Original Call Letters: WRZN

Originally Licensed: Jun 1989  

Original City of License: Hernando  

Original Frequency: 720

Origin of Call Letters: 

Original Power: 10,000 Watts day/250 nighttime

Original Location: 

Original Format: Oldies

History Of WRZN-AM
Thanks to Marc Tyll for this history of WRZN.
WRZN began operations in 1989 with an all Elvis Presley marathon that lasted 36 hours to commemorate the new sound of "WRZN Pure Gold 720". The station was originally licensed to Hernando, Florida, operating on 720 kHz with 10,000 watts daytime and 250 watts directional at night. Once while speaking with WRZN former owner, Frank Watson, he said the FCC's specifications called for WRZN's nighttime operation to operate with 250 watts directional, South. No power was allowed to radiate North since WRZN is supposed to protect clear channel WGN-AM 720, Chicago. However, when Management and Marketing Synergy (the station’s permit holder) received the Construction Permit, the FCC made an obvious mistake. According to the Construction Permit, the nighttime directional patterned called for the signal to be sent North, not South. So during transmitter testing, the engineers cranked up the power and sent the signal North, as specified according to the construction permit. This only lasted for two days. By that time, the Tribune Company had complained about nighttime interference from ".....another station...." and the FCC quickly issued a new Construction Permit, this time calling for the correct coordinates and directional pattern, 250 watts nighttime South. WRZN was not fined nor did it receive any sanctions since the FCC made the mistake and not the permit holder was only following specifications as they were written on the CP.
The station remained a "Pure Gold" format for about six months until management determined that a mix of adult standards, big bands, and ballads would be more conducive to the musical taste of the general area which was mainly made up of retirees. On Easter Sunday 1990, WRZN made the "big switch" to big bands and adult standards playing the tunes of Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and many more standard favorites. Former band leader Gene Martin was brought in to revamp the music play list and introduce a new kind of swing time known as "Gene Martin’s Big Bands, Ballads and Blues" heard weekdays from 10AM to 1PM. Another local favorite was Pete Mallon and his afternoon "Serenade of big band tunes from the 30s and 40s". The locals loved it!
Another big name celebrity was brought in around 1991 when general manager Patricia Brinker approached former NBC game show host and the original Jeopardy! host, Art Fleming, to host a program called "Senior America", a show about active lifestyles for seniors, and Fleming also was co-host of "Studio 720 with Art Fleming and Patricia Brinker", an issues oriented program focusing on political and public affairs matters. Fleming had retired to the area a few years earlier, and was a big hit on the radio airwaves until his death in the mid 1990s. 
Today, WRZN remains a big hit with the senior crowd, broadcasting the hits from the past five decades, and covering Central Florida from the Gulf to Tampa, to Orlando and Jacksonville.

In July of 1992 WRZN radio was knocked off the air by a lightning strike. The strike, damaged some equipment and parts had to be flown in from California. Station Manager Beverly Bricker said the station expects to resume regular programming within a couple of days.

More History of WRZN
It's always a thrill to get info from a "first person". Frank Watson was one such person. He was one of the folks that put the station on the air, Here is part of that email.
"...Regarding the night time power reversal, it is true.  I was living in Tallahassee when the station was built.  I spent all my weekends, vacations and holidays in Hernando during those days.  I would hit the road from Tallahassee after my "day job" on Friday and work the weekend with my partner, Clay Brinker, our engineering partner Mike Sherrill and my dad, Murrel Watson, who was our carpenter/plumber/builder.  We would work through the night, finally sleeping on the floor of the office trailer that became our facility until the trash guys came by around 7am on Saturday morning and woke us up, then we would be up and at it again.  Finally late Sunday evening, I would strike out for Tallahassee, dodging the deer and an occasional Highway Patrol between Cross City and Perry on my way back to Tallahassee. The very first night that we signed on for testing, I was in Tallahassee, and of course, I wanted to see if I could hear the station.  I could in the 10,000 watt non-directional operating mode.  I was expecting for the signal to drop to nothing when it changed to 250, but when the signal dipped, but then came back up, not as clear, but still listenable in Tallahassee, I quickly  called the transmitter building to see if the change to 250 failed.  I was told that it had not failed, that the transmitter and tower phasers hand changed over and now it was operating at 250 watts and all readings were as licensed.  I told them to take a  listen as I held the phone up to the radio so they could hear the station.  Immediately they knew something was wrong, which eventually lead to the discovery that the pattern was reversed.  It was short-lived excitement for me when I first thought that I would be able to listen to the station in Tallahassee at night, but it wasn't to be. I often spoke about WRZN to groups in and around Citrus County, and loved to joke about how my mom wanted me to be "outstanding in my field", and that during the time WRZN was under construction, if you drove by on highway 200 just about any time of day or night, there I would be..."out standing in my field"...where we were erecting our towers, transmitter site and office-studios, digging a hole, putting up a fence or otherwise engaged in the many tasks of constructing the station. By the way, the first song we played on WRZN at the "official" sign-on was Bob Seger's Old time Rock and Roll.  We repeated the song over and over for the first entire day of broadcasting (without complaints), then launched the Elvis marathon in the second day. When it became clear that the Solid Gold Rock and Roll format wasn't going to get advertising support in the market and we were going broke, we sat down, and in a single night, came up with the "Sunshine 720" format and all the other positioning liners like "the warm spot on your AM dial", the birthday and anniversary club (many thanks to our promotional partner Cat's Meow Florist) that we became known for..."

Andy Blackburn-Morning Show Producer