Broadcast area Central New Hampshire First air date November 16, 1988 | Frequency 101.5 MHz Format Sports Talk | |
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City Meredith, New Hampshire Branding SportsRadio 101.5 WEEI Lakes Region | ||
WZEI (101.5 FM) is an American licensed radio station with studios located in Bow, New Hampshire. The station is owned by Jeffrey Shapiro's Great Eastern Radio. WZEI is licensed to serve the community of Meredith, New Hampshire, and has coverage of central New Hampshire, particularly the Lakes Region area. WZEI is an affiliate of the WEEI Sports Radio Network, based in WEEI-FM in Boston.
On November 6, 2012, WZEI was granted a U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) construction permit to move to a new transmitter site, decrease its effective radiated power (ERP) down to 560 Watts and raise its height above average terrain (HAAT) up to 324.7 meters (1,065 feet). That construction permit will expire on November 6, 2015.
History
Prior to March 2008, the station was WBHQ (Big 101.5) playing Classic Rock In March 2008, the station (then WWHQ) shifted from classic rock to a more mainstream rock format.
Prior to August 22, 2008, WWHQ simulcast with WWHK (102.3 FM) in Concord, New Hampshire; the simulcast ended after Nassau Broadcasting Partners was forced by the FCC to end its joint sales agreement with Capitol Broadcasting.
On April 27, 2009, it was announced that WWHQ and former sister station WNNH (99.1 FM) in Henniker would be spun off into a divestiture trust and sold as part of a debt-for-equity restructuring of Nassau Broadcasting in which Goldman Sachs became 85% owner of the company. The new ownership structure ended Nassau's grandfathered status with respect to how many stations in the Concord (Lakes Region) NH market it could own.
On November 4, 2009, WWHQ began stunting while its "Hawk"-branded classic rock format moved to WLKZ (104.9 FM) in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. The station went silent on March 1, 2010 due to power failure; at that time, it did not intend to return until the completion of the transfer of ownership. However in February 2011, WWHQ resumed broadcasting as a simulcast of Nassau's WBACH network of classical music stations in Maine.
WWHQ and 29 other Nassau stations in northern New England were purchased at bankruptcy auction by Carlisle Capital Corporation, a company controlled by Bill Binnie (owner of WBIN-TV in Derry and WYCN-LP in Nashua), on May 22, 2012. The station, and 12 of the other stations, was then acquired by Vertical Capital Partners, controlled by Jeff Shapiro.
The sale of WWHQ and the other 12 stations was consummated on November 30, 2012, at a purchase price of $4.4 million. After a brief silent period, the station returned to the air with a simulcast of new sister station WTPL. On December 24, 2012, the station changed call signs to WZEI; on January 4, 2013, the station switched to a sports talk format provided by the WEEI Sports Radio Network. As WWHQ, the station had previously planned to join the network in January 2008, but the deal between Nassau and Entercom ended up collapsing. The Vertical Capital Partners stations were transferred to Shapiro's existing Great Eastern Radio group on January 1, 2013.