WZAK

WZAK (93.1 FM) – branded 93.1 WZAK – is a commercial urban adult contemporary radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Owned by Radio One, WZAK is a local affiliate for The Tom Joyner Morning Show and nationally syndicated personality D. L. Hughley. The WZAK studios are located in Downtown Cleveland, while the station transmitter resides in Brecksville. Besides a standard analog transmission, WZAK broadcasts over three HD Radio channels, and is available online.

History

1960s

WZAK began as an ethnic radio station, signing on the air on May 26, 1963. The Ohio Music Corporation, the local franchise for MUZAK, had the original construction permit to build the station. Ohio Music Corporation, Xen & Lula Zapis, Joe & Betty Bauer and Bob Stumpf formed Trans World Broadcasting to put WZAK on the air.

Zapis and the Bauers had been previously involved with WXEN, an earlier ethnic programmer in Cleveland, which Zapis also was associated with (and which had call letters derived from Zapis' first name). WZAK was Cleveland's first full-time ethnic radio station, presenting programming in 17 foreign languages, including programs in Hungarian, German (hosted by the Bauers and a second show hosted by Bob Stumpf), Italian, Slovenian, Greek (hosted by Zapis and his wife Lula), Irish, Arabic, Lebanese, and Hindi. Some groups had multiple different programs; there were, for example, five different programs offered in Spanish and five different German programs.