. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  13. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1976 (PDF). 1976. p. C-137. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  14. ↑ Tymecki, Joe (August 20, 1994). "Burlington VT Plattsburgh NY RADIO - WEXP". rec.radio.broadcasting. Google Groups. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  15. 1 2 Fybush, Scott (June 27, 1996). "KF2XBF Solved, etc.". New England RadioWatch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  16. 1 2 Fybush, Scott (October 16, 1996). "Here Comes Kidstar!". New England RadioWatch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  17. ↑ Fybush, Scott (August 25, 1996). "The Country Wars End". New England RadioWatch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  18. ↑ Fybush, Scott (February 28, 1997). "The Big Get Bigger". North East RadioWatch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  19. ↑ Fybush, Scott (July 24, 1997). "Remembering Walt Dibble". North East RadioWatch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  20. ↑ Fybush, Scott (December 18, 1998). "Vermont Heats Up". North East RadioWatch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  21. ↑ Fybush, Scott (April 23, 1999). "WABY Goes All-News". North East RadioWatch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  22. ↑ Fybush, Scott (April 4, 2001). "Take Me Out to the Ban Game". North East RadioWatch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  23. ↑ Fybush, Scott (April 9, 2001). "WWZN Stole the Celtics!". North East RadioWatch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  24. ↑ "APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. August 13, 2001. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  25. ↑ Fybush, Scott (November 20, 2006). "Dark Days All Around". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  26. ↑ Fybush, Scott (May 7, 2007). "CC Selloff Gathers Steam in Maine". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  27. ↑ Fybush, Scott (January 7, 2008). "Entercom/Nassau WEEI Deal is Dead". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  28. ↑ Fybush, Scott (September 22, 2008). "Lobel's Radio Days". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  29. ↑ Fybush, Scott (October 6, 2008). "WCOJ's Gone...Is Nassau Next?". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  30. ↑ Fybush, Scott (September 28, 2009). "NAB Radio Show in Philadelphia". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  31. ↑ Fybush, Scott (March 15, 2010). "Joey Reynolds Off the Air - For Now". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
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