WATZ is a radio station

Radio station

Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

 broadcasting an News-Talk format. The station is licensed to the city of Alpena

Alpena, Michigan

Alpena is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Alpena County. It is considered to be part of Northern Michigan. The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is located in the city. The population was 10,483 at the 2010 census...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, it serves the Alpena metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in 1946

1946 in radio

The year 1946 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting.-Events:*1 September – Kringkastingsorkestret is founded.*29 September – BBC Third Programme is launched.-Debuts:...

 and has maintained the WATZ call sign since it signed on. The station is currently owned by Midwestern Broadcasting Company.

History

WATZ AM signed on the air in November, 1946 as a full-service local radio station and was, for many years, the only broadcaster in Alpena. In the late 1960s, WATZ-FM signed on as an adult contemporary station at 93.5 FM. By this time, the format of WATZ-AM was primarily country. In 1988, the format of WATZ-FM was canged to country and the signal moved to 99.3 so the station could boost its power from 3,000 to 50,000 watts. For the next several years, WATZ-FM and WATZ-AM simulcasted the same programming. In the mid-90s, WATZ-AM was broken off from WATZ-FM and given its current news/talk format.

WATZ remains locally owned and operated by the same company that founded it in 1946.