WKBZ was a radio station on 1520 kHz in

Muskegon Heights, Michigan Muskegon Heights is a city in Muskegon County in the U.S. state of Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares w ...

. It broadcast between 1963 and 2001 and was last owned by WLC Broadcasting.

History

The construction permit for WKJR, a daytime-only station on 1520, was obtained on September 27, 1962. The permit was owned by William and William Eugene Kuiper, doing business as the Muskegon Heights Broadcasting Company. The station hit the air in February 1963 and increased its daytime power to 10,000 watts in 1971. The station suffered a humorous accident in 1975 when a field mouse crawled into the transmitter site, shorting out a transformer and keeping the station off the air for 45 minutes during its broadcast of a high school basketball game. In 1979, majority control was transferred to another Kuiper business—the Furniture City Broadcasting Corporation, which owned WFUR in

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

—which procured authorization two years later to broadcast at night with 500 watts.FCC History Cards for WKBZ
/ref> March 1974 brought an FM sister station, WKJR-FM 101.7 (now WMRR); the stations broadcast religious programming. WKJR was acquired in 1990 by Pathfinder Communications Corporation as part of a $1.27 million purchase and became WQWQ, call letters formerly on its sister FM, and that the AM station would use for almost all of the 1990s and through sales to Muskegon Lakeshore Broadcasting in 1994 and WLC Broadcasting in 1997. (The station briefly went by WWEZ for five months in 1992.) Upon becoming WQWQ, the station flipped to

soft adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

, and after trying hot AC that fall, moved back to soft AC in early 1991 in order to ensure an FM station did not fill the format void. WLC was owned by Bishop Nathaniel Wells and flipped WQWQ back to a religious format, with gospel music and church services. In 1998, as part of a bankruptcy settlement, WLC donated its WKBZ at 850 kHz to

Grand Valley State University Grand Valley State University (GVSU, GV, or Grand Valley) is a public university in Allendale Charter Township, Michigan, Allendale, Michigan, United States. It was established in 1960 as Grand Valley State College. Its main campus is situated on ...

, which became WGVS. The WKBZ intellectual unit, news/talk programming and call letters were retained by the seller and moved to 1520 kHz. However, WLC's financial troubles continued. After a sale to Harbor Pointe Broadcasting collapsed because the company went bankrupt, the station went off the air in March 2001, when WLC Broadcasting became

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

and its assets claimed by creditors. The station became an affiliate of

Radio Disney Radio Disney was an American radio network operated by the Disney Radio Networks unit of Disney Branded Television within Disney General Entertainment Content, headquartered in Burbank, California. The network broadcast music programming ...

during its final two months of operation. The station's license was officially cancelled in June 2002.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for WKBZ
{{coord, 43, 8, 27.6, N, 86, 14, 49.2, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title KBZ 1520 Defunct radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1963 Radio stations disestablished in 2001 1963 establishments in Michigan 2001 disestablishments in Michigan KBZ