WXSS

Not to be confused with WKXJ, a Chattanooga, Tennessee–area sister station with the same branding and frequency.

WXSS

Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Broadcast area	Greater Milwaukee
Frequency	103.7 MHz (HD Radio)
Branding	103-7 Kiss-FM
Programming
Format	Contemporary hit radio
Subchannels	HD2: Urban contemporary "Hot 105.7" HD3: "Channel Q" LGBTQ dance music
Affiliations	Premiere Networks
Ownership
Owner	Audacy, Inc. (Audacy License, LLC, as Debtor-in-Possession)
Sister stations	WMYX-FM WSSP
History
First air date	January 1, 1961;63 years ago (1961-01-01)
Former call signs	WTOS (1961–71) WEZW (1971–95) WAMG (1995–98)
Call sign meaning	X represents a kiss, then the "SS" in kiss
Technical information [1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	27031
Class	B
ERP	19,500  watts
HAAT	257 meters (843 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	43°05′49″N87°54′18″W / 43.097°N 87.905°W / 43.097; -87.905
Translator(s)	HD2: 105.7 W289CB (Milwaukee)
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Listen live (via  Audacy) Listen live (via  Audacy) (HD2)
Website	www.audacy.com/1037kissfm www.audacy.com/hot1057mke (HD2)

WXSS (103.7 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and serving Greater Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin. It broadcasts a Top 40 (CHR) radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its studios are on 11800 West Grange Avenue in Hales Corners.

WXSS is a Class B FM station, with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 18,000 watts. The transmitter is on North Humboldt Boulevard in the Milwaukee "tower farm" complex near Estabrook Park and the Milwaukee River in the northeastern part of the city. ^[2] WXSS broadcasts using HD Radio technology. Its digital subchannels carry urban contemporary music as "Hot 105.7" on HD2 and "Channel Q," an Audacy LGBTQ and dance music service on HD3. The HD2 subchannel feeds FM translator W289CB at 105.7 MHz.

History

MOR and Progressive Rock (1961-1971)

The station signed on the air on January 1, 1961;63 years ago (1961-01-01). The original call sign was WTOS, a reference to its city of license of Wauwatosa. It began with a Middle of the Road (MOR) format of popular adult music. WTOS later flipped to a country music sound that also featured ethnic programming.

In March 1969, new owners switched the station's format to progressive rock, going head-to-head with WZMF 98.3 FM.

Beautiful Music (1971-1993)

The inexperienced owners lost money with the rock format. In 1971, a new owner adopted a beautiful music format and the WEZW call sign. ^[3] The EZ stood for "easy listening" music. It played quarter hour sweeps of automated music, mostly instrumental cover versions of popular songs, along with Broadway and Hollywood show tunes.

WEZW was a ratings success for the following two decades. But as the audience aged, more vocals were added to the playlist and some instrumentals were removed from the format.

Adult Contemporary (1993-1995)

Previous logo from the mid-1990s as WAMG

In an effort to keep the audience youthful, in 1993 WEZW transitioned to a soft adult contemporary sound, with all but a few instrumental songs deleted. But Milwaukee already had several other FM stations doing the same format, making it difficult for WEZW to compete.

WEZW made a change in March 1995 in an effort to leave behind its "Easy Listening" past. It switched its call letters to WAMG and changed its branding to Magic 103.7 with the slogan "Continuous Soft Favorites".

Rhythmic (1996-1998)

WAMG was unable to compete with WLTQ in the Soft AC format. The station flipped to a Rhythmic Adult Contemporary sound during Labor Day weekend in 1996. It kept the "Magic" branding, but changed the slogan to "Rhythm & Romance." ^[4]

The playlist featured rhythmic oldies, current R&B and Pop/Dance in addition to soft hits from the Top 40 charts. Much of the airstaff was changed. However, some features including "Lovesongs" (with a different host) and "The Sunday Jazz Brunch" remained.

Top 40 (1998-present)

Throughout the mid-1990s, the Milwaukee market was left without a Top 40 station after WLUM-FM dropped its Top 40 format in late-1994. It wasn't until June 19, 1998, when Contemporary Hits made a comeback to the Milwaukee market. WAMG launched its current Top 40 (CHR) format under the call letters WXSS-FM. The station called itself 103.7 KISS-FM.

The first song was "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys. ^[5] The station debuted with 10,000 songs in a row without commercials. The launch included a $10,000 giveaway. As the station added personalities, they did several remote broadcasts with T-shirt giveaways. Vice President of Operations, Brian Kelly, was in charge of the launch, which included imaging by Mitch Craig. The station was branded as The All New, All Hit 103.7 Kiss FM from the time it started until February 2003.

At Midnight on February 3, 2003, the station tweaked its playlist to Rhythmic CHR and branding to 103.7 Kiss FM, The New #1 Hit Music Station, but by August 2003, the station switched back to mainstream CHR. However, by 2009, WXSS shifted again to a Rhythmic-leaning direction with a heavy emphasis on R&B/hip-hop, dance and pop hits while playing only the most popular rock music.

Competition

On May 28, 2010, WXSS got new competition. WRNW 97.3 FM ditched its 1980s Classic Rock format to go Top 40/CHR. ^[6] WRNW's parent company iHeartMedia (the former Clear Channel Communications) owns the rights to the "KISS-FM" branding. But when WXSS launched in 1998, Clear Channel was still in the process of acquiring their Milwaukee stations, and the strategy of expanding the KISS-FM branding across Clear Channel's stations nationwide had not yet been implemented. That allowed Entercom to claim the Kiss-FM name in the Milwaukee market. WRNW flipped to All-Sports in November 2018, after eight years and not-so-impressive ratings, as well as failing to overtake WXSS during its run.

On September 7, 2012, WXSS picked up new competition from 106.9 WZBK-FM, which switched formats from Classic Country to Rhythmic Top 40 as WNRG, "Energy 106-9." ^[7] This lasted until April 1, 2021, when the station flipped to Oldies, thus leaving WXSS as the only CHR station in Milwaukee. ^[8]

Following changes to Audacy-owned stations nationwide, many of WXSS's DJs were laid off in 2021. All local DJs outside of the morning show were replaced with voicetracked personalities from other markets. ^[9]

Past personalities on KISS FM

Mornings

The Joe Show with Joe Caruso, Van "The Man" McNeal, and Ginger Jordan was the first morning show when the station signed on. The show later was helmed for a short time by Van and Ginger, after the departure of Caruso. Former KDWB afternoon jock Michael Knight then joined to form Knight In The Morning. Later, Van moved to nights on KISS and Michael and Ginger welcomed former KDWB production director Rahny Taylor as the third host and executive producer. Later, when Rahny and Michael were moved to clustermate Hot A/C WMYX and Ginger departed the station, KISS mornings were handled again by Van McNeal, this time with KISS production assistant Tony Zamboni as co-host. Just months later, Van moved to afternoon drive on KISS and Rahny Taylor returned to KISS FM, along with former KISS night and afternoon host Wes McKane, to form the "Wes & Rahny In The Morning". Later, former WIFC FM night jock Alley Faith joined Wes and Rahny, to form "Wes, Rahny, and Alley". In 2013 Rahny departed the station for K-Love/Air1 in Sacramento. Crosstown WRNW afternoon host, Riggs, replaced him to form "Wes, Riggs & Alley." In late 2015, Wes left Kiss to host mornings on sister station, WMYX. In September 2016, Ryan Gibbons joined the show from KZOK Seattle as full-time "Producer Gibbons". The show was then known as simply "Riggs and Alley". In October 2022, Riggs announced plans to depart the station. ^[10]

Middays

JoJo Martinez held the midday position for about nine of those years. During JoJo's short time away from the station, former Atlanta radio personality and current XM disc jockey PJ held the job. JoJo moved to sister station WMYX in the summer of 2010 and Leigh McNabb, formerly of WLRW, WZOK and WMYX, hosted middays until 2015. In the fall of 2015, current music director, Nathan Graham began hosting middays. In 2018, JMatt became the station's midday host. In 2021, the out-of-market personality Julia began airing in middays. ^[11]

Afternoons

The station signed on with former Jacksonville and Denver radio personality Greg Tanner in afternoons. Following his exit, former KISS night jock and current morning host Wes McKane held down PM drive. After Wes left to do nights at KDWB in the Twin Cities, Mat Mitchell, formerly nights at Mix 93.3 in Kansas City, held down afternoons. When Mat left to do mornings at Channel 963 in Wichita, then night host Van McNeal did afternoons. Van later left to do the same shift on sister station WMYX, which opened the door for Kraig Karson, the station's first night host, to do afternoons. In 2022, the out-of-market personality Josh "Bru" Brubaker began airing in afternoons. ^[12]

Nights

When KISS signed on, current afternoon jock Kraig Karson served as the first night show host. When Kraig left for afternoons at the now defunct 103.5 The Beat in Chicago, current morning show host Wes McKane became the station's second night jock, coming from a similar role at 95.5 WIFC FM in central Wisconsin. After Wes moved to afternoons, former KDWB jock Zanny K. enter for a very short stint as the night time host. Zanny was followed by Van McNeal, who shifted into nights from mornings. Van's move back to mornings made way for B-Dub, who was inbound from HOT 104 in Mobile, AL. After about one year, B-Dub left for afternoon drive at Q102 in Philly and was replaced by Kracker, a.k.a. Pat Clark, who moved from a similar job at U92 in Salt Lake City. Upon Kracker's departure for mornings in Seattle at KQMV, former KISS part-timer Brett Andrews returned for the night slot, coming from HOT 97 in Las Vegas, where he hosted afternoons. Brett Andrews was the night host until May 2010, when he took another job in Portland, Oregon. After his move, HaZe, who formerly worked at KSLZ St. Louis, took over the night slot at KISS. After Haze left the station in 2011, Michelle McKnight stepped in. She left the station in the spring of 2014 for KTFM in San Antonio. Nathan Graham came to KISS to host nights in the fall of 2014. After segueing up to middays, he was replaced by longtime Milwaukee radio staple, DJ Gee-A. In 2022, the out-of-market personality Sean "Sonic" Leake began airing in evenings. ^[13]

Overnights

Current overnight host is Z, who also works as Assistant Production Director for Entercom Milwaukee. Previous overnight hosts included Dave Michaels (Currently nights on WRIT-FM), Brett Andrews did fill in overnights in 2002 (Currently Program Director and Morning Show host at WRIT-FM), Jake Evans (Left for WLUM-FM in 2002)

Klub KISS

Klub KISS, created in 2003, is a dance club mixshow featuring most of the songs played in regular rotation in remixed/dance mix form. It was so popular that in 2005 it spawned the 5 O'Clock Traffic Jam and PJ's Party Jam (later renamed Jojo's Party Jam upon Jojo's return to the Midday slot).

Klub KISS is currently produced and hosted by night personality, DJ Gee-A.

HD Radio

The station has two HD Radio subchannels. When WXSS commenced HD operations, their HD2 sub-channel carried the standup comedy format of the All Comedy Radio Network. Later, an HD3 subchannel was activated to simulcasts sister sports talk station WSSP. In August 2011, the WSSP simulcast moved to the HD2, replacing the All Comedy Radio Network, and the HD3 subchannel was turned off. As of June 2014, the 103.7-HD2 signal was translated in analog form on 105.7 FM over translator W289CB to give WSSP an FM signal within the main Milwaukee area.

In the spring of 2019, WXSS-HD3 was launched to carry "The Oasis", an '80s-heavy adult contemporary playlist branded as "Relaxing Radio"; in mid-August 2019, it was switched to the LGBTQ+ network Channel Q.

On October 5, 2020, WXSS-HD2/W289CB dropped the simulcast of WSSP and flipped to urban contemporary, branded as "Hot 105.7". ^[14] The shift in format is likely intended to lure in nostalgia listeners, when WLUM-FM utilized the same format under the branding of "Hot 102" from its 1979 launch until its 1994 transition to rock and alternative music (though the current incarnation of "Hot" has a more modern playlist), along with providing direct competition to WKKV, albeit in an automated form to start.

References

1. "Facility Technical Data for WXSS". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
2. Radio-Locator.com/WXSS
3. "Billboard". 1971-03-13.
4. "WAMG Drops Soft For Rhythmic AC" (PDF). Radio & Records. 1996-09-06. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
5. "Milwaukee's WAMG Flips To CHR/Pop" (PDF). Radio & Records. p. 14. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
6. Ross, Sean (June 10, 2010). "Punch Wars #5 – Milwaukee's New CHR Battle". Radio-Info.com.
7. "Saga Gives Milwaukee An Energy Boost" from Radio Insight (September 7, 2012)
8. "Pure Oldies 106.9 Debuts In Milwaukee" from Radio Insight (April 1, 2021)
9. "The New Audacy CHR Lineups - RadioInsight". 16 July 2021.
10. "Riggs to Depart Mornings at 103.7 Kiss-FM Milwaukee - RadioInsight". 31 October 2022.
11. "The New Audacy CHR Lineups - RadioInsight". 16 July 2021.
12. "The New Audacy CHR Lineups - RadioInsight". 16 July 2021.
13. "The New Audacy CHR Lineups - RadioInsight". 16 July 2021.
14. Entercom Brings Hip Hop Hot 105.7 To Milwaukee Radioinsight - October 6, 2020

External links

• Official website
• WXSS in the FCC FM station database
• WXSS in Nielsen Audio's FM station database

• W289CB in the FCC FM station database
• W289CB at FCCdata.org
• Milwaukee radio: a retrospective