WZRV

Infobox Radio station
name = WZRV


city = Front Royal, Virginia
area = Front Royal, Virginia Winchester, Virginia
branding = "95-3 The River"
slogan = "Your Greatest Hits"
airdate = March 2, 1983
frequency = 95.3 MHz
format = Oldies Classic rock Classic Top 40
power = 6,000 watts
erp =
class = A
callsign_meaning = WZ RiVer
former_callsigns = WIXV (1983-1984) WFTR (1984-2000) WDRV (2000-2001) WZRV (2001-Present)
owner = Royal Broadcasting
sister_stations = WFTR
webcast = [http://www.stretchinternet.com/royal/wzrv.m3u WZRV Webstream]
website = [http://www.theriver953online.com WZRV Online]
affiliations = ABC Radio News Dial Global's "Kool Gold"

WZRV is an Oldies/Classic rock formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Front Royal, Virginia, serving the Northern Shenandoah Valley cities of Front Royal and Winchester. WZRV is owned and operated by Royal Broadcasting.

History

WZRV started as WIXV on March 2, 1983. WIXV held an Adult Contemporary format at the beginning. WIXV would change it calls later that year to WFTR, after sister WFTR-AM. In the late 1990s, WFTR switched from Adult Contemporary to Classic County as "Real County 95-3" and would hold that format until 2000. On December 14, 2000, WFTR switched calls again to WDRV (as "The Drive") and their format to Oldies. After a station in Chicago requested the WDRV call letters, 95.3 switched to calls to WZRV on March 15, 2001.

WZRV has add many of the old DJs from Winchester country station, WUSQ to their lineup. Most notably, Randy Woodward, former mid-day jock on WUSQ until 2000, does the morning show on WZRV. Mario Retrosi, former morning news reporter at WUSQ, now reads the news in the mornings on WZRV. Other former WUSQ'ers to come through the WZRV building are Lonnie Hill (now afternoons on WZRV) and Jimmy Lee.

With the May 2007 sale of WINC-AM, WINC-FM, and simulcasters WWRE/WWRT, WZRV is left as the only locally-owned radio station in the Winchester area.

On September 4, 2007, WZRV began using "The River" branding. The branding is in reference to the Shenandoah River that runs through WZRV's listening area, the north fork of which runs just north of Front Royal. On the same date, WZRV dropped ABC Radio "Oldies Radio" network and picked up Dial Global's "Oldies Channel" network.

WZRV continues to carry a local morning and afternoon show and with local news and weather updates during satellite hours. WZRV also continues to add classic rock songs to Dial Global's oldies playlist to compete with local active rockers WWRE/WWRT in Winchester.

While WZRV switched to Dial-Global, the station continues to use ABC Radio News, but only in the shortened 2 minute version, they had been carrying the full 4 1/2 minute version.

External links

* [http://www.theriver953online.com 95-3 The River Online]
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