WFLF-FM (94.5 FM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting in

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It is the more populated city of the Panama City–Lynn Ha ...

, owned and operated by

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

History

WFLF-FM first signed on at 93.5 MHz in 1977 as WGCV, a station licensed to Port St Joe, Florida. In 1982, Don Crisp bought WGCV (as well as AM station WJOE 1080), moved, and upgraded the FM signal to 94.5 with 100 kW of power. The stations were sold in 1983 to Brown Broadcasting (affiliated with

John Brown University John Brown University (JBU) is a Private university, private, interdenominational, Christianity, Christian university in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Founded in 1919, JBU enrolls 2,343 students from 33 states and 45 countries in its traditional und ...

Siloam Springs, Arkansas Siloam Springs is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. The city shares a border on the Arkansas-Oklahoma state line with the city of West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma, which is within the Cherokee Nation territory. The town was founded i ...

). WGCV changed their calls to WJST. WJOE's calls were changed to WJBU, where they would stay until the station's last days in 1989. WJST was originally a rock station called "T-94". Initially, WJST was on a shorter, 500-foot tower (alongside WJBU), but in 1986 WJST moved to a 1,000-foot tower. Brown sold the stations to Champion in 1986, who immediately sold the stations to Asterisk, Inc. WJST then became a country station, but proved unable to compete effectively with the already established WPAP. WJST had a call letter change to WWZR in 1989, and adopted SMN's "

Z Rock Z Rock was a nationally syndicated radio network based in Dallas, Texas, United States that, from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, played heavy metal and hard rock music. The format was one of several 24-hour satellite-delivered music for ...

" format. This format only lasted until January 28, 1990, when it switched to Southern Gospel music. From 1991 until 1993, the station was a member of

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and ...

Real Country Real Country is a 24-hour radio format produced by Westwood One. Real Country is marketed at the demographic of men aged 35 to 64. Its programming consists of a fairly broad playlist of "Today's Stars and the Legends." Classic country is the st ...

network. In 1993, the station's calls were changed again to WKNB. Marketed as "B94.5", WKNB aired a modern country format for just under a year, when in 1994 its calls were changed to WPBH and it operated under the name "Beach 94.5" for three years. In 1997, WPBH (as well as WPAP, WDIZ, and

WFSY WFSY (98.5 FM) is a radio station which normally broadcasts an adult contemporary format but during the holidays, broadcasts Christmas music. Licensed to Panama City, Florida, United States, the station also serves the Dothan, AL market. The sta ...

) was sold to ClearChannel (now iHeartMedia) and its callsign was changed again to WPPT. It was the second station in the Panama City market to have the "Pirate Radio" moniker (the first being WTBB from 1992 to 1997), and existed until 2002. In 2002, the station flipped to an

active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...

format called "The Fox 94.5" and its calls were changed to WFBX. This lasted until 2007, when, after the calls were changed to WFLF-FM, the station became an affiliate of

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

, cross-branding itself with sister station WFLA in the

Tampa Bay area The Tampa Bay area is a major populated area surrounding Tampa Bay on the west coast of Florida in the United States. It includes the main cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater. It is the 18th largest metropolitan area in the United St ...

and sharing much of WFLA's

conservative talk radio Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

lineup from iHeart's

Premiere Networks Premiere Networks (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a wholly owned subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. It ...

. On September 15, 2021, WFLF-FM began stunting with

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

, branded as "Christmas 94.5". In addition, the WFLA programming moved to two FM translators, fed by WPAP-HD2. At 5 p.m. on September 17, WFLF-FM flipped to mainstream rock, branded as "Rock 94.5".Rock 94.5 Debuts In Panama City
Radioinsight - September 17, 2021

References

External links

WFLF-FM Official Website
* {{coord, 29.819389, N, 85.259361, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title FLF-FM Radio stations established in 2001 IHeartMedia radio stations 2001 establishments in Florida Mainstream rock radio stations in the United States