WDBO-FM
WDBO-FM is a radio station in Orlando, Florida, broadcasting at 96.5 FM with a news-talk format. Owned by Cox Radio, its studios are located in Orlando and the transmitter tower is in Bithlo.
History
Musical formats
The callsign WDBO-FM was originally used at the 92.3 MHz frequency, as a sister station to WDBO and WDBO-TV. When Katz Broadcasting bought the radio stations (Katz owned WDBO-TV competitor WFTV, now owned by Cox Communications), WDBO-FM re-formatted as a country music station, and changed its callsign to WWKA. WDBO-TV changed its callsign to WCPX, and later to WKMG.
96.5 in Orlando was previously WHOO-FM, sister to WHOO 990 AM. The station was originally owned by T.K. Communications and sold to Granum Communications in 1994. It was acquired by Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS Radio) before it was traded to Cox, along with WMMO and WHOO so Infinity could acquire WCKG in Chicago. It is referenced in the popular Disney ride Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.
The station had a classic rock format, which lasted 23 years. On February 18, 2011, at 5 p.m., after playing Pride (In The Name Of Love) by U2 and after a commercial set, it announced that it would tweak its classic rock format to add new songs, and modify its moniker to "96 Rock", kicking off the tweaked classic rock format with Alive by Pearl Jam. In addition for WHTQ tweaking their classic rock format, WJRR switched formats back to active rock from alternative rock.
WDBO (AM)
WDBO (580 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a sports radio format. Licensed to Orlando, Florida, USA, the station is owned by Cox Radio. Its studios are located in Orlando and the transmitter tower is in Lockhart.
History
WDBO was originally part of a cluster of AM, FM and TV stations all with the same callsign. In 1982, the company that owned all three at the time, The Outlet Company, sold the radio stations to Katz Broadcasting. The TV station eventually became WKMG-TV. When the stations were sold, WDBO-FM was re-formatted as a country music station, K92FM, with the call letters WWKA.
WDBO, at the time 58 WDBO, strayed from its original middle-of-the-road music format, joining ABC News Radio, and slowly adding more and more talk radio programs. By the 1990s, it had become NewsTalk 580 WDBO, which for years has been Greater Orlando's highest-rated AM news/talk station. In August 2011, Cox Communications took down its rock station, WHTQ, and gave it the callsign WDBO-FM, and became a simulcast of WDBO. WDBO was initially simulcast on that station's HD2 channel beginning in late February 2008. The news/talk station eventually re-branded with the FM frequency, NewsTalk 96-5 WDBO.
Podcasts:
