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History Of WJRQ
Thanks to Marc
Tyll for this history of WJRQ.
WJRQ-FM began operations in 1983. WJRQ
was owned by Jim Johnson who had been a legendary broadcaster and
innovator in Tampa Bay radio during the 1970s when he took WQXM-FM
97.9 from Beautiful Music to Progressive Rock and transformed the defunct WOKF-FM
95.7 "96 Fever" from Disco to Adult Contemporary as "Magic
96". WJRQ was Johnson’s first owned radio station, Levy
County’s first FM radio station and the first FM
station to program country music to Levy, Marion, Gilchrist and Alachua
Counties. WJRQ was known as "Country 92" and broadcast
24-hours a day with its mix of classic and modern country favorites provided by
the Satellite Music Network. There were only a hand full of employees who
worked at "Country 92", all working eight hour shifts. Johnson
served as the station’s only sales representative while his wife Roberta kept
the books and performed general office and clerical work as the station’s
business manager. Former Tampa Bay broadcast engineer Bill
Elliotte served as WJRQ's Chief Engineer and Operations Manager.
Elliotte also was the 9am to 5pm board operator. Although WJRQ started
out as a rural Williston radio station, because of its 24-hour FM stereo country
programming, it quickly gained high ratings and attracted a large market share
in the Gainesville/Ocala Arbitron. Long time country legend, Gainesville’s
5,000 watt day-timer, WDVH-AM
980 began to feel the squeeze from WJRQ and made a switch to
Adult Standards as "U.S. 98" under the call letters WLUS
in 1984.
Soon after, Gainesville’s only Beautiful Music station, WMFM-FM
100.9 "Stereo 101", saw an opportunity to capture the
country listening audience that had defected from WDVH-AM to WJRQ-FM. WMFM-FM 100.9 became
WYGC-FM as "Gator Country 101" or simply "CG 101"
and switched to full-time country. Early in WJRQ's existence, Johnson saw
the possibility of yet another FM station changing
formats to country, so Johnson sold WJRQ in 1984 for $1.3 million to
Naples, Florida based Arkelien Broadcasting, headed by former Erie,
Pennsylvania newspaper publisher, Art Arkelien. Arkelien owned AM-FM
combos in Naples, New Port Richey and now WJRQ in Williston. Jim
Nieman, Arkelien’s Naples group sales manager, was sent to Gainesville to
become WJRQ's General Manager. Nieman immediately switched the format
to Easy Listening with a call letter change to WLLO.
The station became "Willo 92 Under The Willow Tree". Although
the ratings on "Willo" were good, Neiman had difficulty selling
the demos in Gainesville which had a median age of 26 due to the large student
population at the University of Florida. The Easy Listening format was
attracting large numbers in the 55+ demo, a difficult sell since most of the ad
agencies wanted the coveted 25 - 54 demographic. Arkelien sold WALL in
1987 to well known Orlando radio news director, Reagan
Smith and his Gulf to Bay Broadcasting Corporation. Smith changed
the call letters to WFEZ for "EZ 92" and left the format
easy listening. However, WFEZ was experiencing the same difficulty as WLLO
in that the format was attracting the 55+ demographics which was virtually
impossible to sell in Gainesville. In 1984 Smith decided to switch the format
back to its original country roots and started calling it "Z-Country
92." Since Smith was operating the station absentee, no one locally at WFEZ
was in charge. The station suffered in its ability to attract any meaningful
advertising revenues, only billing approximately $2,500 per month with
operational expenses exceeding $6,000 monthly with a bare skeleton crew. The
monthly power bill alone was over $1,500. Smith decided he needed to do
something fast, so Jacksonville radio executive Marc
Tyll was hired as the station’s general manager and given the
responsibility of turning WFEZ around. Tyll had worked in Ocala and
Gainesville years earlier and was most recently the General Sales Manager at
Jacksonville’s WJAX-AM 690 and WAPE-FM
95.1. Tyll ascertained the situation and determined a complete station overhaul
was due. It was determined the previous success 92.1 had experienced as a
country station was impossible to repeat since the market now had three FM
country stations and it didn’t make since to compete directly against the big FM
stations. Tyll determined there was a void in the market for Churban
contemporary, and quickly changed the format to hot adult contemporary during
the day and Churban during the night and weekends. Tony Downes,
WFEZ
mid-day on-air personality, who had a long history with urban contemporary and
dance formats, was promoted to Programming Director and Operations Manager and
the format overhaul planning and implementation began. After
about three weeks into the new format, Downes approached Tyll and asked to go
full time Churban, stating early research was showing a strong following for the
Churban/dance music instead of the adult contemporary which was played during
weekdays. Tyll thought it over and consulted with Smith about the proposed
format adjustment and it was decided to go along with Downes proposal, so WFEZ
became full-time Churban as "Hot 92.1". The ratings soared and
quickly gained listeners from Gainesville in the 18-49 adult demographic.
"Hot 92.1" was even taking away listeners from long time CHR legend WYKS-FM
"Kiss 105". Former WRUF-FM
Gainesville "Studio 104" producer and radio host, Professor Chuck
Woods, joined "Hot 92.1" as a programming consultant and host of
the "Saturday Hot Mix." As "Hot 92.1" ratings climbed and
billing progressed to an all time high, Smith promoted Tyll to Vice-President in
addition to being the station’s general manager and general sales manager. In
1990, in an effort to enhance the station’s coverage, Tyll began conducting
research to determine how a power increase could be accomplished. Since 92.1 was
too close to co-channel 92.1 WJXR-FM,
Mcclenney, a frequency move was determined to be the best alternative. Plans
went onto place to move from 92.1 to 101.3. This allowed a power increase from
1,700 watts to 19,300 watts, greatly enhancing coverage in Gainesville and
Ocala. Soon after the frequency move, Smith decided to sell WFEZ to
Atlanta broadcaster, Moe Negrin who bought and sold stations through his
company Bogi Broadcasting Company. Bogi owned the station for less
than a year before selling to Gainesville Broadcasting of Connecticut, Inc.,
owned by Ken Dawson. Tyll left WFEZ to take over management of
News-Talk WTMC-AM 1290 in Ocala, and Dawson hired Eric Jewell as WFEZ' s
new general manager. Jewell transformed WFEZ from Churban Contemporary to
Urban/Hip Hop. The call letters were changed to WTMG and the signature
"Hot" phrase was replaced with "Magic." The new "Magic
101.3" became a cult classic in the Gainesville/Ocala market. Dawson
sold WTMG "Magic 101.3" to Albany, New York based Pamal
Broadcasting in 2001 for just over $4 million cash.
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