WZRC
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WZRC, known on-air as "AM1480" (), is a radio station licensed to
New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...
. The station is owned by
Multicultural Broadcasting Multicultural Broadcasting is a media company based in New York City founded by Chinese-American businessman Arthur Liu. It caters mostly to the Asian American community and owns television and radio stations in several of the top markets in mu ...
and airs
Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
programming. It is one of two Cantonese radio stations serving the
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, the other is Chung Wah Chinese Broadcasting Company. WZRC's transmitting facility is located in
Ridgefield Park, New Jersey Ridgefield Park is a village in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the village's population was 13,224, an increase of 495 (+3.9%) from the 2010 census count of 12,729, which in turn reflected ...
.


History

WZRC was first licensed on June 29, 1925, as a portable broadcasting station, with the sequentially issued call letters of WIBS, to the
New Jersey National Guard The New Jersey Army National Guard consists of more than 6,000 Citizen-Soldiers. The New Jersey Army National Guard is currently engaged in multiple worldwide and homeland missions. Units have deployed to Iraq, Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Guantan ...
, 57th Infantry Brigade, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. (Portable radio stations were installed on movable platforms such as trucks, so they could be transported to various locations.) In early 1926 ownership of the station was changed to Lieut. Thomas F. Hunter, and in mid-1927 the station was reported to be "no longer portable". In November 1927 the station's owner became the New Jersey Broadcasting Corporation, located at 80 Broad Street in Elizabeth. On May 25, 1928, the recently formed
Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by ...
(FRC) issued
General Order 32 The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 32, dated May 25, 1928, notified 164 of the over 600 existing U.S. radio stations that their applications for continued operation would be denied unless they showed that they met the FRC's "public ...
, which notified 164 stations, including WIBS, that "From an examination of your application for future license it does not find that public interest, convenience, or necessity would be served by granting it.""Appendix F (2): Letter to and list of stations included in General Order No. 32, issued May 25, 1928"
''Second Annual Report of the Federal Radio Commission for the Year Ended June 30, 1928, Together With Supplemental Report for the Period From July 1, 1928, to September 30, 1928'', pages 146-147.
However, the station successfully convinced the commission that it should remain licensed. On November 11, 1928, the FRC implemented a sweeping reallocation of station transmitting frequencies, as part of a reorganization resulting from its General Order 40. The New York City area had a large excess of stations, and WIBS was ordered to begin timesharing on 1450 kHz with four other New Jersey stations: WNJ (Newark), WBMS (Union City), WAAT (Jersey City) and WKBO (Jersey City). WAAT (now WNYM) was able to quickly gain permission to move to 1070 kHz, but this still left WIBS in the tenuous financial situation of reduced operating hours and revenues due to having to share its frequency with three other stations.


WHOM and the Popes (1930 - 1960)

On April 12, 1930, the station's call letters were changed to WHOM, standing for owner Harry O'Melia, operated by the New Jersey Broadcasting Company, with studios in Jersey City. At the start of 1933 WHOM was still limited to one-quarter of the airtime on its shared frequency, however during the year it was able to achieve full time operation. In April, it expanded to use of three-quarters of the hours, after the FRC refused to renew WNJ's license, and WHOM's owners purchased and silenced WKBO. A few weeks later, WBMS was acquired and shut down, giving WHOM unlimited use of its frequency. The station's format was a combination of educational programming, ethnic programming, sports, and some music. Among the personalities who broadcast on WHOM was African-American sportscaster Jocko Maxwell; by the time he joined the station in 1934, it had studios in Newark, and would later add a studio in New York. By 1940, the station was known for mainly its foreign language programming. On March 29, 1941, WHOM moved from 1450 kHz to 1480 kHz, its location ever since, as part of the implementation of the
North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, ; ) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreements also addressed how frequency assignments were d ...
. In 1944, WHOM was sold to the Iowa Broadcasting Company. But the new parent company, better known as Cowles Broadcasting, did not own the station long. Arrangements were made to sell it to
Generoso Pope Generoso Pope (April 1, 1891 – April 28, 1950) was an Italian-American businessman and the owner of a chain of Italian-language newspapers in major American cities. Family Generoso was born with the name Generoso Antonio Pompilio Carlo Papa ...
, owner of the Italo-Americano Publishing Company, in late 1946. Pope finalized the acquisition, and then operated the station with a combination of news, ethnic music, and educational programs, as before. The Popes built a media empire, including:
The National Enquirer The ''National Enquirer'' is an American tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1926, the newspaper has undergone a number of changes over the years. The ''National Enquirer'' openly acknowledges that it pays sources for tips ( checkbook journalism), a ...
,
Il Progresso Italo-Americano ''Il Progresso Italo-Americano'' was an Italian-language daily newspaper in the United States, published in New York City from 1880 to 1988, when it was shut down due to a union dispute. In 1989, most journalists of ''Il Progresso'' reunited to cr ...
, Il Bollettino della Sera, Il Corriere d'America, and the Philadelphia daily L'Opinione. Pope used his influence through his media empire to secure the vote of the election of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
, and
Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...
. In the late 1940s, WHOM introduced a new popular music program; it featured the city's only interracial deejay team, Willie Bryant and Ray Carroll. Their WHOM program lasted until 1954, at which time the general manager decided he wanted a change; Bryant believed it was due to a complaint from a sponsor. In 1950 the station's studios moved to New York City.


1960 – 1982

In 1960, WHOM evolved to mostly Spanish programming. In 1975 the station was sold to SJR Communications along with WHOM-FM (now
WINS-FM WINS-FM (92.3 MHz) is a radio station City of license, licensed to New York, New York, and owned by Audacy, Inc. WINS-FM simulcasts all-news radio station WINS (AM) (1010 kHz), with the station referred to on air as "1010 WINS at 92.3 FM". The ...
) and the call sign was changed to WJIT (Radio Jit). The format went from diversified Spanish to Spanish contemporary music. In the late 1970s WJIT was the leading salsa and merengue station on the New York dial. In 1982 the format was changed to Spanish adult contemporary and the station was sold, along with WKTU 92.3, to
Infinity Broadcasting Infinity Broadcasting Corporation was a radio company that existed from 1972 until 2005. It was founded by Michael A. Wiener and Gerald Carrus. It became associated with popular radio personalities like Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, Don Im ...
.


1982 – 1998

In 1989, Infinity decided that with a new Spanish station on 97.9 that it should move 1480 WJIT (by then known as talk station 1480 Radio America) to an English format. The Spanish format was dropped on April 30, 1990, at 3 pm, and the station began airing a heavy metal based satellite rock format "
Z Rock Z Rock was a nationally syndicated radio network based in Dallas, Texas, that, from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, played heavy metal and hard rock music. The format was one of several 24-hour satellite-delivered music formats offered ...
", under its new call-sign WZRC. On May 27, 1993, WZRC switched to
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through Transtar's "Mainstream Country" satellite-delivered service."Rumbles"
''Radio & Records'', June 4, 1993, page 26 (americanradiohistory.com) This was short lived; a few months later, WZRC switched to Korean brokered programming. Infinity continued to own the radio station until after its merger with CBS in 1997. At that point, it owned 92.3 WXRK, 101.1
WCBS-FM WCBS-FM (101.1 FM) is a radio station owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. licensed to New York, New York, and broadcasting a classic hits format. The station's studios are in the combined Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood in ...
, 102.7
WNEW-FM WNEW-FM (102.7 FM broadcasting, FM, ''NEW 102.7'') is a hot adult contemporary-Radio format, formatted radio station, City of license, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy faci ...
, 660
WFAN WFAN may refer to: * WFAN (AM) WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, with a sports radio format, branded "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New Y ...
, 880 WCBS, 1010 WINS, and 1480 WZRC. While it was not required to sell WZRC, it opted to anyhow, and sold the station to Multicultural Media in 1998.


After 1998

Multicultural initially kept the Korean format, but switched to Chinese on March 1, 2001, and now in Cantonese (to complement Multicultural's Sinocast network broadcast locally on 92.3 FM subcarrier). Nowadays, in addition to its own programming, WZRC sometimes rebroadcasts other Cantonese content from
KMRB KMRB (1430 AM) is a broadcast radio station in the United States. Licensed to San Gabriel, California, KMRB serves the Greater Los Angeles area with a Cantonese language format. It is owned and operated by Multicultural Broadcasting. The s ...
radio in San Francisco, as well as from
Commercial Radio Hong Kong Commercial Radio Hong Kong (CRHK, , also known as Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company Limited, is one of the two commercial radio broadcasting companies in Hong Kong, alongside Metro Radio Hong Kong. CRHK offers a variety of radio prog ...
and
RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service of Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...
.


References


Further reading

* ''The Airwaves of New York'' by Bill Jaker, Frank Sulek and Peter Kanze, 1996.


External links

* * (covering WIBS / WHOM / WJIT from 1927-1981) ( Guide to reading History Cards) * {{Multicultural Broadcasting Cantonese language Chinese-American culture in New York City Chinese-language radio stations in the United States Multicultural Broadcasting stations Radio stations established in 1925 ZRC