Smooth Jazz 106.1
WJJZ Becomes Philly’s 106.1
August 10, 2006 will go down as one of the most historical days in Philadelphia radio history. At Noon, Clear Channel blew up the formats of two of their five FM stations simultaneously. While Sunny 104.5 was ditching its Gold based AC format, Smooth Jazz was disappearing from 106.1 after a successful 13 year run. The demise of WJJZ, which was made to create a format to support Whoopie Goldberg’s syndicated morning show. Following a euology of the station by Program Director Michael Tozzi, and Daryl Hall’s “She’s Gone” the Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get It Started” kicked off “Philly’s 106.1” and its shadowcast at 104.5.
Eagle 106 WEGX becomes Smooth Jazz WJJZ
In the early 1990’s CHRs across the country were flipping formats. Baltimore and Washington, D.C. had lost theirs in 1992. In 1993, Philadelphia would lose its. The 106.1 frequency had been CHR for almost a decade under a few monikers: WZGO Z106, WTRK Electric 106, and finally Eagle 106. Smooth Jazz formats were sprouting up across the nation, targeting a more desirable audience to advertisers. After the flip on Friday, March 12th, another station was quick to jump on WEGX’s audience. 100.3 WKSZ, a struggling AC flipped to CHR as Z100 the following Monday, but would later change calls to WPLY “Y100” after a lawsuit from New York’s Z100 fearing audience confusion due to signal overlap. WPLY would have an Adult lean until it flipped to Modern Rock in 1994. Other...
