HTML BuilderShiawassee Radio launched on April 21st 2021. As it is a digital, or streaming-only, station, it is unregulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), meaning there is no legal requirement to have assigned or to identify using call letters, as is required by the FCC for AM, FM and TV stations.
However, in this new age of technology and the growing digital broadcasting space, an organization calling itself the National Association of Digital Broadcasters (NAdB) emerged, and began organizing digital broadcast stations using a similar call-sign structure as the FCC.
The NAdB assigns, upon request, digital broadcasting stations call letters, adding the suffix "-DB."
Shiawassee Radio became formally listed with the NAdB in July of 2021, assigned the call letters WMZX-DB.
WMZX was the call sign assigned to Shiawassee County's only FM radio station from January 15th 1989 to February 5th 1996.
The station first signed on in 1948 as 103.1 WOAP-FM, owned by The Owosso Argus-Press newspaper, along with its AM counterpart, 1080 WOAP-AM. At the time, most radio listening occurred on the long-established AM dial, while the FM band was largely uncharted territory and, as a result, WOAP-FM, though heavily promoted, fell silent in 1953.
On December 2nd 1965, the station returned to the air, this time, at 103.9 on the dial, and found success.
In 1987, the FCC forced the newspaper to sell the radio stations due to concerns over the distribution of media ownership in the area. In 1989, new ownership changed the call letters of WOAP-FM to WMZX.
The stations were, again, sold in 1996, and the call letters of WMZX were changed to WAHV. Two years later, the call letters changed again; this time, to WRSR.
While the station today is better known by the moniker it has had for more than twenty years, "The Fox," the call letters for 103.9 FM are still WRSR.
As WMZX-DB, Shiawassee Radio pays tribute to the county's first and only FM radio station, and features a playlist much like that of the original WMZX that operated from 1989 to 1996, and held an Adult Contemporary format with a playlist largely comprised of the biggest hits of the 1980s as well as favorites from the 1970s and 1960s.
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