WCZX
WCZX is a
radio station in
Hyde Park, New York, owned by
Cumulus Media. The current format is
adult contemporary. The station uses the brand name Mix 97 and the slogan "The Hudson Valley's Best Music Variety". The station is a Class A FM Radio station on 97.7 FM.
The station serves the
Poughkeepsie and
Kingston, New York area. The station also has a moderate signal in the
Newburgh/
Middletown area. From about 1995 until March of 2006
WZAD 97.3 FM out of
Wurtsboro simulcast WCZX, with a strong signal in the
Port Jervis/Middletown/Newburgh area and even reaching
Sussex County,
New Jersey.
Musically the station is a Gold-Based Uptempo Adult Contemporary station. The station plays the hits of
1964 up to and including current product but focuses on the big hits of the
1970s,
1980s, and
1990s. The station also mixes in music from the past few years along with some current product (several new songs an hour). The station does play a small amount of soft hits, they heavily emphasize uptempo pop music. The station plays a very small amount of pop alternative product you would find on a
Hot Adult Contemporary station.
The core artists heard on Mix 97 include
Billy Joel,
Madonna,
Mariah Carey,
Maroon 5,
Beatles,
Fleetwood Mac,
Gloria Estefan,
matchbox twenty,
Elton John,
Hall & Oates,
Enrique Igleses,
Sugar Ray,
Fleetwood Mac,
Hootie & The Blowfish,
Earth Wind & Fire,
Sheryl Crow, and many others. They also have many theme weekends such as 70's weekend, #1 Music Weekend, 80's weekend, Twin Spin Weekend, among others. The station achieves ratings ranging from decent to excellent. For the past 10 years the station in combination with WZAD served both the Poughkeepsie/Kingston market and the Newburgh/Middletown market.
97.7 FM signed on in 1970. The station had gone through several formats including rock hits, top 40, adult rock, and adult contemporary/oldies prior to the mid 1980s.
Cousin Brucie Morrow bought the station and switched formats to a hybrid of Adult Contemporary and oldies playing the hits from 1955 to what was then current product. At the same time he owned the then similarly formatted 92.7 WKGL in Middletown as well as WALL 1340 which played adult standards. This did comply with the then one station to a market rule because Middletown is considered a different market from Poughkeepsie. 97.7 FM was known as 98 Fame. Bruce Morrow sold the station along with all of the others to various owners.
In the late 1980s the station would become WCZX and evolve into a pure oldies format playing the hits of the 50's, 60's and very early 70's. Much of the day the station had become automated while having live announcers during the morning and afternoons. The station then became known as "Oldies 97-7". Some of WEOK's airstaff (which was not yet a sister station) moved onto WCZX when WEOK dropped oldies for standards in 1988.
In 1991 WCZX was sold to Beehive Entertainment and the format initially did not change. But in 1993 Dyson Broadcasting which owned
WPDH101.5 and
WEOK 1390 began managing the station. At that time they had just built a state of the art extension twice the size of the facility they already had. At that point they moved WCZX into that facility with WEOK and WPDH. Some of the airstaff at WCZX were alumni of WEOK during their oldies years. They then moved a few more of WEOK's airstaff to WCZX making WCZX a station with live air-personalities 24 hours a day ending night-time automation.
The station continued the Oldies format on WCZX and the station continued to be known as "Oldies 97-7". In 1995 Dyson acquired WZAD 97.3 in Wurtsboro serving the southern part of the Hudson Valley. That station also was automated much of the day and played a pop music format spanning from 1955 to 1985. They combined the best of the WCZX staff and the WZAD staff onto the one station and began simulcasting WCZX on WZAD. The station then became known as "Oldies 97-7/Oldies 97-3". They used the liner "All Oldies All The Time".
By 1996 the station had a winning staff including Bob Miller (mornings), Brian Jones (program director/news/morning show co-host), Beth Christy, Randy Turner, Nick Robbins, Marty Allen, Ken Elder, host of "The All Request Saturday Night Oldies Party," Rick McCaffery, and many others. Rick hosted a show on WEOK for many years called the "Solid Gold Jukebox" on Friday nights and his show moved to Oldies 97-7/Oldies 97-3 by 1995. This show focused on Doo Wop and pre 1964 oldies. Max Kinkle formerly of
WCBS-FM hosted the morning show for a couple months in 1996. Also in 1996 the original building housing WEOK/WPDH (which was attached to their new facility) was torn down and the stations built onto their building doubling its size. Additionally Dyson owned WKNY radio running a MOR format in Kingston, WRRV 92.7 Middletown & WRRB 96.9 Poughkeepsie which simulcast an alternative rock format, and WALL 1340 which was talk and news by then.
Musically at this point "Oldies 97-7/Oldies 97-3" was playing about 60 % of its music from
1964-
1969, 35 % from
1955-
1963, and 5 % from
1970-
1973. Ratings were high for the station throughout the Hudson Valley. The playlist was also very deep as well playing a wide variety of oldies. Ratings were consistently high, including a #1 overall rating for the Miller and Jones combo in 1997.
In
1999 the station changed very slightly. The station now simply became known as "Oldies 97". Brian Jones moved over to become News Director of the entire cluster of radio stations and Freddie Coleman who had previously worked at WPDH moved in as Program Director. Under him the station continued with its deep oldies format but modified to play music going up to 1979 and now playing 3 or 4 per hour rather than one every hour. They also added a handful of
1980s songs by oldies artists but still played a decent amount of 50's and early 60's music. In
2000 the station along with the entire group of Dyson stations was sold to Aurora Broadcasting. By then WRRV/WRRB and WALL moved into the Poughkeepsie facilities after the building was enlarged for a third time.
Under Aurora the stations did not change substantially and upper management stayed put. Freddie Coleman left late in 2000 to pursue other interests and at this point afternoon air personality Randy Turner added the duties of Program Director while remaining host of the afternoon show. In 2001 Oldies 97 hit Number One in the ratings. Still Aurora was not in Broadcasting to stay and put their entire company up for sale in the Spring of 2001.
In the fall of 2001 Cumulus announced the plans to purchase WCZX/WZAD Oldies 97 along with the rest of the company of Aurora broadcast stations. When the overnight air-person at WCZX resigned and went part-time Aurora decided not to fill the position and reverted to jockless automation on overnights only. The main reason was because they were waiting for the Cumulus sale to be made final.
In the late winter of 2002 the sale of all the stations was final. Shortly after the long-time upper-management team was replaced with Cumulus' own people they brought in from other stations they own. In the coming years some of the stations would abruptly change while WCZX/WZAD would begin a slow evolution out of oldies.
In the Spring of 2002 Oldies 97 would phase out "Good Times & Great Oldies/All Oldies All The Time" in favor of "Oldies 97 - The Hudson Valley's Best Mix". Music changes were initially subtle. The station increased 80's music to 2 per hour, decreased 50's to one per hour, and early 60's to one per hour. The rest of the hour was half late 60's and half 70's. By the summer of 2002 the station dropped the pre 1964 oldies altogether except on the "Solid Gold Jukebox". The station modified the format to be 1/3 60's, 70's, and 80's. But until the end of August the station was known as Oldies 97-The Hudson Valley's Best Music Mix. The Oldies name was finally dropped Labor Day weekend and the station became known as "Mix 97 - The Hudson Valley's Best Music Mix".
In the fall of 2002 Mix 97 had evolved to a pop music station playing the hits from 1964 to 1989. In November though Cunulus began a management deal to run 94.3 WBPM. The station is locally owned but had been managed by
Clear Channel Communications. They were satellite/automated oldies and known as "Kool 94.3". Cumulus kept the calls, name, and format. But they dropped the satellite programming. They moved Nick Robbins to mornings along with several other Mix 97 air-personalities to "Kool 94.3". They also would move Rick McCaffrey's Solid Gold Jukebox to Kool 94.3 as well.
IN January of 2003 MIx 97 again modified dropping most of the 60's music but still playing a big Beatles or Motown hit per hour. The station now was modified to play equal amounts of music from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. WBPM Kool 94.3 adopted a similar format to what WCZX was playing in 1998 mixing in 50's and 60's music with a few early 70's songs.
By the Summer of 2003 Mix 97 was still receiving very high ratings and Kool 94.3 was doing decently and increasing in the ratings. By the Fall Mix 97 began mixing in recent hits from 2000-2002 a couple times per hour. Still Kool 94.3 would be shut down in October of 2003 and replaced with a Country format known as WPKX Kicks 94.3. Beth Christy would move there and became program director and middays. Kicks has done poorly in the ratings and recently became known as "The Wolf".
As for Mix 97, they began adding current product by November of 2003 playing one every couple hours. By the spring of 2004 though Mix 97 had evolved completely into a gold based adult contemporary music station. They were now playing two currents per hour along with a couple recent hits an hour. Still the upbeat hits of the 70's, 80's, and 90's continued and continues to drive this station. Also in March of 2004 Mix 97 added a syndicated satellite show called the
John Tesh show. This show is a music intensive common sense advise personality show playing Adult Contemporary cuts interspersed with advise. Its positioned as an alternative to a Love Songs Show such as
Deliliah which airs on competitors
WHUD 100.7 and
WRNQ 92.1.
Mix 97 continued on as an adult contemporary radio station and received good ratings. Still some changes were recently made. Long-time afternoon personality and program director Randy Turner left at the end of February 2006. (He is now working at 100.7
WHUD Also the simulcast with 97.3 WZAD was ended in March 2006. WZAD then began simulcasting 94.3 "The Wolf" which is a ratings troubled Country format. The hope is that the signal on 97.3 will give the Country station ratings in the southern part of the Hudson Valley. So now Mix 97 is strictly on 97.7 FM.
Joe Limardi, from Cumulus' Oldies 97.1 in Nashville, Tennessee, joined Mix 97 as afternoon drive host and program director in April 2006.
Bob Miller - mornings since 1995 (5am-9am)
Suzy Garcia - middays (9am-2pm)
Joe Limardi - program director (2pm-7pm)
John Tesh (7pm-12am)
Brian Jones - news since 1989 (afternoons)
Jimmy D
Bob Reynolds
Therese Quinn
