WZAD

WZAD (The Wolf) is country music radio station licensed to Wurtsboro, New York that serves the Catskill Mountains region, Orange County, New York, and Pike County, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts on 97.3 MHz with 620 watts ERP from a tower between Wurtsboro and Monticello.

WZAD's programming is a simulcast of sister station 94.3 WKXP Kingston, an arrangement that began in March 2006. Prior to this, WZAD had simulcast the programming of another sister station, 97.7 WCZX Hyde Park.

History

WZAD first signed on in 1990 as part of a wave of new FM stations in the wake of the FCC's passage of Docket 80-90 which loosened class/frequency restrictions. The station began its life as The Wizard a locally based open-format station allowing DJs to choose their own music, featuring everything from contemporary folk and rock to jazz and country, with an evening talk segment and new age, world and classical music on weekends.

The station was sold in the early 90s and immediately fired all its on-air staff and changed to a satellite-based oldies format that had a playlist spanning from the birth of rock until the mid-1980s. The station later hired new DJs for its morning and afternoon hours, but was otherwise automated outside of some syndicated programming on weekends.