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WZON
WZON (620 AM) is a radio station that is currently silent. The station is licensed to Bangor and serves Central Maine.
WZON is owned by Mix Maine Media, through licensee J. Hanson Company; the company also owns WZLO and programs WBAN and WGUY in the Bangor area. WZON is licensed to transmit using a non-directional transmitter, with 5,000 watts daytime and 620 watts nighttime to protect other stations on 620 kHz.
WZON is one of Maine's oldest radio stations, first signing on the air in 1926 as WLBZ in Dover-Foxcroft. It moved to Bangor in 1928. The station became WACZ in 1981, and WZON after its purchase by Stephen King, who formed the Zone Corporation with his wife Tabitha King, in 1983. Stephen King sold the station in 1990, but repurchased WZON out of bankruptcy in 1993. He closed the station and WZLO on December 31, 2024, due to ongoing financial losses; Mix Maine Media acquired the two stations in 2025.
Until December 31, 2024, WZON primarily broadcast a classic hits format. It also aired a local afternoon talk show, Downtown with Rich Kimball, which featured a national guest list including filmmaker Ken Burns, actors Stephen Tobolowsky, Peri Gilpin, comedians Paula Poundstone and Lewis Black, and musicians like Rosanne Cash, Jimmy Webb, and Peter Asher. Local newscasts from Bangor CBS affiliate WABI-TV were carried in the early morning and in the early evening. Hourly national news was supplied by CBS News Radio.
WZON is one of the oldest radio stations in Maine. The station signed on December 30, 1926, as WLBZ, owned by Thompson L. Guernsey and operating from Dover-Foxcroft. The station grew out of an experimental radio station, 1EE, that had been licensed to Guernsey in 1921; WLBZ's first broadcast, using modified 1EE equipment, originated from Guernsey's home, in the harness room of the chicken house. In 1928, the station moved from 1440 kHz to 620 kHz and relocated to Bangor, occupying studios in the Andrews Music House previously used by WABI. The following year, the station was transferred to Maine Broadcasting Company, which was controlled by Guernsey, and opened a studio in Waterville. WLBZ became a CBS affiliate by 1930; it was the network's first affiliate in Maine. In 1939, it switched to NBC. Guernsey closed the Waterville studio in 1935 for financial reasons, but reestablished a presence in the city in 1938.
Guernsey first attempted to sell the station to the Rines family, owner of WCSH in Portland, in 1938; Rines was seeking to assemble a statewide network of stations. Guernsey did not complete the deal, leading the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to dismiss the application on June 18, 1940. However, in 1944, to help pay off an outstanding note, Guernsey was forced to sell WLBZ at auction to the Rines-controlled Eastland Broadcasting Company. A television sister station was added in 1958, when the Rines' Maine Broadcasting Company acquired WTWO (channel 2) and renamed it WLBZ-TV.
By 1973, WLBZ had a middle-of-the-road music format; on September 1, 1975, this gave way to an all-news format via NBC's News and Information Service (NIS). WLBZ returned to its a modified version of its previous format, featuring more "uptempo" songs, on May 16, 1977, ahead of NBC's closure of NIS; station manager Edward Owen told the Bangor Daily News that Bangor did not have the population density to sustain an all-news format, noting that WCSH in Portland would continue as an all-news station locally. The change came a week after WLBZ radio and WLBZ-TV, along with WCSH radio and WCSH-TV, began jointing promoting themselves as "NewsCenter".
In February 1978, the station transitioned to a top 40 format as "Z-62"; the change was completed on March 1. The change put WLBZ in direct competition with existing top 40 station WGUY; that station's owner, Stone Communications, would sue Maine Broadcasting in 1979 over WLBZ's hiring of four former WGUY staffers in connection to the format change. WLBZ, which had been one of Bangor's lowest-rated stations, rose to the top of the ratings as a top 40 station, while WGUY's ratings declined.
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WZON
WZON (620 AM) is a radio station that is currently silent. The station is licensed to Bangor and serves Central Maine.
WZON is owned by Mix Maine Media, through licensee J. Hanson Company; the company also owns WZLO and programs WBAN and WGUY in the Bangor area. WZON is licensed to transmit using a non-directional transmitter, with 5,000 watts daytime and 620 watts nighttime to protect other stations on 620 kHz.
WZON is one of Maine's oldest radio stations, first signing on the air in 1926 as WLBZ in Dover-Foxcroft. It moved to Bangor in 1928. The station became WACZ in 1981, and WZON after its purchase by Stephen King, who formed the Zone Corporation with his wife Tabitha King, in 1983. Stephen King sold the station in 1990, but repurchased WZON out of bankruptcy in 1993. He closed the station and WZLO on December 31, 2024, due to ongoing financial losses; Mix Maine Media acquired the two stations in 2025.
Until December 31, 2024, WZON primarily broadcast a classic hits format. It also aired a local afternoon talk show, Downtown with Rich Kimball, which featured a national guest list including filmmaker Ken Burns, actors Stephen Tobolowsky, Peri Gilpin, comedians Paula Poundstone and Lewis Black, and musicians like Rosanne Cash, Jimmy Webb, and Peter Asher. Local newscasts from Bangor CBS affiliate WABI-TV were carried in the early morning and in the early evening. Hourly national news was supplied by CBS News Radio.
WZON is one of the oldest radio stations in Maine. The station signed on December 30, 1926, as WLBZ, owned by Thompson L. Guernsey and operating from Dover-Foxcroft. The station grew out of an experimental radio station, 1EE, that had been licensed to Guernsey in 1921; WLBZ's first broadcast, using modified 1EE equipment, originated from Guernsey's home, in the harness room of the chicken house. In 1928, the station moved from 1440 kHz to 620 kHz and relocated to Bangor, occupying studios in the Andrews Music House previously used by WABI. The following year, the station was transferred to Maine Broadcasting Company, which was controlled by Guernsey, and opened a studio in Waterville. WLBZ became a CBS affiliate by 1930; it was the network's first affiliate in Maine. In 1939, it switched to NBC. Guernsey closed the Waterville studio in 1935 for financial reasons, but reestablished a presence in the city in 1938.
Guernsey first attempted to sell the station to the Rines family, owner of WCSH in Portland, in 1938; Rines was seeking to assemble a statewide network of stations. Guernsey did not complete the deal, leading the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to dismiss the application on June 18, 1940. However, in 1944, to help pay off an outstanding note, Guernsey was forced to sell WLBZ at auction to the Rines-controlled Eastland Broadcasting Company. A television sister station was added in 1958, when the Rines' Maine Broadcasting Company acquired WTWO (channel 2) and renamed it WLBZ-TV.
By 1973, WLBZ had a middle-of-the-road music format; on September 1, 1975, this gave way to an all-news format via NBC's News and Information Service (NIS). WLBZ returned to its a modified version of its previous format, featuring more "uptempo" songs, on May 16, 1977, ahead of NBC's closure of NIS; station manager Edward Owen told the Bangor Daily News that Bangor did not have the population density to sustain an all-news format, noting that WCSH in Portland would continue as an all-news station locally. The change came a week after WLBZ radio and WLBZ-TV, along with WCSH radio and WCSH-TV, began jointing promoting themselves as "NewsCenter".
In February 1978, the station transitioned to a top 40 format as "Z-62"; the change was completed on March 1. The change put WLBZ in direct competition with existing top 40 station WGUY; that station's owner, Stone Communications, would sue Maine Broadcasting in 1979 over WLBZ's hiring of four former WGUY staffers in connection to the format change. WLBZ, which had been one of Bangor's lowest-rated stations, rose to the top of the ratings as a top 40 station, while WGUY's ratings declined.