WSFZ is a radio station licensed to serve Jackson, Mississippi. The station is owned by New South Radio, Inc. Until June 15, 2016, it aired a sports format. Previous to 1997 the station operated as WSLI, becoming Jackson's second radio station when it went on the air in September 1938. It was owned by the Standard Life Insurance Company and the call letters "WSLI" represented the name of the licensee. It signed on from studios located in the Robert E. Lee Hotel. The transmitter was located on High Street, near the Pearl River. WSLI was affiliated with NBC's Blue Network. L.M. Sepaugh was named the first Manager. WSLI had the distinction of employing Mississippi's first women announcers, Nancy Chambers and Virginia Metz. The station was originally located at 1450am; then moved to 930am. As some point, the station was sold to Mississippi College. In 1998 Russ Robinson secured a deal to buy the station and moved WSLI off campus. Finding office space in Clinton, Robinson said a large majority of the equipment was obsolete and the station pretty much started from scratch. The call sign WSLI was also used for a television station which started broadcasting in January 1953 on analog channel 12. WSLI-TV Ch. 12 signed on by Jackson Daily News as a CBS affiliate. WSLI-TV was acquired in 1954 when the Hederman family, owners of The Clarion-Ledger, purchased the Daily News. At the time the Clarion-Ledger owned rival television station WJTV, and the two stations were merged into in 1955. WSLI-TV then went silent and WJTV took over the VHF channel 12 allocation. Thereafter the callsign WSLI solely identified the radio station until the early 2000s. In this time the studios of the radio station were located next door to WJTV-TV station off Robinson Road in southwest Jackson, The transmitter was relocated to a site north of the Jackson city limits accessible from North State Street. The four-tower array and transmitter building remained in that location up until 1995 when the site was developed into a shopping center facing Interstate 55. For most of its history, WSLI featured the morning show of Farmer Jim Neal and the Feist Dog, which was the top rated radio program in Jackson for over 40 years. Hank Williams performed live on WSLI's Farm Jim Show on 2/21/50. WSLI's Bob Rall was credited for founding one of the first "talk shows" in Jackson. 1953, During a large part of the 1970 and early 1980s WSLI was the home of the duo of Rall and Alan Simmons in the highest-radio program in the afternoons. Simmons' son Scott is now an anchor/reporter for Jackson TV station WAPT. As WSFZ programs previously broadcast included The Rick and Bubba Show, The Dan Patrick Show, The Young Guns, and programming from NBC Sports Radio. WSFZ also broadcast Jackson Academy athletics. The station has been assigned these call letters by the Federal Communications Commission since November 26, 2003. On October 10, 2016 WSFZ returned to the air with a simulcast of classic country-formatted WJXN-FM 100.9, branded as "100.9 The Legend". On July 31, 2017 WSFZ switched its simulcast from WJXN-FM 100.9 Utica to WHJT 93.5 FM Kaearney Park. In late December 2017 WSFZ dropped its simulcast with WHJT and began stunting with Neil Diamond's "Cherry, Cherry" played over and over. In January 2018 the station dropped "Cherry, Cherry" replacing it with an loop of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines." The station is currently stunting with "Hotel California" by The Eagles. Currently as of May 2019 the radio station is playing modern rock and alternative rock.
