WFSY went on the air as WGNE-FM in 1971, an FM simulcast of AM beautiful music station WGNE. Because of its position at 98.5 MHz, its callsign was advertised as standing for "Genie Ninety Eight", rather than the AM station's, which just represented its tagline, "Genie Radio".
After the AM station was sold to Gulf Coast Community College (now Gulf Coast State College) in 1982, the station flipped to an oldies format, which lasted until 1987.
In 1987, WGNE-FM became WFSY, marketed as "Sunny 98.5", and flipped from oldies to adult contemporary.