Radio The Blitz

WRKZ (99.7 FM, "99.7 The Blitz") is primarily a rock music radio station in Columbus, Ohio owned by locally-based North American Broadcasting Company, Inc and is sister stations with WTDA and WMNI. The Blitz is one of 4 rock stations in the radio market in Columbus, the others being CD 101, QFM 96, and The Brew 105.7.

99.7FM went on the air in 1962. At that time, FM radio wasn't very popular and WMNI-FM (as it was known) mostly rebroadcast its sister AM station's easy listening music format. Like most stations, it has changed formats over the years. In the early 1980s the station call letters changed to WRMZ and started to broadcast a country music format. Joe Hill, now of Tucson AZ was the weekend overnight announcer from March to August of 1983. In the late '80s and early '90s the station was known as WMGG, Magic 99.7 (spoken as "ninety-nine-seven"), and played predominantly '60s-era classic rock/oldies.

The Blitz began July 4 weekend, 1992, and had an Active Rock format. The call letters when the station went by this name was WBZX. It was also formerly the home of the syndicated "The Howard Stern Show" for several years before that show went to Sirius Satellite Radio.

On April 3, 2008, The Blitz went off the air and was replaced with a miscellaneous jargon that sounded as if the radio was having trouble tuning. Intermittently, a voice would mention that the "station is rebooting". The last song played on The Blitz was Breaking Benjamin's "Until the End". The next day at 5:00pm (Eastern Time), 99.7FM changed to The Rock, along with the call letters changing to WRKZ. The new station premiered with "Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". The Rock still had the Active Rock format, but it focused less on new music and played popular rock music from the 1980s.

In December 2008, the station added Premiere Radio Network's syndicated "Bob and Tom" show during Morning Drive. But in April 2010, it was announced along with the return of The Blitz that the show would be dropped in a few weeks and be replaced by a local morning show. The show that replaced it was Blazor and Mo in the morning, which ironically was the same show that Bob & Tom replaced in December 2008.

In February 2010, The Rock added rock songs from the 1960s & 1970s into it's play list, shifting it into a Mainstream Rock direction.

On March 25, 2010, The Rock hosted its first-ever "Town Hall Meeting", with Program Director Hal Fish and on-air personalities Ronni Hunter and Blazor taking calls, emails and texts as to what Columbus area listeners wanted more and less of on 99.7. A week later, on April 1, 2010, they once again went to the airwaves and detailed an "Action Plan" as to what would happen on the station in the following weeks, including the return of such Blitz-era staples as "Choose It Or Lose It" as well as a showcase for local musical talent. Also a website was launched at blitzorrock.com to determine whether or not listeners wanted to keep the station named The Rock or for The Blitz to make a return. On Thursday, April 22, it was announced that the station would be once again called The Blitz along with the format changing back to Active Rock. It premiered with Mudvayne's "Happy?", followed by Disturbed's "Down with the Sickness".