WJZZ is a radio station at 88.1 MHz in

Montgomery, New York Montgomery is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. Located roughly northwest of New York City, the town of Montgomery is an historical and cultural hub of the Hudson Valley region and has been a steadily growing outer-ring commuter ...

. The station, organized as a 501(c)(3), went off the air in September 2018, due to lack of funding; the station briefly broadcast again on August 22, 2019, to keep its license.

History

Call sign

The call letters WJZZ originally belonged to an FM station in

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the List of cities in New England by population, fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Loc ...

. It started in 1960 by John E. Metts, of Weston, Connecticut, the Vice President of a Bridgeport news station, WICC. Mr. Metts started the venture in partnership with

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

as the program director. The Connecticut WJZZ began as an all-jazz station and was one of the pioneers of the "all-jazz" format. In 1964 it switched to broadcasting the "Top 60" classical performances, compiled in part by

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...

. In early 1967, when it began broadcasting in FM stereo, it expanded its lineup to the "Top 100" classical performances while still retaining its original WJZZ call sign. WJZZ dropped the call letters to become WPSB on September 13, 1971; the station changed later to

WEZN-FM WEZN-FM (99.9 MHz, "Star 99.9") is a commercial radio station, licensed to Bridgeport, Connecticut, and serving Southern Connecticut. The station is owned by Connoisseur Media and it airs a hot adult contemporary radio format. The WEZN studios ...

. In 1974, the WJZZ call letters landed on Detroit station WCHD-FM. WJZZ (105.9 FM) was a popular classic jazz/jazz fusion station in Detroit and became one of the first U.S. stations ever to use the smooth jazz format. WJZZ was flipped to an urban contemporary format in August 1996, and its call sign changed back to WCHD, then later to

WDMK WDMK (105.9 FM broadcasting, FM, "105.9 Kiss-FM") is a commercial radio, commercial FM radio, FM radio station in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. Owned by Beasley Broadcast Group, it broadcasts an urban adult contemporary radio format, format. The ...

. When Bell Broadcasting dropped the WJZZ call letters from the Detroit station, it parked them at stations it owned elsewhere in the state, first 1250 AM in Bridgeport, Michigan, then 1210 AM in Kingsley. In June 2001, 107.5 FM in the

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

area changed format to smooth jazz and adopted the WJZZ call letters; it is now

WAMJ WAMJ (107.5 FM, "Majic 107.5/97.5") is a commercial radio station licensed to Roswell, Georgia, and serving Metro Atlanta. It airs an urban adult contemporary radio format, simulcasting with sister station 97.5 WUMJ in Fayetteville. The s ...

. From 2009 to 2014, the calls were assigned to a radio station in

North Salem, New York North Salem is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in the northeastern section of Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. The town, incorporated in 1788, is a suburb of New York ...

that is now WPUT. In the summer of 2024, WJZZ returned to the air, broadcasting the internet stream of EDM-formatted

Pulse 87 Pulse 87 is an online radio station with an electronic dance music music format. It started as the audio feed of a channel-6 "Franken-FM" television station in New York City, audible on traditional FM radios at 87.7, before moving solely to st ...

, thus bringing the format and branding back to terrestrial FM in New York state; "Pulse 87" had been last heard on

WNYZ-LD WNYZ-LD is a low-power television station in New York City, owned by K Media. It broadcasts on VHF channel 6, commonly known as an " FM6 operation" because the audio portion of the signal lies at 87.75 MHz, receivable by analog FM radios ...

until 2009, and now puts the station in competition with

Pamal Broadcasting Pamal Broadcasting, Ltd. is a family-owned radio group with twenty-three stations in medium-to-small markets in the Northeast. Based in the Albany suburb of Latham, New York, Pamal Broadcasting was founded in 1987 as Albany Broadcasting Company, ...

's top 40 (CHR)-formatted

WSPK WSPK (104.7 FM, "K104.7") is a contemporary hit radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York. Its studios are located on NY 52 Business in the town of Fishkill (with a Beacon address). It is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and transmits from ...

Translators

References

External links

Jazz in New York (state) JZZ (FM) {{NewYork-radio-station-stub