On February 5, 1944, the Federal Communications Commission granted WGAL, Inc., a construction permit for a new station on 45.5 MHz on the original 42-50 MHz FM broadcast band. After the FCC created the current FM band on June 27, 1945, the station was reassigned to 92.7 MHz on July 29, 1946. On January 22, 1947, the station was assigned the WGAL-FMcall sign, and on June 27, 1947 the station was reassigned to 101.3 MHz. The FCC granted WGAL-FM its first license on November 16, 1951. WGAL-FM was a sister station to 1490 WGAL. In 1949, the region's first TV station also went on the air, WGAL-TV. The three stations were owned by the Steinman Family, which also owned two local daily newspapers, the Intelligencer Journal and the Lancaster New Era. At first WGAL-FM simulcast its AM counterpart. On May 21, 1959, WGAL, Inc., was granted a construction permit by the FCC to install a new transmitter for the station at the WGAL-TV tower in Hellam Township, York County and side-mount a new antenna on the TV tower. A new license with the updated facilities was granted on July 28, 1960. By the 1970s, the station had switched its format to beautiful music, a format of soft instrumentals with limited talk and commercials. It competed with several other beautiful music outlets in the Lancaster and surrounding radio markets, including 97.3 WHP-FM in Harrisburg and 103.3 WSBA-FM in York. In March 1976, WGAL, Inc. sold WGAL-FM, along with WGAL and WGAL-TV, to Hall Communications for $850,000. The effective date of the sale was February 17, 1977, when the FM station's license was voluntarily assigned to Hall Communications. The station's call sign was changed from WGAL-FM to WNCE that day. The station's branding was changed to Nice 101. The station's easy listening format was not changed. As the 1980s were ending, most easy listening stations around the country were trying to update their sound. WSBA-FM in nearby York had switched to soft adult contemporaryWARM-FM. WNCE began adding more vocals to its playlist. In 1992, the easy listening format came to an end. The station changed its call sign on November 15, 1992 from WNCE to WROZ. That was coupled with a switch to soft adult contemporary music, rebranding as The Rose. Competitor WHP-FM in nearby Harrisburg had already abandoned the easy listening format in March 1992, switching to Rock AC as WRVVThe River. On Thursday, May 14, 2015, WROZ switched branding from The Rose to fun 101.3, with a move to a more uptempo AC sound. In addition, it promised to play "Always Six Songs In a Row Always."
Christmas Music
WROZ changes format to all Christmas music each year in mid-November and re-brands as "The Christmas Station." It returns to its regular AC format on December 26th.
Signal note
WROZ is short-spaced to two other Class B stations: WBEB B101.1 operates on a first adjacent channel to WROZ and the cities the stations are licensed to serve are only about 61 miles apart. The minimum distance between two Class B stations operating on first adjacent channels according to current FCC rules is 105 miles. WGGY Froggy 101 operates on the same channel as WROZ and the cities the stations are licensed to serve are only about 100 miles apart. The minimum distance between two Class B stations operating on first adjacent channels according to current FCC rules is 150 miles.
