WFLF (AM)

WFLF is the callsign for 102.5 WFLA, an AM & FM talk radio simulcast in Orlando, Florida, United States. It broadcasts at the AM frequency of 540 kHz, and as an FM translator on 102.5 MHz, W273CA. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and operates out of iHeartMedia, Inc.'s Orlando area offices in Maitland. Its callsign alias comes from sister station NewsRadio 970 WFLA in Tampa. It is a Fox News Radio and Weather Channel radio affiliate. WFLF is licensed to Pine Hills and runs 50,000 watts day and 46,000 watts night out of Winter Garden, while W283AN is licensed to Altamonte Springs and transmits with 221 watts from the Lake Sparling section of Orlando. WFLF is also one of many Primary Entry Point stations into the Emergency Alert System.

WFLF is the Greater Orlando affiliate for The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Glenn Beck Program, and Coast to Coast AM. It also features a local drive-time show hosted by former local news anchor Bud Hedinger. WFLF was the local affiliate for The Schnitt Show until 2003, and Dr. Laura until 2005, and previously featured a local morning show hosted by Pat Campbell. The station actively positions itself on the conservative end of the political spectrum, with such local marketing slogans as "Start your day the Right way," "Central Florida's Right News" and "Rush is Right."

WFLF debuted in February 2001. It took over the frequency formerly held by 540 The Team, a sports radio station which moved to 740-AM to become 740 The Team. In January 2008, WFLF merged selected programing with 740 The Team, after that station changed format. It spun its sports programming back off in mid-2009, returning it to WYGM when it returned to the sports talk format.

WFLF began dual-broadcasting on FM at the 104.5 frequency in September 2012. Its FM station's official callsign is W283AN, broadcasting out of Altamonte Springs,^[1] though it continues to identify itself by its AM callsign. Prior to adding its FM station, it was known as NewsRadio 540 WFLA.

former logo; station now exclusively identifies 102.5 frequency.

In February 2014 WFLF switched its FM translator from W283AN (which flipped to urban) to W273CA 102.5 FM.

Programming changes

Through the fall of 2007, WFLA carried the Pat Campbell show from 6 a.m.–9 a.m., and was the Orlando affiliate for The Mike Gallagher Show. In December 2007, 540 WFLA began to merge programming with 740 the Team, a sports radio station which was preparing to change to a Spanish-language format. Pat Campbell was fired, and his show ended in December. A simulcast of the 740's The Dan Sileo Show took its place, and became the permanent replacement in January 2008.

WFLA retained Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Bud Hedinger. They filled the drive time slot with 740's The Finish Line from 6-9 p.m. starting in January 2008. After only one week, however, host Jerry O'Neill abruptly quit, and went to rival WHOO. Contributor Mike Tuck took over the host role, with The Shot Doctor reprising his color role.

During the NFL playoffs, WQTM's contract with the Buccaneers Radio Network and Westwood One was not picked up, and it reverted to real Radio 104.1, another Orlando-area Clear Channel station.

In April 2009 Dan Sileo was moved to newly launched sister station 740 The Game WYGM (sports talk). Bud Hedinger was moved from afternoons on 540 WFLA to morning drive while Dave Ramsey was picked up to fill afternoons. Longtime WTKS-FM Real Radio Assistant Program Director and Creative Services Director Dan Stone signed on to run the station as Assistant Program Director around this same time.

History

WGTO began operations on AM 540 in September 1955 as a 10,000-watt, daytime-only station licensed to Haines City. The calls stood for Gulf to Ocean (as in Gulf of Mexico to Atlantic Ocean), a reference to the large coverage area afforded by the station's relatively high power and low dial position. Three years later, the station's city of license changed to Cypress Gardens and WGTO boosted its daytime power to 50,000 watts, calling itself "the most powerful station in the nation" due to operating at the lowest AM frequency permitted with the maximum amount of power permitted.

WGTO aired a Top 40 music format from its beginning until the mid-1970s, when the station experimented with a disco format. On January 29, 1977, WGTO made a dramatic format change to country music, with billboards around Orlando proclaiming the awakening of the market's "Sleeping Giant." As a country station, WGTO became an enormous ratings success and won accolades as one of the top country-formatted radio stations in the nation, including being named Billboard magazine's Small Market Station of the Year for 1978. Around this time, WGTO also added nighttime operations with 1,000 watts of power.^[2] By 1986, WGTO had lost market share to FM country competitors such as WWKA, and the station was sold that year and the format changed to religious programming. Another sale four years later brought another format change, to oldies as "Cruisin' Oldies 54," but the station was not profitable, and most of the station's local personalities were laid off in 1992 as the station switched to a satellite feed.

Paxson Communications purchased WGTO in 1994, dropped the heritage calls in favor of the new calls WWZN, and installed a sports talk format which continued after the calls changed to WQTM ("540 The Team") in 1996. The current calls and format debuted in February 2001; WQTM moved to 740, which currently uses the callsign WYGM.

WFLF began work on a move to FM in early 2012,^[3] following competing newstalk station WDBO, which moved from the 580 AM frequency to the 96.5 FM frequency as WDBO-FM. It initially used the repeater W283AN at 104.5 MHz. In February 2014, it moved to W273CA at 102.5 MHz.

* unless pre-empted by special programming

References

External links

• WGTO-AM history at radioyears.com
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WFLF
• Radio-Locator Information on WFLF
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WFLF
• Query the FCC's FM station database for W273CA
• Radio-Locator information on W273CA