WPKZ

WPKZ (1280 AM) is a 5,000 watt radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format and licensed to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, USA. The station is currently owned by John Morrison through licensee K-Zone Media Group, LLC, and features programming from ABC News Radio, Citadel Media, Fox News Radio, Premiere Radio Networks, and Fox Sports Radio.

History

The station signed on in 1941 as WEIM, a general entertainment station with a variety of shows, ranging from dramas to talk to sports to popular music to news and information. By the mid 1950s, WEIM was primarily a popular music station, playing the hits of that time; also included in the stations' programming were sports and large amounts of local news. The station was sold to Knight Quality Stations in 1959.

With the advent of rock-and-roll music, WEIM evolved into a Top 40 station by the late 1950s, a format that would remain throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the WEIM DJs in 1966/1967 included Russ Karon, Jerry Olin, Phil Dirkin, Gordy Sinclair, Dick Masterman and Joe Anthony as well as part-timer Jim Bohannon, now a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. During this period, WEIM's main competitor for the Top 40 audience was Boston's 1030/WBZ, which left the format in 1968. In 1969, WEIM, facing competition from new Boston area Top 40 stations 680/WRKO and 105.7/WKOX-FM (now WROR-FM), streamlined their sound, becoming a much hipper-sounding Top 40 station, with the addition of DJs Jim Conlee, Mike Ivers, Dan Gifford, Danny Lane and Gil Lawrence, as well as adding a progressive rock hour, late at night. The station sounded far more professional, than what one would expect in a market the size of Fitchburg-Leominster. During this era, the station was known as "Fitchburg's Famous" and "The Famous 1280".