 | |
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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Central Florida |
| Frequency | 96.5MHz (HD Radio) |
| RDS | HITS965 ORLANDO |
| Branding | Hits 96.5 |
| Programming | |
| Language | Spanish |
| Format | Latin pop–adult contemporary music |
| Subchannels | HD2:News/talk (WDBO simulcast) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| part of Cox cluster with TV stationWFTV | |
| History | |
First air date | 1952; 73 years ago (1952) |
Former call signs |
|
Call sign meaning | "Orlando Exitos" (former branding) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 23443 |
| Class | C |
| ERP |
|
| HAAT | 454 meters (1,490 ft) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | hits965orlando |
WOEX (96.5 FM, "Hits 96.5") is a radio station inOrlando, Florida. Owned byCox Media Group, it broadcasts a Spanish-language format featuringLatin pop and English-languageadult contemporary music
is acommercial radio station inOrlando, Florida. It is owned byCox Media Group and airs anbilingualadult contemporaryradio format. WOEX's studios and offices are located in Orlando on North John Young Parkway (Route 423).[2]
WOEX has aneffective radiated power (ERP) of 99,000 watts (100,000 watts withbeam tilt). Thetransmitter tower is inBithlo, off Fort Christmas Road (Route 420).[3] WOEX broadcasts in theHD Radio format; the HD2 subchannel carries thenews/talk format found on co-ownedWDBO.
The station first signed on in 1952 as WHOO-FM, the FM counterpart to WHOO (nowWTLN).[4] The stations were owned by WHOO, Inc., and had their studios in the Fort Gatlin Hotel. WHOO-AM-FMsimulcast their programming and werenetwork affiliates ofABC Radio.
By the 1960s, WHOO-FM was airing abeautiful music format, no longer simulcast with its parent AM station. WHOO-FM also carried a commercial-free background music service for stores and restaurants, not available to regular FM listeners, but picked up by using special receivers, through asubsidiary communications authority (SCA) subscription service.[5]
WHOO-FM was originally powered at 59,000 watts, using atower at 1,000 feet, with a signal that extensively coveredCentral Florida, fromTampa Bay toDaytona Beach. WHOO-FM was one of the first stations in Central Florida to be heard inFM stereo full-time.
In the 1980s, the subscription music service was sold. With WHOO airing a personality and information-orientedcountry music format, management decided to flip WHOO-FM to a music intensive country format as "96 Country" in 1984.
In 1987, WHOO-AM-FM were bought by TK Communications, Inc. The AM station remained country, but on March 1, at midnight, WHOO-FM beganstunting with non-stop songs fromThe Beatles. (That same day, the first Beatles CDs were released.) When the all-Beatles stunt ended, the new owners switched the format to adult-orientedalbum rock.[6] The station's call sign were changed to WHTQ, and it began calling itself "Q 96." In the next couple of years, WHTQ moved to aclassic rock format.
TK Communications was sold to Granum Communications in 1995 for $12 million.[7] In turn, Granum was acquired byInfinity Broadcasting (which was later renamedCBS Radio, now part ofEntercom). Infinity quickly spun offWHOO,WMMO and WHTQ toCox Radio, in order for Infinity to acquireWCKG in Chicago.
The classic rock format lasted 23 years. On February 18, 2011, at 5 p.m., after playing "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" byU2 and after a commercial set, Cox Radio announced that WHTQ would begin adding new rock songs and recent titles, and modify its moniker to "96 Rock." It began the new format with "Alive" byPearl Jam. In addition to WHTQ tweaking the classic rock format,WJRR switched back toactive rock fromalternative rock.
Just 6 months after the launch of "96 Rock", on August 19, 2011, at 5 a.m., after playing "Sad but True" byMetallica, WHTQ flipped to asimulcast of co-ownednews/talk-formattedWDBO.[8] The change followed a decrease in WHTQ's ratings, and a decision to give WDBO's talk format a wider audience by putting it on the powerful 100,000 watt FM signal, which switched its call sign to WDBO-FM. The rock format at first continued on the station'sHD Radio signal, 96.5-HD2, for a few months after the switch before being discontinued altogether.
WDBO-AM-FM branded itself as "FM-96.5 News-Talk WDBO" for much of 2012, to emphasize its new availability on FM radio.
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Programming changes occurred in October 2012, whenClark Howard rejoined the station's lineup after an absence of several years.[9]TheNeal Boortz Show was shortened to two hours and aired from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., which pushed up the localMel Robbins Show to the 11 a.m.-1 p.m. timeslot. These moves coincided with a change in branding toNewsTalk 96.5 WDBO.
Shortly afterward, on November 12, 2012, the news/talk format became FM-only, as WDBO relaunched as asports radio station affiliated withESPN Radio.[10] WDBO became theflagship station for theOrlando Magic Radio Network, with WDBO-FM also simulcasting the games.
On April 29, 2013, sweeping changes were made to the station as it was rebrandedNews 96.5: "Orlando′s New 24-Hour News, Weather and Traffic."[11] From then until 2015, all on-air references to the call sign WDBO were dropped, aside from hourly IDs. The call letters were slowly re-integrated into the branding over the months of October and November 2015.
A weekday segment known as "The Three Big Things You Need to Know" was introduced at approximately :15 and :45 past the hour. In addition,Orlando Magic games were heard on the AM station only, and news hours were added at noon and 6 p.m. In 2015, the station addedDana Loesch's syndicated talk show to the lineup.
On June 24, 2020, Cox Radio announced that WDBO-FM's news/talk programming would relocate back to WDBO-AM. AnFM translator, 107.3 W297BB, would begin simulcasting WDBO. Five days later, WDBO-FM would flip to SpanishCHR asÉxitos 96.5 (the "Éxitos" branding was previously on W297BB, which was used for a Spanish hot adult contemporary format).[12][13] On July 14, 2020, WDBO-FM changed its call sign to WOEX to match theÉxitos branding.
On October 17, 2024, WOEX flipped from Spanish CHR to a hybridLatin pop/English-languageadult contemporary format asHits 96.5, modeled after Miami'sWMIA-FM.[14] In November 2025, WOEX announced that it would airChristmas music for the holiday season while maintaining its Spanish-language presentation, promoting itself as the "first" bilingual Christmas station.[15]
28°35′21″N81°25′05″W / 28.5891°N 81.4180°W /28.5891; -81.4180