WLDI (95.5
FM) is a radio station licensed to
Juno Beach, Florida
Juno Beach is a town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Juno Beach is home to the headquarters of Florida Power & Light, the Loggerhead Marinelife Center and the Seminole Golf Club. It was also the original county seat for the area tha ...
and broadcasting in the
Treasure Coast
The Treasure Coast is a region in the southeast of the U.S. state of Florida. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and comprises Indian River, Martin, and St. Lucie counties. The region, whose name refers to the Spanish Treasure Fleet that was lost ...
and
West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...
markets. The station airs a
contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...
format. It is owned by
iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...
, and broadcasts at 95.5 FM. Its studios are in West Palm Beach and its transmitter is located west of Interstate 95 near
Palm City, Florida
Palm City is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in Martin County, Florida, United States. The population was 25,883 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Port St. Lucie Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Geography
Palm City i ...
. The station broadcasts in an
HD radio
HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...
format, originally having LGBT hits and dance station Pride Radio on its HD2 subchannel. WLDI eventually dropped Pride Radio for Gen X Radio, broadcasting a classic hits format from the 1970s - 1980s. It later dropped that for commercial-free R&B station All My Jams, before it started simulcasting sister station
WJNO
WJNO (1290 kHz) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to serve West Palm Beach, Florida, covering Palm Beach County and portions of the Miami metropolitan area. Owned by iHeartMedia, WJNO serves as the local affiliate for: Fox News Ra ...
on its HD2 subchannel in 2021.
History
WIRA-FM and WOVV
Before its move to West Palm Beach, WOVV was one of the first FM outlets on the Treasure Coast and operated beside WIRA in
Fort Pierce, Florida
Fort Pierce is a city in and the county seat of St. Lucie County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Treasure Coast region of Florida’s Atlantic Coast. It is also known as the Sunrise City. Per the 2020 census, the population w ...
. For many years, both stations broadcast from a downtown riverfront location on Melody Lane.
In the late 60s, WIRA-FM separated programming from WIRA to become WOVV and in 1971, the station's top 40 music era began when the station adopted an automated contemporary format from
Drake-Chenault
Drake-Chenault Enterprises (originally American Independent Radio Inc.) was a radio syndication company that specialized in automation on FM radio stations. The company was founded in the late-1960s by radio programmer and deejay Bill Drake ...
known as "Solid Gold Rock and Roll". At that time solid gold did not refer to exclusively oldies but was instead a fairly even mix of oldies and contemporary top 40 hits. A year later in 1972, the station began 24-hour operations and also began featuring
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
music at night. This lasted for a few years until being dropped by the end of the decade.
In 1985, Program Director Bill James was replaced by Bobby Magic from Cleveland as station ends four years of "live assist automation". Linda Hendry moved from evenings to midday, replaced in that slot by Mike Schneider. Dr. John Leeder left to manage a Port St. Lucie video store, and was replaced by Nick Caplan of
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
. In July 1987, WZZR joins the Ft. Pierce market after dropping
easy listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...
music for
contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...
.
Star 95.5
In October 1992, WOVV dropped the CHR format and became
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
Star 95.5. Following this change, the station moved 60 miles south from Ft. Pierce to Northpoint Corporate Park on Northpoint Parkway in West Palm Beach in 1993. New Program Director
Kurt Kelly
Kurt Kelly (Politician) is an American politician, businessman. He is a native of Ocala, Florida. He was a member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 24th district and is the President/CEO and founder of 3-D Background Screening, a ba ...
gave the
Palm Beach Post
''The Palm Beach Post'' is an American daily newspaper serving Palm Beach County in South Florida, and parts of the Treasure Coast.
On March 18, 2018, in a deal worth US$42.35 million, ''The Palm Beach Post'' and '' The Palm Beach Daily News' ...
his home telephone number and invited listeners to call to comment on their likes and dislikes of the station's format.
In April 1993, the station became a CHR station again.
WCLB
The station abruptly changed formats to become country WCLB (''the Country Club'') on November 22, 1995, at 4:40 p.m., with Alan Jackson's "Gone Country" being the first song. The station signed a joint sales agreement with Fairbanks Communications, the owners of WRMF.
The station ran the syndicated ''
Howard Stern Show
''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was radio syndication, nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WINS-FM, WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The sho ...
'' in the morning from September 1996, until December 1997.
The station was briefly known as country "The Frog" and "Thunder Country" with call letters WXFG in 1998.
WLDI
The station dropped country and returned to mainstream CHR as WiLD 95.5 (with new call letters WLDI) on August 14, 1998, shortly after 5 p.m., with a 9,550 song marathon. The first song was
Quad City DJ's
Quad City DJ's is an American music group originally consisting of Jay Ski (Johnny McGowan), C.C. Lemonhead (Nathaniel Orange), and JeLana LaFleur who recorded the 1996 hit " C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)", a rap-remix of Barry White's 1974 "Theme ...
' "
C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)
"C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)" is a song by American Florida-based musical group Quad City DJ's, released in February 1996 as a single from their debut album, '' Get On Up and Dance'' (1996). It is based on a sample of Barry White's 1974 main th ...
". The station gave away a $25,000 cash prize at the conclusion of the music marathon. The station was the birthplace and the home of the successful morning show ''The KVJ Show'' (originally known as ''Kevin and Virginia in the Morning'' and later ''The Wild Morning Show with Kevin and Virginia'', from 1999, until its departure to
97.3 The Coast (now known as Hits 97.3) in Miami on Monday, August 5, 2013.
Since 2014, the show has aired locally once again on 97.9
WRMF
WRMF (97.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial broadcasting, commercial radio station in Palm Beach, Florida. It serves the northern sections of the Miami metropolitan area, including West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Fort Lauderda ...
.
References
External links
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{{coord, 27.122278, N, 80.388667, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title
1961 establishments in Florida
Contemporary hit radio stations in the United States
IHeartMedia radio stations
Radio stations established in 1961
LDI