WZFG

WZFG
City Dilworth, Minnesota
Broadcast area Fargo-Moorhead
Branding AM 1100 The Flag
Slogan "News, Opinion, Passion"
Frequency 1100 AM (kHz)
First air date October 4, 2007 (testing)
August 11, 2008 (official)
Format Commercial; Talk
Power 50,000 watts (day)
5,000 watts (critical hours)
440 watts (night)
Class B
Former callsigns WZFN (2006-2008)
Affiliations Fox News Radio
Owner Bakken Beacon Media, LLC
Webcast AM1100 Listen Live
Website am1100theflag.com

WZFG (1100 AM, "The Flag") is a 50,000 watt radio station serving the Fargo-Moorhead market, licensed to Dilworth, Minnesota. Its two-tower transmitter site is near Sabin, Minnesota. The station is owned by Bakken Beacon Media.

History

WZFN was originally owned by Brantley Broadcast Associates based in Alabama. WZFN was sold to Scott Hennen's SMAHH Communications of Fargo in April, 2008.[1]

In April 2008, longtime host and station manager Scott Hennen left North Dakota based WDAY to join WZFN. Former KVOX-FM (Froggy 99.9 FM) DJ Paul Bougie and nationally syndicated host Sean Hannity also joined him.

On Monday, May 19, 2008, SMAHH announced its call letters would change to WZFG and the station would be called "The Flag". It was announced that Rush Limbaugh would be carried in the new program schedule.

WZFG signed-on for full-time regular broadcasting on August 11, 2008. It became the sister station of KEGK. Both are located at the new SMAHH headquarters, at 64 Broadway in downtown Fargo.

WZFG was granted permission temporarily to remain at 50,000 watts 24 hours a day in order to expand coverage of the 2009 Red River flood.[2]

On April 25, 2009 it was announced that Scott Hennen won Talker Magazine's The Sharon L. Harrison Memorial Award for Outstanding Community Service by a Radio Talk Show Host for his coverage of the 2009 Red River Flood.[3]

In the September 8, 2010 edition of the Fargo Forum, it was announced that Scott Hennen was removed as President and CEO of Great Plains Integrated Marketing, by the Board of Directors, effective 9/8/2010. Other local outlets reported that "effective immediately, he will no longer be an employee, and therefore no longer running day to day operations". Later in 2010, Hennen returned to AM1100 in an afternoon program, replacing his friend Sean Hannity. This program lasted until the summer of 2011, when then-program director Bruce Kelly replaced the Hennen show with the syndicated Ed Schultz show (Schultz, ironically, was Hennen's longtime local rival in the Fargo market before fronting a national show.) In March 2012, the Rush Limbaugh program, which had run on AM1100 since it first signed on the air, moved to the new "101.9 Talk FM" (KRWK). KRWK returned to its previous rock format in September 2013; Limbaugh's program then returned to WZFG.[4]

On April 18, 2012, several sources (including the Forum newspaper in Fargo, ND) reported that Hennen had purchased WZFG from his former partners at Great Plains Integrated Marketing and will return to the frequency.

Effective September 6, 2012, Bakken Beacon Media, LLC, a partnership of Hennen and Gary Emineth, purchased WZFG for $960,000.

In September 2014, Sean Hannity returned to the air on WZFG. Hannity had been off the air in eastern North Dakota since 2013.[5]

WZFG-produced shows

References

External links

Coordinates: 46°45′33″N 96°38′43″W / 46.75917°N 96.64528°W / 46.75917; -96.64528

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