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WOLL Hobe Sound

R

radiolover78

Does anyone have any history on WOLL "Kool 105.5". What is the exact type of format they are. Last year when I was in South Florida, they sound like an Oldies/Classic Hits/AC type of station. What is their "official" format?

Thanks<P ID="signature">______________
Happy Holidays</P>
 
WOLL was on 94.3


> Does anyone have any history on WOLL "Kool 105.5". What is
> the exact type of format they are. Last year when I was in
> South Florida, they sound like an Oldies/Classic Hits/AC
> type of station. What is their "official" format?

Their site ( kool1055.com ) is entitled:
KOOL 105.5 FM - Continuous Favorites in the Palm Beaches!

I think it's been a couple of years since they called
themselves oldies. They dropped pre-65 long before
WMXJ did, and I think that's probably been two years.
Anyone remember?

Now it's an "18-in-a-Row Workday" format.

WOLL used to be The Beach Rock-n-Roll Oldies 94.3. Check out
the 1996 list station web sites at
http://www.univox.com/radio/radio1296.html
... when it was a radio1 station.

I wrote that nine years ago this month, at the end of
first year of my
<center>
South Florida Radio Pages
Covering Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach Counties
Over 18 AM BCB & FM Stations Now Listed!
</center>

See the art from their old T-shirt at
http://www.univox.com/radio/old-woll.jpg

I got that shirt in 1990.

When did WOLL switch freqs, anyway?<P ID="signature">______________
Just posted: <A href='http://www.univox.com/radio/2005december.html'>
December Edition, South Florida Radio News</A> ... from 954</P>
 
Re: WOLL was on 94.3

WOLL signed on sometime around late 89, early 90, as "Oldies 94.3"...They replaced a short-lived "Classic Hits" format called the "Quality Mix"/WMXQ, on 94.3, which itself replaced "Music Of Your Life" WNJY.

That format remained relatively unchanged until (I think) OmniAmerica took over WOLL and, ironically, made it one of the first Oldies stations to dip into newer product as "Beach 94.3" sometime in the mid-90s...I remember them playing a generous dose of 70s product like "Knowing Me, Knowing You" by ABBA, and such with jocks like "JACK FM" co-creator Famous Amos, until Clear Channel took over, and took the "Beach" back to a more conservative 50s-60s sound..Yes, the same people that have all but eliminated Oldies from WOLL were responsible for turning it back into a traditional Oldies station sometime around 96 or 97, ironic how things are.

When CC bought out the Fairbanks stations in '98, they did a shuffling around of frequencies, which included launching a WLVE/Miami simulcast (with separate stopsets) on 94.3, and a move of WOLL to 105.5 as "Kool"...The 'modernizing' of the format to what is practically AC/Classic Hits I believe took place sometime after 'OLL came out of its' all-Christmas mode in 2002.
 
Re: WOLL was on 94.3

> When CC bought out the Fairbanks stations in '98, they did a
> shuffling around of frequencies, which included launching a
> WLVE/Miami simulcast (with separate stopsets) on 94.3, and a
> move of WOLL to 105.5 as "Kool"...The 'modernizing' of the
> format to what is practically AC/Classic Hits I believe took
> place sometime after 'OLL came out of its' all-Christmas
> mode in 2002.
>

If I remember correctly, they tried the "Music/Super Hits of the '60s and '70s" right after X-MAs 2002 and for the first couple of months of 2003 before going AC/Classic Hits, where they are now.

When WOLL was on 94.3 with the "Beach" experiment in '95 or '96, wasn't that when Omni sold WOLL, WKGR, and WBZT to Bud Paxson? I enjoyed the mix of different oldies tracks; I was in Pompano at the time and for a Class A, it came pretty good. It was between 94.3 and Majic. When one station was playing something you like, after that song, you tune to the other and hear another song you like, all from the '50s to the late '70s. Tiring on the tuning hand, but fun to listen to and musically educational.

I remember the Beach eroding somewhere in '97 (sorry, had to use the pun), the move from 94.3 to 105.5 as KOOL sometime in 1998, and the part of the sweeper on 94.3: "Coming very soon....something very different for 94.3FM. A brand new radio station we're sure you're going to LOVE."

I think that gave away their soon-to-be simulcast of Love 94. Anyone remember when "Smooth Jazz 93-9 Love 94" became "Smooth Jazz Love 94"?? I found out why. LOL The two stations were also processed differently. When you were in the right spot 93.9 and 94.3 came in, and flipping between the two, you could hear distinct differences in highs and lows.
 
Re: WOLL was on 94.3

> When WOLL was on 94.3 with the "Beach" experiment in '95 or
> '96, wasn't that when Omni sold WOLL, WKGR, and WBZT to Bud
> Paxson?

Actually, it was a very convoluted period, with OmniAmerica selling the lot of stations to Chancellor as part of a merger, who didn't want the cluster and in turn sold it to American Radio Systems IIRC....Remember ARS had Gater, and "controlled" the Buzz and Mix 102.3, and there were some legal "who's really in charge?" issues with those two, with Buzz and Mix eventually being 'separated' to its' rightful owners (Palm Beach Radio Broadcasting)..ARS elected to keep Sunny with IRK, and then took Gater and BZT out of Northpoint, moved them into EAT-FM's room at Congress, and sold *that* mess to Paxson...But around the time that deal was closing, Bud sold his properties to Clear Channel...Confused?? You have a right to be.

> I remember the Beach eroding somewhere in '97 (sorry, had to
> use the pun), the move from 94.3 to 105.5 as KOOL sometime
> in 1998, and the part of the sweeper on 94.3: "Coming very
> soon....something very different for 94.3FM. A brand new
> radio station we're sure you're going to LOVE."

Yeah, when CC took over the Fairbanks properties, Rob Roberts did what he liked to call a "Head Fake", too: a smokescreen format on 95.5 that lasted a week or two where he replaced Fairbanks' "Frog 95-5" Country format (Fairbanks THIRD attempt in 3 years at country on that frequency), with Attempt #4: "Thunder Country 95.5", Hot Country. That ended on a Friday afternoon at 5, I believe with the launch (and return of) CHR to 95.5 as "Wild 95-5", which it is to this day.
 
Re: WOLL was on 94.3

Remember ARS had Gater, and
> "controlled" the Buzz and Mix 102.3, and there were some
> legal "who's really in charge?" issues with those two, with
> Buzz and Mix eventually being 'separated' to its' rightful
> owners (Palm Beach Radio Broadcasting)..

OH YEAH.....I remember that big mess.....then whatever ARS had left got sold (including Buzz and Mix) to Infinity/CBS, right?
 
Re: WOLL was on 94.3

> OH YEAH.....I remember that big mess.....then whatever ARS
> had left got sold (including Buzz and Mix) to Infinity/CBS,
> right?

Yup...I was at PBZ when that went down....Price was pennies for the 2 stations (plus one in Buffalo), plus 'assumption of debts', per R&R.
 
WOLL

One thing we do know is they get a lot of credit for their recent ratings success from their AC/Oldies approach. Their numbers actually went up when they moved their 105.5 signal from way north of WPB to a 500' 50kw stick right in the middle of town. For years, they sounded good but from a 25kw stick nearly in Martin County and before that they were 1.4kw at 450' in Riviera Beach (neither of the latter two signals were useable much south of the Palm Beach Int'l Airport, which explains their up & down ratings history).

> Does anyone have any history on WOLL "Kool 105.5". What is
> the exact type of format they are. Last year when I was in
> South Florida, they sound like an Oldies/Classic Hits/AC
> type of station. What is their "official" format?
>
> Thanks
>
 
Re: WOLL

> One thing we do know is they get a lot of credit for their
> recent ratings success from their AC/Oldies approach. Their
> numbers actually went up when they moved their 105.5 signal
> from way north of WPB to a 500' 50kw stick right in the
> middle of town. For years, they sounded good but from a
> 25kw stick nearly in Martin County and before that they were
> 1.4kw at 450' in Riviera Beach (neither of the latter two
> signals were useable much south of the Palm Beach Int'l
> Airport, which explains their up & down ratings history).

Thanks for the extra info. I did see that they do pretty well ratings wise. How far south can WOLL go? I was in Boca Raton and I listened to them in that area. Boca seems to be the area where you can get the best of both worlds. Miami and and the Palm Beaches. I think that they're the basically between West Palm Beach and Miami.

Again, Thanks

> >
> >
>
<P ID="signature">______________
Happy Holidays</P>
 
Re: WOLL

> Thanks for the extra info. I did see that they do pretty
> well ratings wise. How far south can WOLL go? I was in Boca
> Raton and I listened to them in that area. Boca seems to be
> the area where you can get the best of both worlds. Miami
> and and the Palm Beaches. I think that they're the basically
> between West Palm Beach and Miami.

I get WOLL in Broward. But not well.<P ID="signature">______________
NEW YEAR'S EDITION JUST POSTED 12/30:
http://www.univox.com/radio/20052006.html
with highlights of New Year's Eve Programming!</P>
 
Re: WOLL

> Raton and I listened to them in that area. Boca seems to be
> the area where you can get the best of both worlds. Miami
> and and the Palm Beaches. I think that they're the basically
> between West Palm Beach and Miami.
>
> Again, Thanks

Boca or even northern Broward County allows one of pick up most of West Palm Beach and Miami's stations. However, there are some stations that are tough to hear in Boca. Wild 95.5 can feature much static, and the Gater also loses some of its signal. Some of the Palm Beach stations have impressive reach into Broward. For example, WIRK sounds good on Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale. Ditto for Sunny 104.3.
 
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