WEZS
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WEZS was an FM radio station licensed to Richmond, Virginia. It broadcast on 103.7 MHz and was owned by EZ Communications, a company founded by Art Kellar that pioneered "easy-listening" radio in major markets including WEZR FM (Manassas, Virginia) in Washington, DC. The company had common ownership with WEEL an AM radio station licensed to Fairfax which was one of the Washington, DC area's major top 40 stations in the late 60s and early 70s.
In 1970, EZ Communications took the successful easy listening format to the Richmond market when it acquired classical music station WFMV (FM) and changed the call sign to WEZS. After a brief skirmish and with loyal WFMV listeners and assistance from the new owners in moving the classical format to WRFK (FM), a non-profit station, the easy listening format was very successful in Richmond as it had been in the Washington DC metro market.
Other EZ Communications stations which used the easy listening format to find profitability in emerging FM markets were WEZC (FM) 104.7 MHz in Charlotte, North Carolina, and WEZB (FM) 97.1 MHz in New Orleans, Louisiana. In the years following, EZ Communications grew from a five station chain to the Federal Communications Commission FCC maximum limit of the era, with stations in FM markets from Miami, Florida to Seattle, Washington.
By 1995, EZ Communications was # 12 in the Top 25 Radio Groups in the U.S. measured by numbers of listeners as measured by Arbitron (spring 1995).
Sources
Internet
- Fisher, Mark D. (2005) A Brief History of WFMV: Virginia's first stereophonic good music station, [Richmond Radio Group on Yahoo]; Richmond, VA
External links
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