WOKV

WOKV (690 AM) and WOKV-FM (104.5 FM) are a pair of American radio stations in the Jacksonville, Florida, area. WOKV & WOKV-FM are owned by Cox Radio of Atlanta, Georgia, and offers 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.^[1] After its locally produced morning news program, "Jacksonville's Morning News", WOKV airs syndicated conservative talk show and locally-anchored news, traffic and weather reports. WOKV also is the Jacksonville Jaguars flagship radio station.

WOKV/690 has one of the strongest daytime AM signals on the East Coast,^[2] 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 CKGM in Montreal and XEWW-AM in Tijuana.

Until 1994, the station operated on 600 kHz, at 5,000 watts day and night.^{[citation needed]} The station moved to 690 kHz for its bigger signal (50,000 watts day and 10,000 at night).

From the 1950s to the 1980s, 690kHz was the original home to top 40 station WAPE ("The Big Ape"). In the early 1980s, the station went country; by the mid '80s, it was religious; and in 1986, WAPE migrated to 95.1 MHz (formerly urban WJAX-FM) and restarted 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.^{[citation needed]}

WOKV-FM history

The current WOKV-FM began operation in October 1970. On March 10, 1980 it became "Rock 105" with an AOR format. One of the early competing stations was Top 40 WIVY-FM at 102.9 (now sister WXXJ), which was known as "Y103 FM". One of the slogans on WFYV was "Y 103 when you can ROCK 105!". Over the years, the station gradually shifted towards classic rock.

Following a format change at rock station WPLA, WFYV shifted from a classic to mainstream rock format under the name "Rock 104.5-Jacksonville's Best Rock."

On April 10, 2013, Cox Media announced that "Rock 104.5" was going to "retire" effective April 28. On that day, at 10:07 PM, the station signed off with a live version of "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, which was followed by a minute of silence. After that, the station began stunting with a 5-minute loop of teasers of potential formats ("Raw Talk 104.5 The Bone", "Easy 104.5", "104.5 Brad-FM", "Power 104.5" and "Caliente 104.5") and redirecting listeners to sister alternative rock station WXXJ. The stunting lasted until midnight on May 1, 2013, when WFYV-FM changed their format to a simulcast of news/talk-formatted WOKV.^[3] On May 16, 2013, WFYV-FM changed their call letters to WOKV-FM.

On-air hosts

Past on-air hosts include Chris & JD; Greg & Dave; John Brownlee; Rad Messick; Charlie Logan; Jim Huste; Rick Tracy; Michele Michaels; Bobby Ellerbee; John Brownlee; Charlie Waters; Tim Kelly; Coco Daddy; Bradley Bacon; Joanie Maverick; Lex and Terry; Bubba The Love Sponge; Patti Haze; Mark, Genny and Dahmer; Stacey Thorp; Mike "The Arf" Areford ; Don Davis; Jim Quinn; Jamie Brooks; John Carey "Mr. Brooks" Brooks; Chris "Annie" Squire; Shaun Bailey; Scott Gentle, Gregg Stepp, The Greaseman;

On-air incidents

In October 2008, radio host Gregg Stepp made everyone think he quit live on-the-air. The plan was to give listeners the idea that station management were planning on firing him but he was "quitting" before they had the chance. In his final words he said:

"Now I find out that there's another deal in the works with somebody else and they're only minutes away from handing me my walking papers, well here's your 15 second notice, kiss my ass Cox Radio Jacksonville, and especially you Bill Hendrich and David Israel, you two empty suits will be lucky if this is the only time this happens to you, and its gonna be a bright day in Jacksonville when your desks are emptied and radio is free of you. Now this shows you how much they're paying attention, by the way, because they should have been in here by now if they were really listening to the radio stations and knew what was going on. So, thanks for nothing, rot in hell Cox Radio. I am gone!"

This was followed by 11 seconds of dead air, and then music played.^[4]

It was later revealed that Stepp had already been given his notice and had taken a new Program Director job in Bakersfield, California. Management asked him to create a bit that would bring some attention to the station before announcing the return of "The Greaseman" to the Jacksonville airwaves a couple weeks later.

References

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WOKV
• Radio-Locator Information on WOKV
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WOKV
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WOKV
• Radio-Locator information on WOKV
• Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WOKV

Coordinates: 30°07′52″N 81°41′55″W / 30.13111°N 81.69861°W / 30.13111; -81.69861