WBWZ
| City | New Paltz, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Hudson Valley |
| Branding | Z93 |
| Slogan | Today's Classic Rock |
| Frequency | 93.3 MHz |
| First air date | December 20, 1992 |
| Format | Classic rock |
| ERP | 330 watts |
| HAAT | 295 meters |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 48615 |
| Callsign meaning | W Betty Walker (original owner) Z-Rock (original format) |
| Affiliations |
Premium Choice iHeartRadio |
| Owner |
iHeartMedia, Inc. (AMFM Radio Licenses, L.L.C.) |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | Z93 Online |
WBWZ (93.3 FM, "Z93") is a classic rock radio station licensed to New Paltz, New York and serving the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York state. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and broadcasts at 330 watts ERP from the a tower near Illinois Mountain in Marlborough, New York shared with longtime sister WRWD-FM.
The construction permit of WBWZ was awarded in 1991 to Betty Walker, the mother of then-WRWD owner William H. ("Bud") Walker and owner of an area apple orchard. Though separate ownerships linked only by bloodline on paper, prior to sign-on the younger Walker signed an agreement to operate WBWZ with WRWD from the company's then-studios in Highland. After testing for the first part of December 1992, WBWZ formally signed on on December 20 of that year carrying ABC's "Z-Rock" satellite hard rock format as Z-Rock 93.3. With limited outside promotion and no rock station targeting younger audiences, WBWZ entered the Top 10 of the Poughkeepsie ratings in its first two books and became enough of a threat to rival WPDH that the programming at that station began to evolve to classic rock.
Though with a very loyal audience and good numbers, the Walkers found it hard to sell WBWZ to advertisers with the country music format of WRWD. Coupled with the decline of hard rock and the rise of alternative rock, the writing was soon on the wall for Z-Rock 93.3 and in February 1995 the station flipped to a satellite-fed 1970s music format as Z-93. Though the station had an initial surge of listenership, quirks in Arbitron's system in rating small markets at the time led to the ratings coming out after such a surge had subsided and the overall ratings fell below the Z-Rock format.
...
Wikipedia