WZZQ (FM)

WZZQ was a radio station on 107.5 FM in Terre Haute, Indiana, which broadcast between 1967 and 2001.

WZZQ
CityTerre Haute, Indiana
Frequency107.5 MHz
Ownership
OwnerContemporary Media, Inc.
History
First air date
September 28, 1967 (1967-09-28)
Last air date
October 4, 2001 (2001-10-04)
Former call signs
WBOW-FM (1968–1971, 1971–1974)
WHOE (March 22–September 7, 1971)
WBOQ (1974–1982)
WZZQ (1982–1995, 2000–2001)
WZZQ-FM (1995–2000)
Technical information
Facility ID13729
ERP27,500 watts
HAAT204 meters
Transmitter coordinates
39°30′14.4″N 87°26′38.4″W

WZZQ went off the air when its licensee, Contemporary Media, Inc., had all of its licenses cancelled in response to a Federal Communications Commission investigation. The 107.5 frequency remained vacant for nearly 16 years until WYLJ signed on in August 2017.

History

107.5 signed on September 28, 1967[1] as WBOW-FM, companion to WBOW (1230 AM). The station would be co-owned with WBOW for the entirety of its existence. It was the second attempt by WBOW at establishing a presence on the FM dial. The first WBOW-FM had signed on in December 1947 on 101.1 MHz, beating WTHI-FM by a month.[2] This station disappeared on June 19, 1956, when the FCC granted a request to cancel the license and delete the call letters.[3] In its first six years on the air, the new WBOW-FM was a simulcast of its AM counterpart, though it used the WHOE call letters for six months in 1971. That changed on February 1, 1974, when WBOW-FM became WBOQ "Alternative Radio" with a format described as freeform but middle-of-the-road.[4] Later in the 1970s, WBOQ became a country music station.

In 1982, then-WBOW and WBOQ were sold to Contemporary Media, Inc., headed by Michael S. Rice. WBOQ was relaunched as a rock station, WZZQ, on June 15 of that year. Ten years later, in 1992, WZZQ became a rock-leaning CHR station.[5] Between 1995 and 2001, it simulcast on 1230 AM, which from 1995 to 2000 also took on the WZZQ call letters.

The president of Contemporary Media was Michael S. Rice. In 1994, Rice was convicted of sexually abusing five teenagers in Missouri.[6] The next year, the Federal Communications Commission opened a hearing to revoke the licenses of all of the stations owned by Contemporary Media and its sister companies, Contemporary Broadcasting and Lake Broadcasting, which also owned FM stations in Columbia, Missouri and Eldon, Missouri, as well as two additional unbuilt stations in the same state.[7] In 1997, an FCC administrative law judge ruled that the licenses should be revoked.[8] The FCC affirmed the decision in March 1998.[6] Rice appealed, losing in federal appeals court. In March 2001, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.[9] All Contemporary stations ceased operations by FCC order on October 4, 2001.[10]

References
  1. "1994 Broadcasting Yearbook" (PDF). 1994. p. B-130. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  2. "1949 Broadcasting Yearbook" (PDF). 1949. p. 304. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  3. "Existing FM Stations" (PDF). Broadcasting. July 2, 1956. p. 101. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  4. LaRoche, Ron (January 26, 1974). "WBOQ—New 24-Hour Stereo Radio". Terre Haute Tribune-Star. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  5. "Format Changes" (PDF). M Street Journal. April 13, 1992. p. 7. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  6. Federal Communications Commission (June 25, 1998). "INITIAL DECISION REVOKING THE LICENSES AND CONSTRUCTION PERMITS OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA, INC., CONTEMPORARY BROADCASTING, INC., AND LAKE BROADCASTING, INC., AFFIRMED (MM Docket No. 95-154)". Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  7. McConnell, Chris (October 16, 1995). "Conviction may cost Rice radio licenses" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. p. 22. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  8. McConnell, Chris (August 25, 1997). "FCC judge moves to pull radio licenses" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. p. 18. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  9. Toroian, Diane (July 11, 2001). "Child molester will lose broadcast license". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. B1. Retrieved June 8, 2019. (Continued on B3)
  10. Broyles, Addie (October 5, 2001). "'The Buzz' drops off airwaves". The Maneater. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
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