WEJZ

Adult contemporary radio station in Jacksonville, Florida

WEJZ

* Jacksonville, Florida

Broadcast area| Jacksonville metropolitan area
Frequency| 96.1 MHz (HD Radio)
Branding| 96.1 WEJZ
Programming
Format| Adult Contemporary
Affiliations| Premiere Networks
Ownership
Owner|

* Renda Broadcasting
* (Renda Broadcasting Corp. of Nevada)

Sister stations

| WGNE-FM
History

First air date

| 1948; 76 years ago (1948)

Former call signs

* WMBR-FM (1948–1965)
* WKTZ-FM (1965–1985)
* WLCS-FM (1985–1986)
* WLCS (1986–1987)

Technical information[1]

Licensing authority

| FCC
Facility ID| 55706
Class| C0
ERP| 100,000 watts
HAAT| 300 meters (984 ft)
Links

Public license information

* Public file
* LMS

Webcast| Listen Live
Website| wejz.com
Tower used by WEJZ

WEJZ (96.1 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Jacksonville, Florida.[2] It is owned by Renda Broadcasting and airs a mainstream adult contemporary radio format. WEJZ is the Jacksonville affiliate for the syndicated Delilah show. Between mid-November and December 25 each year, the station switches to all-Christmas music.

WEJZ's studios and offices are located on Atlantic Boulevard in the Arlington district of Jacksonville, and it transmits from Downtown Jacksonville, via a tower shared with other radio and TV stations.[3] WEJZ is a Class C radio station, broadcasting at 100,000 watts effective radiated power (ERP) from an antenna at nearly 1,000 feet. The signal stretches from Brunswick, Georgia, to Gainesville, Florida.

## History

[edit]

### Beautiful Music

[edit]

In 1948, the station first signed on as WMBR-FM, sister station to WMBR (now WQOP).[4] It was owned by the Florida Broadcasting Company, which the following year put WMBR-TV on the air, the second TV station in Florida (now WJXT). WMBR-FM simulcast the programming of its AM counterpart.

In the 1950s, the Washington Post bought the TV station, while the radio stations came under the ownership of WMBR, Incorporated.[5] In 1965, 96.1 became WKTZ-FM, when it was bought by Jones College, and was paired with WKTZ. The two stations aired a beautiful music format of soft instrumentals, with limited talk and commercials.

### Soft Adult Contemporary

[edit]

On October 1, 1985, 96.1 was bought by the Kravis Company, which already owned WRXJ (now WFXJ).[6] The call sign became WLCS-FM, airing a soft adult contemporary format. Meanwhile, WKTZ-FM, still owned by Jones College, became non-commercial, moving to 90.9 MHz (now K-Love station WJKV).

On June 21, 1987, WLCS was bought by WIN Communications.[7] The new owners changed the call letters to the current WEJZ, continuing its Soft AC format and rebranding the station "Lite 96.1."

In June 1990, the station was acquired by Renda Broadcasting. In January 2015, WEJZ dropped the "Lite" in its name, rebranded as 96.1 WEJZ, and moved to a more upbeat playlist of mainstream adult contemporary songs from the 1980s to current hits.

In 2019, 96.1 rebranded to 96.1 EJZ and switched to more modern pop-based playlist. They became known as playing "The most music for your workday" and added popular features that they maintain to this day, such as commercial-free hours of music. However, in 2022, the station reverted to the 96.1 WEJZ branding and moved to a Soft rock-based selection of music.

## Christmas Music

[edit]

Christmas Logo of WEJZ

WEJZ first flipped to all Christmas music in 2006, and has continued the practice every year since, becoming "Jacksonville's Christmas Music Station".[8] They begin airing Christmas music in mid-November (generally the week before Thanksgiving) and continue it throughout the Christmas season, ending on December 26. Each year on Christmas Eve at noon, WEJZ begins airing 36 hours of Christmas music, which includes little to no advertisements.[9] Christmas music generally increases ratings for the station as it hits #1 in the Nielsen Holiday Ratings.[10][11] In 2023, the station set a new record high for having a 19.8 market share in Jacksonville during the Holiday season. This placed WEJZ as the second-highest listened-to radio station in the country during the 2023 Christmas Season, only behind KSFI's 20.2 share in Salt Lake City.[12] WEJZ formerly ran an event called "12 Days of Christmas" where the station would give away prizes to listeners; however, this was discontinued in 2022.

Usually, WEJZ has no main competitor for Christmas music in Jacksonville. However, there are some cases where WEJZ has to compete for the audience. Such a case was in 2017 when WEZI flipped to all-Christmas music for the holiday season.[13] Other scenarios are Christian Contemporary stations, such as WCRJ or WJKV, flipping to Christmas Music for the Holiday Season.[14] Generally, however, these stations do not reach as high in the ratings as WEJZ.

## Programming

[edit]

WEJZ has a large on-air staff. Arthur and Yvonne go live weekdays from 5:30 am - 10 am,[15] Jordan Kline covers middays at the station, Matt Basford is on-air in the afternoon, and Brian Jordan covers the weekends. WEJZ also carries Delilah, which airs Sunday through Friday 7 pm - 12 am. Overnights are automated with no live DJs.

The flagship of WEJZ is the commercial-free workday, which kicks off weekdays at 7:30am and continues until 8:30. There are often many advertisements and promotions about this event that can be heard on the station.

WEJZ bears resemblance to many other Renda Broadcasting-owned stations. The most notable being Pittsburgh's WSHH, which shares some of the same DJs as WEJZ, an example being Jordan Kline. Both stations carry the same music genre, and syndicated radio shows and are seen as the two flagship-stations of their parent company.

WEJZ currently only has one sister station in Jacksonville, which is Country music WGNE-FM. However, they used to have two others. Renda Broadcasting formerly owned WMUV and WSOS-FM, before selling the stations to Chesapeake-Portsmouth Broadcasting Corporation in 2014. [16] This left WEJZ and WGNE-FM as the only Renda-owned stations left in Northeast Florida.

## Former Logos

[edit]

Logo used 2002-2004 Logo used 2004-2015

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WEJZ". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
2. ^ "WEJZ Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
3. ^ "WEJZ-FM Radio Station Coverage Map". radio-locator.com.
4. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1951 page 111
5. ^ "Broadcasting Yearbook 1963 page B-39" (PDF).
6. ^ "Broadcasting Yearbook 1987 page B-61" (PDF).
7. ^ "Broadcasting Yearbook 1990 page B-67" (PDF).
8. ^ LITE 96.1 GOES ALL CHRISTMAS
9. ^ "2022 | 36 Hours of Christmas".
10. ^ "Christmas music brings big ratings to WEJZ 96.1 in Jacksonville".
11. ^ "HOLIDAY 2022 (12/8 – 1/4) NIELSEN AUDIO PPM RATINGS DAY 4". Radio Insight. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
12. ^ "Holiday 2023 (12/7 – 1/3) Nielsen Audio PPM Ratings Top 50 - RadioInsight". 2024-01-28. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
13. ^ "X102.9 & EASY 106.5 SWAP FREQUENCIES IN JACKSONVILLE". Radio Insight. November 21, 2017.
14. ^ "Your Christmas Music Station | The JOY FM". florida.thejoyfm.com. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
15. ^ "Arthur and Yvonne in the Mornings". 96.1 WEJZ. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
16. ^ "Renda Sells Two Of Its Four Jacksonville Stations". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2024-07-28.

## External links

[edit]

* WEJZ official website
* Facility details for Facility ID 55706 (WEJZ) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
* WEJZ in Nielsen Audio's FM station database

* v
* t
* e

Radio stations in the Jacksonville metropolitan area (Florida)

By AM frequency|

* 550
* 600
* 690
* 930
* 970
* 1010
* 1050
* 1160
* 1170
* 1190
* 1220
* 1240
* 1320
* 1360
* 1400
* 1420
* 1460
* 1530
* 1570
* 1600

By FM frequency|

* 88.1
* 88.7
* 89.3
* 89.9
* 90.9
* 91.7
* 92.1
* 92.5
* 93.3
* 94.1
* 95.1
* 96.1
* 96.9
* 97.9
* 99.1
* 99.9
* 100.7
* 101.5
* 102.9
* 104.5
* 105.3
* 105.5
* 105.7
* 106.3
* 106.5
* 107.3

| LPFM|

* 95.5

|

Translators|

* 89.5
* 92.3
* 92.9
* 94.7
* 95.7
* 96.5
* W243AW
* W243DO
* 97.3
* 98.3
* 98.7
* 99.5
* 100.3
* 101.1
* 101.3
* 101.9
* 102.1
* 102.3
* 103.3
* 103.7
* 103.9
* 104.1
* 104.9
* 106.1
* 106.3
* 106.9

Digital radio
by frequency & subchannel|

* 88.1-1
* 88.1-2
* 88.1-3
* 89.9-1
* 89.9-2
* 89.9-3
* 89.9-4
* 90.9-1
* 90.9-2
* 90.9-3
* 93.3-1
* 93.3-2
* 93.3-3
* 95.1-1
* 96.1-1
* 96.9-1
* 96.9-2
* 97.9-1
* 97.9-2
* 99.1-1
* 99.1-2
* 99.9-1
* 101.5-1
* 101.5-2
* 102.9-1
* 104.5-1
* 104.5-2
* 105.5-1
* 105.5-2
* 106.5-1
* 107.3-1
* 107.3-3

By call sign|

* W208AV
* W222CL
* W225BI
* W234CW
* W239CN
* W243AW
* W243DO
* W247CF
* W252DJ
* W254CW
* W258CN
* W262AG
* W266CX
* W267BX
* W270CD
* W271CJ
* W272CQ
* W277DE
* W279AG
* W280EY
* W281AM
* W285FE
* W291CI
* W292DE
* W295AZ
* WAOC
* WAPE-FM
* WAYR
* WBHU
* HD2
* WBOB
* WCGL
* WCRJ
* HD2
* HD3
* WECC-FM
* WEJZ
* WEWC
* WEZI
* WFOY
* WFXJ
* WGNE-FM
* WHJX
* WJBT
* HD2
* HD3
* WJCT-FM
* HD2
* HD3
* HD4
* WJFR
* WJGL
* HD2
* WJGM
* WJKV
* HD2
* HD3
* WJNJ
* WJXL
* WJXL-FM
* WJXR
* WKBX
* WKSL
* HD2
* WKTZ
* WMUV
* WNNR
* WOKV
* WOKV-FM
* HD2
* WPLA
* HD3
* WQIK-FM
* HD2
* WQOP
* WROS
* WSKR-LP
* WSOL-FM
* HD2
* WSOS
* WSOS-FM
* WTRJ-FM
* WVOJ
* WWIO
* WYKB
* WYMM
* WZAZ
* WZNZ

Defunct|

* WCAN (833 AM)
* WDAL (833 AM)
* WSVE (1280 AM)

Nearby regions
Brunswick
Daytona Beach
Gainesville/Ocala
Lake City
Savannah
Waycross

See also
List of radio stations in Florida

* v
* t
* e

Adult Contemporary radio stations in the state of Florida

Stations|

* WAVV - Naples Park
* WBZE - Tallahassee
* WDUV – New Port Richey
* WEJZ – Jacksonville
* WEZI - Jacksonville
* WFEZ – Miami
* WFSY – Panama City
* WGYL - Vero Beach
* WINK-FM – Fort Myers
* WJPT – Fort Myers
* WKLG – Rock Harbor
* WKTK – Crystal River
* WLRQ-FM – Cocoa
* WLYF – Miami
* WMGF – Mount Dora
* WMIA-FM – Miami Beach
* WMTX - Tampa
* WNCV – Shalimar
* WOLL - Hobe Sound
* WOMX-FM - Orlando
* WOSN - Indian River Shores
* WRMF - Palm Beach
* WSDV - Sarasota
* WSGL - Naples
* WWLL – Sebring
* WWRM – Tampa
* WZJZ - Port Charlotte

See also
adult contemporary
classic hits
college
country
news/talk
NPR
oldies
religious
rock
sports
top 40
urban
other radio stations in Florida

* v
* t
* e

Renda Media

Radio Stations|

| Pittsburgh, PA|

* WSHH

|

Jacksonville, FL|

* WEJZ
* WGNE-FM

Fort Myers / Naples, FL|

* WWGR
* WJGO
* WGUF
* WSGL

Indiana, PA|

* WDAD
* WQMU
* WCCS
* WLCY

Punxsutawney, PA|

* WPXZ-FM
* WECZ
* WKQL

Greensburg, PA|

* WHJB

30°19′23″N 81°38′35″W﻿ / ﻿30.323°N 81.643°W﻿ / 30.323; -81.643
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