WZIP was originally WDAT before becoming WELE in the 70s, and it was co-owned with WELE-FM 105.9 Deland. Both stations were country at the time. When Sidney Frazier and Sheldon Katz sold WELE-AM 1590 seperately from the FM, that is when the call letters became WZIP, however, the format remained country for while before flipping to oldies. WZIP was a Mutual Broadcasting System network affiliate for Daytona Beach. The station was, and still is licensed to South Daytona, although, at one time, previous owner Frank Conale wanted to change the city of license to Port Orange. WZIP had a construction permit to increase its daytime power to 5,000 watts non directional, however, that CP expired sometime in 1983 or perhaps 1984 and WZIP never powered up past its current authorized 1,000 watt daytime authorization. I was working for Q 102 back in the early 80s when WZIP was on the air, and I came very close to buying the station from Frank Conale sometime in 1983.
Mark Tillery
WOCA-AM 1370 WRLQ-FM 95.9
Ocala, Florida