WXSS (103.7 FM) is a Top 40 (CHR) radio station owned by Audacy, Inc., licensed to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin and serving Milwaukee. Its studios are located in Hales Corners. WXSS's tower is located in the Milwaukee "tower farm" complex near Estabrook Park in the northeastern part of the city.
History
Early years (1961-1971) The original call sign was WTOS, a reference to its city of license when it signed on in 1961 with a MOR format. WTOS later flipped to a country music format that also featured ethnic programming. In March 1969, new owners switched the station's format to progressive rock, going head-to-head with WZMF.
Beautiful music (1971-1993) The inexperienced owners lost money with the format, and in 1971, a new owner adopted a beautiful music format and the WEZW call sign. WEZW was a huge ratings success for the following two decades.
Adult contemporary (1993-1995) As the format withered away on radio dials across the country during the late 1980s and early 1990s, WEZW tweaked the format in 1993 by adding adult contemporary music with vocals. WEZW made an even more abrupt change in March 1995 by changing its calls to WAMG and branding to Magic 103.7 with the slogan "Continuous Soft Favorites".
Rhythmic (1996-1998) Unable to compete with WLTQ, they flipped to a Rhythmic Adult Contemporary format during Labor Day weekend, 1996, keeping the "Magic" branding, but changing the slogan to "Rhythm & Romance." The playlist featured rhythmic oldies, current R&B and Pop/Dance in addition to soft AC. Much of the airstaff was changed; however, some features including "Lovesongs" (with a different host) and "The Sunday Jazz Brunch" remained.
Top 40 (1998-present) Throughout the mid-1990s, the Milwaukee market was left without a Top 40 station after WLUM-FM dropped its Top 40 format in late-1994. It wasn't until June 19, 1998, when Top 40 made a comeback to the Milwaukee market when the 103.7 FM frequency station launched its current CHR format under the call letters WXSS-FM, and 103.7 KISS-FM was born, with "Everybody" by Backstreet Boys being the first song played. The station debuted with 10,000 songs in a row without commercials, as many CHR stations have done, and was promoted and followed by a $10,000 giveaway. As the station added personalities, they did several remotes with T-shirt giveaways. The current Vice President of Operations, Brian Kelly, was in charge of the launch, which included imaging by Mitch Craig. The station was branded as The All New, All Hit 103.7 Kiss FM from the time it started until February 2003.
At Midnight on February 3, 2003, the station tweaked its playlist to Rhythmic CHR and branding to 103.7 Kiss FM, The New #1 Hit Music Station, but by August 2003, the station began tweaking back to mainstream CHR. However, by 2009, WXSS shifted back to a Rhythmic-leaning direction with a heavy emphasis on R&B/hip-hop, dance and pop hits while playing only the most popular rock music.
On May 28, 2010, WXSS got new competition when WRNW ditched its '80s Classic Rock format to go Top 40/CHR. WRNW's parent company iHeartMedia (the former Clear Channel Communications) owns the rights to the "KISS-FM" branding, though when WXSS launched in 1998, Clear Channel was still in the process of acquiring their Milwaukee stations, and the strategy of expanding the KISS-FM branding across Clear Channel's stations nationwide had not yet been implemented, allowing Entercom to claim the name in the Milwaukee market. WRNW would flip to Sports Talk in November 2018 after eight years and not-so-impressive ratings, as well as failing to overtake WXSS during its run.
On September 7, 2012, WXSS picked up new competition from WZBK-FM, who switched formats from Classic Country to Rhythmic Top 40 as WNRG, "Energy 106-9." This would last until April 1, 2021, when the station flipped to Oldies, thus leaving WXSS as the only CHR station in Milwaukee.
Today WXSS plays mostly Rhythmic Pop Hits and Hip-Hop, in addition to Classic Hip-Hop from the 90s and 2000s on a more regular basis.
Following changes to Audacy-owned stations nation-wide, all local DJs outside of the morning show were replaced with syndicated personalities from other markets.