FM Technical Profile: KWMZ

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Station Name:

Z-104.5

Frequency:

104.5

Format:

80's Hits

Transmitter Location:

[map] [street view] - Located just off state highway 23 near the West Pointe A La Hache community, well downriver from New Orleans.

Power (ERP):

13.5 kW

Antenna:

Omnidirectional

Antenna HAAT:

820 feet

Other Information:

60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.

:
PS-WMZ-FM
Time-[?]
Text-WMZ-FM
PTY-Undefined
PI-KWMZ-FM

More Information:

[FCC]
[FCCdata]

[Radio-Locator]

[Wikipedia]

[Facebook]

[Image] RDS display from the station on a Insignia portable radio, as received in Baldwin County, Alabama.

Owner:

M.A.C. Broadcasting (Michael A. Costello)

History:

This station has had a somewhat troubled history since receiving its original construction permit in the spring of 1998.  Originally intended as a class A signal with the KBIL calls for Grand Isle, Louisiana, the station passed through different channels of ownership and wound up being assigned a permit to serve the Mississippi River channel southeast of New Orleans.  This location proved to be a very tight fit, as the station is short-spaced to both WXRR Hattiesburg and KVDU Houma.  In the case of WXRR, the overlap is over water and uninhabitable land, at least on paper…

The station finally signed on in August 2001 with an Urban Contemporary format and the KNOU calls, trying to play as a rimshot into the New Orleans market as "U-104.5".  The station was later known as Hot 104.5, but fell silent after Hurricane Katrina ravaged southeast Louisiana.  The station was silent through most of 2006, and didn't get back on the air until March 2007 from a new transmitter site.  Sadly, this only lasted about a year and half, as Hurricane Gustav flooded the tower site and caused the station to go silent again.  A company called Power Broadcasting acquired the station via bankruptcy, as the previous ownership was never able to really recover from two hurricanes in a row. 

Power put the station back on the air in 2011 with a Classic Rock format.  They sold the station to M.A.C. Broadcasting a year later; the new owners took the station silent while rebuilding the transmission facilities.  It re-emerged in February 2013 with a new format, 80's Hits and new KWMZ calls.  The station markets itself alternately as "Z-104.5" and "WMZ-FM".  Since returning to the air, the station has been a rather regular catch on the coast of Mississippi, giving co-channel WXRR from Hattiesburg fits in the process. 

The station filed an application in early August 2024 to raise their antenna height and lower transmission power due to a change in antenna type.  If approved, the change would not result in any appreciable change in coverage.