WGTO-AM
540
Haines City
Original Call Letters:
WGTO
Originally Licensed: Sep 10, 1955
Original
City of License:
Haines
City
Moved to Cypress Gardens in 1958
Power: 50,000
watts
Original Format: Top 40
Owner(s): 1955-Hubbard
Broadcasting
1986-Cypress
Broadcast, Ltd ($1.5 million)
Palm Crest Hotel original
home of WGTO
1990-Florida Media Inc.
1994-Paxson
Broadcasting
1997-Clear
Channel Communications
History Of Call Letters and Formats: WGTO-1955-Top 40 “Gulf
To Ocean”
WGTO-1958-Top 40 moved to Cypress Gardens
WGTO-1977-Country "Great Country Music 54"
WGTO-1986-Gospel
WGTO-1990-Oldies
''Cruisin' Oldies 54'' (Studios moved to Ocoee)
WGTO-1990-Talk/Sports
WWZN-1994-Sports
WWZN-1995-Talk
WRTM-1996-Sports
WQTM-1996-Sports "540 the Team"
(These calls moved to 740 AM in 2001)
WFLF-1997-News/Talk
"540
WFLA"
History of WGTO
1955-WGTO
took to the air from The Palm Crest Hotel in Haines City. Licensed to
broadcast with 10,000 watts of power at 540
on the dial. The format was Top
40.
1958-Hubbard Broadcasting moved the station from Haines City
to Cypress Gardens
1977-Music
format changed to country
1978-WGTO was named Billboard Magazine's "Small Market
Station of the Year"
1986-WGTO was sold to Cypress
Broadcast, Ltd. and the format was changed to "gospel".
1990-WGTO sold to Florida
Media Inc. (a company owned by two Fort
Myers doctors and a lawyer) the studios
were moved
to Ocoee.
1992-WGTO went to a satellite service, resulting in the layoff of 30
employees including Rocky Dee, Russ Ross
(Original Doo-Wop Shoppe), Allan
Brady (Music and Memories). Perry
Moore would remain at the station in sales.
1994-WGTO
was sold to Paxson Broadcasting, the call letters were changed to WWZN
and the format became sports talk.
For more on WGTO
see: http://www.dizzyrambler.com/legends/WGTO/wgto.html
http://www.radioyears.com/other/content.cfm?id=22
RCA Broadcast News,
February 1957:
"WGTO is located in the
center of a group of metropolitan areas as contrasted to the more usual
establishment of a station in a principal city of its own. Its coverage, on 540
kc, encompasses such major cities as Gainesville, Daytona Beach, Orlando,
Lakeland, Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg. This area, covering the more
populous sections of Central Florida, extends from Gainesville to Okeechobee and
from Gulf to Ocean hence the call letters WGTO.
1966 logo
The Sleeping Giant
1970's logo
Here's a photo of the WGTO control room when the studios were
located on Marshal Farms Road in Ocoee in 1992 Photo
courtesy
of Dave Edwards
WGTO Personalities
Bob
Wery-1955-1958
George Prescott-1958-"Welcome
to Florida Show" from Cypress Gardens-1966-1971-Program Director/On Air Personality
Dale
Starkey-1955-1958
Dar Dodds-1955-1959
Bob Collins-1965-1965
Ronnie Gee
(Ron St. John)-1968
Woody
Wooden-1967-1971 & 1975-1984-Sales In
Memory
Larry
Green (Larry Cox)-1967-1968-Mid-days & 1973-1974-News
Jim Kennedy-1970-1971-Weekends
Dave Wright-1972-1973
Wes Belisle-1974-1978 1974-1978-News
Jim Greenfield-1976-1982 News
Bill Carson-1977
"Crazy" Bob
Fuller-1977
Jim "Jimbo"
Maloy-1977
Terry "The Bird"
Slane-1977-Terry
was named Small Market Broadcast
Personality of the Year in 1979
Dave Campbell-1977
Mike McCoy-1977
Courtesy of Steve
Kennedy
Jacki
West-1977
click photo for full sized view
Dave Edwards-1992 Biography
Joe
Penny-1987-1990
Robert J. Wright-1990-morning
drive
Terry Mason (Terry
England)-1990-Program
director-Terry died in Jan. 2006 In
Memory
"Uncle Russie"-Russ Ross
Biography
Perry
Moore-1991-10 a.m. to noon weekdays/sales and promotions Biography
Rocky D!
Lee Manning
Allan
Brady-
Biography-host
of "Music and Memories" and "The Rock and Roll Palace
Show", "live" from
Little
Darlin's Rock and Roll Palace.
Al Dunaway
Jerry Steffen
Roy
Adams
"Big
Al" Munnings
Van Amig
Jim Bocock
Joyce Bilal
Bill Burnett
Susan Cunningham
Crista Deason
Tom Drake
Scott Edwards
Beth Fouchee
Richard Hart
Keith Holliday
1969 bumper sticker
courtesy of Larry
"Vee" Flegle
Henry Jay
Becky Johnson
Patti Jordan-“PJ the DJ”-1977-overnights
Jeff Kierce
"Judge Krater"
R.C. Kelley
Carol Lamons
Dave Lane
Jay Menchen
Bob McCord
John Redwine
Allen Rich
Roy Riley
Jack Robertson
Tom Rusk
Dan Sanborn
Harry Sharp
Maris Siegel
Kathi Tanner
Lyle Wood
Roy Beemer
Kathy McFarland-1990-morning news anchor
"Captain" Joe
Canzoneri-1990-traffic
reporter/weekends
Jack Nelson-"MoneyTalk"-Saturdays
from 8 to 9:30 a.m.
Ric Karlson and Ed
Schmidt Jr.-1993-co-hosts of Golf talk, Fridays from 4 to 5 p.m.
Peter Banks-1993-Host of "Singles
Connection", a talk show for singles
Gordon Banta-1993-Co-host and
psychic on "Singles Connection", a talk show for singles
Patricia Madden
Vince Regan-1994-"House
of Sports"-6PM to 9PM weeknights
Doug
Gilley-1993- "Let's
Go Fishing"-6AM-7AM
Steve
Duff-1993-Producer
of "Let's Go Fishing"
Ed Hartley-1993-"Cryin',
Lovin' & Leavin'"
Peter
Rocchio-1993-
Tom Anthony
Biography
Dan
Grant-1968-Mid-days
Hank Dole-1990-Assistant program director
Jeff Allen (Cassell)-1990-1994-sports
in morning drive Biography
Merrill
Craig
Jay Cresswell
Clive Thomas
Biography
Jerry O’Neill
Greg Warmoth
Al Brock
Charlie
"Rock" Brown
Larry Cox
Allen Shaw,
Jr
Other
Names
in WGTO History
Dave
Schick-1955-1958-first Chief Engineer
Bob Kelly-1971-1973-General Manager Now owner of Kelly
Communications, Inc in Peoria, Illinois
Dick
Bennick-(Dr.
Paul Bearer)1973-1977-Sales
1977-1986-General
manager
Frank
Berry-1971-1973 and 1979-1982-Director of Technical Operations- Frank
tells us about his time at WGTO-AM. "...During my tenure at
WGTO,
I replaced almost all of the studio equipment and, when the old RCA BTA 10H
transmitter failed, I replaced the transmitter with a Harris MW-1A to provide
better nighttime service at their 1kw licensed power level. The night that the
old RCA transmitter failed, I put the Gates MW-50 transmitter on the air at its
lowest stable power which was about 8kw. I was able to reduce the output
power further by detuning the output network of the transmitter so that it
produced about 1kw of power. After we achieved stabile nighttime operation, I
called Stanley Hubbard at home and explained that the old RCA transmitter had
failed beyond reasonable repair. Stan authorized me to purchase a
Harris MW-1A transmitter. I called Harris and ordered the transmitter and
requested rush delivery. We operated in that mode overnight and before pattern
change in the morning, I re-tuned the output network so that the station could
operate at full power. We went through these detuning/retuning gyrations for two
or three days until the new MW-1A transmitter arrived. During the time that it
took to receive the new transmitter, we removed the old RCA 10kw unit and moved
the nighttime phasor into its new position .... directly beside the
soon-to-be-delivered Harris MW-1A. Before moving the phasor, I called our
Consulting Engineer, Ogden Prestholdt of A. D. Ring and Associates and
told him of my desire to move the phasor. Mr. Prestholdt told me
"absolutely not. You don't have the knowledge to re-tune the antenna
array". I moved the phasor anyway and retuned the array. It remained
stable and within the licensed specifications throughout my tenure at WGTO..."
Paul
Titchenal-1972-1979-Engineer
Dick
Hart-1958-1971
and 1982-1986-Engineer
Spencer
Danes-1970-1972-Management
Howard
Trickey-1973-1978-General manager
John Terry-1977-Program Director
Lloyd Barham-1978-General Manager
Howard Hoffman-1990-General manager
Keith Feeney-1990-accounting/traffic manager
Bill Patti-1990-creative services director
Bob Johnson-1991-General manager
Jay Waggoner-engineer
Nancy Cattarius-Sales
Tommy Kramer-Program Director
John Frost-General Manager
Thanks to Jay Waggoner for these WGTO
photos
(click for a full sized view)
WGTO 6 Tower Array
WGTO Transmitter Workshop
WGTO FEMA Bomb shelter
Frank
Berry
took this photo of the original WGTO transmitter in 1975. It was an RCA BTA-10H which was purchased in 1955.
The photo was taken as the old RCA Ampliphase transmitter was being dismantled
for shipment to Guayaquil, Ecuador. The 10H was on the air as WGTO's only
transmitter at the time this photo was taken. The boxes in the photo contain
parts for the old RCA BTA 50G Ampliphase. On the far right of the photo
you can see one of the power amplifier tubes.
Other Programs In WGTO History
Cousin
Brucie's Cruisin' America-1991-Friday nights from
10PM-1AM-syndicated
What's
New Biographies
In Memory Sounds
Misc. Links
Chronology What's News?
