WMMY History
In 1986 a Pennsylvania broadcasting company, City Broadcasting Co., headed by Dave Franco, agreed to buy the Melbourne radio station and its sister station WMMB-AM 1240. Franco would be manager of both Melbourne stations. In 1987 quite a stir was caused when a promotional gimmick backfired. ''The hit men are coming,'' the announcement said. ''The hit men are coming to south Brevard. Keep listening to WYRL.'' The recording lasted 10 seconds and was repeated constantly for about three hours. The station played nothing else that Thursday morning. The announcement had been planned as a promotional gimmick to mark today's change of format and call letters at the station. WYRL-FM, which had been playing country music, was "flipping" formats to contemporary hits. The station would change its call letters to WMMY and be known as "Y-102".  When police received a flurry of calls asking about the arrival of hired killers in the city. Melbourne Police Lt. Arless Houck said the department received 20 similar calls beginning about 6:30 a.m. Some came in on the emergency 911 number. Each caller asked about a strange announcement being broadcast on WYRL-FM in Melbourne. Mike Shannon, operations manager at the station, said Melbourne police called about 9:30 a.m. and told him of the alarmed reaction to the recording. At the request of police, WYRL modified the recording to note the ''hit men'' alert was a promotional announcement. There was no need to call police or government officials. 

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