WZTI

WZTI (1290 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Greenfield, Wisconsin, and serving the Milwaukee metropolitan area. It airs an oldies radio format, featuring hits from the 1960s and 1970s, known as "Fonz-FM". It is owned by the Milwaukee Radio Alliance, a partnership between Times-Shamrock Communications and All-Pro Broadcasting, along with sister stations 102.1 WLUM-FM and 93.3 WLDB. Its studios are on Good Hope Road in Menomonee Falls.

WZTI is powered at 5,000 watts. To protect other stations on 1290 AM from interference, it uses a directional antenna with a four-tower array. The transmitter is off West Rawson Avenue in Franklin, near the Root River.^[3] Programming is also heard on sister station WLDB's HD2 subchannel.

The station signed on the air on April 20, 1947, as WMLO.^[4] For its first 33 years, it was a daytimer station, required to go off the air at night. WMLO was an affiliate of the ABC Radio Network. It later became WMIL.

A sister station, 95.7 WMIL-FM, was added in 1961. WMIL switched its affiliation to the CBS Radio Network in June 26, 1961.^[5] Its relationship with CBS Radio lasted until December 1963.

WMIL-AM-FM were owned from 1968 to 1988 by Malrite Broadcasting. At first, the two stations simulcast a country music format as "Big M Country". In 1971, the FM station switched to beautiful music as "WMVM, Stereo Radio 95.7", with the slogan "Milwaukee's Voice of Music". Both stations flipped to Top 40 hits as WZUU and WZUU-FM in 1972.

In 1980, WZUU was granted a power increase from 1,000 watts days only to 5,000 watts day and night. The city of license was change to Greenfield, Wisconsin. In late 1982, it changed its call sign to WLZZ as "Solid Gold Wheels". WLZZ also ran a short lived country format, but returned to simulcasting WZUU-FM as WZUU after that.

The station split away from the FM in January 1986 to run a syndicated urban oldies format as WMVP, prior to the station's sale to All-Pro Broadcasting in 1988. The "MVP" in the call sign referred to "most valuable player", a title connected with owner Willie Davis' pro football years with the Green Bay Packers. AM 1000 in Chicago purchased the WMVP call letters from Davis for a new sports radio format. At that point, 1290 AM became WMCS in December 1993. The WMCS call sign stood for "Milwaukee's Community Station", to emphasize the station's heavy community involvement.

In 2004, WMCS flipped to a talk radio format. In December 2004, WMCS began airing sports shows from ESPN Radio after sunset, in partnership with daytime-only sports station WAUK (1510 AM) as "Milwaukee's ESPN Radio...1510 days, 1290 nights".^[6] The sports format later became home to play-by-play broadcasts for Marquette University men's college basketball and the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals via WAUK.^[7]

On January 22, 2008, Good Karma Broadcasting, owner of WAUK, purchased Christian radio station WRRD (540 AM) from Salem Communications. It moved WAUK's sports format to the full-time signal on February 12, casting doubt on the nighttime simulcast agreement with WMCS.^[8]

On June 30, 2008, WMCS began airing its own content, consisting of blues and urban gospel programming, in addition to Al Sharpton's daily talk show.^[9]

On February 26, 2013, WMCS began stunting with Elvis Presley songs in preparation of a format flip.^[10] At 3 p.m. on March 1, the station debuted its new adult standards format as "1290 Martini Radio". It took a new call sign, WZTI.^[11][12][13]

On July 27, 2014, WZTI began to also air on the FM band on 100.3 FM, using FM translator station W262CJ, which broadcasts from the Shorewood tower farm on Milwaukee's northwest side and mainly covers the inner north portion of the Milwaukee metro area.^[14] The translator uses the HD2 channel of sister FM station WLDB to translate the signal to analog FM.

On November 1, 2014, WZTI dropped the adult standards format and began stunting with Christmas music, calling itself "100.3 The Elf". On December 25, 2014, at 5 p.m., after playing "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by LeAnn Rimes, the station flipped to rhythmic oldies, branded as "The Party 100.3 FM & 1290 AM".^[15] The first song on "The Party" was "1999" by Prince.^[16]

On August 25, 2015, at noon, after playing "Miss You Much" by Janet Jackson, "It's a Shame" by The Spinners and "The Party's Over" by Journey, WZTI shifted to oldies, branded as "Milwaukee's True Oldies 100.3 FM & 1290 AM". The first song on "True Oldies" was "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger.^[17] The station began using programming from Scott Shannon's "True Oldies Channel".^[18]

On March 7, 2018, WZTI rebranded as "Fonz FM" (named after Happy Days character Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli).^[19] It discontinued carrying programming from the True Oldies Channel, switching to its own locally-programmed playlist.

Prior to its purchase of WMCS in 1988, All-Pro Broadcasting owned WAWA (1590 AM), a 1,000-watt daytime-only AM station licensed to West Allis, Wisconsin. WAWA had signed on in 1961. It aired an adult R&B format that was popular with Milwaukee's African-American community, and was a serious rival to WNOV during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

The station also simulcast part-time with FM sister station 102.1 FM. The two stations became WLUM-AM-FM. When All-Pro purchased the stronger 1290 frequency in 1988, the company signed off WAWA 1590 and returned the station's license to the FCC.

• WZTI website
• Milwaukee radio: a retrospective
• Facility details for Facility ID 63597 (WZTI) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• WZTI in Nielsen Audio's AM station database

42°55′11.06″N 87°59′17.31″W / 42.9197389°N 87.9881417°W / 42.9197389; -87.9881417