Due to its location near the bottom of the AM dial, as well as its transmitter power and West Michigan's mostly flat land (with near-perfect ground conductivity), its daytime signal reaches much of the southwestern Lower Peninsula, with Grade B coverage as far east as Lansing, as far south as South Bend and as far north as Mount Pleasant.

But at night, to protect other stations on AM 590, WKZO switches to a directional antenna, with power fed to all four towers.

The station was received across the eastern United States and into Canada, and a reception report once came in from a Dutch ship in the North Sea.

(Andrews University returned to broadcasting in 1971, when the school signed on WAUS, a classical music station at 90.9 (later 90.7) on the FM dial.)

He essentially ran the station as a one-man job, serving as technician, engineer, disc jockey, and sales staff.

When the Great Depression struck, Fetzer decided to move WEMC to Kalamazoo, which at the time was the largest city in Michigan that did not yet have its own radio station.

Listeners heard dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts.

In the 1950s, as network programming moved from radio to television, WKZO switched to a full-service Middle of the Road (MOR) station, with popular music, news and sports.

In 1960, Fetzer expanded WKZO-TV's signal to cover all of West Michigan, and it became an exclusive CBS affiliate.