WZZK-FM and cross-town rival WDXB. The station was assigned the WNCB call letters by the Federal Communications Commission on October 19, 2004. From the time of the format switch until March 11, 2010, the station was known on the air as "New Country 97.3". On that date, it was rebranded as "97.3 The Buck". On August 30, 2011, at 2 p.m., WNCB changed their format to sports, branded as "97.3 The Zone". Two days later, on September 1, 2011, the station changed its call letters to WZNN, reflecting their new on-air name. On October 17, 2011, WZNN began simulcasting all of its local programming (6-9 a.m. and 12-2 p.m.) on WTXK in Montgomery. The station dropped its affiliation with Yahoo! Sports Radio on August 20, 2012 to become the new affiliate in the Birmingham market for ESPN Radio. At that time, the station modified its branding to "ESPN Radio 97.3 the Zone". On that same day, the station signed on their HD2 subchannel, carrying the former old-school hip-hop/R&B format of WENN-AM, which remained on FM translator W270BW (1021. FM). The station became infamous for their public courting of Paul Finebaum, who was working for rival WJOX up until January 21, 2013. The Zone then hired WJOX's former program director, Ryan Haney, before Citadel (WJOX's parent company) brought a lawsuit that kept him away from WZNN. Haney returned to WJOX in March 2013. On July 20, 2012, Cox Radio, Inc. announced the sale of WZNN and 22 other stations to Summit Media LLC for $66.25 million. The sale was consummated on May 3, 2013. On February 11, 2013, the station pulled the plug on its specialty programming, including "Eyes on Auburn", "Tider Insider", and "The Midnight Meltdown", for unknown reasons. On April 2, 2013, Fourth Quarter hosts Max Howell and Tim Melton of "The 4th Quarter" resigned from the station because they were asked by the program director to be "more controversial". Max Howell posted on his Facebook that "I'm not willing to do that kind of show . . . it's not my style and never has been." On May 6, 2013, the station cancelled the popular late morning Straight Talk show featuring Matt Coulter and former Alabama head basketball coach Wimp Sanderson. This was the first major programming change after the station's sale to Summit Media became final on May 3, 2013. Other shows at the time included the