WFLF-FM


WFLF-FM, Fox Newsradio 94.5 WFLA, is a news/talk radio station broadcasting in Panama City, Florida, owned and operated by iHeartMedia. It was previously known as 94.5 The Fox under the calls WFBX, and played rock music. With a 100,000 watt signal, it is by far the most powerful talk radio station in the Panama City market. It features Rush Limbaugh and Todd Schnitt in the midday and morning talk with Preston Scott. WFLF-FM broadcasts local news and weather updates from WJHG, the local NBC affiliate, twice an hour, plus updates from Fox News Radio following each local newscast. The station also carries the Wall Street Journal Report at the top of each hour, and Traffic Alerts twice an hour during AM and PM drive.

History

WFLF-FM first signed on at 93.5 MHz in 1977 as WGCV, a station licensed to Port St Joe, Florida. In 1982, Don Crisp bought WGCV, moved, and upgraded the FM signal to 94.5 with 100 kW of power. The stations were sold in 1983 to Brown Broadcasting. WGCV changed their calls to WJST. WJOE's calls were changed to WJBU, where they would stay until the station's last days in 1989. WJST was originally a rock station called "T-94". Initially, WJST was on a shorter, 500-foot tower, but in 1986 WJST moved to a 1,000-foot tower. Brown sold the stations to Champion in 1986, who immediately sold the stations to Asterisk, Inc. WJST then became a country station, but proved unable to compete effectively with the already established WPAP. WJST had a call letter change to WWZR in 1989, and adopted SMN's "Z Rock" format. This format only lasted until 28 January 1990, when it switched to Southern Gospel music. From 1991 until 1993, the station was a member of Westwood One's Real Country network. In 1993, the station's calls were changed again to WKNB. Marketed as "B94.5", WKNB aired a modern country format for just under a year, when in 1994 its calls were changed to WPBH and it operated under the name "Beach 94.5" for three years. In 1997, WPBH was sold to ClearChannel and its callsign was changed again to WPPT. It was the second station in the Panama City market to have the "Pirate Radio" moniker, and existed until 2002. In 2002, the station flipped to an Active Rock format called "The Fox 94.5" and its calls were changed to WFBX. This lasted until 2007 when, after the calls were changed to WFLF-FM, the station became an affiliate of Fox News Radio, with ClearChannel's WFLA branding.