Branding 106-5, The Buzz First air date 1972 (as WWJR at 97.7) | Frequency 106.5 MHz | |
City Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin Broadcast area Sheboygan County, Wisconsin Slogan Sheboygan's Rock Station | ||
WHBZ (106.5 FM) is a Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin--licensed radio station based in Sheboygan that plays a Mainstream Rock format. The station is currently owned by Midwest Communications and features an all-local lineup, with Fox News Radio updates and forecasts provided by WLUK-TV in Green Bay.
History
The station originally went on the air as WWJR in 1972 on 97.7 as Sheboygan-licensed 98 FM, WWJR, and then moved to 93.7 in March 1993 (with updated "JR 93.7" branding), playing a basic adult contemporary format which was mostly automated through most of those two decades, with occasional simulcasting with sister AM station WHBL under the local ownership of the Walton family. The station moved to a new frequency licensed to Sheboygan Falls at 106.5 on April 4, 1997 to make room for country station WBFM on 93.7 (further details about the 1993 and 1997 frequency switches are contained in that article), and had the year before took on an automated adult contemporary format, and was also the pre-WLKN home of Delilah. After Midwest's purchase of the three Walton stations in mid-2001 and a transitional Hot AC format from July 2001, the station changed their calls to WHBZ on December 29, 2001, and on the same day changed over to rock as "The Buzz".
Until the second week of 2015 the station carried the syndicated Bob & Tom for their morning show with local news cut-ins, before deciding to switch to a nearly fully non-syndicated schedule outside of non-critical periods. Except for weeknights, where Nikki Sixx's Sixx Sense is aired, along with the Sunday night shows Rock Recall and hardDrive, all station programming is either originated locally from Sheboygan either live or recorded for overnight shifts, or voicetracked from other Midwest stations in Green Bay and Wausau. The station also is used to carry play-by-play from either the Packers or Brewers radio networks for the Sheboygan area in case of a conflict between the two teams on WHBL.