| City of license | AM: Jacksonville, Florida FM: Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Jacksonville, Florida |
| Branding | News/Talk Radio, WOKV |
| Slogan | Jacksonville's News, Traffic and Weather Station; The home of the Jaguars |
| Frequency | AM: 690 kHz FM: 106.5 MHz |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | AM: 50,000 watts (day), 25,000 watts (night) |
| ERP | FM: 6,000 watts |
| HAAT | FM: 100 meters |
| Class | AM: B FM: A |
| Facility ID | AM: 53601 FM: 28894 |
| Owner | Cox Radio |
| Sister stations | WAPE-FM, WFYV, WJGL, WXXJ |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wokv.com |
WOKV (690 AM) and WOKV-FM (106.5 FM) are a pair of American radio stations in the Jacksonville, Florida, area. WOKV-AM/FM is owned by Cox Radio of Atlanta, Georgia, and simulcasts a conservative talk radio format.
WOKV is the only AM radio station in the Jacksonville market to remain in the top 10 in the Arbitron ratings since 1996. After its locally produced morning news program, "Jacksonville's Morning News", WOKV airs syndicated talk with locally-anchored news, traffic and weather reports. WOKV also is the Jacksonville Jaguars flagship radio station.
WOKV-AM 690 has one of the strongest daytime AM signals on the East Coast, in addition to the Jacksonville, Florida market, it covers the entire coast from Melbourne, Florida all the way to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, an area that includes Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina markets. The station is directional to the east at night, to protect clear channel Class-A stations XEWW-AM in Tijuana and the now-silent CINF in Montreal (vacated in early 2010 but the allocation is still protected by terms of the NARBA treaty).
Until 1994, the station operated on a different frequency, AM-600, at 5,000 watts day and night. The station moved to AM-690 for its bigger signal (50,000 watts day and 10,000 at night).
From the 1950s to the 1980s, AM-690 was the original home to top 40 station WAPE ("The Big Ape"). In the early 1980, the station went country; by the mid '80s, it was religious; and in 1986, WAPE migrated to the FM-95.1 frequency (formerly urban WJAX) and re-started its Top 40 format as WAPE-FM.
In 2006, the station upgraded its nighttime signal to 25,000 watts at night, with a broader pattern, and also added a simulcast on 106.5 FM, formerly WBGB; making it one of the first news/talk radio stations in the country to simulcast on both AM and FM.
Other such stations that "simulcast" include are WSB in Atlanta, Georgia, WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina, WWL in New Orleans, WDBO in Orlando, Florida, WHIO in Dayton, Ohio, and KRMG in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
According to the FCC's Call Sign History, 106.5 MHz signed on as WPVJ in July 1994.
The station changed calls to WTLK in October 1996, and was known as Real Radio 106.5, with a talk format. The most notable event during this part of the station's history was the return of The Greaseman to Jacksonville's airwaves. (Ironically, the Greaseman's previous time in Jacksonville had been on WAPE when it was on AM 690 - the current home of WOKV-AM.)
WTLK flipped to classic rock in January, 1998, becoming known as Big 106.5, and changing to the WBGB calls in March, 1998. At this time, the station was owned by Clear Channel.
WBGB was divested by Clear Channel, along with sister stations WZNZ, WZAZ, and WJGR, in the fall of 1999 to Concord Media Group. From there, it came under the ownership of Jacor Broadcasting, who in turn sold the station to Caron Broadcasting (a division of Salem Communications) in 2003.
Caron flipped WBGB to Contemporary Christian, branding the station as 106.5 The Promise. Based on ratings, it was the most popular station of its genre in Jacksonville.
On July 6, 2006, Salem Communications entered into an agreement to sell WBGB-FM to Cox Radio for $7.7 million in cash. The last day the station broadcast as 106.5 The Promise was Monday, September 18, 2006. The format then moved to non-commercial religious broadcaster WCRJ-FM (88.1), who adopted The Promise name as well as a number of on-air staffers.
In the afternoon on Tuesday, September 19, Cox began stunting, letting listeners know that The Promise had moved to 88.1, and promising something "new and exciting" to come to 106.5 on Thursday, September 21. Part of the stunt included listening in on a "board meeting", with various ideas being thrown out for the new format - including dance, "really redneck radio", "ultra-lite" (a jab at WEJZ), all-commercials (a blatant shot at Clear Channel), women's radio, and an alternative "Jack" format. However, the true fate of WBGB was revealed on Cox's Investor Relations website on September 20.
As of September 19, 2011, the current lineup is as follows:
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