 | |
| Frequency | 107.9MHz (HD Radio) |
|---|---|
| Branding | Cars 108 |
| Programming | |
| Format | Adult contemporary |
| Subchannels | HD2:WQUS (Classic rock) |
| Affiliations | Compass Media Networks Premiere Networks |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WFNT,WQUS,WRCL,WWBN | |
| History | |
First air date | November 4, 1961; 63 years ago (1961-11-04) |
Former call signs | WGMZ-FM (1961–1984) |
Call sign meaning | "Cars" (in reference toFlint's auto industry) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 20446 |
| Class | B |
| ERP | 50,000watts |
| HAAT | 101 meters (331 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°58′49″N83°34′40″W / 42.98028°N 83.57778°W /42.98028; -83.57778 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wcrz.com |
WCRZ (107.9FM, "Cars 108") is acommercialradio station inFlint, Michigan, broadcasting anadult contemporaryformat and switching toChristmas music for much of November and December. WCRZ is the top-rated heritage station in the market. Itsstudios and offices are on East Bristol Road inBurton, east of Flint.[2]
WCRZ-FM has aneffective radiated power (ERP) of 50,000watts, the maximum for most of Michigan, from a 101 meters (331 ft) tall transmitter tower on South Vassar Road near East Bristol Road in Burton.[3] It also broadcasts usingHD Radio technology, with a simulcast of classic rock sister stationWQUS on its seconddigital subchannel.
WCRZ-FM has localDJs on weekdays. It is also the Flint outlet for thesyndicated call-in and request show, "Delilah," heard evenings. Cars 108 features "John Tesh, Intelligence for Your Life" during overnight hours. It also is the local affiliate for "American Top 40 withRyan Seacrest."
On November 4, 1961; 63 years ago (1961-11-04), the stationsigned on as WGMZ-FM. It had a long-running and successfulMOR/easy listening format. The station played quarter-hour sweeps of soft, instrumental music, mostlycover versions of popular songs, as well asBroadway andHollywood show tunes.
WGMZ-FM was originally co-owned with WAMM-AM (nowWFLT-AM). The owner of WAMM-AM at that time sold WGMZ-FM in 1966.[4] By 1968, WGMZ-FM was co-owned with WKMF-AM (nowWFNT-AM).[5]
On June 25, 1984 at 1 am, thecall sign changed to WCRZ-FM and the format became adult contemporary. "Fame" byIrene Cara was the first song played in the new format. The call letters WGMZ-FM were assumed by a station inTuscola, Michigan, three years later, and that station is known today asWWBN-FM, and has been asister station to WCRZ since the mid-1990s.
Since the mid-1990s, WCRZ-FM has been the number one radio station in Flint, off and on, and was the first station in the market to broadcast inhigh definition. Since then, sister stationsWWBN-FM andWRCL have also added HD broadcasting, as has competing stationWDZZ-AM.
In the Spring of 1995, WCRZ-FM went off the air for some time due to a vandalizing of the station's transmitting antenna. During this time, the frequency of 107.9 wasdark for roughly a week. However, sister station 101.7 (now 101.5) WWBN-FM allowed WCRZ-FM to share signals until repairs were made on the antenna.
WCRZ-FM's jingle melody was adapted fromKVIL-FM inDallas, Texas. For much of the 1990s,JAM Creative Productions produced WCRZ-FM's jingles; it was TM Century that chose to sing the station's nickname, "Cars 108" to the melody of KVIL-FM. For over a decade, however, WCRZ-FM's jingles have been byTM Studios.
The KVIL-FM jingles were originally produced from the TM Century package "KVIL: The '90s". KVIL-FM in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas market first aired that jingle package in January 1991 and continued to do so until Late Spring or Early Summer 1993, when JAM introduced the "Celebrate" package for that station. Before that time, however, that jingle package was first tested by TM on a radio station in country of Japan in late 1990, but TM later decided to shift the jingle package to American radio stations, just so that they could more easily syndicate that package to radio stations in several American markets. Following that, the "Memphis' Best Music" package from Thompson Creative was used.
Jam Jingles were not used until the mid/late 1990s, and the package was Q95-Detroit's "Q Cuts" and "Quick Qs." Cars 108 returned to the KVIL packages from TM Century around the turn of the century. In 2008, Cars 108 had a custom jingle package produced by the world-famous jingle expert, Johnny Hooper. The RadioScape Package, simply called "Cars 108," was originally produced in 2008, with 5 new cuts added in 2010. The current jingle package is another adaptation of a KVIL-FM jingle package, which is the "103.7 Lite FM"-era jingle package produced by Reel World Productions.
