WCFB
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| |
| Broadcast area | Daytona Beach and Greater Orlando |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 94.5 MHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | Star 94.5 |
| Programming | |
| Format | Urban AC |
| Subchannels | HD2: Power Orlando (Top 40 (CHR)) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | March 31, 1947 |
Former call signs |
|
Call sign meaning | Central Florida's B 94.5 (former branding) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 10343 |
| Class | C |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 451 meters (1480 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 28°58′48″N 81°27′18″W / 28.980°N 81.455°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | |
| Website | star945.com powerorlando.com (HD2) |
WCFB (94.5 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Daytona Beach, Florida, serving the Greater Orlando and Daytona areas. The station is owned by Cox Media Group, and airs an urban adult contemporary radio format. Its studios and offices are located on North John Young Parkway in Orlando.[2] On weekdays, WCFB carries the syndicated Rickey Smiley Morning Show, as well as an hour of urban contemporary gospel music at 5 a.m., and a Quiet Storm program at night.
The station has a powerful 100,000 watt Class C signal, heard from St. Augustine to Ocala to Kissimmee.[3] (The horizontal polarization in 97,500 watts, but increases to the maximum 100,000 with beam tilt.) The transmitter tower is off Redlands Drive in DeLand.[4]
The station first signed on March 31, 1947, as WNDB-FM, the first standalone FM station in the state of Florida;[5] the next year, the newspaper launched an AM outlet, WNDB (1150 AM).[6] It was owned by the News-Journal Corporation, the publisher of the Daytona Beach News Journal. For most of its first two decades, it largely simulcast its AM counterpart. In 1973, it changed its call sign to WDNJ, airing a beautiful music format with some classical music as well.
In 1978, the station switched to soft adult contemporary as WWLV, Love 94.5. On September 25, 1992, after being purchased by New City Communications, WWLV flipped to country as WCFB, using the identifier Young Country B94.5.[7][8][9] Some of B94.5 on air personalities included "Big" Steve Kelly, Ellis B Feaster (now at WPOZ in Orlando), & Buzz Jackson. On May 11, 1995, WCFB changed formats to Rhythmic AC, which later evolved to Urban Adult Contemporary as Star 94.5.[10][11][12] This makes WCFB the first urban radio station in years in Orlando to challenge longtime WJHM, which switched formats from rhythmic contemporary to urban contemporary by that time. When WJHM returned to Rhythmic Top 40 in 2011, WCFB once again became the de facto Urban outlet in Central Florida, even though it has always stayed in its own lane with its audience rather than try to compete fiercely for listeners.
WCFB was acquired by Cox Media Group in 1997.
A tornado on February 2, 2007, knocked WCFB's signal off the air for a brief period, as it destroyed the transmitter site and a nearby building, near Pine Lakes. The station returned to the air broadcasting from a temporary transmitter located at another Cox owned tower in Christmas for a short period of time before the station's temporary transmitter site moved to high power facilities at a tower in Orange City off of Miller Rd. The replacement tower in Paisley was finished in mid-November 2007. As of October 24, 2008, WCFB has moved back to the Pine Lakes site.
On November 26, 2014, WCFB flipped from Urban AC to classic hip hop. At that time, WCFB dropped the syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show", and replaced it with The Steve Harvey Morning Show.[13] However, due to negative audience feedback, in December 2014, WCFB flipped back to Urban AC, with the classic hip hop format moving to their HD3 sub-channel.[13]