WZRC
 | |
| City | New York City |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | New York metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 1480 kHz |
| First air date | 1930 |
| Format | Cantonese news/talk/music |
| Power | 5,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 27398 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°50′42″N 74°01′12″W / 40.84500°N 74.02000°WCoordinates: 40°50′42″N 74°01′12″W / 40.84500°N 74.02000°W |
| Callsign meaning |
W Z RoCk (former satellite network) |
| Former callsigns |
WHOM (1930-1975) WJIT (1975-1989) |
| Owner |
Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, Inc (Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Licensee, LLC) |
| Sister stations | WKDM |
| Website |
www |
WZRC, on 1480 kHz, known on-air as (AM 1480 simplified Chinese: 中文广播电台; traditional Chinese: 中文廣播電臺; pinyin: Zhōngwén Guǎngbò Diàntái; Jyutping: Zung1 Man4 Gwong2 Bo3 Din6 Toi4), is a radio station licensed to New York City. The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting and airs Cantonese programming. It is one of two Cantonese radio stations serving the New York City metropolitan area, the other is Chung Wah Chinese Broadcasting Company. Its transmitting facility is located in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.
History
The Formation and The Popes (1930 - 1960)
The station was founded in 1930 as WHOM by the New Jersey Broadcasting Corp. The call letters stood for owner Harry O'Melia. In the 1940s the station aired ethnic brokered programming and was owned by Generoso Pope. The Popes had a media empire, including: The National Enquirer, Il Progresso Italo-Americano, Il Bollettino della Sera, Il Corriere d'America, and the Philadelphia daily L'Opinione. Pope used his influence through his media empire to secure the vote of the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman.
1960 – 1982
In 1960, it evolved to mostly Spanish. In 1975 the station was sold to SJR communications along with WHOM-FM and the call-sign was changed to WJIT (Radio Jit). The format went from diversified Spanish to Spanish contemporary music. In the late '70s WJIT was the leading salsa and merengue station on the New York dial. In 1982 the format was changed to Spanish Adult Contemporary and the station was sold, along with WKTU 92.3, to Infinity Broadcasting.
1982 – 1998
In 1989, Infinity decided that with a new Spanish station on 97.9 that it should move 1480 WJIT (by then known as talk station 1480 Radio America) to an English format. The Spanish format was dropped on April 30, 1990, and the station began airing a heavy metal based satellite rock format "Z Rock". The call-sign was changed to WZRC (originally used in Chicago by the flagship station for the network, "Z-Rock 106.7 FM" from 1986-1987.[1]
On May 27, 1993, WZRC switched to country through Transtar's "Mainstream Country" satellite-delivered service.[2] This would be short lived; a few months later, WZRC switched to Korean brokered programming. Infinity continued to own the radio station until after its merger with CBS in 1997. At that point, it owned 92.3 WXRK, 101.1 WCBS-FM, 102.7 WNEW-FM, 660 WFAN, 880 WCBS, 1010 WINS, and 1480 WZRC. While it was not required to sell WZRC, it opted to anyhow, and sold the station to Multicultural Media in 1998.
After 1998
Multicultural kept the Korean format but after a few years, in 2002, switched to Chinese and now in Cantonese (to complement Multicultural's Sinocast network broadcast locally on 92.3 FM subcarrier).