MHz frequency in the Green Bay area dates back to the mid-1980s, with WJLW. Locally owned by Jack LeDuc (from whom the "JL" of the call letters originated), WJLW broadcast a country music format [1]
until October 1995, when LeDuc sold the station to Woodward Communications. (LeDuc would resurrect the WJLW call letters, and its country format, one year later at the 106.7 frequency in Green Bay.)
The 95.9 frequency went dormant for a month until November 13, 1995, when Woodward launched WKSZ as "95.9 Kiss FM." The station was positioned as a Top 40/CHR, putting it in direct competition with Midwest Communications' heritageTop 40/CHR, WIXX.
Kiss FM's ratings managed to hold steady in the middle of the
adult contemporary station, WLTM, to a rhythmic format as WLYD, "Wild 99.7," and WIXX gravitated to a rock-leaning Top 40/CHR
format.
On April 18, 2003, after a stellar first book performance by "Wild", Woodward pulled the plug on "95.9 Kiss FM." A local research project commissioned by Woodward indicated a format "hole" for
Arbitron
ratings in the Green Bay market.
In February 2006,
In Da Club" by 50 Cent (by coincidence, also the last song on the first incarnation of "Kiss").[2][3]
(Reviving the "Kiss FM" moniker was an acknowledgment that listeners still referred to WKSZ by that name, even during its "Mix" days.) A noticeable addition to "Kiss-FM" after its return was the "tagging" of each song (artist and song title) at its conclusion, regardless of whether a DJ will be heard afterwards.
The 2006 return of “Kiss” paid off, for in the first
Arbitron
ratings book after the flip (spring 2006), WKSZ leaped to a fourth-place ranking (of 21 stations) with an audience share that was five times greater than the share "Mix 95.9" pulled in during its waning days. The station finished second place in the fall 2010 Arbitron ratings for the Green Bay market.
On February 15, 2016, WKSZ started simulcasting on sister station
