WMSI-FM (102.9

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one h ...

, "Miss 103") is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

, and owned by

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(formerly Clear Channel Communications until September 2014). WMSI's signal covers a roughly 90 mile radius around the city with an ERP of 100,000

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s. It is Mississippi's primary entry point for the

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History

The station began in 1948 as WJDX-FM, an FM sister to WJDX (620 AM), broadcasting easy listening music in the early 1960s. In 1968, WJDX-FM switched to a progressive rock format, calling itself "WJDX, the Rock of Jackson" and becoming one of the first stations in the South to adopt what was then considered an underground format. Initially, deejays were granted complete control over the playlist, but a fairly loose rotation system was gradually imposed over the first few years. In 1973, the call letters were changed to WZZQ. By this time, the format had evolved into a local version of AOR (Album Oriented Rock), influenced but never restricted by Radio & Records weekly published music charts for that format. Mississippi artists such as

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post- war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicag ...

Greg "Fingers" Taylor Greg "Fingers" Taylor (born June 3, 1952) is an American harmonica player, best known for his work with Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band. Career Greg Taylor was born in Wichita, Kansas, June 3, 1952 where he attended Wichita North High School. ...

and Paul Davis were played, and occasionally saw their songs achieve local hit status. The ZZQ playlist, like AOR in general, imitated top-40 in that it featured hot, recurrent and gold rotations, but the "hits" were album tracks as often as singles, and the so-called "hot rotation" was much looser. Typically 6 hours or more would pass between successive plays of even the top-10 rock songs. The WJDX news department maintained a presence on WZZQ, which took newsbreaks at fifteen minutes past every even-numbered hour beginning 6am weekdays, plus two extra morning drivetime newscasts and an extra afternoon drivetime, the last scheduled newsbreak of the day running at 6:15pm. WZZQ was the only FM station in Jackson at the time to broadcast so-called skycopter traffic reports. These were not featured regularly, but when traffic was particularly complex Nancy Bell would provide live updates from the WJDX "Flying J". Sunday nights, newsman Howard Lett hosted a popular call-in talkradio show on WJDX-AM called "Point-CounterPoint." The

King Biscuit Flower Hour The ''King Biscuit Flower Hour'' was an American syndicated radio show presented by the D.I.R. Radio Network that featured concert performances by various rock music recording artists. History The program was broadcast on Sunday nights from 197 ...

was another weekend highlight; it featured popular rock musicians recorded in concert. For several years, Sunday nights featured one or two classic radio shows, usually including

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...

. In 1981, despite ZZQ's high ratings, new owners switched the station to a country music format, changed the calls to WMSI-FM, and immediately adopted the name "Miss 103".

References

External links

* MSI-FM IHeartMedia radio stations {{Mississippi-radio-station-stub