AM 1340 signed on in 1948 as WJOC. It was one of two new Western New York stations to sign on following the move of Buffalo station
WEBR from the 1340 frequency to AM 970 (now
WDCZ) that year; the other was
Lockport's then-WUSJ (now
WLVL). What is now WKSN used the call sign WXYJ in the mid-1960s before adopting the WKSN call sign and "Kissin'" slogan by no later than 1968. For most of its early history, WKSN played a
Top 40 format using the "Good Guys" slogan. A television sister station,
WNYP (channel 26), signed on in 1966, when both stations were owned by
Bud Paxson; channel 26 shut down after three years and its license is now being used by a religious station. During the 1990s and early 2000s, WKSN (''Kissin' Oldies
) was an oldies outlet carrying a local morning show and a midday show by Paul Hoefler (now performing commercial jingles in the area), as well the satellite Good Time Oldies'' from
Jones Radio Networks until the station was bought out by Media One Group, LLC in 2003. Soon after Media One's purchase, WKSN began being used as a
counterprogramming station to the other AM radio station in Jamestown,
WJTN, also owned by Media One Group. From approximately 2004 until the summer of 2008, the station ran with shows such as
Rush Limbaugh (counterprogrammed to a liberal program known as
The Hall Closet on WJTN),
Imus in the Morning,
Bill Bennett,
Dr. Dean Edell and
Glenn Beck, as well as affiliations with
Talk Radio Network and
FOX Sports Radio. On July 4, 2008, WKSN switched back to the oldies format. With the change to oldies (and
The Hall Closet's discontinuation), Edell, Beck and
Ed Schultz were moved to sister station WJTN (Schultz actually began airing on WJTN on June 23, 2008 in Ray Hall's time slot, so both WJTN and WKSN were airing Schultz from June 23 to July 3, 2008), while Rush Limbaugh was dropped from the market altogether (after a brief stint on rival station
WLKW-FM, the show again was absent from the southwestern New York airwaves until Limbaugh's death). Not long afterward, WJTN also changed to a music format, extending its
adult standards/
MOR format (at the time only played on
Jim Roselle's show) throughout the day. WKSN was an affiliate of
Scott Shannon's
True Oldies Channel until that station ceased terrestrial distribution in June 2014. It then began airing
Westwood One's brand new
Good Time Oldies format, shortly after the latter's merger with
Dial Global. A few years later, they dropped the syndicated program in favor of a broader locally-programed playlist. At first, some of the Media One Group DJs talked between songs, but the station eventually became mostly automated. WKSN was an affiliate of
NFL on Westwood One then moved to sister station WJTN; for many years, it was the radio home of the
Jamestown Jammers (Jammers broadcasts were dropped from WKSN several years before the team left Jamestown; its successors, the Tarp Skunks, air instead on
WRFA). WKSN began streaming its programming on the Internet in November 2019. In September 2022, the Erie Otters announced a radio broadcast partnership with WKSN beginning in the 2022-2023 OHL season. On July 1, 2023, the "Kissin' Oldies" format on WKSN moved to FM 106.9
WKZA, also historically known as "
KISS FM." In its place, WKSN began airing an
adult standards format previously heard on sister station WJTN. Despite the brands changing frequencies, the WKSN and WKZA call signs stayed on their respective frequencies. ==References==