Network Affiliation(s):

Owner(s):

1991-Karen Marie Voyles

1996-Stoehr Communications Corporation

1997-Williams Broadcasting Company ($450,000)

2000-Pamal Broadcasting, Ltd   

2001-6 Johnson Road Licenses, Inc. (LMA)

2004-Jablamo, LLC ($8 million with WYNY-AM 1240, WKZY-FM 106.9, WLUS-AM 980, WTMN-AM 1430, 
                                            WRZN-AM 720, WHHZ-FM 100.5, WDJY-FM 101.7 and WTMG-FM 101.3)

2004-Jablamo License Holdings, LLC 

2007-WRGO Radio LLC  ($900,000 with WYNY-AM)

History Of Call Letters and Formats:

WRGO/WXCZ History
Thanks to Marc Tyll for this history of WRGO.
WRGO-FM began broadcast operations during the Summer of 1996 after Robert Stoehr purchased the construction permit for WVNM-FM from Karen Marie Voyles. Although unconfirmed, many believe the initial WVNM call letters stood for Voyles News Media since Voyles is a journalist and covers news from Levy, Dixie and Gilchrist counties for the Gainesville Sun daily newspaper. The frequency 102.7 was assigned to Cedar Key as a class A FM, but Voyles was successful in getting the allotment upgraded to a class C3. Stoehr had recently sold oldies station WWGO-FM 95.5 "Go 95.5" Silver Springs-Ocala, (now classic rock WNDD-FM “Wind FM”) and had purchased the Cedar Key construction permit with the idea of programming oldies for West Central Florida, which included Gainesville and Ocala. The calls were changed to WCQQ for "Cool 102.7", but just before sign on, the calls were changed to WRGO. With this call letter change, many believed Stoehr was going to bring back the “Go” format style oldies that was once in Ocala on 95.5, but much to everyone’s surprise, the moniker, instead, became "Oldies 102.7". The first song played on WRGO was Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly”, and at 25,000 watts, the WRGO signal extends from Gainesville to Ocala, completely covering the Nature Coast from Steinhatchee to the North, and extending all the way to Homosassa to the South. WRGO also has a primary signal over Chiefland, Inglis, Yankeetown and most of North Crystal River. The original studio was located in an old hotel on the main Cedar Key Island in Cedar Key. Programming originated from Satellite Music Network with “Zippo“ in the morning, later changing to Westwood One via satellite with a local live morning show. It’s transmitter and tower were, and still are, located just South of highway 24, nine miles East of Cedar Key. Highway 24 extends from U.S. Highway 19 to the Island City and is the only way by car to Cedar Key. After a year of ownership, Stoehr sold WRGO in 1997 for $450,000 to Williams Broadcasting Company which was primarily owned by Robert V. Williams. Williams, a Black Diamond Golf Resort resident (Black Diamond is home to the annual Dodge sponsored Black Diamond Golf Tournament), which is just outside of Beverly Hills in Citrus County, moved the main studio to an area near downtown Crystal River, later moving it to its present location just North of Crystal River in a small office strip just off U. S. Highway 19. Because of the 35-mile distance between WRGO’s studio location and its transmitter site, the station engineer had to install a relay station at the current WXOF-FM 96.3/WIFL-FM 104.3 tower site at Inglis, creating an STL ‘hop”. This arrangement solved the Studio Transmitter Link problem, WRGO still uses this link set-up today to relay it’s oldies programming from Crystal River to the Cedar Key transmitter site. Although Williams kept the oldies programming on WRGO, the moniker was changed to "FUN 102.7" as it remains today. Williams also hired local radio personality Rick Craig, a well known and well liked local icon, to take over the morning duties. Craig had worked for WXCV hosting a Saturday night oldies show which lasted for ten years, ending in 1993. Craig also worked for WXOF “97.1 The Country Fox” as part of the morning team before joining WRGO. In 2000, Albany, New York based Pamal Broadcasting, Ltd, headed by James Morrell, and through a series of corporate structure changes, started buying radio stations in Florida,. Many were in the Central Florida area which included WRGO among several other stations in the Ocala-Gainesville area. With the Pamal purchase, WRGO became a part of a nine station group extending from Gainesville to the North, to Cross City to the Northwest, to Crystal River to the Southwest. WRGO was paired with its adult standards sister AM station WRZN-AM 720. Since 2000, WRGO’s pure oldies has greatly complimented WRZN's adult standards in the market, making both stations enjoyable to the areas mature adult listening audience.

Mr. Bill Blizard adds to the history of WRGO-FM 102.7.
"...The original Ops Mgr was Dave Davis, who also did sales and eventually mornings on the station.  This was when we were at Dockside Landing in Crystal River.  Dave had been hired by Bob Stoehr, and was carried over when the station was sold to R.V. Williams.  I started working for RGO in 1997 doing imaging and production.  This I did from my home studio in Silver Springs.  After almost a year I was invited to work fulltime at the station doing production.   About this time Patricia Brinker came over from WRZN (AM 720) to do sales.  Dave Davis exited the station a few months later, and Pat was made GM.  At this point I was appointed as Ops Mgr and also went on air doing afternoon drive. Ric Craig was hired several months later, and so we had 2 "live" shows on the station.  Also, in the beginning of the stations history they were affiliated with Westwood One.  They soon switched to ABC.  Under Dave Davis we made the switch to Jones Networks, because ABC wanted to start charging us a monthly fee for their programming, saying that we were in an unrated market.  This wasn't true because the Gainesville-Ocala market had recently been expanded to include Citrus County.  They still run Jones today.  The station was sold to Pamal Broadcasting, and I continued to work for them for a while until I finally left there in March of 2001.  So, in all, I was with RGO for just about 4 years.  Most of that time as Ops Mgr.  In fact, I was the one who made the change from "Oldies Radio 102.7" to "Fun Oldies 102.7", and finally to just "Fun 102.7".  At that time I also did a lot of "tightening up" of the technical sound of the station, plus we expanded our local play list to some 2-3,000 songs.  As a result we had some pretty astounding numbers in the market.  Especially considering we only covered  about a third of the TSA."

Names in WRGO History

Robert D. Stoehr-1996-President-Stoehr Communications Corporation 

Betty Stoehr-1996-Co-owner-Stoehr Communications Corporation 

Dave Davis-1996-Operations Manager/Sales/Mornings-Stoehr Communications Corporation 

Robert V. Williams-1997-2000-President-Williams Broadcasting Company 

Bill Blizard-1997-2001-Imaging/Production Manager/Operations Manager/Afternoon Drive-Williams Broadcasting Company/Pamal Broadcasting, Ltd 

Patricia Brinker-Sales/General Manager

Rick Craig-1997-Program director/mornings

Avis Asbell-Bookkeeping/office

James Morrell-2000-Owner

Tony Downes-2000-Pamal Broadcasting, Ltd    Biography

Jake Russell-2001-2004-Vice President-Pamal Broadcasting

Robert Young-2000-2003-General Manager-Pamal Broadcasting

Tom Hunt-2004-General Manager-Pamal Broadcasting 

Eric Jewell-2004-2005-Interim General Manager-Pamal Broadcasting

Jim Brand-Operations Director (for Pamal’s nine area stations)-Pamal Broadcasting   In Memory

Ben Hill-General Manager-Pamal Broadcasting  Biography

Alan Ritchie-National Sales Manager

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