WDQX

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WDQX (branded as 102.3 Max FM) is an FM radio station, licensed to 102.3 MHz in Morton, Illinois near Peoria. It is owned by JMP Media, a part of Triad Broadcasting of California. The station has an 80's based classic rock format.

WDQX broadcasts from the JMP Media studio in the Civic Center Plaza, 331 Fulton Street in Peoria.

102.3 first signed on the air in the early 1970's as WTAZ (FM). It had a talk format until the 1990s.

Notable air talent on WDQX: Charlie O'Day, Rick Atterberry, Bud Carter, Martin Mitchell, Patty Curtis, Jim Dynan, Charles Earley (now Chuck Collins of WMBD-TV Peoria), Dave Snell (of WMBD-TV and Radio), Ralph Snodsmith, Greg Batton, Derry Farber, Wayne R. Miller, and Cheryl Maddox-Miller.

The station came on the air as WTAZ-FM, broadcasting an oldies format with NBC features from a facility midway between Morton and Washington, Illinois in Tazwell County (hence WTAZ). Roy Demanes (the owner fo the Ramada Inn,m a bank and a pharmacy in Peoria, as well as an extensive pre-need burial program) worked with Penny Press [ublisher (and former WEEK-TV anchorman) Bud Carter to put the station on the air.

Approximate air date was late 1970s... the two were partners in the newspaper previously mentioned (a Peoria based issues and entertainment oriented publication) and radio station. Demanes exchnaged his ownersip in the paper for Carter's interest in the paper - and dthen died of a heart attack a short time later.

The paper was purchased by another suburban weekly (the Observer), and Carter (budcarter@aol.com) relocated to Atlanta where he now is Senior Chairman for the Atlanmta operation of an international organization for CEOs ( Vistage International).