Original Call Letters: WLOF 

Originally Licensed: 1966 

Original City of License: Winter Park  

Original Frequency: 103.1

Origin of Call Letters: 

Original Power: 3,000 watts

Original Location: Langford Hotel, E. New England Ave.

Original Format: Beautiful Music 

Network Affiliation(s):

History of WLOQ 
From Steve Rutledge whose father John Rutledge was a co-founder of WLOQ in 1966.  "...He put WLOQ on the air (as WLOF-FM) in the Langford Hotel.  I got out of school to go over and watch the Poli Brothers put up the monopole for the antenna. It was a cool operation.  He formatted these beautiful music stations himself, no announcers, production (was done) at WLOF(-AM 950), almost a forerunner of the automation of today.
In June of 1977 Herbert Gross buys WLOQ from Home Security Broadcasting Co. for $210,000. In 1977 the station broadcast classical and beautiful music from a room in the Langford Hotel and kept its library of albums in a bathtub. Its signal was spotty even in Winter Park. It had no ratings. More than that, WLOQ needed to be unloaded fast by a broadcaster who would have broken federal radio ownership rules if he had kept it. Today that broadcaster wouldn't have had to sell. the rules have changed over the years and Herbert Gross was in the right place at the right time. Looking to expand into a metropolitan area, WLOQ was his doorway to the fast-growing Orlando market.
12-10-08
WLOQ received permission from the FCC increase its class of service to the community of Orlando, FL (Licensed to Winter Park) from a Class C3 license to a Class C2 FM Radio facility effective upon WLOQ's build-out in January 2009. This new FCC license will allow WLOQ to effectively increase its power from 25,000 Watts to 50,000 Watts. WLOQ will move its primary FM antenna to a new "twice taller tower" in Winter Garden, just west of its current tower site, giving the new signal far greater geographic coverage of the three county Orlando, FL, Metro Survey Area, and beyond, as well as far greater signal density to better penetrate office buildings, and homes within existing WLOQ coverage areas. The signal will now cover a far larger section of Central Florida, introducing its Smooth Jazz/Adult Contemporary format to a far larger potential audience including Orlando's newer bedroom communities, and its suburban dwellers and commuters. Lake County, one of the fastest growing areas of Orlando's greater metro area, will now enjoy higher quality primary signal coverage, as will Leesburg to the Northwest, Sumter to the West, Lakeland to the Southwest, and Southern Osceola County to the South-Southeast. 

In introducing the smooth jazz format Gross passed on mainstream music and the prospect of being No. 1 in the market. Instead he carved a niche with a powerfully loyal upscale audience. Herb Gross' son John became general manager in 1980.  During his career, Herbert Gross owned five radio stations and a small cable television system; all but WLOQ were in Minnesota. WLOQ is Gross Communication Corp.'s only property now, but in the early days the company needed its other stations to generate cash flow. In 1977, WLOQ was the neglected stepsister to then powerhouse Top 40 station 
WLOF-AM 950. The late Robert Rounsaville of Atlanta, who also owned Top 40 station WBJW-FM 105.1 at the time, couldn't buy WLOF without selling WLOQ for Home Security Broadcasting first. Federal rules prevented stations from owning more than one AM and FM in a market. Enter Herb Gross. Rounsaville wound up paying Home Security $165,000 on top of Gross' $210,000 to seal the WLOQ deal. Gross said WLOQ was worth more than he paid, but he knew it would cost him plenty more. ''I bought the frequency,'' Gross said. ''I bought the potential, but you had to rebuild it from the ground up.''  For years, Gross turned all revenues back into the station. The first format was beautiful music with a jazz twist. In 1980, WLOQ became one of the first stations in the country to base its programming on the instrumentals and vocals of such artists as George Benson and Al Jarreau. In 1994, the station increased its signal from 3,000 watts to 25,000 watts, strengthening its reach into the outlying areas of metro Orlando.

WLOQ - The Early Years by Dennis Snyder
WLOQ joined the Orlando area airwaves in 1966 licensed to Winter Park where their "Beautiful Music In Stereo" came from studios in the Langford Hotel for many years. Since this was a sister station to WLOF-AM 950 it was often said the letter F stood for "Fun" and the Q stood for "Quality".  WLOQ's 103.1 FM signal was only 2.1 KW with antenna gain boosting it to 3 KW.  The antenna was on a mast on the roof of the hotel and was just over 100 feet high. For many years WLOQ only played instrumental music and toned things down even more at night making it more of a background music station.  To some degree the music became a bit more lively over the years.  During the early 1970s WLOQ had a fairly good place in the ratings.  In the mid 1970s the station added some newer music and began to play a few easy listening vocalists such as Frank Sinatra, Ray Conniff Singers, and  Barbara Streisand. The station was "closed mike", so the board operators never talked on the air, with commercials, news, and PSA's recorded at WLOF.  A good number of people made their entry into broadcasting by starting at WLOQ in the earlier years.  Many have spoken of the record library being in the bathtub, but over the years a small library was built in the walk-in closet.  It was a rather cozy little station. To add some more variety there was a weekly jazz show with Alan Rock.  Classical music segments were also experimented with during the mid 1970s beginning with a weekly pre-recorded program by Paul Neal then expanding to daily segments with pre-recorded shows from Parkway Productions. While the jazz and classical added variety and enthusiasm for those who enjoy those types of music, ultimately the stations ratings and sales suffered and the classical and jazz were discontinued. In June 1977 WLOF and WLOQ were split and Herb Gross purchased WLOQ.  We continued with the easy listening music with plans to go live mike, but the control board was very close to the transmitter and too noisy.  The board was moved into the adjoining room and we opened up the mike for the first time. Ron Louis started it off in the morning, but this was a gradual change over a few weeks for the rest of the announcers who initially just gave the time, weather, and a few brief news stories. In the late summer of 1977 the studios moved over to 174 W Comstock with the transmitter remaining at the Langford briefly then was moved over to Johnson Communications on Minnesota Ave. Soon the station started moving towards the jazz music that it has now become well known for over the past 30 years.  The present day studios are on Fairbanks Ave close to the Comstock location while the transmitter (with higher power) is now just a few blocks from the old WLOF studios in the Old Winter Garden Rd area of Orlando. 

WLOQ  Personalities
Dennis Snyder-1972-1977 Biography In his latest email Dennis tells a couple of "tales".  Dick's (Camnitz's)  account of walking out on the WLOQ balcony and locking the door behind him brings to mind the same experience I had; must have been a WLOQ tradition.  With a long cut on the turntable, I dashed across the parking lot to the drink machine only to return and find the front door had locked behind me. Checked with the hotel desk clerk who had no key, but suggested I check the sliding glass door on the balcony because some of the WLOQ folks leave the door cracked for that reason.  What a relief it was to find the door cracked so I returned without incident.

Another memorable time was  (with headphones on) in the wee hours while cranking out the elevator hits when I was startled by a police officer who I didn't hear open the door.  He informed me a bomb threat had been received for the (Langford) hotel and I must evacuate immediately.   This wasn't exactly on our list of "what to do" so I faded out the song on the air and started a new album.  Once across the street at Langford Apartments I called Louis (manager at the time) to let him know.  Fortunate once again, we were allowed to return without incident, still had an extra song or two to go on the album as well! 

Dick Camnitz-Dick tells a tale about himself. "WLOQ was all in a single hotel room when I worked there and albums were stored in the bathtub.  Some have heard this story before but one morning I walked out on the balcony for fresh air....probably trying to stay awake and locked the sliding glass door when I closed it.  I managed to climb down the balcony and get to the front desk to call Violet (Sidebottom) in time for her to jump out of bed and get to the station before the album ran out.  Luckily, I played the first cut.  She was livid, but got over it."

Tom Barry-1983-1994-Movie/Theater Critic 

Joe Francis-1977-Operations Manager/2000-Public Affairs Director-Gross Communications Corp.

Bob Kelly-1978-1992

Paul Newnum-1994-"Smokestack Lightnin'"

Alan Spector-1999-Gross Communications Corp.

Bob O'Brien-1999-2001-Mornings/Production Director-Gross Communications Corp.

Robyn Austin-2000-2003-"Smooth Jazz After Hours"/ Mornings

Bob Stephenson-2000-Production Director/Mornings/Evenings

Brian Morgan-2000-Program Director-Gross Communications Corp.

Bill Gable-2001-2002-Morning Drive

Ash Kimble-2005-Host of "The Chill Lounge"-Gross Communications Corp. (aka Kid Cruz when he worked at 
WXXL-FM 106.7)

Bud Brewer Biography

Anne Jeffries shares "Radio Tales" from the "media table" at Malcolm's Hungry Bear Restaurant

Stan Rearden

Al Crom

Lon Wagner

Melissa Algood

Aldie Beard

Jay Klassen

Lucy Barnard

Jim Kirk

Brock Lesperence

Drew Townsend  

Kerry Gardner   

Brian Schmitz   

Dave Mills

Lee Hogan   

Laura Bourdeau   

Tom Brooks   

Mark Butler   

Yvonne Coleman   

Cathy Johnson   

Lee Randall   

Kenneth Troy  

Scot Wade

Sabrina
Don Kirby
Paul Thomas
Steve Huntington-Program Director
Lee Hogan

Scott Silver Biography

Dan Jones Biography

Patrick Riley-nights

Mick Dolan-Morning co-host/Nights

Louis Satmaria

Greg Warmoth

Robin Austin

Allen Moore-News

Kevin Baldinger-Traffic Biography

Jaime Lerner

Other Names in WLOQ History

John Rutledge-1966-Partner/General Manager-Clarke and Rutledge In Memory Biography

Bill Clarke-1966-Partner-Clarke and Rutledge

Ken Dixon-1990-1994-Production Director-Gross Communications Corp.

Rick Weinkauf-2000-2007-Vice President/General Manager-Gross Communications Corp.
Rick announced his retirement in 2007 Biography

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