WRDZ (AM) - History

History

The station's original call sign was WTAQ, with the letters meaning "Western Towns Along the Q." The "Q" referred to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. WTAQ first went on the air on October 10, 1950. It was a foreign language brokered time station. The heart of this format was weekend ethnic polka programs, serving the large Eastern European population around Chicago. "Lil Wally" Jagiello, Uncle Henry Cukierka, Chet Schafer, Eddie Blazonczyk, Johnny Hyzny, Eddie Korosa, Little Richard and many other polka shows made their home there. Later, it became all Spanish as "La Mexicana", before switching to Radio Disney. During this period, it carried the Spanish-language broadcasts of the Chicago White Sox.

WRDZ was born in 1998, when ABC Radio bought WTAQ 1300 and sister station WTAU 1500 in Zion, Illinois, to air their Radio Disney network. The stations were then owned by Lotus Communications Corporation and were simulcasting Latin American music as "La Mexicana". In July 1998, ABC Radio took over and started airing Radio Disney on the stations.

WTAQ and WTAU's call signs were later changed to WRDZ and WDDZ (this allowed the original callholders in Green Bay, Wisconsin to resume using the WTAQ calls). In January 2000, WDDZ went off the air and remained so, until early 2001, when ABC Radio turned the operations back to Lotus, under a local marketing agreement (LMA). Lotus mixed programming between a simulcast of WBJX 1460 at Racine, Wisconsin and locally programmed, automated Latin American music. The call letters were changed to WPJX at that time. By the summer of 2001, the LMA ended and WPJX was off the air again, except for a few tests with easy listening music, noted running in October 2001. These lasted for about 30 minutes and were infrequent.

In the spring of 2002, WPJX returned to the air again, simulcasting WRDZ with Radio Disney again, just after it was announced that WPJX would be sold to Multicultural Broadcasting of Chicago. In the summer of 2002, WPJX became an automated mix of oldies and classic country music, under Multicultural's operation from studios in Wauconda, Illinois.

WPJX was sold to Polnet Communications in January, 2006. In May 2006, the station changed format to Spanish language reggaeton music - a tropical Latin hybrid of hip-hop and reggae. It now runs programming from Mexico's Radio Formula. On Feb 15, 2011 Polnet Communications return WPJX to a Spanish Format Musica Latina playing a variety of Mexican Musica. WPJX is now under the Direction of Patricia Martinez Program Director