WWIZ

WWIZ (103.9 FM) is a commercial radio station in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Youngstown, Ohio market with an oldies format. Between 2019-2022 WWIZ flipped to all Christmas music, branded as Christmas 104, but the Christmas music was mixed in with the regular Oldies format in 2023, rather than a total flip of it's format in years prior.

The studios are off Simon Road and the transmitter is on Greenfield Road. It is one of seven radio stations in the Youngstown market owned by Cumulus Media with studios in "The Radio Center" in Youngstown. WWIZ operates with an ERP of 6,000 watts, making it a class A station.

History
WWIZ first signed on the air in October 1972 and carried an Active rock format for a long time, branded as "Rock 104". On March 31, 2017, WWIZ dropped its active rock format and began stunting with a loop of The Moody Blues' “Nights in White Satin” and The Royal Guardsmen's “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron”, with just a legal ID between the songs. The following day at Noon, the station flipped to oldies as "Z104" using Westwood One's "Good Time Oldies" satellite feed.

Christmas Music


Between 2019 and 2022, WWIZ temporarily displaced its oldies format in favor of all Christmas music during the holiday season and would become known as "Christmas 104".

The change first occurred on October 25, 2019, when WWIZ dropped its oldies format and began carrying Christmas music. It was the first station in the country to flip to Christmas music for the holiday season and initially appeared to be a stunt. However, on January 1, 2020, WWIZ ended the Christmas music and returned to its previous oldies format, branded as "Z104".

On September 25, 2020, at 12:25 p.m., WWIZ again flipped to Christmas music. It made this excessively early flip due to the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the earliest known flip to Christmas music for an FCC-licensed station; the earliest stations, including stunting stations, typically flip to the format in mid-October.

On October 1, 2021, at 12:25 p.m., WWIZ again flipped to Christmas music, branded as "Christmas 104". This year, it was not the first station to flip, as WXMS made the flip a few hours earlier.

In 2022, WWIZ opted not to repeat the excessively early flips of the previous years, and by October 31 of that year, the station was still playing its regular format. On November 1, 2022, at 12:25 p.m., WWIZ finally flipped to its Christmas music format becoming Christmas 104, and continued the format through New Year's Day.

In 2023, WWIZ decided not to run an all Christmas music format. Starting in late November the station mixed in a few Christmas songs into their regular oldies format.