WNVZ

WNVZ

File:Wnvz.jpg
Broadcast area	Norfolk/Virginia Beach
Frequency	104.5 (MHz) (HD Radio)
Branding	"Z104"
Programming
Format	Rhythmic Top 40
Ownership
Owner	Entercom
History
First air date	1967
Call sign meaning	We're Norfolk Virginia's Z104
Technical information
Class	B
ERP	50,000 watts
Links
Website	Z104's homepage

WNVZ, also known as Z104, is a Rhythmic Top 40 outlet serving the Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Portsmouth-Hampton-Newport News radio market. The Entercom communications outlet broadcasts at 104.5 MHz with an ERP of 50 kW. Its COL and studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

History

WNVZ originally signed on the air in 1967 as a simulcast of Country music outlet 1270 WTID, (which is now separately owned Religious outlet WTJZ ) but by 1973 they would break off the simulcast and become WQRK, broadcasting a Top 40 format with custom made jingles, sped up records, and a lot of on air audio processing (Then known as "QRK" and "Super Q" at the time).In 1975 WQRK went from live to automated Top 40,in the late 70s and early 80s they evolved into a Live Adult Contemporary format.

But that would all change in August 1982 when they returned to a mainstream Top 40 format as Z104,and debuted the WNVZ calls and Z104 name. (The station marked the retiring of the "Q104 1/2" moniker and hailed the return of the CHR format on the air with the slogan "The Half Has Become a Whole.") About a year later they were using Mike Joseph's "Hot Hits" format, which had been done in several larger markets, but dropped Joseph by summer of 1985 By 1993 they would evolve into a Rhythmic Top 40 direction. Today, it uses the slogan "Today's Best Music" to describe its broad-based mix of Hip-Hop/R&B and Rhythmic Pop hits. This pits the station against its urban contemporary hip hop/R&B competitor WOWI.

WNVZ HD2

On April 25, 2006 Entercom announced that WNVZ's HD2 subchannel will offer an all-comedy format, which debuted in June.

Trivia

The station flipped its format and positioning several weeks before acquiring its new call letters in late 1982, which meant that for a short period of time the station was using a new nickname (Z104) that was completely unrelated to its call letters (which were still WQRK). This resulted in a very curious-sounding top-of-the-hour station IDs that went something like: "Z-104 is WQRK, Norfolk"

Shaggy

The station's morning show, "The Z Morning Zoo" consisted of Nick, Tricia, and Shaggy until Monday, August 20th, 2007 when Shaggy announced he was leaving the show because of his off-air love affair with actor David Hasselhoff. After the announcement, there was a huge party, and Shaggy disappeared. His whereabouts are still not known. Shaggy had considered preisthood in the late 1990s after reading a few pages of the Bible, however after traveling to Suffolk, Virginia, he realized corn-farming was his calling. Shaggy (aka Shaggy Rosenthal) found true love raising crops such as green beans, corn, butternut squash and baby lima beans.

External links

• Z104, TODAY'S BEST MUSIC!
• Template:Fmq
• Steve McVie's Hot Hits tribute, with airchecks of "Z104" during its "Hot Hits!" phase in 1983-1984