WKRZ
Encyclopedia
WKRZ, "98.5 KRZ", is a radio station
licensed to Freeland, Pennsylvania
serving the Scranton
/Wilkes-Barre
/Hazleton
radio market at 98.5 MHz FM
. The station radio format is Top 40 which it has broadcast in the market since 1980. The station has always used some branding of "KRZ", a shortened form of its call letters, for its on air promotion. The present owners of WKRZ, Entercom Communications
, received FCC approval in 2003 to move WAMT (103.1 MHz FM) from Freeland
to Avoca, Pennsylvania
which required Entercom
to change the city of license of WKRZ from Wilkes-Barre
to Freeland
due to the FCC
rules about the "loss of local service" to Freeland
because of the WAMT move.
WKRZ is broadcasting in IBOC digital radio
, using the HD Radio
system from iBiquity
. The main program is simulcast on 98.5 HD-1 in digital. Comedy programming can be heard on 98.5 HD-2 on the secondary digital multicasting stream.
WKRZ also airs On Air With Ryan Seacrest
on weekdays.
. It was the FM
sister station to then WBRE AM
at 1340 kHz also located in Wilkes-Barre
. WBRE-FM evolved through a number of radio formats ending up with an all News
format during the 1970s. The station, up to that point, broadcast in FM
mono since its start in 1948. Due to consistently low audience ratings in the area, WBRE-FM made a big change in 1980 when it was sold with the new owners switching to FM stereo, a dramatic format switch to Top 40 music, along with the call sign change to the present WKRZ. WKRZ-FM has been broadcasting a Top 40 music format since 1980. It debuted as 98½ KRZ-FM. It went by 98½ to differentiate itself from WILK 980 which was Top 40 at the time and called itself AM98. It was originally supposed to be called Krazy 98 as its sister station was WAQY Wacky 102 Springfield Mass. WKRZ-AM programming was split from the FM and became Music Of Your Life and got strong ratings; WKRZ-AM was sold in 1987 becoming WYCK, a simulcast of WICK Scranton. WYCK lost the lease on its tower site in Kingston. A new tower was built near the VA Medical Center east of Wilkes-Barre; WYCK could not provide city grade coverage to Wilkes-Barre with its new relocated transmitter site; the new city of license is Plains.
and some sections of extreme northwestern New Jersey
. These are areas where the signal from WKRZ 98.5 MHz cannot reach.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
licensed to Freeland, Pennsylvania
Freeland, Pennsylvania
Freeland, originally called Birbeckville after founder Joseph Birkbeck, then South Heberton, is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, south of Wilkes-Barre, and 10 miles northeast of Hazleton in an agricultural region. Freeland was officially incorporated as a borough on September 11, 1876....
serving the Scranton
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...
/Wilkes-Barre
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
/Hazleton
Hazleton, Pennsylvania
Hazleton is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census, an increase of 8.6% from the 2000 census count .-Greater Hazleton:...
radio market at 98.5 MHz FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
. The station radio format is Top 40 which it has broadcast in the market since 1980. The station has always used some branding of "KRZ", a shortened form of its call letters, for its on air promotion. The present owners of WKRZ, Entercom Communications
Entercom Communications
Entercom Communications Corporation is the fourth-largest broadcasting company in the United States. As of November 2009, Entercom operates 110 radio stations in 23 markets across the United States....
, received FCC approval in 2003 to move WAMT (103.1 MHz FM) from Freeland
Freeland, Pennsylvania
Freeland, originally called Birbeckville after founder Joseph Birkbeck, then South Heberton, is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, south of Wilkes-Barre, and 10 miles northeast of Hazleton in an agricultural region. Freeland was officially incorporated as a borough on September 11, 1876....
to Avoca, Pennsylvania
Avoca, Pennsylvania
Avoca is a borough within the Greater Pittston area of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, ten miles northeast of Wilkes Barre and nine miles southwest of Scranton. The population was 2,851 at the 2000 census...
which required Entercom
Entercom Communications
Entercom Communications Corporation is the fourth-largest broadcasting company in the United States. As of November 2009, Entercom operates 110 radio stations in 23 markets across the United States....
to change the city of license of WKRZ from Wilkes-Barre
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
to Freeland
Freeland, Pennsylvania
Freeland, originally called Birbeckville after founder Joseph Birkbeck, then South Heberton, is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, south of Wilkes-Barre, and 10 miles northeast of Hazleton in an agricultural region. Freeland was officially incorporated as a borough on September 11, 1876....
due to the FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
rules about the "loss of local service" to Freeland
Freeland, Pennsylvania
Freeland, originally called Birbeckville after founder Joseph Birkbeck, then South Heberton, is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, south of Wilkes-Barre, and 10 miles northeast of Hazleton in an agricultural region. Freeland was officially incorporated as a borough on September 11, 1876....
because of the WAMT move.
WKRZ is broadcasting in IBOC digital radio
Digital radio
Digital radio has several meanings:1. Today the most common meaning is digital radio broadcasting technologies, such as the digital audio broadcasting system, also known as Eureka 147. In these systems, the analog audio signal is digitized into zeros and ones, compressed using formats such as...
, using the HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
system from iBiquity
IBiquity
iBiquity Digital Corporation is a company formed by the merger of USA Digital Radio and Lucent Digital Radio, with the goal of creating an in-band on-channel digital radio system for the United States and around the world...
. The main program is simulcast on 98.5 HD-1 in digital. Comedy programming can be heard on 98.5 HD-2 on the secondary digital multicasting stream.
WKRZ also airs On Air With Ryan Seacrest
On Air with Ryan Seacrest (radio)
On Air with Ryan Seacrest is the name of an American syndicated radio program hosted by Ryan Seacrest. As of 2010, the daily morning radio show airs on Los Angeles top 40 station KIIS-FM and was launched at the same time as the television show with the same name, although Seacrest had hosted a...
on weekdays.
History
The radio station now known as WKRZ, first signed on the air in 1948 as WBRE-FM from Wilkes-BarreWilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
. It was the FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
sister station to then WBRE AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
at 1340 kHz also located in Wilkes-Barre
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
. WBRE-FM evolved through a number of radio formats ending up with an all News
News Radio
News Radio can refer to:* NewsRadio, the NBC sitcom which aired from 1995–1999.* News radio, the all-news or news/talk radio format....
format during the 1970s. The station, up to that point, broadcast in FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
mono since its start in 1948. Due to consistently low audience ratings in the area, WBRE-FM made a big change in 1980 when it was sold with the new owners switching to FM stereo, a dramatic format switch to Top 40 music, along with the call sign change to the present WKRZ. WKRZ-FM has been broadcasting a Top 40 music format since 1980. It debuted as 98½ KRZ-FM. It went by 98½ to differentiate itself from WILK 980 which was Top 40 at the time and called itself AM98. It was originally supposed to be called Krazy 98 as its sister station was WAQY Wacky 102 Springfield Mass. WKRZ-AM programming was split from the FM and became Music Of Your Life and got strong ratings; WKRZ-AM was sold in 1987 becoming WYCK, a simulcast of WICK Scranton. WYCK lost the lease on its tower site in Kingston. A new tower was built near the VA Medical Center east of Wilkes-Barre; WYCK could not provide city grade coverage to Wilkes-Barre with its new relocated transmitter site; the new city of license is Plains.
WKRF simulcast
WKRF is a simulcast of WKRZ on 107.9 MHz FM. WKRF's city of license is Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, and can be heard in the Stroudsburg, PA area and throughout extreme eastern sections of PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and some sections of extreme northwestern New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. These are areas where the signal from WKRZ 98.5 MHz cannot reach.