northeast ohio branding 93.1 wzak slogan cleveland s r & b leader frequency 93.1 mhz also on hd radio first air date may 26 1963 format urban adult contemporary hd2 urban gospel wjmo simulcast hd3 news talk were simulcast erp 27 500 watts haat 189 meters class b facility id 74465 transmitter coordinates 41 16 50.00 n 81 37 22.00 w 41.2805556 n 81.6227778 w 41.2805556 ; 81.6227778 callsign meaning muzak affiliations cumulus media networks owner radio one blue chip broadcasting licenses ltd. sister stations wenz were wjmo webcast listen live hd2 listen live hd3 listen live website wzakcleveland.com wzak 93.1 fm branded 93.1 wzak is a commercial urban adult contemporary radio station licensed to cleveland ohio serving greater cleveland and much of surrounding northeast ohio . owned by radio one wzak is a local affiliate for the tom joyner morning show and nationally syndicated personality d. l. hughley . the wzak studios are located in downtown cleveland while the station transmitter resides in brecksville . besides a standard analog transmission wzak broadcasts over three hd radio channels and is available online . contents 1 history 1.1 1960s 1.2 1970s 80s 1.3 1990s 2000s 2 current programming 2.1 main 2.2 hd 3 references 4 external links history edit 1960s edit wzak began as an ethnic radio station signing on the air on may 26 1963 . the ohio music corporation the local franchise for muzak had the original construction permit to build the station . ohio music corporation xen & lula zapis joe & betty bauer and bob stumpf formed trans world broadcasting to put wzak on the air . zapis and the bauers had been previously involved with wxen an earlier ethnic programmer in cleveland which zapis also was associated with and which had call letters derived from zapis first name . wzak was cleveland s first full time ethnic radio station presenting programming in 17 foreign languages including programs in hungarian german hosted by the bauers and a second show hosted by bob stumpf italian slovenian greek hosted by zapis and his wife lula irish arabic lebanese and hindi . some groups had multiple different programs ; there were for example five different programs offered in spanish and five different german programs . most programs were brokered that is the program producers were not station employees but independent producers who put the program on the air determined program content and sold the advertising for the program . although the program content varied most programs primarily featured music from the homeland along with some news or discussion . although foreign languages seemed to dominate english was actually used about half of the time during the station s broadcasts . 1 owing to this practice one of the more popular programs that aired on wzak was not ethnic at all but was an early progressive rock show hosted by barry weingart and steve doc nemo nemeth in 1967 . 2 3 1970s 80s edit wzak s only competition in the cleveland market came from wxen which also featured ethnic programming for a portion of its schedule . wzak was the city s only full time ethnic station and its last . by 1979 the station then owned by trans world broadcasting corp. of cleveland whose president was zapis found it difficult to maintain its ethnic format . the number of listeners was declining several of the program hosts had died or retired and the overall financial situation was discouraging . in 1980 zapis bought out his partners to become the majority owner of the station forming zapis communications . the station began straying from its all ethnic format as wayne mack began programming beautiful music on the station . on march 2 1981 at 6 am the station adopted a black oriented urban contemporary format continuing its ethnic programming only on sundays for a while . ratings improved with the arrival in may 1982 of program director and dj lynn tolliver jr. and general sales manager mike hilber . several controversial promotions also drew media attention to the station . over the next few years the station s ratings climbed and it finished first in the arbitron ratings on april 5 1990 . critical opinion also improved . in 1993 for example it won three billboard magazine awards . 4 zapis communications purchased and operated radio stations in atlanta boston wwtm waaf akron and youngstown wpao wict wwsy . wzak faced stiffed competition from beasley broadcasting s disco 108 wdmt which at the time played club mixes and more disco and urban music in cleveland . 1990s 2000s edit in 1997 the station replaced its popular three s company morning show with the syndicated tom joyner morning show . the january 16 1997 and january 15 1998 arbitron ratings again showed wzak to be the number one station in cleveland . on august 12 1998 chancellor media corporation of texas announced its purchase of wzak from zapis communications along with its purchase of five other cleveland radio stations wzjm wdok wqal wrmr and wjmo for 275 million . 5 it was at the time the largest radio deal in cleveland broadcasting history . on july 13 1999 chancellor media merged with capstar broadcasting to form amfm inc. at that time the nation s largest radio station owner with 465 stations . amfm sold wzak to radio one on july 20 2000 as part of a required divestiture when amfm merged with clear channel communications . 6 current programming edit main edit wzak features nationally syndicated hosts tom joyner and d.l. hughley in morning and afternoon drive respectively both via cumulus media networks . local dj sam sylk is heard middays and radio one dj john monds is heard evenings . hd edit hd2 digital subchannel simulcasts the urban gospel talk format of sister station wjmo . hd3 subchannel simulcasts the news talk format of sister station were . 7 8 9 10 references edit encyclopedia of cleveland history wzak . ech.cwru.edu . retrieved 2014 08 18 . olszewski mike 2003 . radio daze stories from the front in cleveland s fm air wars . kent ohio kent state university press . pp. 4 7 . isbn 0873387732 . adams deanna r. 2002 . rock n roll and the cleveland connection . kent ohio kent state university press . p. 103 . isbn 0873386914 . wzak fm is recipient of 3 billboard awards in clenix . catalog.cpl.org . 1993 09 11 . retrieved 2014 08 18 . company news ; chancellor media to buy six cleveland radio stations . the new york times . august 13 1998 . 415 07 20 00 justice department requires clear channel and am fm to divest 99 radio stations in 27 markets required sale is largest radio divestiture ever . usdoj.gov . 2000 07 20 . retrieved 2014 08 18 . show schedules 93.1 wzak . wzakcleveland.com . retrieved 2014 08 18 . station guide cleveland oh . hdradio.com . hd radio . 2015 . retrieved january 15 2011 . lance venta 2013 03 27 . radioinsight skip murphy to replace michael baisden . radioinsight.com . retrieved 2014 08 18 . sam sylk moves to middays at wzak . allaccess.com . 2013 04 03 . retrieved 2014 08 18 . external links edit official website query the fcc s fm station database for wzak radio locator information on wzak query nielsen audio s fm station database for wzak encyclopedia of cleveland history wzak cleveland broadcast radio archives wzak timeline praisecleveland.com wzak hd2 newstalkcleveland.com wzak hd3 v t e radio stations in the cleveland ohio market by fm frequency 87.7 88.3 88.3 88.7 89.3 90.3 91.1 91.5 92.3 93.1 95.5 96.5 98.5 99.1 99.5 100.7 102.1 103.3 104.1 104.9 105.7 106.5 107.3 107.9 by am frequency 850 930 1000 1040 1100 1220 1260 1300 1320 1330 1380 1420 1460 1490 1540 1560 defunct by wx frequency 162.55 by callsign khb59 w256bt wabq waks watj defunct wbwc wccd wccr wclv wcpn wcrf fm wcsb wdlw wdok wenz weol were wfhm fm wgar fm whk whkw whlk whwn wint wjcu wjmo wjtb wkhr wknr wkrk fm wlfm lp wmji wmms wncx wnwv wobl wqal wruw fm wtam wwgk wzak online owow radio ohio radio markets akron canton cincinnati cleveland columbus dayton lima marietta toledo youngstown warren other ohio radio regions ashtabula ironton mid ohio sandusky southern ohio wheeling steubenville see also list of radio stations in ohio radio stations in southwestern ontario clear channel stations with extended nighttime coverage . v t e radio one key people cathy hughes chairman and ceo radio shows the tom joyner morning show via reach media under contract russ parr morning show via aurn the yolanda adams morning show the donnie simpson show radio stations mainstream urban kbfb kbxx wcdx wckx wenz werq fm wgpr1 whhl whta wizf wkys wqnc wqok urban adult contemporary kmjq wamj wbmo wdmk wfxc wfxk wkjm wkjs wmmj wrnb wtlc fm wumj wwin fm wxmg wzak urban gospel wjmo wjyd wnnl wppz fm wprs fm wpze wpzr wpzs wpzz wtlc wwin wycb urban talk wchb wdbz were wol wolb wtps chr wnow fm rhythmic chr whhh rhythmic oldies wfun fm wosf wosl classic hip hop kroi ksoc wphi fm w275bk china radio international wild other wdni cd telemundo tv one interactive one 1 owned by international free and accepted modern masons and operated by radio one under an lma . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wzak & oldid 743407514 categories hd radio stations1963 establishments in ohioradio one stationsradio stations established in 1963radio stations in clevelandurban adult contemporary radio stations navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 9 october 2016 at 14 27 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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