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WRBQ-FM

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WRBQ-FM
Broadcast areaTampa Bay Area
Frequency104.7MHz(HD Radio)
BrandingTampa Bay's Q105
Programming
FormatClassic Hits
SubchannelsHD2:WJBRsimulcast
Ownership
Owner
WPBB,WJBR,WLLD,WQYK-FM,WYUU
History
First air date
June 1954;70 years ago(1954-06)(as WPKM)
Former call signs
  • WPKM (1954–1972)
  • WEZX (1972–1973)
Call signmeaning
Ralph Beaver (station engineer) Quality
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID11943
ClassC1
ERP100,000watts
HAAT174 meters (571 ft)
Links
Public license information
WebcastListen live
Websitemyq105.com

WRBQ-FM(104.7MHz,"Q105" ) is acommercialradio stationlicensedtoTampa, Florida,airing aclassic hitsradio format.Owned by theBeasley Broadcast Group,its studios are on Executive Center Drive North, near Gandy Boulevard inSt. Petersburg.

WRBQ is aClass C1FM station with aneffective radiated power(ERP) of 100,000watts,the maximum for most FM stations. Thetransmitteris on South 50th Street off South Tamiami Trail inPalm River-Clair Mel.[2]WRBQ broadcasts usingHD Radiotechnology. Its HD2subchannelairs an all-podcastformat,simulcastingsister stationWJBR1010 AM.

History[edit]

WPKM and WEZX (1954–1973)[edit]

The stationsigned onthe air in June 1954;70 years ago(1954-06).[3]Its originalcall signwas WPKM. It was a rare stand-alone FM station, not associated with an AM or TV station. It was owned by Frank Knorr, Jr. The studios were in the Bayshore Royal Hotel. Its power was only 10,500 watts, a fraction of its current output.

By the 1960s, it was airing abeautiful musicformat, playing quarter-hour sweeps of soft instrumentalcover songsof popular adult music, along withBroadwayandHollywoodshow tunes.It switched its call letters in 1972 to WEZX to reflect itseasy listeningsounds.

Top 40 (1973–1993)[edit]

104.7 switched to aTop 40format as WRBQ ( "Q105" ) on December 13, 1973. The first song on "Q105" was "If You're Ready (Come Go with Me)"byThe Staple Singers.Beginning in 1977, populardisc jockeyCleveland Wheeler served as the morning host.

The station hiredScott Shannonas program director in 1981. Shannon and Wheeler soon developed the firstmorning zooradio show in the U.S. The two decided to work up a wilder show together, with plenty of comedy and characters. It was founded on their own playful, irreverent, and provocative interaction, with spontaneous bits of parody leavened with straight news. They called the show theQ Morning Zoo,and it quickly became a hit. At its height, it had 85 people working to produce it.[4]Dave Saint,Jack Harris,Bill Garcia, Uncle Johnny, Alan O’Brien, Tedd Webb, Pat McKay, Steve Kelly, and Mason Dixon were all involved with the station as on-air personalities. Q105 quickly overtookWLCY-FM,which had signed on three years earlier with anautomatedcontemporary hitsformat.

The WRBQ-FM, Q105 team (left to right, Andy, Stephen, and Andrew) at the Gasparilla Distance Classic Expo in February 2020.

According to engineer Ralph Beaver, the station'scall signwas created when they were looking for a set of unique call letters and tossing out ideas, he suggested ‘RB’ (which happened to be his initials). Southern Broadcasting, which then owned the station, had just signed onWRVQinRichmond, Virginia,and ‘RB’ was available, creating a call sign that sounded similar to its sister station.

When it began its Top 40 format, WRBQ-FM was owned by Southern Broadcasting. In 1978, the station was purchased byHarte-Hanks,then in 1983, by Edens Broadcasting, headed by former Southern Broadcasting and Harte-Hanks executive Gary Edens. WRBQ added an AMsimulcaston1380 AMthat same year.

For 20 years, Q105 was aMainstream Top 40/CHRstation and dominated the ratings in Tampa. The station maintained its popularity until September 1989, when crosstown Oldies stationWFLZ-FMchanged to an aggressive Top 40/CHR format calledPower 93, The Power Pig.Part of WFLZ's plan was to mock and belittle Q105. WFLZ had billboards all over Tampa saying "Screw The Q" with the letter "Q" and a large redscrewthrough it. Q105 had faced competition beforehand against crosstownWZNE(Z98) for a short period of time during the mid-1980s, but it prevailed.

Q105 continued on against The Power Pig for a few more years, but was unable to regain the ratings the station once enjoyed. WRBQ tried moving slightly in a rhythmic direction (much like WFLZ) in April 1990, and then moved towards an adult lean in February 1993.[5]In addition, Edens was also running into financial trouble, partially related due to the fallout from WFLZ's competition. In January 1992, WRBQ (AM) split from the simulcast and flipped to the satellite-fedurban ACservice "The Touch".[6]Also in 1992, Edens decided to sell all of its stations. WRBQ-AM-FM were purchased byClear Channel Communicationsin July of that year.[7][8]

Country (1993–2002)[edit]

At 1:05 p.m. on April 2, 1993, after playing "Real Love"byJody Watleyand "Happy Trails"byRoy Rogers,WRBQ-FM flipped to acountryformat, which began with a weekend of all-Garth Brooksmusic. The country station kept the "Q105" name and logo (albeit colored in a red, white and blue motif).[9][10][11][12][13]The switch to country was an immediate ratings success, climbing from 13th place to 2nd, beating every station except then-rival (now sister station) country competitorWQYK-FM.WRBQ was briefly renamed "105 The Bee" in the late 1990s. It continued as a successful country radio station until the early 2000s.

In February 1999, as a result of the merger of Clear Channel and Jacor, WRBQ was sold toInfinity Broadcasting,laterCBS Radio,and became WQYK's sister station. (Its AM counterpart was sold toABCand flipped to "Radio Disney".)[14]

Oldies (2002–2005)[edit]

Former WRBQ Program Director Mason Dixon was Program Director of sister stationWYUU,an oldies station, with a weaker signal than WRBQ and most other Tampa FM stations. Dixon lobbied Infinity management to move the oldies format to WRBQ. On April 18, 2002, WRBQ and WYUU swapped formats.[15][16][17]WYUU became "Country 92.5", while WRBQ became an oldies station as “Oldies 104.7”, playing many of the 1970s and 80s hits it once played when they were current. (WYUU has since flipped toSpanish-languagecontemporary hits.)

Classic Hits (2005–present)[edit]

The station returned to the "Q105" branding in July 2005. By 2010, the station removed songs from the 1960s and added more 1980s titles, making the transition toclassic hits( "The Greatest Hits of All Time" ).

In 2008, Scott Walker was hired to be WRBQ's on-air Program Director and midday host.[18]This was done to allow Mason Dixon to focus entirely on his morning show duties. In 2013, Brian Thomas programmed WRBQ and sister station WQYK for a short period of time.[19]Tee Gentry later took over programming duties on an interim basis. Ted Cannarozzi became the official PD in January 2016.[20]

In recent years, WRBQ-FM has brought backjinglesfrom its Top 40 days. These include cuts from the "Positron", "Outstanding", "The Rock", "FM", "The Flame Thrower", "Warp Factor,", "Red Hot", "Power Station", "Skywave," "Turbo Z," and "Z World" packages, all fromJAM Creative Productions.The Q105 jingle melody, in its present incarnation, was modeled after that of "Z100,"WHTZin New York. (The jingles have since been discontinued.)

On October 2, 2014, CBS Radio announced that it would trade all of the company's radio stations inCharlotteand Tampa (including WRBQ), as well asWIPinPhiladelphia,to theBeasley Broadcast Group.This was in exchange for five stations inMiamiand Philadelphia.[21]The swap was completed on December 1, 2014.[22]

On October 5, 2020, the station announced the return of theMJ Morning Show,which originally aired on WFLZ from 1994 until 2012. The MJ in the show's title is MJ Kelli, who is also known asconservative talkradio hostTodd Schnitt,his real name. The addition of the MJ Morning Show resulted in Mason Dixon moving back to the afternoondrive timeslot.[23]In October 2022, Dixon departed the station as part of nation-wide layoffs by Beasley Media Group.<ref>"More Names from the Beasley Media Layoffs as Additional Markets Affected".12 October 2022.</ref. In 2024 the Q105 management team found themselves embroiled in controversy for letting go of radio personality Froggy, Mike Cusimano. The lay offs were speculated to occur largely because Froggy had information about inappropriate conduct amongst the Beasley Media group/ Q105 Management.

Buccaneers broadcasts[edit]

At one time, WRBQ was theflagshipradio station for theTampa Bay Buccaneersof theNational Football League.That may have made it the first Top 40 station in the U.S. to carry liveplay-by-playsporting events.Jesse Ventura,the formerprofessional wrestlerandactorwho later becamegovernor of Minnesota,was one of the team'scolor analysts.

Buccaneers broadcasts are now heard onWXTB,anactive rockstation owned byiHeartMedia.

References[edit]

  1. ^"Facility Technical Data for WRBQ-FM".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^Radio-Locator.com/WRBQ
  3. ^Broadcasting Yearbook1960page A-135.Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  4. ^Belcher, Walt (July 21, 2011)."Recalling the days of Q Morning Zoo".The Tampa Tribune.
  5. ^"WRBQ Taps Brian Thomas As New PD"(PDF).p. 3.Retrieved2023-09-18.
  6. ^"Vox Jox"(PDF).p. 75.Retrieved2023-09-18.
  7. ^"Q-105, sister station are sold",St. Petersburg Times(April 1, 1992)ArchivedJanuary 13, 2017, at theWayback Machine
  8. ^Billboard.Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 1992-07-11.
  9. ^"Struggling Q-105 drops Top 40 to head for the country",St. Petersburg Times(April 3, 1993)ArchivedJanuary 13, 2017, at theWayback Machine
  10. ^"Street Talk"(PDF).1993-04-09. p. 18.Retrieved2023-09-18.
  11. ^"WRBQ Tampa - Q105 Format Change to Country - 1993".YouTube.Archivedfrom the original on 2021-12-05.
  12. ^"Radio Years.com".www.radioyears.com.Retrieved2016-03-24.
  13. ^"Billboard".1997-02-08.
  14. ^Billboard.Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 1999-02-27.
  15. ^"Two stations to switch locations, letters",St. Petersburg Times(April 16, 2002)
  16. ^"WRBQ, WYUU Swap Formats in Tampa"(PDF).p. 5.Retrieved2023-09-18.
  17. ^"Good 'Ol Times: Mason Dixon Marks 30 Years On The Air".TBO.com.Retrieved2016-03-24.
  18. ^"Scott Walker To WRBQ PD Post".All Access.Retrieved2016-03-24.
  19. ^"Brian Thomas Named VP of Programming for CBS Radio Tampa".Radiofacts.com - Music, DJs, Radio Stations, R&B, Hip Hop.2012-05-09.Retrieved2016-03-24.
  20. ^"Ted Cannarozzi Named WRBQ Program Director".RadioInsight.19 January 2016.Retrieved2016-03-24.
  21. ^CBS And Beasley Swap Philadelphia/Miami For Charlotte/Tampafrom Radio Insight (October 2, 2014)
  22. ^Venta, Lance (December 1, 2014)."CBS Beasley Deal Closes".RadioInsight.RetrievedDecember 1,2014.
  23. ^"MJ Morning Show returns to Tampa Bay radio".Tampa Bay Times.Retrieved2020-11-01.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WRBQ-FM&oldid=1233983688"