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- WEZF (92.9 FM band, "Star 92.9") is an English-language American radio station located in Burlington, Vermont. The station, while primarily adult contemporary, plays mostly hot adult contemporary/adult top 40 music from the late 1970s through now, but is still listed by Mediabase & Nielsen BDS as an AC station, despite the fact WEZF is still the only adult contemporary radio station in Burlington/Plattsburgh (sister station WVTK is also AC, but not for Burlingtoners because it is adjacent to WCEL 91.9, a Plattsburgh station targeting both Burlington/Plattsburgh). Owned and operated by Vox Communications, it broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 46,000 watts using an omnidirectional antenna. WEZF is the only full commercial class C radio station in Vermont. The advantage of having both the effective radiated power ERP and a transmitting antenna location on top of Vermont's highest mountaintop, Mount Mansfield, affords WEZF a tremendous reach throughout Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Quebec, and some parts of western Maine, as well as extreme southeastern Ontario. No other commercial radio station licensed in Vermont has a coverage area as large. This is roughly higher in terms of the ERP than Montreal adult contemporary station CFQR-FM, owned by Cogeco. WEZF has usually switched to an all-Christmas music format in the weeks preceding December 25. WEZF went on the air on July 19, 1969 and was originally known as WVNY-FM; that call sign is now used by a local television station previously co-owned and known as WVNY-TV, which signed on the air before its FM counterpart. http://www. fybush. com/site-020814. html. WEZF was unique in that the station was originally launched as an offshoot of WVNY-TV, and was never had a companion AM station. This unique situation made WEZF the first stand-alone FM station in Vermont. Most FM stations were originally launched by a companion AM station. The station originally had a beautiful music format, changing to soft adult contemporary in the 1980s, and retained the 93 WEZF branding. In 1995, the station became more of a mainstream AC and rebranded as 92.9 WEZF. In 1999, when 103.3 The Lake the station changed formats to hot AC and was rebranded as Star 92.9. By 2003, the station reverted to AC after 103.3 The Lake flipped formats. WEZF still broadcasts where once WEZF and WVNY originated from in historic Fort Ethan Allen in Colchester, Vermont. In 2007, Clear Channel had announced they were selling off hundreds of radio stations to cut costs. WEZF, along with sibling stations WCPV, WXZO, WEAV, WVTK, WXZO, WCVR-FM, and WTSJ, were all involved with a pending sale from Clear Channel Communications to locally owned Vox Communications. One of the current principal owners in Vox Communications originally launched both WCPV in late 1994, and after that the radio station now known as WXZO. In July 2008, Vox Communications took control of WEZF and its sister stations. By September 2010, a few months after its adult hits-formatted Feel Good Flashback Weekend show was dropped and regarding sister station WXZO going to top 40 as Planet 96.7, WEZF moved towards a hot AC direction, but is still generally billed as adult contemporary. Reasons why the Feel Good Flashback Weekend show disappeared from the station is because of rival WWMP going back to adult hits while Star 92.9 phased in more hot AC content, putting its AC format in a more 24/7 status. Also, with the station increased the hot adult contemporary content and still airing the soft adult contemporary-formatted Delilah show on Sundays-Fridays, the station does not need to meet the hot adult contemporary panel due to the station still being the only AC in Burlington/Plattsburgh.
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