Zack Wakes Up Back At The Zone
• Stephens Media Group’s heritage Alternative WZNE (94.1 The Zone)/Rochester, NY is thrilled to announce the launch of its first live and local morning show in two decades, starring a familiar market name — please welcome The Morning Zone Out with Zack, which debuts at the stroke of 6am on Monday, July 24.
Zack Schaefer enjoys a long history with The Zone — after a stint with the former WPBZ (103.1 The Buzz)/West Palm Beach, he moved home to Rochester in 2009 and joined Stephens Media Group as a Promotions Assistant. In 2011 he added weekends on The Zone and was upped to nights a year later. Schaefer was promoted to Promotions Director of the cluster in 2014, and retained all of those duties until 2020, when the pandemic claimed jobs all over the industry. More recently Zack was working for Audacy Rochester as a Traffic Reporter.
In making the big announcement, Josh Venable, who doubles as Zone PD and corporate Alternative/Rock Format Captain, said, “Zack is exactly what we need for Rochester in the morning. Here’s a guy who was born and raised in the market and knows it like the back of his hand. Listeners will get great music, topical and local talk all from a seasoned jock who lives the lifestyle.”
OM Nik Rivers added, “After a long process of talking to several great candidates, we realized that our best choice for mornings on The Zone was here in our own backyard. Zack brings years of experience, local knowledge, and the right attitude to a station that hasn’t had a local morning show in nearly twenty years.”
An extremely excited Zack exclaimed, “I am EXTREMELY excited to be back at the station I started my on-air career with, and really happy that I will be able to connect with the people of this city again. I want to thank SVP of Programming Bob Thornton, my new PD Josh Venable, GM Mike Ninnie and OM Nik Rivers for having faith in me and extending this opportunity. Let’s have some fun!”
