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History Of WYKS
Thanks to Marc
Tyll for this history of WYKS.
WYKS-FM 105.3 began operations in 1970 as WGVL-FM. The call
letters GVL were an abbreviation for Gainesville. WGVL’s original
frequency was 105.5 and operated with 3,000 watts. The original format was
country, but within a year the format was changed to progressive rock due to the
success of WDVH-AM 980 which had switched from Top 40 to Country about a
year earlier. WDVH dominated the country ratings in the market for many
years. The station originally broadcast in Quadraphonic Quadraphonic sound
(which consisted of four channels, right front, left front, right rear, and left
rear) and the WGVL on-air signature was "Your FM Quadship." In
the WGVL lobby, station owner Irving Uram had placed a custom
painted portrait of "The Quadship" which resembled the Starship
Enterprise from the 1960s NBC Star Trek TV series. In the painting, the
Quadship appeared to be flying away out into space, showing four
rocket engines projecting the Quadship into flight. WGVL was a huge success with the college crowd and dominated the adult
male 18-49 demographic, often beating out WRUF-AM and WGGG-AM,
both Top 40 stations in the market. There was only one other FM station in town,
WRUF-FM, owned by the University of Florida which programmed a
variety of beautiful music, classical, educational and college lectures. Between
1971 and 1982 WGVL was basically the only FM game in town. In 1981 a new FM station began operations,
WMFM-FM 100.9 and began
programming a beautiful music format known as "Stereo 101".
With a second beautiful music station in the market, the College of Journalism
and Communications at the University of Florida decided to make a bold move with
WRUF-FM. The decision was made to switch "Stereo 104"
from beautiful music to progressive rock as "Rock 104". Since WRUF-FM
was a 100,000 watt station, it didn’t take very long for the owners of WGVL
to see the writing on the wall, so Uram decided to sell WGVL before it
lost very much market share to WRUF-FM. WGVL was sold to Miami
based Sunshine Wireless Company which owned WLQY-AM 1320 Hollywood
and WKQS-FM 99.9 Boca Raton. Uram
moved to Hawaii while Sunshine switched the WGVL format from progressive
rock to contemporary hits with new call letters WYKS, and on Christmas
day 1981, WYKS "Kiss 105" commenced broadcast
operations. The first song played on "Kiss 105" was the Twelve
Days of Christmas by Bob and Doug McKenzie, two characters from the
Friday night sitcom Second City TV.
At first there was much resistance from Gainesville listeners who wanted WGVL
to return to the air-waves, but soon new listeners embraced the new sounds of "Kiss
105" while the former WGVL fans found the new "Rock
104". The new "Kiss 105" began to take hold on the
market and gain acceptance. Soon Top 40 formatted WRUF-AM 850 and Top 40
formatted WGGG-AM 1230 began to explore format changes due to loss of
listeners migrating over to WYKS. WRUF-AM switched from Top 40 to Toby
Arnold’s "Unforgettable" Adult Standards format, while WGGG-AM
was sold and the new owners switched programming from Top 40 to Adult
Contemporary. In 1983, Sunshine Wireless wanted to add an AM station with WYKS and purchased adult contemporary formatted Adult Radio AM 14
WKGR-AM
1390 and switched to urban contemporary interspersed with a variety of select
jazz tunes, known as "Magic 1390". The call letter became WMGI
on AM 1390. Former WGGG assistant program director and University of
Florida sociology student Jerry Banta was hired as the evening jock on "Kiss
105". Banta soon moved into afternoon drive before moving to mornings
and taking over as program director. Under Banta’s programming style and
philosophy, "Kiss 105" soared in the ratings, dominating the
adult 18-34 demographics. Listeners would go back and forth between "Kiss
105" and "Rock 104", and this trend remains today. Sunshine
Wireless Company sold WYKS in 1987 to Miami based Gillen
Broadcasting Company for $1.9 million, and Doug Gillen took over as
the station’s general manager. Gillen and Banta started switching the music
play list from compact disc to all hard drive giving the station a superior
clear sound. In 1995 another technological advance was implemented when the
frequency was moved from 105.5 to 105.3 although the power remained at 3,000
watts, however the tower was raised slightly. This allowed a signal enhancement
in Ocala in addition to the entire Gainesville-Ocala metro. The frequency move
was due to WTBT-FM 105.5 New Port Richey upgrading from a 3,000 watt
class A to a 100,000 watt class C-1 when Jacor Communications owned WTBT. Randy Michaels
of Jacor paid Gillen an undisclosed amount of cash to
change frequency so WTBT could upgrade to its 100,000 watt class. With
the frequency move, another station in Saint Augustine, which broadcast on
105.5, was free to upgrade from a class A to a class C-3.
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WYKS-FM
105.3
