WHOO-FM 96.5 
Orlando 

Original Call Letters: WHOO
Originally Licensed: 1952
Original City of License: Orlando
Original Frequency: 96.5
Origin of Call Letters: 
Original Power: 100,000 watts
Original Location: 
Original Format: Beautiful music

Network Affiliation(s): 

Owner(s): 1958-Bluegrass Broadcasting
                1987-TK Communications ($12 million)
                1996-Infinity Broadcasting Corp
                1997-Cox Broadcasting

History Of Call Letters and Formats: WHOO-1952-Beautiful Music (First stereo station in Central Florida)
                                                         WHOO-1984-Country "96 Country"
                                                         WHTQ-1987-Rock  "Q96"
                                                         WHTQ-1993-AOR

History of WHOO FM
Thanks to Chuck Wilson for this history of WHOO-FM. "...WHOO-FM was either the first or second station in Florida to go stereo... and as Steve (Rutledge) said, one of the first in the country. For many years the main purpose of the station was to support the background music service (called) Musaire. I helped Clint Gorey install Musaire receivers in stores on the east coast. The music service was also fully automated ... way ahead of its time. The station was simulcasting for many years ... 60% on one side of the band (commercial format) and 40% on the other (background music subscribers). We had customers all over central Florida. Our competition was WDBO-FM 92.3 who was promoting MUZAK.  John (Rutledge) struck a deal with WDBO and we sold them all our customers. This left us with a ready made stereo station!  We went stereo shortly after that. WHOO-FM supposedly broadcast with an effective radiated power of 59,000 watts.  But, the engineer, Charlie Chrismon, tweaked the antenna (the antenna was on top of a 1,000 ft cable supported tower) and we were far above that. I would get letters from listeners in ALABAMA!  How is that for an FM station in Orlando.  Believe it or not, more people listened to WHOO-FM than any station in Central Florida.


Names In WHOO-FM History
Garvis Kincaid-1958-President-Bluegrass Broadcasting 
Marty Stebbins-1967-Biography
Steve Kennedy-Biography
Bill Cody                                                                          WHOO 2nd annual reunion booklet 1984 
Dave Edwards-Nights Biography                                                          Courtesy of Dave Edwards
Ruby Love-Overnights   

 
June Myers-1983-1985  Biography 



AnneJeffries-7PM-Midnight
Bucks Braun-1979-1985-Program Director/air personality Biography

Mike Kinosian-1985-Program Director
Rick (Saylor)-Morning co-host with Dick Sollom
Dick (Sollom) -Morning co-host with Rick Saylor In Memory
Bill Michaels-Mid-days
Clayton Delaney-Afternoons
Tony George-Mornings
Jesse Lynne-Mid-days
Mike Goode-Afternoons
Charlie Chrismon-Engineer
Cecil West-Program Director
Dan Jones-Assistant Chief Engineer
Lee Brandel

             
                                                Courtesy of Dave Edwards pictured above

                                                                     
                                                                 








Thanks to John S. Smith for this old clipping from the Orlando Sentinel dated 2/26/87 regarding the switch from WHOO "96 Country" to WHTQ "Q-96". 


                       
















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