FM Technical Profile: WZKX

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Station Name:

Kicker 108

Frequency:

107.9

Format:

Contemporary Country

Transmitter Location:

[map] [street view] Near the intersection of Wire Road and City Bridge Road, southeast of Wiggins. Co-located with WZNF-FM.

Power (ERP):

100 kW

Antenna:

Omnidirectional

Antenna HAAT:

1460 feet

Other Information:

60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.

:
PS-Kicker 108 (artist) (song)
Time-?
Text-KICKER 108 
PTY-Country
PI-WZKX-FM



HD-2: Classic Rock
"The Quake"

HD-3: Oldies
"Cruisin'"

More Information:

[FCC]

[FCCdata]

[Radio-Locator]

[Wikipedia]
[Facebook Group] (closed group)
[Facebook] Bryan and Momma show page, but appears to host bulk of station's Facebook traffic
[Picture] Image of an Insignia HD portable showing the RDS decoding Radio Text and PI (call sign) fields.
[Picture] Image of an Mazda car stereo display showing the RDS decoding PS (station same) and Radio Text field, from August 2017.

Owner:

JLE, Inc.

History:

This station went on the air in 1966, as the FM companion to WRPM in Poplarville.  Put on by Ben O. Griffin, the station started off with 100 kW of power via a Gates FM-10G transmitter, feeding a Gates FMA-12B 12 section antenna mounted on the same tower the AM used.  The location of the transmitter and studios were on Progress Road in Poplarville, just east of I-59, and the calls were WRPM-FM.

Through the 70's, the format was a dreadfully bad home-brew automated Easy Listening format.  The calls changed to WQLC in 1985, but there's no data in the Broadcasting Yearbook editions about formats, so it's unclear if it remained easy listening or had moved on to something new.  It's possible the format was Adult Contemporary as "Kicks 108" during this short time.  What is clear is that Dowdy and Dowdy bought the AM and FM combo for $2.25 million in 1986, and engineered a transmitter site move to Wiggins to better serve the growing gulf coast market.  One year later they flipped it to Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) with the WZKX calls as "Power 108".  As the first real top 40 competition to Biloxi's WQID, it found enough success that it wound up causing them flip to a different format in the mid-90's. 

The station re-licensed to Bay St. Louis in 1997 and flipped to a Contemporary Country format as "Kicker 108" to challenge the dominant WKNN.  It's been country ever since.

In January 2022 it was announced the Biloxi/Gulfport Dowdy and Dowdy stations were being sold to JLE, Inc., for $3.25 million.  JLE, Inc. is owned by John Dowdy's two daughters.

In April 2023 it was discovered that the station was broadcasting in HD, with two subchannels.  One dubbed "The Quake" is airing a modern-leaning Classic Rock format, while another called "The Hype" is airing a Hip Hop/Urban Contemporary format.  Neither appear to be airing on translators in the market.

At the end of October 2025 it was reported by Radio Insight that the HD3 swapped places with WGCM-AM and its translator, bringing their Oldies format here while moving the Classic Rhythmic "Hype" format to the AM and translator.