WZID

WZID
City Manchester, New Hampshire
Broadcast area Southern New Hampshire
Branding 95.7 WZID
Hot Hits 94.1 (HD2)
103.1 The Outlaw (HD3)
Slogan "Today's Variety"
"Shut Up & Play the Hits" (HD2)
"Legends and Young Guns" (HD3)
Frequency 95.7 MHz (also on HD Radio)
Repeater(s) 94.1 W231BR (Manchester, relays HD2)
103.1 W276BJ (Concord, relays HD3)
First air date October 2, 1947 (1947-10-02) (as WKBR-FM)
Format FM/HD1: Adult Contemporary
HD2: Top 40
HD3: Classic country
ERP 14,500 watts
HAAT 282 meters (925 ft)
Class B
Facility ID 58550
Transmitter coordinates 42°59′2.00″N 71°35′22.00″W / 42.9838889°N 71.5894444°W / 42.9838889; -71.5894444Coordinates: 42°59′2.00″N 71°35′22.00″W / 42.9838889°N 71.5894444°W / 42.9838889; -71.5894444
Former callsigns WKBR-FM (1947–1971)
Affiliations Dial Global
Owner Saga Communications
(Saga Communications of New England, LLC)
Sister stations WFEA, WMLL
Webcast Listen Live
Listen Live (HD2)
Listen Live (HD3)
Website wzid.com
hothitsnh.com (HD2)
outlaw1031.com (HD3)

WZID (95.7 FM) is an American radio station with an Adult contemporary music format. WZID is located at 500 Commercial Street in Manchester, New Hampshire. Its signal can be heard as far south as Route 128 in Massachusetts, as far east as southern Maine and as far west as Vermont. WZID transmits in HD Digital.

History

The station was born October 2, 1947 as WKBR-FM. Throughout the 1960s, and very early 1970s, WKBR-FM simulcasted the Top 40 format of WKBR-AM 1250, providing that station with significant extended coverage. In July 1971, WKBR-FM became WZID, and the format was flipped to Beautiful music. In the 1980s, instrumental easy listening music was scaled back, with soft vocal hits added, to the point where the station evolved into an Adult Contemporary station. In October 1990, Sunshine Broadcasting of New Hampshire Inc. announced the sale of WZID and 1370 WFEA (AM) to Saga Communications Inc. of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. The sale was finalized April 16, 1991. Saga Communications of New England LLC operates the station today. WZID's President and General Manager is Bob Cox.[1]

Translators

Former logo for WZID-HD2, used from January 2009 until the split of FM translator W276BJ 103.1 FM Concord on February 1, 2017 to simulcast WZID-HD3 "103.1 The Outlaw".

WZID used to be heard on translator station, W270AH 101.9 in Peterborough, New Hampshire. However in 2008, Saga Communications filed a series of minor translator applications which moved the translator into the Keene radio market as W276CB, a translator of Saga radio station WKNE's HD3 Channel as "Kool 103.1" (now "WINK Classic Country 103.1FM"). Up until mid-January 2009, WZID had two more translators, W231BR 94.1 in Manchester at 250 watts and W276BJ 103.1 in Concord, also at 250 watts, but in January 2009 those two translators were turned into the new "Hot Hits 94.1 and 103.1", a simulcast of WZID's HD-2 channel, which is a top 40 station broadcasting Dial Global's Hits Now! format; branding themselves as the new hit music station in New Hampshire. Saga Communications obviously had been planning this out for some time because both the translator's power was recently increased from low power to 250 watts. This station somewhat poses as a threat to WJYY and even WFTN-FM, but has an inferior signal compared to the two. Saga was able to open up this new station due to a loophole in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules that allows HD sub-channel stations to be repeated on translators. On December 11, 2013, Hot Hits had short-lived intentions of increasing the HAAT of 94.1 W231BR-FM up to 270 meters to provide significant coverage improvements to the Keene, Portsmouth and Lowell areas; however, this signal upgrade had never occurred.[2] On August 18, 2014, WZID-FM was granted permission to implement its 94.1 W231BR-FM translator's current HAAT of 18 meters (59 feet) (although the ERP of would remain at 250 Watts), to improve 94.1 W231BR-FM's coverage of surrounding communities (such as Keene, Portsmouth and Lowell), although to a somewhat lesser extent of signal improvement than originally contemplated back in late 2013.[3]

Beginning in mid July 2015, WZID began simulcasting sister station WFEA - AM 1370 on its HD-3 channel which in turn is broadcast on newly purchased 110 watt translator W260CF serving the greater Manchester area from its tower on Mt. Uncanoonuc in Goffstown at 99.9 FM.

On February 1, 2017 WZID's HD-3 sub channel changed their format from the WFEA simulcast to Classic country, branded as "103.1 The Outlaw" (simulcast on FM translator W276BJ 103.1 FM Concord).[4]

References

  1. ↑ "WFEA History". Retrieved 2008-05-04.
  2. ↑ "FCCdata.org". Retrieved 2017-09-09.
  3. ↑ "FCCdata.org". Retrieved 2017-09-09.
  4. ↑ Saga Brings Outlaw to New Hampshire Radioinsight - February 1, 2107
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