WPFM, branded as "K-Love" is a commercial

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 ...

located 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 ...

, licensed to broadcast on 107.9 FM. WPFM is owned and operated by Educational Media Foundation and formerly aired a

Rhythmic Top 40 The Rhythmic chart (also called Rhythmic Airplay, and previously named Rhythmic Songs, Rhythmic Top 40 and CHR/Rhythmic) is an airplay chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The chart tracks and measures the airplay of songs played on ...

music format branded as "Hot 107.9".

History

The station signed on September 4, 1964 as WMAI-FM; the station had initially been issued the call sign WDJJ, but changed to WMAI-FM upon launch. At the time, it was affiliated with WBVI-TV, the predecessor of

WMBB WMBB (channel 13) is a television station in Panama City, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Harrison Avenue/US 231 in downtown Panama City, and its transmitter is l ...

. It became WPFM on May 15, 1973, playing a

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...

format until 1978. In 1978, the format was changed to a mix of Top 40 and Adult Contemporary. It was in this era of WPFM that they developed an equal following from both locals and tourists, and were known sponsors of big-name Spring Break events in the area. It would later be the city's dominant CHR station. In 1992, after some months off the air due to legal issues, WPFM became exclusively Top 40, and rebranded to "Power 108". In September 1993, they began calling themselves "Kiss FM", which only lasted over a month. From then until 1995, they played

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

under the name "107.9 The Zone". In 1995, they went back to Top 40 under the name "Mix 108". WPFM and WDRK swapped formats on November 21, 1997. As a result, WPFM took WDRK's calls and active rock format, while the original WDRK changed their own to WMXP and adopted the "Mix" name, "Mix 103". The new "Rock 108" was ill-fated, and the calls were changed again on October 5, 1998, to WLHR. From this came the widely successful Top 40 station "Hot 107.9". WLHR was changed to WPFM-FM on March 10, 2004, before returning to the WPFM call sign (without the "-FM" suffix) on October 14, 2014. On September 21, 2018, Powell Broadcasting announced that it had sold WPFM to the

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's largest ...

, but planned to keep "Hot 107.9" up until the end of the year. On October 14, 2018, four days after

Hurricane Michael Hurricane Michael was a very powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that became the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992. It was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to ma ...

destroyed the facilities that housed WPFM, Powell Broadcasting announced that it had ceased the operations of all of its Panama City radio stations, citing "catastrophic" damage. This expedited EMF's decision to get K-Love on the air by just under a month. On December 4, 2018, WPFM signed on once again, this time under Educational Media Foundation's K-Love moniker, airing a

contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music, also known as CCM, Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and s ...

format.

References

External links

*
The Great 108 Tribute Site
Radio stations established in 1964 1964 establishments in Florida K-Love radio stations Educational Media Foundation radio stations PFM {{Florida-radio-station-stub