WRBQ-FM

WRBQ-FM

City of license	Tampa, Florida
Broadcast area	Tampa Bay Area
Branding	Tampa Bay's Q105
Frequency	104.7 MHz
First air date	June 1954 (as WPKM)
Format	Classic Hits
ERP	100,000 watts
HAAT	174 meters
Class	C1
Facility ID	11943
Callsign meaning	Ralph Beaver (station engineer) Quality
Former callsigns	WPKM (1954-1972) WEZX (1972-1973)
Owner	CBS Radio
Sister stations	WLLD, WHFS, WQYK-FM, WHFS-FM, WYUU part of CBS Corp. cluster with TV station WTOG
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	myq105.com

WRBQ-FM (104.7 FM, "Q105") is a commercial classic hits music formatted radio station in Tampa, Florida.

History

Formerly WPKM and later WEZX, 104.7 switched to a rock ’n roll format as WRBQ ("Q105") in December 1973, home to the Q-Morning Zoo, Cleveland Wheeler, Scott Shannon, Dave Saint, Jack Harris, Bill Garcia, Uncle Johnny, Alan O’Brien, Tedd Webb, and a host of other top talents. The first FM rock station in the market to use live DJs, it quickly overtook WLCY-FM, which had signed on three years earlier with an automated rock format.

According to engineer Ralph Beaver, the station's call sign was 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 on WRVQ in Richmond, Virginia, and ‘RB’ was available, creating a call sign that sounded similar to its sister station.

When it signed on, WRBQ-FM was owned by Southern Broadcasting. In 1978, the station was purchased by Harte-Hanks, then in 1983 by Edens Broadcasting, headed by former Southern Broadcasting and Harte-Hanks executive Gary Edens.

For the first 20 years, Q105 was a Top 40 station, and dominated in the ratings in Tampa. In the early eighties, Program Director Scott Shannon & Morning Man Cleveland Wheeler began the "Q Morning Zoo," which spawned imitators across the industry. The station was able to maintain its popularity until 1989, when crosstown Oldies station WFLZ changed to an aggressive Top 40 format called "The Power Pig." Part of WFLZ's plan was to mock and belittle Q105. The main aspect of their campaign were billboards all over Tampa saying "Screw The Q" with the letter "Q" and a large screw through it.

Q105 continued on against The Power Pig for a few more years, but was unable to regain the ratings they once enjoyed. In 1993, the station was purchased by Clear Channel Communications, who switched the station to a country format on April 2 at 1:05 PM, keeping the Q105 name and logo (albeit recolored in a red, white and blue motif). The switch to country was an immediate ratings success, climbing from 13th all the way to 2nd, beating every station except then-rival (now sister station) country competitor WQYK-FM.

At one time, WRBQ was the flagship radio station for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League, becoming perhaps the first top-40 station in the U.S. to carry live play-by-play sporting events. Jesse Ventura, the former professional wrestler and actor who later became governor of Minnesota, was one of the team's color analysts.

In 2000, as a result of the merger of Clear Channel and AMFM, WRBQ was sold to Infinity Broadcasting, now CBS Radio, and became WQYK's sister station. In 2002, under the lobbying of former WRBQ Program Director Mason Dixon, who was Program Director of WRBQ's sister station WYUU (which at the time was an oldies station), WRBQ and WYUU swapped formats. WYUU became "Outlaw 92.5" (WYUU later dropped country for a Hispanic format in 2005), while WRBQ became an oldies station. Since that time, WRBQ has had an oldies format under program director Mason Dixon, first as "Oldies 104.7", then back to the "Q105" branding in July 2005, tweaking the format to classic hits ("The Greatest Hits of All Time"). Mason can still be heard weekday mornings from 5:30 to 10 with Nikki Cruz. You can also stream them live at the Q105 website.

In recent years, WRBQ-FM has brought back jingles from its CHR days on the air. 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 from JAM Creative Productions; the Q105 jingle melody, in its present incarnation, was modeled after that of "Z100," WHTZ in New York.

Personalities

Present

The current lineup (as of February 21, 2013):

• Mason In The Morning with Mason Dixon, Nikki Cruz and Bobby Rich
• Paula Street (Middays)
• Scott Walker (Afternoons; Saturday Night Dance Party; also program director)
• Bob Berry (Evenings)
• Dave "Flash" Morgan (Saturday Night Dance Party)

Past

• Bill Connolly
• JoJo Walker
• Rico Blanco
• "Marvelous Marvin" Boone
• Mike Reeves
• Marc Haze
• John Kelly
• Terrance McKeever
• Scott Shannon
• Dave Saint
• Bill Garcia
• Uncle Johnny
• Dave Collins
• Tim Davidson
• Alan O’Brien
• Don Wallis
• Scott Dennis (AM)
• Tedd Webb
• Alicia Kaye
• Dr. Chuck Stevens
• Jon "Rock N Roll" Anthony
• Ronnie "Night Train" Lane
• Arch Deal
• Nancy Alexander
• Roger Shulman
• Pat Brooks
• Cat Summers
• Brian "BC" Christopher
• Chuck Bear
• Dave Mann
• Don Capone
• Pat George
• Brian Thomas (PD & on-air)
• Scott Summers
• Deputy Mike
• Jack Harris
• Kathy "Wild" West
• Shadow Logan, aka JoJo Morales
• Sara Marx (Marxy)
• T.R. Campbell
• Doug Bevis as "Bevis"
• Brandon David
• Charlie Mills
• Kevin Summers
• Tramonte Watts
• Cosmic Jon Barry
• Mike Rivers
• Al Brock
• Cleveland Wheeler
• Randy Kabrich
• Brian Christopher
• Tim Spence
• John Clay
• Nancy Knight
• Mike Williams (Fudge)
• Mark Alan Biggs
• Jack Miller

External links

• WRBQ-FM Official Website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WRBQ
• Radio-Locator information on WRBQ
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WRBQ
• Audio: Cat Sommers Aircheck, 1981 (sorabji.com)
• Audio: Mason Leroy Dixon Aircheck, 1982 (sorabji.com)