WZKX (107.9 FM, "Kicker 108") is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

licensed to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and serving the Gulfport–

Biloxi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. It lies on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast in southern Mississippi, bordering the city of Gulfport, Mississippi, Gulfport to its west. The adjacent cities ar ...

Pascagoula The Pascagoula (also Pascoboula, Pacha-Ogoula, Pascagola, Pascaboula, Paskaguna) were an indigenous group living in coastal Mississippi on the Pascagoula River. The name ''Pascagoula'' is a Choctaw term meaning "bread eater". Choctaw native Am ...

radio market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

. Due to its 100,000 watt power, the station is also heard and ranks all throughout the metro New Orleans radio market. It broadcasts a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

format and is owned by Coast Radio Group. It's

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

s are on Lorraine Road in Gulfport. WZKX is a Class C FM station. It has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 100,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s, the maximum for most FM stations. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

is located on City Bridge Road in Perkinston and at 1,680 feet above sea level, is taller than the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story, Art Deco-style supertall skyscraper in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its n ...

today. WZKX broadcasts using

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

technology. The HD2

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

carries a

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

format, known as "The Quake." The HD3 subchannel plays

rhythmic adult contemporary Rhythmic adult contemporary, often abbreviated as rhythmic AC or RAC, is an adult contemporary radio format. The format focuses primarily on rhythmic contemporary, rhythmic hits aimed towards an adult audience, often resembling a mixture of the cla ...

music, known as "The Hype."

History

The station

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on .''

Broadcasting Yearbook ''Broadcasting & Cable'' (''B&C'', or ''Broadcasting+Cable'') was a telecommunications industry monthly trade magazine and, later, news website published by Future US. Founded in 1931 as ''Broadcasting'', subsequent mergers, acquisitions and in ...

1969'
page B-96
Retrieved October 19, 2023. It's original

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

was WRPM-FM, the

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

of WRPM

1530 AM The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on AM broadcasting, AM frequency 1530 kHz: 1530 AM is a United States clear-channel frequency. KFBK (AM), KFBK Sacramento and WCKY (AM), WCKY Cincinnati share list of broadcast statio ...

(now silent). WRPM-AM-FM had their

city of license In U.S., Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American broadcast ...

Poplarville Poplarville is a city and the county seat of Pearl River County, Mississippi, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, 2010 census, the city population was 2,894. It hosts an annual Blueberry Jubilee, which includes rides, craft vendor ...

. They were owned by Ben O. Griffin and largely

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

their programming. Even though WRPM-FM was powered at the maximum 100,000 watts, it's signal was limited by it's short antenna height of only . In the late 1970s, WRPM-FM split it's programming from the AM station. It was one of the only

album rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM broadcasting, FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of Rock music, rock albums and is currently associated ...

radio stations on the Gulf Coast. The studios were located in Orange Grove just north of Gulfport. Rock 107 played harder-edged rock acts, from

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

to Rush. A "Power Rock Song" was heard at the beginning of each hour and the

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

s were free to play the rock albums they wanted. Similar to the plot in the 1978 movie, '' FM'', management decided in 1982 to end the free form format and go with a

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

of airing only the best selling albums. Some DJs, like late night host Jeff Davis, left the station, though Mark "In the Middle" McGraw remained. In 1982, the station relocated to a

taller than the

. The power and antenna height allowed the station to reach east to Mobile, west to

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

and north to

Laurel Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mus ...

. It became a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

station branded as ''Power 108'' . The original Power 108 airstaff was Bryan Rhodes in mornings, with the late Dave Melton, Sr. doing news, Mark McGraw hosting middays (Mark in the Middle), P.D. The Real Rick James doing afternoons, Mark ("The Top Gun") Gunn heard in the evening and Reverend Red (Collins Powell) covering late nights. In September 1994, the station flipped to country and branded as ''Kicker 108''. As of March 1, 2023, WZKX broadcasts using

HD radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

technology with three HD

s. The station is voiced b
Aaron Bradley
and Pat Garrett.

References

External links

Kicker 108 WZKX official website

107.9 HD3 The Hype official website
* {{coord, 30.752, N, 89.057, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title ZKX Country radio stations in the United States Bay St. Louis, Mississippi 1966 establishments in Mississippi Radio stations established in 1966