Orlando Rock Radio Circa 1994

[DIZ Guy]

I grew up in Winter Park throughout the 1980's & Early 90's. All during that time I listened to WDIZ for rock. I remember listenening to DIZ in early 1993. They were a great station at that time. Sure, they were playing the new "grunge" stuff, but you could still catch "Golden Country" from REO during the noon hour and they would ALWAYS play a Beatles rarity in the mix. Hell, I remember when WJRR first signed on, and they pretty much sounded just like DIZ. I moved away in June of that year. I returned to Orlando to visit a friend of mine the next year and was very alarmed by how much the radio had changed. I remember being happy to see that my old friend DIZ was still on the air, but when I listened, all that I heard was a non-stop mix of pretty much nothing but new rock. I found that very odd. Also, JRR had become 100% alternative, I believe. I think that if they would've left the format of "Florida's Best Rock, DIZ" alone, then the station would still be on the air today.........

 

[RMarino]

WJRR's format used to be all over the place. I remember hearing Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" on WJRR. Yes, that song was all over rock radio in 1986, but by the early-mid '90s, it was considered light rock.

Before then I always preferred WDIZ over Q96, until December 1992 when Q96 became "96.5 WHTQ The Classic Rock station" and they really sounded good. Remember "Tuna & Finger" in the morning? It was around that time that WDIZ lost its focus musically and around the time they fired Baxter & Mark for a Ron & Ron simulcast.