WSUN-FM

WSUN-FM is a commercial modern rock music radio station in Tampa, Florida, broadcasting on 97.1 FM. Owned by Cox Radio, its studios are located in St. Petersburg, and the transmitter site is in Holiday (the station's city of license).

History

The station signed on September 1, 1978 on the 106.3 FM frequency as WHBS, a station that served primarily Pasco and northern Pinellas Counties. The station later became WVTY, then WLVU, carrying an easy listening format. In 1998, the station would relocate to 97.1 FM (swapping frequencies with Citrus County's WXOF), to better reach the Tampa Bay market. Soon afterward, Cox Radio would acquire WLVU in a swap (see below), and transfer its WSUN calls to FM, adopting an oldies format as "Oldies 97.1".

Mired with a subpar signal and being one of two Oldies stations in the market (WYUU was the other) did not allow WSUN to take off in the Tampa Bay area. While rumors of Cox flipping the station to All-80’s ran rampant, the station began stunting with music from 2001: A Space Odyssey. At 5:00 p.m. on November 3, 2000, the Tampa Bay area got its first taste of an alternative rock formatted station in many years with the debut of 97X. The first song, "Hemorrhage" by Fuel was dedicated to Modern Adult Contemporary WSSR and Active Rocker WXTB, both of whom are owned by competitor Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia).