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WFLF is the callsign for NewsRadio 540 WFLA, an AM talk radio station in Orlando, Florida, United States. It broadcasts at a medium-wave frequency of 540 kHz. It is owned by Clear Channel Communications and operates out of Clear Channel's Orlando area offices in Maitland. Its callsign alias comes from sister station NewsRadio 970 WFLA in Tampa. It is a Fox News Radio and Weather Channel radio affiliate. It runs a 50kW transmitter out of Pine Hills, Florida. WFLF is the Greater Orlando affiliate for The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Glenn Beck Program, and Coast to Coast AM. It also features a local drive-time show hosted by former local news anchor Bud Hedinger. WFLF was the local affiliate for The Schnitt Show until 2003, and Dr. Laura until 2005, and previously featured a local morning show hosted by Pat Campbell. The station actively positions itself on the conservative end of the political spectrum, with such local marketing slogans as "Start your day the Right way," "Central Florida's Right News" and "Rush is Right." WFLF debuted in February 2001. It took over the frequency formerly held by 540 The Team, a sports radio station which moved to 740-AM to become 740 The Team. In January 2008, WFLF merged selected programing with 740 The Team, after that station changed format.
[edit] Programming changesThrough the fall of 2007, WFLA carried the Pat Campbell show from 6 a.m.-9 a.m., and was the Orlando affiliate for The Mike Gallagher Show. In December 2007, 540 WFLA began to merge programming with 740 the Team, a sports radio station which was preparing to change to a Spanish-language format. Pat Campbell was fired, and his show ended in December. A simulcast of the 740's The Dan Sileo Show took its place, and became the permanent replacement in January 2008. WFLA retained Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Bud Hedinger. They filled the drive time slot with 740's The Finish Line from 6-9 p.m. starting in January 2008. After only one week, however, host Jerry O'Neill abruptly quit, and went to rival WHOO. Contributor Mike Tuck took over the host role, with The Shot Doctor reprising his color role. During the NFL playoffs, WQTM's contract with the Buccaneers Radio Network and Westwood One was not picked up, and it reverted to real Radio 104.1, another Orlando-area Clear Channel station. [edit] HistoryWGTO began operations on AM 540 in September of 1955 as a 10,000-watt, daytime-only station licensed to Haines City. The calls stood for Gulf to Ocean (as in Gulf of Mexico to Atlantic Ocean), a reference to the large coverage area afforded by the station's relatively high power and low dial position. Three years later, the station's city of license changed to Cypress Gardens and WGTO boosted its daytime power to 50,000 watts, calling itself "the most powerful station in the nation" due to operating at the lowest AM frequency permitted with the maximum amount of power permitted. WGTO aired a Top 40 music format from its beginning until the mid-1970s, when the station experimented with a disco format. On January 29, 1977, WGTO made a dramatic format change to country music, with billboards around Orlando proclaiming the awakening of the market's "Sleeping Giant." As a country station, WGTO became an enormous ratings success and won accolades as one of the top country-formatted radio stations in the nation, including being named Billboard magazine's Small Market Station of the Year for 1978. Around this time, WGTO also added nighttime operations with 1,000 watts of power. (1) By 1986, WGTO had lost market share to FM country competitors such as WWKA, and the station was sold that year and the format changed to religious programming. Another sale four years later brought another format change, to oldies as "Cruisin' Oldies 54," but the station was not profitable, and most of the station's local personalities were laid off in 1992 as the station switched to a satellite feed. Paxson Communications purchased WGTO in 1994, dropped the heritage calls in favor of the new calls WWZN, and installed a sports talk format which continued after the calls changed to WQTM ("540 The Team") in 1996. The current calls and format debuted in February 2001. [edit] Current programming[edit] Monday through Friday
* unless pre-empted by special programming [edit] References
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