City Lumberton, Mississippi Slogan The Most Hit Music First air date 1983 (as WLUN) | Branding 95-3 Gorilla Frequency 95.3 MHz | |
Broadcast area Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi-Hattiesburg, Mississippi-Mobile, Alabama-Slidell, Louisiana | ||
WZNF (95.3 FM, "95-3 Gorilla"), is a CHR/Top 40 radio station located in Gulfport, Mississippi and licensed to Lumberton, Mississippi. The station is owned by Coast Radio Group, Inc, and they broadcast with an effective radiated power of 100 kW. WZNF's upgraded 1,500-foot (460 m) tower with a 100,000-watt signal can reach east to Mobile, Alabama, west to New Orleans, Louisiana, and north to Laurel, Mississippi. Its transmitter tower is shared with sister station Kicker 108 in the McHenry, Mississippi area.
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WZNF is one of two Top 40 stations in the market, the other being 107-1 The Monkey.
Live 95/Power 95-3
On September 1, 1997, WZNF started broadcasting from its 1,400-foot (430 m) tower in McHenry, Mississippi as a modern adult contemporary and modern rock outlet as WLNF - "Live 95.3". The station achieved moderate success with the format and featured The Big Show with Scott Sands, Darren Kies and Virginia McGrane in mornings.
On March 19, 1999, WLNF dropped the AC format for a CHR/Top 40 as "Power 95-3". The station was meant to pay homage to the old Power 108 and featured Crash Davis in mornings and market vet Patty Steele as Program Director and midday host. Later the station added Bob & Sherri for mornings.
Z95.3
With heated competition against 107-1 The Monkey, Power 95-3 never seemed to catch on with Gulf Coast listeners and on March 15, 2002, the station changed formats to Classic Rock as Z95.3. The call letters were also changed to WZNF.
The station immediately saw success with the format and was consistently #1 in morning ratings with Walton and Johnson. Other personalities on the station included Patty Steele in middays, Scott Bond doing afternoons and market vet Dr. Bob McCall on nights.
The station did see ratings decline after Walton & Johnson were replaced with John Boy & Billy.
95-3 Gorilla
On April 1, 2014, after struggling in the ratings for a few years, Z95.3 changed formats back to CHR/Top 40 as 95-3 Gorilla to once again go up against 107-1 The Monkey.
The station launched with 10,000 songs commercial free and Bo "Wildman" Walker in mornings, Kendall Taylor afternoons and Dakota Mendenhall at night.
95-3 Gorilla currently ranks at #11 (3.0) in the Gulfport-Biloxi market according to the Spring 2016 Nielsen ratings release.