WORJ-FM History
From Greg Galloway;
WORJ-FM 107.7 had it's hard rock start in 1968. WORJ AM 1270 and WORJ-FM 107.7 would broadcast as a simulcast between the hours of 6AM and 6PM when the AM station would go off the air and the FM would start broadcasting hard rock music until 1 AM. We called it "UNDERGROUND ROCK." This was just before the Woodstock event. WORJ-FM 107.7 went full time in 1969. I started working full time at the FM station after the AM station went on it's own as well with "Middle Of the Road" music. I distinctly remember playing HARD ROCK, like Black Sabbath, and other bands that WLOF-AM 950 deemed too hard and stuck to their bubble gum rock until we "kicked their butts".

WORJ Trading Rock for Easy Listening Format
Noel Holston
The Orlando Sentinel
Orlando, Florida
Feb. 12, 1981
The radio station that pioneered "progressive," album-oriented rock in Central Florida a decade ago is hanging up its rock 'n' roll shoes. Zeta 7 (WORJ-FM) will change its music format to "easy  listening" at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 20, barring a snag in the station management's plans. Accompanying the format switch will be a change in the station's call letters to WJYO, for the "Joy of Orlando." WJYO's playlist will feature the softer sounds of such artists as Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Abba, Dan Fogelberg, Linda Ronstadt, Maureen McGovern and, according to general manager Harvey Tate, "even old blue eyes, Frank Sinatra." "We've made intensive studies of the market," Tate explained Tuesday, "and we find that album-oriented rock as such has more or less plateaued. "We find that the people who were born in the baby boom are now 25 to 49 years of age and that, economically, more dollars are spent by persons in the 25 to 49 demographic group than by those in the 18 to 34. We found a so-called hole in the market for easy listening music. And we're very confident and excited about what we're about to offer." WJYO's music will be "preprogrammed" that is, provided by a syndicated service. The disc jockeys will still be live, but they won't play records; instead, they'll introduce and comment on what's coming up on the preprogrammed tapes. There will be some changes in personnel, but Tate said Sudbrink Broadcasting, which owns the station, is trying to find jobs for the rock DJs who'll be displaced by the format change. Tate is aware that some long-time WORJ listeners are not going to react favorably to the change. "We go into this new easy listening programming with mixed feelings," he said. "Zeta 7 is and was one of the finest album-oriented rock stations in the country. I'm sure that most Zeta 7 listeners and fans will be disappointed at having to give up this format which was more than a radio format, it was a lifestyle. "However, our surveys and testing in the market dictate that we sort of bite the bullet. "We know the new format is going to be extremely viable and we look forward to the challenge. And I'm sure that, somewhere along the line, another station in the market will step in to fill the void." Here's wishing WJYO the best of luck. With half a dozen Central Florida radio stations already playing some variety of easy listening music, it may need it. To the rock 'n roll fans this news may have sent into shock, I offer a quote from Bob Dylan's "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll": "Take the rag away from your face/Now ain't the time for your tears." There could be a bright side to this. Zeta 7 isn't what it used to be anyway. In the last couple of years the station has become less and less progressive, its playlist tighter and more predictable. Though this is arguably rock's most creative period since the mid-'60s, "new wave" bands, many of whom are playing catchy; classic rock n' roll; get short shrift from Zeta 7. Elvis Costello, one of the most gifted songwriters rock has yet produced, gets far less attention than unoriginal, chainsaw-guitar bands like Molly Hatchet and AC-DC. Important contemporary artists' whose new recordings do get airplay on Zeta are usually limited to only a couple of songs. For instance: When Bruce Springsteen's acclaimed double album "The River" was released a few months ago, Zeta initially played it all; within a week or so, however, Zeta had retreated to playing only "Hungry Heart," the Top 40 single, and a few other cuts. Nothing typifies Zeta's decline as a progressive station more, however, than its repetitive playing of long-established bands' most familiar songs. If Zeta plays the Rolling Stones (and it does, often), changes are it'll be one of three or four famous songs ("Brown Sugar," "Jumping Jack Flash," "Gimme Shelter," "Satisfaction") even though there are dozens of great cuts on the band's 20 or so albums. The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again or Who Are You get played repeatedly, but wonderful, if obscure, Who cuts such "I'm a Boy," "Rael" and "Tattoo" almost never. It's no wonder that many once-diehard Zeta fans have told me they've started listening to WHHL-AM, the golden-oldies station, for the greater variety and the chance of hearing stuff that's so old and forgotten it sounds new. Now that Zeta Is going easy listening, perhaps Central Florida's remaining album-oriented rock station, WDIZ-FM, will be inspired by the lessened direct competition to loosen up its similarly predictable playlist. With 30 years' worth of rock 'n' roll to choose from, there's no excuse for a station's playing Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" five or more times a week. WDIZ is in a perfect position to fill that void Zeta's Tate was talking' about.

At 10 PM on Friday, February 19,1981 "Zeta 7" changed from it's rock roots to easy listening. The disc jockeys cried, and loyal listeners turned their Zeta 7 license plates upside down in protest. That was the day WORJ became WJYO for the "Joy of Orlando". WORJ would move from rock to the sounds of Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond, etc.
On his last morning show Thom Robinson asked listeners to memorialize "Zeta7" by turning their license plates upside down on their cars. Program director, David Sousa, recalls "Zeta 7"'s last hours. "It was probably the most terrible day of my life. That was my radio station ...my flesh and blood. It was my child and it had to be shot. We had one bad rating book and management pulled the plug on "Zeta 7". 
David Sousa named the station Zeta 7 after the constellation Zeta Reticuli.

                            Zeta 7 bumper sticker courtesy of Kevin Coldiron

Zeta 7 window sticker courtesy of Kevin Coldiron

Other Names In WORJ History

Woody Sudbrink-1978-1981-President-Sudbrink Broadcasting

photos courtesy of Thom Robinson   

         
     
                         The WORJ staff                       

David Sousa (L) unidentified girl and Thom Robinson

Photos courtesy of Lee Arnold

On August 20, 2015,  The Orange County Regional History Center presented “WORJ: Town Hall for the Counterculture,” A panel discussion featuring radio personalities from the station.
 

  

  WORJ’s First Gold Record. 
The first Phoebe Snow Album 1974

L to R Lee Arnold (PD), Curtis Jones from Shelter Records, Mike Lyons (MD) and Doug Van Allen 1974

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