Technical Profile: WZNS

FM Technical Profile: WZNS

Station Name:: Z 96
Frequency:: 96.5
Format:: Contemporary Hit Radio
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] East of Memorial Parkway NW on the northern side of Hollywood Boulevard SW. Co-located with WKSM.
Power (ERP):: 100 kW
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Antenna HAAT:: 440 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.

— increased power: 1.1%

HD-2: News/Talk
"News Talk WFTW"
// WFTW Fort Walton Beach, FL
// W298CV Fort Walton Beach, FL; :
PS-song/artist ONE STATION. ALL THE HITS. Z96!
Time-?
Text-One Station. All The Hits. - Z96!
PTY-Top 40
PI-WZNS-FM
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
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[Image] Image showing the RDS text display from a Mazda's radio, showing the PS (station name), Radio Text and PTY (format) fields.
[Studio] Street View imagery of the Cumulus Fort Walton Beach studios on Hollywood Boulevard.
Owner:: Cumulus Broadcasting LLC
History:: While this frequency was allocated to the area back in the 70's, it wasn't until the late 90's that a station debuted here, due to a lengthy FCC comparative hearing involving numerous applicants. The allocation originally was for 100 kW from a site near Crestview; the people behind WKSM in Fort Walton Beach at one time had a permit for the frequency but eventually lost out or gave it up. The curiously-named Juanina Inc. finally won the permit after years of wrangling, but wound up passing it on to F.W.B. Radio, Inc., who in turn passed it along to Dothan-based Holladay Broadcasting. They got the station on the air -- finally -- in the early fall of 1997, from the current site in downtown Fort Walton Beach. They launched the station with the same calls and format that they have today: WZNS (Z Ninety Six) and Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR).

The station filed a Digital Notification with the FCC for HD with 1.1 kW of power, slightly above the baseline 1% of analog transmission power ratio. It was observed that the system was active without artist or title information, and an HD2 channel was active with very low audio of an unknown source, possibly talk radio. In March 2023 it was confirmed to be WFTW, Cumulus' news talk station in the market.