WRFF

WRFF

City of license	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area	Greater Philadelphia (Delaware Valley)
Branding	Radio 104.5
Frequency	104.5 MHz (also on HD Radio) HD2: Active Rock (Rock Nation)
First air date	1965
Format	Modern Rock
ERP	11,500 watts
HAAT	308 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	53969
Transmitter coordinates	40°02′30.00″N 75°14′24.00″W
Callsign meaning	W Radio One O Four Five
Former callsigns	WRCP-FM (1965-1977) WSNI 1977-1990) WYXR 1990-1999) WLCE (1999-2002) WSNI (2002-2006) WUBA (2006-2007)
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Sister stations	WDAS (AM), WDAS-FM, WIOQ, WISX, WUSL
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	radio1045.com Radio 104.5 Myspace Group

WRFF is a modern rock FM radio station located in and licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and is known on-air as "Radio 104.5."

History

WRCP-FM

104.5 FM first signed on in February 1965 as WRCP-FM simulcasting WRCP/1540. Both stations offered MOR formats. The stations were owned by Associated Communications, a subsidiary of Rust Craft Greeting Cards. In 1967, the stations switched to country music formats. Tightened Federal Communications Commission (FCC) restrictions on AM-FM simulcasting led to a new format for the FM in 1977.

WSNI, first time

104.5 FM broke away from WRCP in 1977 and became WSNI. WSNI initially had a soft country/easy listening hybrid format before evolving to instrumental-based easy listening.

On January 1, 1980 WSNI became known as "Sunny 104" at first, then later "Sunny 104 and a half," and eventually "Sunny 104.5," a name which was reused later on in the station's history. "Sunny" dumped easy listening in favor of an Adult Contemporary format playing the Top 40 hits of the 1960s, Top 40/Adult contemporary crossovers of the 1970s, and the Adult Contemporary hits of the 1980s up to and including current product.

6 years later, the stations were sold to Pyramid Broadcasting. The AM sister station, which still had the WRCP call letters, was eventually sold also and got new call letters. In, 1988 singer Teddy Pendergrass performed some of the station's jingles.

WYXR

On December 10, 1990, 104.5's call was changed from WSNI to WYXR and the format switched to Hot AC. The new station was known as "Star 104.5".

In a group deal WYXR became owned by Evergreen by 1993. The station experimented and leaned CHR in 1996, but it still remained known as Star 104.5. The station quietly evolved back to Hot AC in 1997 playing more rhythmic cuts than most Hot AC stations. In 1997 WYXR became owned by Chancellor as a result of a merger.

In April 1999 Chancellor (known then as AM/FM) was going to switch the station to a Jammin' Oldies format. This never happened because another station owned by Greater Media beat them to it. As a result the Hot AC format was kept a while longer. The hot AC format lasted until November 18, 1999. WYXR went off the air at 12 noon with Madonna's "Who's That Girl". 3 hours of a heartbeat sound effect followed.

WLCE

At 3PM on November 18, 1999, The Cars' "Let's Go" began to play. The station was now known as "Alice 104.5," and the calls became WLCE. The new format was a Gold based Adult Rock AC, playing "Rockin' Hits" of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The "Rockin' Hits" format was designed to compete against Greater Media's Classic rock 102.9 WMGK. WMGK was Greater Media's most successful station in Philadelphia at the time and this was viewed as "punishment" against Greater Media after they flipped 95.7 to "Jammin' Gold." Initially only a couple of current songs were played but by 2001 the station was playing a large number. By 2001, the station evolved to more of a rock based Hot AC format. In 2001, as a result of a merger, WLCE came under the ownership of Clear Channel Communications. The WLCE call sign has now moved to the Springfield, Illinois market.

WSNI, second time/oldies version

On July 31, 2002, after a 24-hour loop of The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun," 104.5 flipped to Soft AC, reverting back to the "Sunny 104.5" name with a plan to compete for some of B101's listeners.

This incarnation of WSNI is locally famous for completely abandoning the format as early as the first week in November to play continuous Christmas music until December 26. The idea was very successful and starting the very next year, B101--which in years past played only 36 hours of continuous Christmas music--copied it and has done it every year since.

Sunny was a low-budget station and nearly all the air personalities were voicetracked, meaning the "DJ banter" heard between songs had been recorded in advance in a whole other part of the country and was being played from a hard drive just like the music. The low operating costs helped the station be successful even with only middling ratings. Sunny 104.5 continued for just over 4 years.

At 12 noon EDT on Thursday, August 10, 2006, Sunny's sister station Smooth Jazz WJJZ 106.1 was switched to a Rhythmic AC format, and began identifying itself as "Philly's 106.1." At the same time, Clear Channel dumped Sunny's Soft AC format and started "shadowcasting" the new station at 106.1. The two stations were playing the same songs but 104.5 was delayed several seconds from what was heard on 106.1. The last song heard on Sunny 104.5 was "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" by Elton John. This was followed by a short pause and slow fade in of "Let's Get It Started" by The Black Eyed Peas. There was a short announcement from a female ("This feels like my own radio station") and an awkward segue into "Get Ready For This" by 2 Unlimited, then Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".

As for the lucrative all-Christmas format Sunny brought to Philadelphia, B101 had it all to themselves. Without having to worry about beating the competition to the punch, they tend to wait until the afternoon before Thanksgiving Day before making the switch. In 2007, during Arbitron's "holiday period," the lack of competition provided B101 enormous rating success. So in 2008, three other stations joined in, giving Philadelphia four all-Christmas stations and forcing B101 to share.

In early January 2007, the WSNI call letters went to the former WOQL-FM in Keene, NH.

In 2009, Sunny 104.5 returned to the air on WILT 104.5 in Wilmington, NC.

WUBA

On August 23, 2006, after 13 days of simulcasting the 106.1 FM signal, 104.5 FM became a Spanish-language radio station known as "Rumba 104.5". This format was launched at Noon that day. This was the first Spanish-language station on FM radio in Philadelphia. They had a format focusing on Tropical and Dance Music, very similar to that of WCAA and WSKQ-FM in New York City.

Clear Channel flipped Rumba 104.5 to a modern rock format on May 16, 2007. Because of this, the "Rumba" Spanish format, previously on 104.5, moved to 1480 AM, thus ending WDAS's gospel music format, as the station became "Rumba 1480". On HD Radio receivers, Rumba can also be found at 106.1 HD-2. On May 23, 2007, the WUBA calls moved from 104.5 FM to 1480 AM.

Radio 104.5

On May 16, 2007 Clear Channel flipped 104.5 to "Radio 104.5" playing a rock format, with "Do You Remember Rock-N-Roll Radio?" by The Ramones as the first song.

On May 23, at midnight, 104.5 started identifying itself as "WRFF" (Radio One O Four - Five).

The Radio 104.5 presentation centers heavily on modern rock music from the 1990s, as well as featuring selected songs from the mid 1970's through the end of the 1980s, as well as current product. Overall, the station comes across as "lighter" than typical Modern Rock radio stations. Most of the songs played on Radio 104.5 were titles that crossed over to Top 40 formats, and they reach outside of the Alternative format to play acts like Green Day, The Fray, The All American Rejects, Blues Traveler, and others. This type of presentation is highly similar to those at several other Clear Channel operations, but it was implemented at this radio station first.

So far, the station is more successful than the city's previous alternative rock station, Y100 in the ratings.

Signal

WRFF can be heard with a reliable signal as far as Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania to the North, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, to the West, New Jersey Shore to the East, and well into Delaware and Maryland to the South.

Line-up

Johnny: 7am-3pm

Wendy: 3pm-Midnight

Weekends:

Lauren, Paul, Bob Stei

External links

• WRFF Website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WRFF
• Radio-Locator information on WRFF
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WRFF
• http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/piratejim/phillyfmhistory2.html