rock formats and was affiliated with the ABC Radio network. By 1977, WEAM changed its programming to target a black audience with R&B music and Georgetown University basketball games. By 1978, WEAM dropped Georgetown in favor of George Washington basketball play-by-play coverage. WEAM briefly changed back to rock music before switching to big band in 1980. By 1981, WEAM began carrying American University basketball games. Thoms Broadcasting laid off DJs Al Ross and Bob Bassett in February 1984 in favor of syndicated programming from the Satellite Music Network. As WMZQ (1984–1996) In March 1984, Viacom bought WEAM. Viacom changed the station's call sign to WMZQ, after its country station WMZQ-FM; initially, the AM station played classic country, in contrast to its sister FM station that played newer music. Owing to a new FCC rule that allowed stations to simulcast more than 50 percent of content on both AM and FM, Viacom converted WMZQ into a complete simulcast of WMZQ-FM in July 1987. Washingtonian magazine named the WMZQ family of stations the "Best Country Station" in 1985 for the fifth straight year. By the spring of 1988, Arbitron ranked WMZQ's morning show hosted by Jim London and Mary Ball as the no. 1 morning show in Washington, and listeners included Vice President George H. W. Bush and Second Lady Barbara Bush. That year, WMZQ had also become the no. 1 rated station in Washington overall. WMZQ again ranked no. 1 on Arbitron ratings in spring 1992 and spring 1995. As WZHF (1996–present) On August 9, 1996, WZHF began broadcasting with its current call sign, after dropping its simulcast of country station WMZQ-FM in favor of a new health and fitness format on July 29. Its branding was "Washington's Health and Fitness Radio". Ellen Ratner hosted the Morning Health Show weekdays at 7 a.m. After purchasing WZHF and other Viacom radio stations in the spring of 1997, Chancellor Broadcasting sold WZHF to Palo Alto, California-based Douglas Broadcasting for $7.5 million later in the year. By August 29 that year, the call sign changed to WVPA but reverted to WZHF by November 7. Douglas Broadcasting changed WZHF's format to carry Asian ethnic programming produced in California. WZHF added what Marc Fisher of The Washington Post described as the "first radio voice" for the Washington-area LGBT community in 1998, a nightly hour Rainbow Radio with a rotating set of programs about health, relationships, and