City Madison, Wisconsin First air date 1949 | Branding Z104 | |
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Broadcast area South Central Wisconsin Slogan Madison's #1 Hit Music Station Frequency 104.1 MHz FM
(also on HD Radio) | ||
WZEE (104.1 MHz FM) is a radio station licensed to Madison, Wisconsin and serving South Central Wisconsin. Known on-air as "Z104," the station is owned and operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. and broadcasts a Top 40 (CHR) music format.
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Station history
The station originally launched in 1948 as WKOW-FM, sharing ownership with WKOW-AM (the current WTSO). New ownership in the early 1950s re-called the station to WMFM. In the mid-1970s, the station converted from classical music to its current Top 40 format, adopting the WZEE call sign and "Z104" on-air brand as well.
In its early years, "Z104" ran an automated Top 40 (CHR) format XT40 from Drake-Chenault programming, but live-and-local content would be added to the station over the years. Z104 was original home to the popular morning drive-time pairing of "Connie and Fish" during the 2000s; the pair would move to Clear Channel's Milwaukee classic rock sister station WQBW in 2008, with the show remaining on WZEE in a simulcast. When WQBW became top 40 station WRNW in 2010, "Connie & Fish" became "Connie & Curtis" after "Fish" Calloway left Clear Channel to work for the competitor 931 Jamz (WJQM). On September 4, 2012, "Connie & Curtis" (who had left for WLHT in West Michigan, ironically a competitor of WZEE sister WSNX) would be replaced on both WZEE and WRNW by the nationally syndicated Elvis Duran and the Morning Show. "Z104" schedule features voicetracked or syndicated programming (including Elvis Duran and fellow Premiere Networks show On Air with Ryan Seacrest).
HD Radio
WZEE broadcasts a HD radio signal, with its HD2 subchannel originally carrying an urban contemporary/hip-hop format to compliment the main "Z104" format; that format was replaced in Fall 2013 by a simulcast of "Classical Highlights," a classical music channel heard on Clear Channel's IHeartRadio platform. WZEE briefly aired a simulcast of sister sports station WTSO on its HD3 subchannel in 2012.