WHTZ
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| WHTZ | |
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| City of license | Newark, New Jersey |
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| Broadcast area | North Jersey & New York City |
| Branding | Z-100 |
| Slogan | New York's #1 Hit Music Station |
| First air date | August 2, 1983 |
| Frequency | 100.3 MHz  100.3 HD-2 for New Top 40 music |
| Format | Top 40 |
| ERP | 6000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Callsign meaning | HiTZ |
| Owner | Clear Channel Broadcasting |
| Website | www.z100.com |
WHTZ, also known as Z-100, is a radio station that serves New York City and the neighboring Northern New Jersey region, broadcasting at a frequency of 100.3 MHz. Licensed in Newark, New Jersey to Clear Channel Communications, WHTZ's studios are located in nearby Jersey City, New Jersey.
The call letters are supposed to represent the word "hits"; indeed, an early advertising campaign for the station claimed that HTZ was "The New Way to Spell 'Hits' in New York."
The "Z100" brand name is also used on other Top 40 radio stations with a "Z" in their call sign and located on or near the 100 frequency, though it is not as heavily used as the KISS-FM brand.
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[edit] History
100.3 began as WMGM-FM, which played easy listening music. They would change hands to local owners in the 60's and become WVNJ-FM. The "Easy Listening" music format (also known as Beautiful Music or, more commonly, "elevator music") consisted of playing instrumental versions of familiar songs. The station was known as "WVNJoy". Licensed to Newark, NJ, its FM transmitter was in West Orange, New Jersey, while its studios and AM transmitter were located on State Route 10 in Livingston, New Jersey. At the time, they had an effective power of about 20,000 watts, and they put out 5,000 actual watts. This lack of coverage due to lesser power inhibited the station's opportunity to show with competitive strength in ratings estimates in the NY Market. Thus the station's target market concentration was northern New Jersey. Radio listeners in the New York City metropolitan area could listen to WPAT-AM, WPAT-FM and WRFM.
In 1980, when WRVR (now WLTW) dropped jazz for country, WVNJ-FM began playing jazz music, which would air after 8 PM. They became known as "VNJoy by day VNJazz By Night". In May of 1983, plans were made for 100.3 FM to be purchased by Cleveland-based Malrite Communications. Malrite allowed the station to sign on in a studio in Secaucus, New Jersey and move the transmitter to the top of the Empire State Building. In addition, new management announced plans for a top 40 format. The sale became final on August 1, 1983, and WVNJ-FM would end broadcasts on 100.3 that night.
The station, which now had the callsign WHTZ, went on the air at 6:08 AM on August 2, 1983 with then program director Scott Shannon and the first song ever played on the station was "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor. They signed on from their new and still incomplete studio in Secaucus, transmitting from the old FM tower site near Livingston, New Jersey, as their antenna would not be moved to the top of the Empire State Building until later in August. They did not begin calling themselves "Z100" until a few days later. Moving the tower to midtown Manhattan greatly increased the coverage area of the station's signal.
Z100 was the second station that summer to attempt to bring the Top 40 format back to New York, with rock station WPLJ having begun the evolution to top 40 in June. WHTZ was programmed to raise listener memories of AM powerhouse WABC, which flipped to an all-talk format from an adult contemporary format on May 10, 1982.
Within 74 days of signing on, the station had climbed from last place to first in the New York Arbitron ratings book.
Over the years, Z100 stayed with a top 40 format, with WPLJ right behind them in the ratings. Scott Shannon would leave Z100 at the end of 1988 to begin "Pirate Radio" in Los Angeles. Steve Kingston then took over as program director. By 1991, however, the Top 40 format was in an identity crisis. A major sign of this crisis would come when WPLJ would move to a hot adult contemporary format by 1992. Z100 would respond to this by adding some older songs and introduced an evening talk show called "Love Phones". Ratings gradually dropped from 1991 to 1993. In 1993, Z100 droped the older songs and began mixing in alternative rock music which wouldn't normally be played by a Top 40 station. By the end of 1994, the majority of the station's music consisted of alternative rock with only 3-4 non-modern-rock-based songs per hour. Also, the station would play then-current big hits by artists such as Madonna, TLC,Mariah Carey, and others. At this point Z100 was sold to Shamrock Broadcasting.
Ratings, though nowhere near the top anymore, would remain steady at the station during much of the mid-1990's, but by March 1996, there was a steep drop after WKTU signed on 103.5 FM with a dance music format, and WXRK (now WFNY) adapted a full-time alternative rock format. Both stations would end up taking listeners from Z100. Steve Kingston and his assistant Sam Milkman would leave Z100 for K-Rock while music director Andy Shane would leave for WKTU. Airstaff had also gradually begun leaving the station beginning that February. Z100 had even dropped the name "Morning Zoo" the year before. Morning host John Lander left in November 1995. That January, Steve Cochrane arrived to do mornings but by May he was gone. Z100 was in a definite crisis at this point. The station was sold in a corporate deal to Chancellor Media.
In April 1996, the station brought in Tom Poleman as its new programming director. Initially, at that point, Z100 dropped all non-modern rock titles and began playing strictly pop alternative. By May 1996, Z100 began gradually replacing its on-air staff, and the harder alternative songs were phased out. Though initially it seemed that Z100 was becoming a modern AC station, beginning that summer, the station would gradually began to move back to a mainstream Top 40 format, as they added pop music from such formats as R&B, rap, and adult contemporary. One of Poleman's biggest moves was to switch DJ Elvis Duran from afternoons to the Z Morning Zoo (which was known as "The Morning Show" for the previous several years), Z100's popular morning show. Despite having shared the post with other hosts through the years, Duran remains the "Head Zookeeper" to this day. By December 1996, Z100 was a full-time Top 40 station again, and its ratings reached the heights at which they still remain today. Chancellor merged with Evergreen in 1997, making WKTU a sister station of Z100. Still, both stations continued on the same courses, occasionally overlapping with music.
In a 1999 merger, Z100's parent company, Chancellor, would acquire Capstar, forming AM/FM Inc. Shortly after the merger was finalized, AM/FM would be bought by its current owners, Clear Channel Communications.
The station broadcasts remixes by DJ Spinbad, a well-known DJ who creates a nightly remix of the day's tops songs, playing them all together, mixing, for instance, the lyrics of one with the music of another. This often lasts 15-20 minutes, and is played at seven o'clock and ten o'clock Monday thru Friday. Spinbad's remix is also a part of the weekly 5 O'Clock Whistle, a tradition started in 1986 to celebrate the end of the work week.
In early 2006, Z100 launched an HD Radio station that plays songs by bands who have not gone mainstream, or have very little press. Currently, it is the only New York City area HD2 station that features DJs.
[edit] The Z Morning Zoo
While it was not created at WHTZ, the popular morning zoo format became a widely-employed morning show concept based on its success at Z100 - even to the point of being implemented at Malrite's sister station in Cleveland, rock-formatted WMMS. Essentally, the Morning Zoo formula was grafted onto their already successful morning show, and lasted until 1994.
The current Z Morning Zoo includes Elvis Duran, Danielle Monaro, John Bell, Carolina Bermudez, Greg T "the Round-Headed Frat Boy", Skeery Jones, David Brody and TJ. The Zoo also features Froggy, the Y100 Miami executive producer.
Christine Nagy is a past member of the Morning Zoo. Nagy was news director and member of the show for eight years before leaving in December 2004. She reportedly left to devote more time to an acting career. In May 2005, she joined weatherman New York Fox News's Nick Gregory on the morning show of Z100's sister station, 106.7 Lite FM.
The Z Morning Zoo features Stupid News with John Bell, Danielle's Sleaze Report, Carolina's Rage Page, Phone Taps (prank calls to an unsuspecting friend or relative of a listener), a stunt performed by Greg T, Song Parodies, various contests, and news and weather reports.
Beginning May 22, 2006, it began syndication on WHYI in Miami, Florida. They have been on WHCY in New Jersey since 2003.
[edit] Zookeepers
The Z-Morning Zoo has had several lead hosts, or "zookeepers":
- Ross Brittain
- Gary Bryan
- Steve Cochrane
- Elvis Duran
- John Lander
- Jack Murphy
- Elliot Segal
- Scott Shannon
- Brian Wilson
[edit] Bits
- Elvis List
- Mr. Cardboard Tube - Voiced by Elvis with a Cardboard Tube
- Phone Taps
- Stupid News
- The Sleaze
- The Answer is Meat
- The Rage Page
[edit] Annual Events
The station annually holds popular concerts featuring top-name acts: "Z100's Jingle Ball" at Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan during the winter holiday season, and "Z100's Zootopia" in the early summers.
From 1983 to 1991 and from 1997 to 2004, Z 100 also aired the "24 Hours Of Christmas" from Christmas Eve to Christmas day. Sometimes it would begin at Noon and other years it would be as late as 2pm. They were one of the first major market Top 40 stations to play wall-to-wall Christmas music at the time. The music consisted of Christmas songs done by core artists mixed with well known Christmas music by oldies artists and some traditional easy listening type artists. The versions of the songs not done by Z100 core artists were widely played familiar songs. They played about 100 songs totally that were repeated in this 24 hour period. When Scott Shannon arrived at WPLJ, he began the same tradition there in 1991. Z100 discontinued the tradition in 1992 and during the "alternative years". By 1997, more core artists began creating Christmas music. As a result, Z100 reinstated the 24 hours of Christmas that year. It would continue until 2004, when it was discontinued due to the desire to counter-program other co-owned stations as well as competitors.
On Christmas Eve at noon, the station airs a (pre-recorded) countdown show of the top 100 songs for the year based on the total number of song spins, listener requests, and weekly playlist success (peak position, weeks on). The show is then repeated an average of once a day over the following week, with a final broadcast airing in January. Until 2004, the countdown began at Noon on Christmas day after the "24 Hours Of Christmas". Until 2005, the countdown was hosted by Elvis Duran and Paul "Cubby" Bryant. In June 2006, Cubby left Z100 to co-host the nationally-syndicated "Wake Up With Whoopi" Goldberg program, heard in NY on Z100's sister station WKTU. As of 2006, Z100's Top 100 countdown is hosted by Elvis Duran and new afternoon DJ JJ.
Songs that are released in the final quarter of the year can pose a problem; if a song is very popular during the last three months of the year and is in high rotation, it will often peak higher than a song in medium rotation for a number of months. However, if a popular song is only in low to medium rotation during the later part of the year, it will often chart very low or not at all on the year end countdown, only to appear very high on the countdown of the following year.
[edit] Staff
[edit] On-air
- Elvis Duran (and the Z Morning Zoo)
- Shelley Wade
- Romeo on the Radio
- Joe Rosati
- Niko
- JJ
- DJ Spinbad
- Ryan Hall
- Phill Kross
- Sharon Stevens
Additionally, WHTZ broadcasts the nationally-syndicated American Top 40 hosted by Ryan Seacrest every Sunday from 8am to 12pm ET.
[edit] Former DJs
- Paul "Cubby" Bryant
- Scott Shannon
- Gary Bryan
- Ross Brittain
- Shadow Stevens
- Jack Da Wack
- The Jammer
- Kid Kelly (Currently working for Sirius Satellite Radio on its "Sirius Hits 1" channel; doing syndicated "Backtrax USA", WHTZ airs the 90's edition of Backtrax on early Saturday mornings from 4am-6am)
- Clarke Ingram
- Chio
- Janet Dean
- Diane Pryor
- Spanky MacFarland
- Skinny Bobby
- Robby Bridges
- Hollywood Hamilton
- Chris Jagger
- Claire Stevens
- Booker (currently doing mornings at sister station WIOQ in Philadelphia)
- Lisa Taylor
- Billy Hammond
- Human Numan
- JoJo Morales
- John Barry
- Jo Maeder
- Lucas
- Jeremy
- Rick Davis
- Reno
- Billy Hammond
[edit] Management
- Rob Williams – Senior Vice President
- Tom Poleman – Operations Manager
- Sharon Dastur - Program Director
- Romeo - Music Director
- Bob McCuin – General Sales Manager
- Sharon Ritterband – Local Sales Manager
- John Karpinski - Sales Manager
- George Marshall – Chief Engineer
- Russell Wein - Guitarist
[edit] Zootopia 2007
The concert will be held on Friday, May 18th at Nassau Coliseum. The scheduled performing artist line-up includes:
- Daughtry
- Katharine McPhee
- Dashboard Confessional
- Rihanna
- Fergie
- Hinder
- Omarion
- Hilary Duff
- Robin Thicke
[edit] External links
- Official Website
- Z100's MySpace Page
- DJ Spinbad's Homepage (Includes a Store and Bio.)
- The Morning Zoo's Homepage
- American Top 40
- Z100 Top 100 Countdown History, 1983-2006
- Kid Kelly's Nationaly Syndicated "BackTrax USA" Show.
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WHTZ
| Clear Channel Communications, Inc. |
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Corporate officers: Lowry Mays | Mark Mays | Randall Mays | Tom Hicks |
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Radio / Television stations:
Other major assets: Clear Channel Outdoor | Clear Channel UK | Premiere Radio Networks | FOX Sports Radio Network |
