| City of license | Cary, North Carolina |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Raleigh/Durham Research Triangle Fayetteville |
| Branding | 93.9 Kiss FM |
| Slogan | Feel Good Music |
| Frequency | 93.9 MHz |
| Format | Rhythmic contemporary |
| Audience share | 2.7 (Fall'08 P2, R&R[1]) |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 453 meters |
| Class | C |
| Facility ID | 53596 |
| Callsign meaning | W KiSs L |
| Former callsigns | WBAG-FM (1978-1983) WBAG (1983-1984) WZZU (1984-1996) WRSN (1996-2006) |
| Owner | Clear Channel Communications |
| Sister stations | WDCG, WRDU, WRVA |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 939kissfm.com |
WKSL, known as "93.9 KISS-FM", (formerly WRSN-FM) is a Rhythmic Contemporary radio station that serves the Raleigh-Durham market of North Carolina. It is owned and operated by Clear Channel Worldwide, whose sister stations include G105, Rush Radio 106.1, and 100.7 the River.
The station was formerly licensed to Burlington, North Carolina, which is part of the Piedmont Triad market. However, the station changed its city of license to Cary after moving its transmitter from Terrell's Mountain in Chatham County to the former WLFL-TV analog tower in Apex, along with G105 in the spring of 2008. WKSL's studios are located at Clear Channel's Triangle facility in Raleigh.
WFNS 1150 and WFNS-FM 93.9 simultaneously signed on from Burlington in early 1947. The stations were owned by the Burlington-Graham Broadcasting Company.
Prior to its move in to the Triangle market, the station was based in Burlington, North Carolina and went by the call letters WBAG-FM. It was originally a sister station to its AM counterpart at 1150 AM. It was also the place that John Isley of John-Boy and Billy fame got his start in the radio business in the mid-1970s.
In 1984, WBAG-FM successfully completed its move and changed its call letters to WZZU-FM, It went by the handle "94Z" and carried a Top 40 format to compete with future sister station G105. At the time, WZZU was owned by Chapel Hill-based The Village Companies (now VilCom), who also owned WCHL at the time. 94Z was credited with pioneering the "Morning zoo" concept in the Triangle area, which featured mostly on-air banter amongst the personalities and numerous comedic bits. In 1989, the station changed formats from Top 40 to rock and branded itself "U93.9", competing with WRDU-FM. WZZU also picked up the UNC Tar Heels from WQDR-FM.[2]
WZZU would later switch to classic rock and a new handle, this time it would be "Classic Rock 93.9". In May 1993, the station picked up the syndicated John Boy and Billy show to fill its morning spot.[3] Later that year, Tucson, Arizona-based Prism Radio Partners purchased WZZU.[4] Later that year, WZZU-FM was initially paired with WDCG-FM. The Tar Heels moved to WTRG in 1994 as WZZU chose to focus more on music.[5][6] Prism radio was purchased by SFX in 1996, placing WTRG (now WRVA-FM) and WRDU in the same stable.[7]
SFX did not want WZZU and WRDU to compete against each other; the station would change formats once again. This time, the call letters were changed to WRSN-FM, the format to soft rock, and its on-air name to "Sunny 93.9" all in an attempt to go after the well-established WRAL-FM.[8] It was also during that time that the JB&B show got bumped from 93.9, only to be picked up by WRDU a month later.[9] Through a number of ownership changes over time, WRSN ended up being owned by Clear Channel since 2000. It was during that time that Sunny 93.9 began broadcasting an all-Christmas music format on an annual basis, usually beginning the week prior to Thanksgiving, like a number of other CC properties that broadcast similar formats in markets all over the country. Sunny 93.9 even had a morning show hosted by Madison Lane from 2004 to 2006, after serving as co-host of sister station G105's Bob and the Showgram for a number of years. However, this was one of many missteps made by Clear Channel since taking over that eventually led to Sunny's demise.
On December 25, 2006 (Christmas Day), Sunny 93.9 signed off. The last song "Sunny" played was, ironically, the original version of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" by Elton John. The station then changed its format to Rhythmic AC and adopted the KISS-FM branding.
As of 2010, WKSL's musical direction evolved from Rhythmic AC to Rhythmic Top 40, with most of the recurrents being phased out in favor of more current Rhythmic Pop/Dance hits. The move might be a response to new competition from new Rhythmic Top 40 simulcasts WWPL/WPLW. By November 2010, Mediabase moved WKSL to the CHR/Rhythmic panel as a result of the changes in its presentation. By fall 2011, WKSL is the only rhythmic contemporary station in the Raleigh/Durham area following the WPLW/WWPL transition to contemporary hit radio.
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