:
PS-The Fox
Time-?
Text-The Fox The Rock of South Mississippi
PTY-Rock
TP-?
PI-?
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[Picture] Image of the RDS data display from a Hyundai OEM stereo, showing the PTY (format), PS (call sign) and Radio Text fields. From December 2022.
Former tower site in the Hattiesburg market: [map] [street view] [bird's eye] In the Johnson community south of Laurel and Ellisville, northeast of Hattiesburg, along MS-29 at 3 Mile Stretch Road.
In October 1974, the call letters changed to WHER. The Broadcasting Yearbook editions from the mid-70's through the early 80's all list the format as Easy Listening and Talk.
It appears they pivoted towards Beautiful Music for middle of the 80's, and then went back to Easy Listening by the end of the decade. In 1986, the station signed on from a transmitter site roughly halfway between Hattiesburg and Laurel, near the Johnson community. The power level was dropped to 82 kW, but the antenna HAAT (height above average terrain) was raised to about 1,056 feet. A year later, the power was raised to the current 100 kW, and the antenna height was raised to the current 1,063 feet.
The station switched formats to Country sometime in the early 90's, and that lasted until the end of the decade when the station was reported to be airing Oldies. Cumulus acquired the Radio Hattiesburg stations in 1998, and in 1999 changed the calls to WUSW, as "US 103", again with a Country format.
By the midpoint of the 2000's, Cumulus dropped the Country for Classic Rock. They picked up the WFFX calls (discarded from a station in Tuscaloosa) and became known as "103.7 The Fox".
In January 2023 the station applied to drop from a Class C to Class C0, lowering power from 100 kW to 77 kW. This is being done so WYAB in the Jackson, MS metro can upgrade its facilities to better cover that market. In consideration for the downgrade, iHeartRadio will be given ownership of a translator in Jackson. A license to cover for that lower power level was filed in mid-February 2023.
In April 2023, iHeart proposed relocating this station to New Orleans, along with changes to several other Mississippi stations. The backstory: In August 2021, Hurricane Ida hit southern Louisiana and caused the collapse of iHeart's KVDU tower, forcing that station to operate at low power from a temporary facility near New Orleans. Rather than rebuild an expensive tall tower to serve both New Orleans and Baton Rouge again, iHeart proposed moving KVDU at lower power to the Baton Rouge market. In turn, they would bring in WFFX from Hattiesburg at lower power into the New Orleans market to make up for the loss of service there. In addition, other stations in Hattiesburg would shuffle frequencies and power levels to better serve that market, while Jackson's WYAB would be able to boost its power to better serve that city, too.
The FCC approved the modification in late September 2023, which includes a drop to 12 kW and antenna HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain) of 1,004 feet, on a tower co-hosting WNOE-FM and WRNO in New Orleans proper. That facility was reported on the air in early October 2024, stunting with "Halloween-themed music" ahead of a format flip after the end of the month. The station that started all this, KVDU, was also noted to be on the air from its now local Baton Rouge signal around the same time. Two weeks into October and the station dropped the Halloween-themed stunting to launch as "Voodoo 103.7" with a Hot Adult Contemporary music format.