WLVE (105.3 FM) is a radio station in the

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

area. The station is owned by

EMF Broadcasting Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's large ...

and began airing the K-Love contemporary Christian (CCM) format on February 15, 2008. WLVE's Milwaukee offices and studios are located near the

Wisconsin State Fair Park The Wisconsin State Fair Park is a fairgrounds and exhibition center in West Allis, Wisconsin, a suburb west of Milwaukee. It has been the location of the Wisconsin State Fair since 1892. The fairgrounds are open year-round, hosting various expe ...

History

WFZH went on the air November 22, 2001 with a temporary all-

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

format. This format continued until just after Christmas, when they changed to a contemporary Christian format, 105.3, The Fish. Danny Clayton was hired as the first (and only) program director for the radio station, having previously spent his Milwaukee radio career at AC-formatted

WKTI WKTI (94.5 FM) – branded 94.5 ESPN Milwaukee – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, serving the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Owned by Good Karma Brands, WKTI is an affiliate for ESPN Radio. WKTI is known ...

. Other original staff members included Milwaukee radio veteran Andi Miller. Other personalities joined including Jon Hemmer
currently WMBI, Chicago
an
Rick Hall
host a
SOS Radio Networks
WFZH was owned by

Salem Communications Salem Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SALM; formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher formerly based in Camarillo, California (moved most operations to Ir ...

, the largest Christian and family-themed broadcaster in the United States. The station shared studio space and staff with its sister station, talk-formatted WRRD-AM. For a time, WFZH had a friendly rivalry with its

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

sister station, WZFS ("106.7 The Fish"), which included a

paintball Paintball is a competitive team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called paintballs that break upon impact. Paintballs are usually shot using low-energy ai ...

game between the stations' employees. This rivalry lasted until the Chicago station was sold to

Univision Communications TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American media company headquartered in New York and Mexico City, which owns the American Spanish language broadcast network Univision. 45% of the company is held by the ...

in 2005 and WZFS became Spanish AC station

WPPN WPPN is an FM radio station licensed to Des Plaines, Illinois that targets the Chicago metropolitan area. WPPN broadcasts on 106.7 MHz with a Spanish AC format. The station's studios are located at 625 North Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago ...

. In February 2008, Salem sold both stations in separate deals. WRRD was purchased by

Good Karma Broadcasting Good Karma Brands, LLC (GKB, formerly Good Karma Broadcasting) is an American conglomerate. Based in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, it has interests in radio broadcasting, sports marketing, retail, and real estate. GKB was founded in 1997 by Craig Karmaz ...

, which moved their

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

all-sports format from 1510 to 540 as WAUK, with the WRRD calls warehoused on 1510, which has

ESPN Deportes Radio ESPN Deportes Radio was an American Spanish language sports radio network created and produced by Disney-owned ESPN. Programming included call-in talk shows and commentary from hosts about a full range of sporting events, including soccer, Amer ...

. WFZH would remain with the CCM format, but its sale to

led to a change from local programming to EMF's K-Love national network. This change took effect after Midnight on February 15, 2008, following 2 days of on-ai
farewells from the "Fish" staff
On May 30, the

call letters In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

changed to WKMZ. On April 29, 2011 WKMZ changed their call letters to WLVE to go with the "K-Love" branding. The calls, which had been warehoused at the current day

WXVA WXVA (610 AM) – branded as ''102.9 Valley FM'' – is a classic hits formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Winchester, Virginia, serving the Northern Shenandoah Valley. WXVA is owned and operated by Winchester Radio Broadcasters, LLC. ...

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the most north western independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Frederick County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Winchester wit ...

and had been used for their longest period on the current

WMIA-FM WMIA-FM (93.9 MHz) is a hot adult contemporary radio station that is licensed to Miami Beach, Florida. The station is owned and operated by iHeartMedia. Its studios are located in Miramar, and the transmitter site is in Miami Gardens. Histor ...

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

from 1984 until 2009, were likely given to EMF by former holders

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

as part of one of the many transactions EMF has executed to Clear Channel in return for selling former K-LOVE translator stations to them to relay Clear Channel

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

subchannels on analog FM radio in small coverage areas. Around October 12, 2020, hourly Radio IDs began to be read as 105.3 Milwaukee/Mukwonago and 97.9 Chicago.

References

External links

*
''Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel'' article on the last day of "The Fish," 2/14/2008
{{coord, 42.968, N, 88.189, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title LVE LVE K-Love radio stations Radio stations established in 2002 2002 establishments in Wisconsin Educational Media Foundation radio stations