 | |
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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Greater Orlando |
| Frequency | 540kHz |
| Branding | NewsRadio WFLA Orlando |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/talk |
| Network | Fox News Radio |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | September 9, 1955; 70 years ago (1955-09-09) |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | disambiguation of sister stationWFLA inTampa |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 51970 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 28°28′54″N81°39′42.3″W / 28.48167°N 81.661750°W /28.48167; -81.661750 (WFLF) |
| Translators |
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| Repeater | 107.7 WMGF-HD3 (Mount Dora) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | wflaorlando |
WFLF (540kHz) is acommercialAM radio stationlicensed toPine Hills, Florida, and servingGreater Orlando. It is owned byiHeartMedia and airs anews/talkformat. The studios and offices are in the iHeart Orlando complex inMaitland.[2]
The station broadcasts using adirectional antenna at all times, with the signal extending to the east to avoid interfering withClass A stations in Canada and Mexico. The power is 50,000 watts by day (the maximum permitted by theFederal Communications Commission) and 46,000 watts at night.[3] Thetransmitter is on Tower Pines Drive inWinter Garden.[4] WFLF is Central Florida's Primary Entry Point station in theEmergency Alert System.
WFLF issimulcast onFMtranslator stations W226BT 93.1MHz and W231CT 94.1 MHz, both in Orlando. The 93.1 translator broadcasts from South Orange Avenue at East Church Street.[5] The 94.1 translator broadcasts from National Place at West Marvin Avenue.[6] Programming is also heard on co-owned 107.7WMGF'sHD3 subchannel.
Weekdays begin with local wake-up showGood Morning Orlando withBud Hedinger, a former TVnews anchor onWFTV 9 andWKCF 18. The rest of the weekday schedule is largely made up ofnationally syndicated talk shows fromPremiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia. They includeThe Glenn Beck Radio Program,The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,The Jesse Kelly Show,The Dana Loesch Show,Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb,Coast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory andThis Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal. WFLF has a news share agreement withWESH channel 2.The Sean Hannity Show, syndicated by Premiere Networks, isn't heard on WFLF because it airs on talk radio competitor 580WDBO.
Weekends feature shows on money, health, gardening, law, home repair and business. Syndicated shows includeSunday Nights with Bill Cunningham,Somewhere in Time with Art Bell,Rich DeMuro on Tech,At Home with Gary Sullivan and repeats of weekday shows. Some evening and weekend hours are paidbrokered programming. Weather reports are fromAccuWeather meteorologists and traffic reports come from the co-ownedTotal Traffic and Weather Network. Most hours begin with world and national news fromFox News Radio.
On September 9, 1955, at 6:30 a.m., the station firstsigned on as 10,000-watt,daytime-only WGTO.[7] The station was originally licensed toHaines City. It was owned by KWK, Inc., a popular station inSt. Louis. Thecall sign stood for "Gulf to Ocean", as inGulf of Mexico to Atlantic Ocean, a reference to the large coverage area afforded by the station's high power and low frequency. Three years later, the station'scity of license changed toCypress 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 aTop 40 music format from its beginning until the mid-1970s, when the station experimented with adisco format.
On January 29, 1977, WGTO made a dramatic format change tocountry music, with billboards around Orlando proclaiming the awakening of the market's "Sleeping Giant". As a country station, WGTO became a ratings success and won accolades as one of the top country-formatted radio stations in the nation, including being namedBillboard magazine's "Small Market Country Station of the Year for 1978". Around this time, WGTO also added nighttime operations with 1,000 watts of power.[8]
But in the 1980s, as country music fans increasingly turned to the FM dial, WGTO lostmarket share to FM country competitors such as 92.3WWKA. In 1982, WGTO was sold and the format changed toreligious programming.
Another sale four years later brought another format change, tooldies 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 asatellite feed.
Paxson Communications, owned byBud Paxson, purchased WGTO in 1994, dropping the heritage call letters in favor of new call sign WWZN, and installing asports talk format, as "The Sports Zone". In 1996, the call letters were again changed to WQTM ("540 The Team"), keeping the all-sports format.
In 1997, WQTM was acquired bySan Antonio-basedClear Channel Communications, the forerunner to current owner iHeartMedia, Inc.[9] On January 29, 2001, WQTM's format and callsign moved toAM 740, which later changed its call sign toWYGM, using the moniker "The Game". With the end of the sports format on AM 540, the station switched to its current talk radio format, calling itself "NewsRadio 540 WFLA".
Through the fall of 2007, WFLF carried the Pat Campbell show from 6–9 a.m., and was the Orlandoaffiliate forTheMike Gallagher Show. In December 2007, 540 WFLA began to merge programming withWQTM "740 The Team", a co-owned sports radio station which was preparing to change to a Spanish-language format. Pat Campbell was fired in December. A simulcast of the 740'sTheDan Sileo Show took its place, and became the permanent replacement in January 2008.
WFLF retained Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Bud Hedinger. The 6-9pm slot was simulcast with 740's "The Finish Line" starting in January 2008. After only one week, however, host Jerry O'Neill abruptly quit, and went to rival sports station 1080WHOO. Contributor Mike Tuck took over the host role, with The Shot Doctor reprising his color role.
During theNFL playoffs, WQTM's contract with theTampa Bay Buccaneers football network and theNFL on Westwood One was not picked up. Those sports broadcasts were moved to co-owned 104.1WTKS-FM.
In April 2009 Dan Sileo was moved to the newly launched sports outlet 740 The GameWYGM, also owned by Clear Channel. Bud Hedinger was moved from afternoons on 540 WFLF to morningdrive time while the syndicatedDave Ramsey Show was picked up to fill afternoons. LongtimeWTKS-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.
In early 2012, WFLF began work on a move to FM.[8] Its chief talk radio rival, 580WDBO, had added a simulcast on its co-owned 96.5 FM frequency asWDBO-FM. To get on the FM dial, WFLF initially simulcast its programming onAltamonte Springs translatorW283AN at 104.5 MHz.[10] (That translator today broadcasts anurban contemporary format.) In February 2014, WFLF's FM simulcast moved toW273CA at 102.5 MHz.
On September 1, 2018, WFLF's programming moved down the dial to the Star Over Orlando-owned W226BT on 93.1 MHz after iHeartMedia's lease of W273CA fromCentral Florida Educational Foundation expired.[11] It added another translator at 94.1, W231CT, several months later.
The 93.1 and 94.1 frequencies are the primary branding used on the station logo.
| Call sign | Frequency | City of license | FID | ERP (W) | HAAT | Class | Transmitter coordinates | FCC info | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W226BT | 93.1 FM | Orlando, Florida | 156791 | 250 | 133 m (436 ft) | D | 28°32′24″N81°22′45.2″W / 28.54000°N 81.379222°W /28.54000; -81.379222 (W226BT) | LMS | |
| W231CT | 94.1 FM | Orlando, Florida | 157706 | 250 | 140 m (459 ft) | D | 28°41′22.4″N81°20′56″W / 28.689556°N 81.34889°W /28.689556; -81.34889 (W231CT) | LMS | Heavily directional to the south and southwest to protectWLLD inTampa, north and northeast to protectWHOG-HD2 (W231CN) inDaytona Beach |