A short history of WSSZ Z107 FM

From various sources, here is what I have found out:

• Around 1966, a license was granted for WOKU FM, and they started broadcasting at a frequency of 107.1 FM
• The station had several owners and formats over the years, among them "Hot Hits", urban contemporary, and heavy metal.
• The logo of "Classic Hits Z107" was the same as the logo of earlier "Hot Hits Z107" except that the colors were now red and white, not blue and yellow. (Ursula caught this; Before I said the colors were green and yellow, and there's a story behind that...)
• The station was most recently owned by Melvin Goldberg, a local businessman.
• Geoff Miller provided the following history of the station; Thanks, Geoff!
  "WOKU came online in the '60's, (or '70's), licensed to Jeannette, PA. Owner, Mel Goldberg. Mel and former PA Governor Milton Shapp made money building and selling the Greensburg cable system. They purchased the stations from a gentleman named 'Howard J. Brennan'... hence the moniker of the AM: WHJB. Formats included country, disco, (programmed by still-operations mgr, Barry Banker), adult contemporary, heavy metal, hot hits and classic hits."

  "WHJB/Z107 was a comparatively well-equipped small station into which a fair amount of cash had been poured, (tower re-location, mall studio, decent staff-size & quality ... and mostly-decent equipment)."

• The station shared studios with WHJB AM on Brown Street in Greensburg, also owned most recently by Melvin Goldberg before being sold just after Z107. The new owner, Bob Stevens (Broadcast Communications Inc) recently changed the calls to WKHB.
• Previously, the station's studio was in Greengate Mall in Hempfield, east of Greensburg.
• Before that, the studios were at the Brown Street location according to Ursula, who reports that she worked there before, during, and after the stint at Greengate. Perhaps the departure of Z107 is the real reason for the decline of Greengate? ;-)
• Geoff Miller also noted one other previous ownership group:
  "Before working at Z107, I worked for Nelson Goldberg, (Mel's younger brother), at WYDD. Norm Slemenda was the general manager. He moved to Z107 several years after I did. Great guy. He and some partners tried to purchase the station and owned it for a short time. Norm had big ideas. Some worked. Some didn't. (Broadcasting from the Greengate Mall, I think, was a good idea.) The place ended up back with Mel", and he had a on Brown Street to use, so he moved the station back there.
• W.T. Koltek notes that "the heavy metal incarnation was about '85-'86 or so, and put together by Chris DeCarlo, who had previously worked at WYDD, I think. She was married to the late George Hart of KQV-WIXZ-3WS fame, and the format was automated except for her show, which was called 'Metalmorphosis.' I think the calls were WOKU at the time, and they called it 'K-Rock.'"
  Geoff adds: "Marketing efforts were rare and unfocused. Our best assets in that department were the occasional sales rep who understood the importance of promotion. They organized a lot of events that got us out in public. Other than that, advertising for the station was totally inadequate. Rarely, an unusual format will generate strong word-of-mouth, i.e. when Z107 was heavy-metal K-Rock"
• The station had a 1.6 kilowatt transmitter whose tower was located north and east of Adamsburg and was visible from US 30. Here's where
• Ron Adams programmed the Hot Hits format.
• Jim DeCesare came to the station after being fired when 104.7 WYDD stopped playing alternative music and became WNRJ.
• Dennis Elliott came to the station after stints at WBVP, WXKX and other local stations. It was with his arrival that the "Classic Hits" format was first programmed.
• Most of Z107's other employees were actually people who worked at WHJB and just filled in at Z107 at the end.
• Z107 reached the height of popularity when "Magic 97" became a Hard Rock station around 1993. WSSZ then became *the* classic rock game in town, but unfortunately could not capitalize fully due to a weak signal.
• WHJB and Z107 went from 24 hour stations to going off the air at night on April 1, 1996. Before that, Z107 promotions billed the station as "Your 24 hour music source."
• Other promotions noted that the station "played the songs you really wanted to hear". It was also said that "If your co-workers don't want to listen to Classic Hits Z107 at work, then they're just not being productive". There were also several other clever commercials, including one where they mentioned several other stations and what they played, noting that you could find great Classic Rock at Z107.
• The station had spots where they mentioned an artist or band you could hear on Z107, played bits of a few songs from them, and then reminded you that Z107 played all of the Classic Hits.
• Because of the way the station was run for most of the day, and because the DJs also didn't do it, there was no talk over the beginnings or ends of songs on Z107.
• Speaking of which, the station used a machine dating from the probably 1960 or so which had several reel to reel 1/4" tape players and a cartridge tape carousel, and was programmable to shuffle, play several things from one tape, or do any of a number of other things. It played commercials and promotions from cartridge tapes, and two reel tape players were used for that station's "heavy rotation", if you can call it that.
• Geoff Miller reports this system was called F.R.E.D.D.I.E, and he provided a nice acronym which I'm not going to share here:-). It "was a broadcast automation system designed in the '60's and built in the '70's. The system ran on mechanical relays activated by a 20 hertz tone that was recorded on the end of every song/commercial/forecast/bumper/or breaker. The end of every element would trigger a relay... which would start the next machine. The program instructions were controlled by a brain-- series of numbered thumb-wheels. Dialing a sequence like '5-1-2-4-2-3' would cause the relays to trigger reel/cart machines #5, 1, 2, 4, 2 and 3, in that order."

  "The system consisted of four six-foot tall racks. Two held two large reel-to-reel players each . The other two housed four broadcast cartridge playback machines, (Carts). The reels were full of music. One of the carts played the 'announcer'. The other three were positioned behind programmable carousels that held 24 carts each. They could rotate and be programmed to load the carts in a particular order or at a particular time, like the 'brain' thing we talked about before. Of these three, two held commercials and promos. The other held program elemens, (ID's, weather, breakers). Each piece of recording equipment-- from reels to cart machines-- was equipped with a button that would record that 20-hertz tone onto tape. It's too low for people to hear... but the relays can detect it. When they do, they open or close to activate the next machine."

  Geoff goes on to relate that "there was a time when we made automation sound about as live as automation can sound. In late '88, Z107 reverted to automation from all-live... but retained it's 'hot hits' format. Those of us that were left would pre-record twenty-or-so announcer segues that would play between music and commercials. If there were enough of them that they didn't repeat... the place sounded like it was live. Hopefully, if you were listening at the time... you never noticed."

  "WOKU/KROCK/Z107 has always been at least partly-automated. The only exception was a short period around '88 when it was all live, even mid-to-5am. As far as I know, I was only the second person to work live on that station. In '84, I replaced a guy named Rod Sinclair who had started doing 'live-assist'-- a live operator controlling FREDDIE during morning drive At the time, WOKU was programmed by an automation company called, Drake-Chenault. They supplied the reels of music and therefore, established the format. It was generic adult contemporary hits. Into this bland mix came Norm Slemenda as general manager. Like him and me, Chris DeCarlo was a WYDD alumni. She had left WDVE and had recently appeared in a Playboy spread on 'women in radio'. He gave her a three hour slot on Sunday night to do a heavy-metal show called 'Metalmorphasis'. "It's 11:00 at WOKU. That was Olivia-Newton John. Now here's Poison." Jan.1, '87, wimpy WOKU became K-Rock-- 24-hour metal... automated except for pm-drive with Chris and occasionally, me. The station billed something like $1,200 in Jan., $3,000 in February and $400.00 in March. By April, it was simulcasting the satelite-country format of am-sister station WHJB. K-Rock was cutting edge n'stuff... The problem was that hardly any businesses would pay to reach a heavy-metal audience... no matter how big it was. DeCesare-Engler bought a good bit. So did Tela-Ropa. Other than that, there were a few tattoo parlors and normal businesses that didn't realize what they were doing."

• The station's music library was mostly on 1/4" tapes, which were put on the players and used in shuffle mode when the station was unstaffed, thus meaning that the fact that many infrequently heard songs were on those tapes gave Z107 a much broader playlist than most stations.
• The Z107 format was best described as "Album Oriented Classic Rock", and the station had a promotional spot which mentioned that they played "the whole album, not just the top forty hit".
• The top of the hour/bottom of the hour voiceovers used most recently were pieced together from free promotional spots done by George Taylor Morris for Z107 as a Reelin' in the Years licensor. One was "With one of the areas' largest on-air music libraries, this is Classic Hits Z107, Westmoreland County's home of rock and roll."
• The land on which the trasmitters stood apparently sold for more than what the radio stations themselves did. It's not the Giant Eagle/Lowes (Hempfield Plaza?) across from the Wal-Mart on US 30. You can find pictures on Dick Ruby's World Of Radio. Geoff says "Dick is, was and always will be the station engineer."

Last update: 13 March, 2000