The station originally intended to sign on as WKSQ-FM, as FCC records dated September 5, 2000 indicate. On October 9, 2000, the station changed its call sign to the current WKZA,[3] the call sign made popular by a now-defunct AM station in nearby Kane, Pennsylvania. However, the station did not sign on until late November 2000.
The station's first format was a stunt, airing continuous Christmas music. Soon after, the station "officially" signed on with its format of KISS-FM hit radio, which it maintained for the next 23 years.
As an independently owned station, WKZA sometimes leaned toward hot adult contemporary, thus overlapping and competing against WWSE, the established adult-contemporary station in Jamestown. MediaOne Group, owners of WWSE, purchased WKZA from its owners Cross Country Communications in August 2018, closing on its deal October 31 of that year.[4] With the change, each station received a clear focus: WKZA would serve as a pure top-40 outlet, WWSE would stay with hot adult contemporary, while gold-based soft adult contemporary would move to AM/FM outlet WJTN. WKZA temporary morning host Kyle Lewis was retained in the purchase, moving to afternoons, and Andrew Hill and Noel Blackhall began doing the morning show separate from their afternoon program on sister station WWSE.
On July 1, 2023, as part of a realignment among Media One's stations, the programming that had previously been heard on sister station WKSN (which had coincidentally been branded as "Kissin' Oldies" since before WKZA signed on), but not the WKSN call sign, moved to WKZA, thus flipping 106.9 to oldies. WKZA's existing programming was merged onto WWSE, with the company noting in a statement that hot adult contemporary and contemporary hit radio were experiencing major overlap at the time, and thus WKZA and WWSE were essentially still directly competing against each other until the change.[5][6]
