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WZOK Question???

C

CrazeeCarroll1

Howdy guys and gals just a quick question about 97ZOK? I have been living here in Rockford now for almost six years and have always wondered about this station... To me it is one of the most adult friendly chr's I have heard in fact during the day if you did not know better you would think it was a HOT AC station... Before Cumulus purchased the station who were some of the owners and how was the sound of the station compared to how ZOK is today??? Has it always been a conservative CHR or did it have some guts at one time? Kinda curious... CC1
 
I've been DXing WZOK for years, including listening from NIU in the 80s. 97-ZOK always walked the fence between CHR and Hot AC as long back as I recall -- so far back that I believe the correct terminology would have been "between Pop/Top 40 and MOR." 105 WYBR came on the scene in the mid-1980s with a little edgier sound, but they we unable to steal ZOK's crown, and defected from CHR by becoming WXRX.
 
WZOK is a true example of a full-service Top-40 station. 50,000 watts, it was (seen as) the primary FM service in the community for a long time, and the format reflects that. Very safe, adult-friendly CHR. Has been this way for decades.
 
Back in the day, they had some teeth. 1979...maybe before.. through 1982 or so, when 95.3 was Y95 (WYFE), and AOR....97-ZOK was their main competitor. They stayed slightly more mainstream than Y95, but they were definitely AOR back then. And they won.

It was ZOK that got the Rolling Stones to the Metro Centre in...'83?

ZOK even did a take off of "We Are the World"...remember "USA for Africa"? They did a dumb song that went, "We are Rockford, we are the stateline.." OMG, it was bad. But local media played it up big, mainly because it was ZOK.

Anyway, to answer your question: ZOK used to be a rocker. Back in the day.
 
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