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WZTI (1290 AM broadcasting) is a commercial radio 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. It is owned by the Milwaukee Radio Alliance, a partnership between Times-Shamrock Communications and All-Pro Broadcasting, along with 102.1 WLUM-FM and 93.3 WLDB. Its studios are on Good Hope Road in Menomonee Falls.
WZTI is powered at 5,000 . 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. Radio-Locator.com/WZTI Programming is also heard on sister station WLDB's HD2 subchannel.
A sister station, 95.7 WRIT-FM, was added in 1961. WMIL switched its affiliation to the CBS Radio Network in June 26, 1961.Advertisement: "NEW WMIL LINE-UP", Milwaukee Sentinel, Monday, June 26, 1961, Page 8, Part 1. Its relationship with CBS Radio lasted until December 1963.
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.
On January 22, 2008, Good Karma Broadcasting, owner of WAUK, purchased Christian radio station WAUK 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. JS Online: Pack prepares, just in case
On February 26, 2013, WMCS began stunting with Elvis Presley songs in preparation of a format flip. 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.
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. The translator uses the HD2 channel of sister FM station WLDB to translate the signal to analog FM.
On March 7, 2018, WZTI rebranded as "Fonz FM" (named after Happy Days character Fonzie). Happy Days in Milwaukee as WZTI Rebrands as Fonz FM Radioinsight - March 7, 2018 It discontinued carrying programming from the True Oldies Channel, switching to its own locally-programmed playlist.
The station also simulcast part-time with FM sister station WLUM. 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.
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