WZAP is a Religious

Religious broadcasting

Religious broadcasting refers to broadcasting by religious organizations, usually with a religious message. Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their Internet websites.While this article emphasises...

 and Southern Gospel

Southern Gospel

Southern Gospel music—at one time also known as "quartet music"—is music whose lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music...

 formatted broadcast

Broadcasting

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...

 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...

 licensed to Bristol, Virginia

Bristol, Virginia

Bristol is an independent city in Virginia, United States, bounded by Washington County, Virginia, Bristol, Tennessee, and Sullivan County, Tennessee....

. The station serves the Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 Tri-Cities

Tri-Cities, Tennessee

In Tennessee and Virginia the name "Tri-Cities" refers to the region comprising the cities of Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol and the surrounding smaller towns and communities in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia...

 area with an AM

AM broadcasting

AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...

 signal at 690 kilohertz

Hertz

The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....

. WZAP is owned and operated by RAM Communications, Inc.

History

The station was founded by Appalachian Broadcasting in December 1946 under the call sign WCYB. The station's initial format was country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

, including such notable acts as the Stanley Brothers. Appalachian Broadcasting also owned and operated WCYB-TV

WCYB-TV

WCYB-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station serving the Tri-Cities area of Northeastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 5 from a transmitter on Rye Patch Knob of Holston Mountain in the Cherokee National Forest...

in the same market. In 1969, both stations were sold and WCYB radio was renamed WZAP.

External links

• WZAP 690 Radio Online
• [ Allmusic.com entry for Live Again: WCYB Farm & Fun Time, a recording of live music broadcast from the station during the late 1940s and early 1950s]