WOKV

WOKV & WOKV-FM

City of license	AM: Jacksonville, Florida FM: Atlantic Beach, Florida
Broadcast area	Jacksonville, Florida
Branding	News/Talk Radio, WOKV
Slogan	Jacksonville's News, Traffic and Weather Station; Radio home of the Jacksonville Jaguars
Frequency	AM: 690 kHz FM: 104.5 MHz (also on HD Radio)
Format	News/Talk
Power	AM: 50,000 watts (day) 25,000 watts (night/directional)
ERP	FM: 98,800 watts
HAAT	FM: 309 meters
Class	AM: B FM: C
Facility ID	AM: 53601 FM: 72081
Owner	Cox Radio
Sister stations	WAPE-FM WJGL WHJX WXXJ
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	wokv.com

WOKV (690 AM) and WOKV-FM (104.5 FM) are a pair of American radio stations in the Jacksonville, Florida, area. WOKV-AM/FM is owned by Cox Radio of Atlanta, Georgia, and offers a conservative talk radio format.

WOKV is the only AM radio station in the Jacksonville market to remain in the top 10 in the Arbitron ratings since 1996. After its locally produced morning news program, "Jacksonville's Morning News", WOKV airs syndicated conservative talk show and locally-anchored news, traffic and weather reports. WOKV also is the Jacksonville Jaguars flagship radio station.

WOKV/690 has one of the strongest daytime AM signals on the East Coast, in addition to the Jacksonville, Florida market, it covers the entire coast from Melbourne, Florida all the way to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, an area that includes Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina markets. The station is directional to the east at night, to protect clear channel Class-A stations CKGM in Montreal and XEWW-AM in Tijuana.

Until 1994, the station operated on 600 kHz, at 5,000 watts day and night.^{[citation needed]} The station moved to 690 kHz for its bigger signal (50,000 watts day and 10,000 at night).

From the 1950s to the 1980s, 690kHz was the original home to top 40 station WAPE ("The Big Ape"). In the early 1980, the station went country; by the mid '80s, it was religious; and in 1986, WAPE migrated to 95.1 MHz (formerly urban WJAX-FM) and restarted its Top 40 format as WAPE-FM.

In 2006, the station upgraded its nighttime signal to 25,000 watts at night, with a broader pattern, and also added a simulcast on 106.5 FM, formerly WBGB; making it one of the first news/talk radio stations in the country to simulcast on both AM and FM.^{[citation needed]}

FM history

According to the FCC's Call Sign History, 106.5 MHz signed on as WPVJ in July 1994.

The station changed calls to WTLK in October 1996, and was known as Real Radio 106.5, with a talk format. The most notable event during this part of the station's history was the return of The Greaseman to Jacksonville's airwaves. (Ironically, the Greaseman's previous time in Jacksonville had been on WAPE when it was on AM 690 (the current home of WOKV)) The Greaseman Show aired from 6-10AM ET. Numerous nationally syndicated shows filled the 10AM-noon slot including hosts Mike Walker, Alan Keyes and Bo Gritz. "The Judy Jarvis Show" aired between noon and 3PM, The Don and Mike Show from 3-7 PM, The Tom Leykis Show from 7-10PM, "Ferrall on the Bench" with Scott Ferrall from 10PM-1AM and Joey Reynolds aired overnights from 1-6. Weekend programming consisted of classic rock music provided by Westwood One's syndicated "Adult Rock & Roll" format.

WTLK flipped to classic rock in January 1998, becoming known as Big 106.5, and changing to the WBGB calls in March 1998. At this time, the station was owned by Clear Channel. The format change began with a 10,000 commercial-free song launch that ended on February 18, 1998. That morning, former WPLA and WNZS part-time air personality Randy Clemens became the first live local jock on the station with program director Steve Fox handling afternoon drive. The remaining dayparts were filled by Westwood One air talent, including Jeff Gonzer, Terry Gladstone, Tony Scott, Frazer Smith and Mackenzie Rae.

WBGB was divested by Clear Channel, along with sister stations WZNZ, WZAZ, and WJGR, in the fall of 1999 to Concord Media Group. From there, it came under the ownership of Jacor Broadcasting, who in turn sold the station to Caron Broadcasting (a division of Salem Communications) in 2003.

Caron flipped WBGB to Contemporary Christian, branding the station as 106.5 The Promise. Based on ratings, it was the most popular station of its genre in Jacksonville.

On July 6, 2006, Salem Communications entered into an agreement to sell WBGB-FM to Cox Radio for $7.7 million in cash. The last day the station broadcast as 106.5 The Promise was Monday, September 18, 2006. The format then moved to non-commercial religious broadcaster WCRJ/88.1, who adopted The Promise name as well as a number of on-air staffers.

On the afternoon on Tuesday, September 19, WBGB began stunting, letting listeners know that The Promise had moved to 88.1, and promising something "new and exciting" to come to 106.5 on Thursday, September 21. Part of the stunt included listening in on a "board meeting", with various ideas being thrown out for the new format including dance, "really redneck radio", "ultra-lite" (a jab at WEJZ), all-commercials (a blatant shot at Clear Channel), women's radio, and an alternative "Jack" format. However, the new format of WBGB, a simulcast of WOKV, was revealed on Cox's Investor Relations website on September 20.

On May 1, 2013, the FM simulcast was transferred to 104.5 FM (formerly WFYV-FM). The move will expand its broadcast from Brunswick, Georgia south to Daytona Beach, Florida, southwest to Gainesville, Florida and west to Lake City, Florida. The simulcast on 106.5 FM continued for a short time as the station told listeners about the change. 106.5 FM officially dropped from the simulcast on the same day, and flipped to Urban AC as WHJX.

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WOKV
• Radio-Locator Information on WOKV
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WOKV
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WOKV
• Radio-Locator information on WOKV
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WOKV