Original Call Letters: WGGG

Originally Licensed: Feb 5, 1946

Original City of License: Gainesville

Original Frequency: 1230

Origin of Call Letters: Slogan; Watch Gainesville Grow Greater

Original Power: 250 watts

Original Location: 1230 Waldo Road

Original Format: Big Bands/MOR/CBS Programming

History of WGGG
Thanks to Marc Tyll for this history of WGGG.
Twenty years after Gainesville’s first radio station-WRUF-AM 850-went on the air, the area’s second radio station, WGGG-AM 1230 began operation. The year was 1948 as the country was in an economic boom period following the end of World War II. Hoping to cash in on a prosperous economy, the City of Gainesville applied for the frequency 1230 Kilocycles. The Federal Communications Commission soon thereafter granted the construction permit and authorized a power of  100 watts unlimited. The call letters WGGG - Watch Greater Gainesville Grow - were soon granted. The city had planned to use the new radio medium as a means of promoting economic growth within the City of Gainesville and the surrounding outlining area of Alachua County. Plans were underway to construct the radio tower and studio building in the Northeast section of town. The physical address was 1230 Northeast Waldo Road, located approximately half way between downtown Gainesville and the Gainesville Municipal Airport (now the Gainesville Regional Airport). The site was on  approximately one acre of land situated on the West side of Waldo Road. In preparation to build the new 100 watt full-time Standard Broadcast Station, the land  was cleared to make room for the new tower and studio building. Since WMGG's 1230 KC local channel was authorized to transmit with a non directional antenna system, only one tower was needed. An all steel self supporting tower was designed, manufactured and delivered to the site in late 1947. The tower base was 25’ X 25’ gradually coming to a point approximately two thirds the way up or at approximately the 180 foot level. The remaining 80 feet of so went straight up, all  self supporting. While the tower was being installed, the studio building construction was also well underway. A 2,000 square foot masonry building had been very uniquely designed in an effort to reduce the likelihood of any unwanted noise going out over the air. Since there was a rail road, owned and operated by Seaboard Coastline, located directly across the street from where the radio station was being constructed, there was concern the station might experience noise and vibrations from the passing trains. So in an effort to reduce rail noise, the architect designed the building around the on-air studio. The studio was placed in the exact center of the building with a hallway going around the building, completely surrounding the studio. Offices were constructed on the outer edge of the hallway, opposite the studio, against the exterior walls. This design gave the WGGG on-air studio a “double” sound barrier, completely eliminating any unwanted noise from passing trains or airplanes passing nearby on the way to the municipal airport. By January 1948, the station construction was completed. WGGG signed on the air with 100 watts non directional on February 1st, 1948 with a blend of big band music, show tunes, news, information and network programming from the CBS Radio Network. The station’s slogan was "Watch Greater Gainesville Grow" and was  promoted very heavily by the City of Gainesville. Later WGGG increased its power to 250 watts unlimited. Eventually the City of Gainesville sold WGGG to Quality Broadcasting, Inc., owned by Delray Beach resident Victor M. Knight. Knight owned WDBF-AM 1420 Delray Beach, and WNDB-AM 1150 and WDNJ-FM 94.5 Daytona Beach, Florida. The format remained mostly big bands, adult standards, MOR and news programming, but the CBS Radio network was dropped, leaving WGGG as an independent radio station. Beautiful Music and Classical formatted WRUF-FM 103.7 soon became the area’s CBS affiliate, leaving WGGG without a national network. A power increase was applied for and granted, allowing WGGG to increase its  power to 1,000 watts non directional day but remained 250 watts at night. Soon after buying WGGG, Knight began to realize WGGG was experiencing a decline in market share. Additionally, the ever increasing and growing popularity of progressive rocker WGVL-FM 105.5, caused management to seriously consider a new format and marketing strategy for WGGG. In 1968 the MOR and big band tunes were replaced with . The station became known as “Rock 1230”, “G 1230”, “Super G” and “Super GGG”. The strategy was an overnight, but short lived, success. So plans were underway once again to reformat WGGG into a profitable radio station. Because of the growing popularity and market acceptance of Top 40 formatted “Music Radio Eighty-Five, WRUF”, management determined Top 40 would be the best alternative. Former WUWU-AM 1390 “The WOO WOO” morning man S. W. “Boomer” Hough was hired to become WMGG's new morning host and program  director. Under Boomer’s programming style, WGGG quickly became the number one radio station in Gainesville, maintaining that position for many years. Seeing an opportunity to get the best return on investment now that WGGG went from “worst to first”, Knight sold WGGG to Chicago radio talk host Howard A. Miller for $1.2 Million in 1978. Miller was building a Florida radio group when he added WGGG to his radio portfolio which also included WMMB-AM 1240 and WYRL-FM 102.3 Melbourne, Florida. WGGG Advertising Assistant Tom Calato, who was 25 at the time and who was also a recent UF graduate, had won numerous “Addy” awards for his creative copywriting, was promoted to General Manager of WGGG. Morning Host and Program Director Boomer Hough briefly left WGGG to became an airline flight attendant for TWA, but soon returned to his hometown of Gainesville, and also returned to WGGG where he once again took over the morning and programming duties. WGGG continued to be Gainesville’s number one radio station throughout the remainder of the 70s and early 80s. Many changes on the Gainesville radio airwaves were underway in 1981. Longtime heritage progressive/AOR WGVL-FM 105.5 was sold and the programming  was switched to CHR under a new moniker "Kiss 105" with the call letters WYKS-FM 105.3. WGGG began to lose its Top 40 listeners to the new CHR Kiss 105, so Miller decided to sell WGGG to newly formed New Brunswick, New Jersey based U.S. Broadcasting, Inc. U.S. was owned by corporate attorney Fred Mazey who hired former WNBC-AM 660 New York General Manager Charlie Warner as a consultant to the company. Warner recommended that WGGG should become an oldies based adult contemporary station catering to the 25-54 year old adult. Warner also recommended that former WAPE-AM 690 Jacksonville air personality Mike Bonts be hired as WGGG's program director, replacing “Boomer” in that capacity. Boomer, however, stayed on as WMGG's long time morning show host. 
Former WTMC-AM 1290 Ocala Program Director, Marc Tyll, who had just begun classes at the University of Florida, was hired as WGGG's Operations Manager and Assistant Program Director. Tyll was given the responsibility of assisting Bonts with the format transition from Top 40 to Adult Contemporary. The studio was also being renovated into a new state of the art facility, while the music library was being transferred from record to cart. The new WGGG adult contemporary on-air line-up in 1981 was Sumner Wayne “Boomer” Hugh 6-10 Mornings; Mike Bonts 10- 3 Mid-days; Marc Tyll 3-7 Afternoons; Chip Sorentino 7-Midnight; and Steve Mitchell Midnight to 6 overnights. Later former WPTR-AM Albany, New York morning personality Joe MacKay was brought in - via Gainesville’s WKGR - to replace Bonts as Program Director. Tyll  graduated from UF and headed to Daytona to assume the 7 to Midnight shift on WDOQ-FM 101.9 "Q 102". Several air personality changes took place with WGGG eventually  becoming a Transtar Format 41 satellite programming affiliate, eliminating all local air staff accept Boomer who remained on the morning show. Mazey decided to sell WGGG to American Communications and Television’s Mark Goldstein and Harvey Budd who were in the process of bringing Gainesville a new adult contemporary FM station: WGLV-FM 97.7 which would become “Gainesville’s Love 98”. Mazey retained the WGGG building and tower located at 1230 Northeast Waldo Road with plans to lease it back to Goldstein and Budd. Instead Budd moved WGGG to the WGLV studio location which was located at 900 Northeast 6^th street. The original WGGG building sat empty for a year and a half before it was sold to Comco headed by former WFTV channel 9 President Walter Windsor. Comco planned to move the former WRYO-FM 98.5 (now WKTK) studios from Homosassa Springs to Gainesville, operating from the former WGGG building. The transmitter and tower site were also eventually moved to an area in West Gainesville. Boomer moved to over to do mornings on sister station WGLV-FM. Goldstein and Budd kept WGGG along with WGLV for about a year before it was sold to former WHLY Program Director Rick Stacy. The format was changed to oldies. Boomer, however, left radio to become a cruise captain in Jacksonville, taking tourist on boat cruises along the St. Johns River. A year later Stacy sold WGGG-AM and WGLV-FM to Gator Broadcasting, owned by David Gregg. Once again, the format was changed, this time to CNN Headline News. Gregg took WGGG off the air and sold the license to H. I. “Sonny” Bloch, but retained WGLV-FM. Bloch never placed WGGG back on the air and eventually sold the license  to its current owner, Florida Sportstalk, Inc., owned by UF Alumni , realtor and Ocala resident Gordon P. Smith. Smith immediately placed WGGG back on the air with plans to rebroadcast Ocala’s WMOP-AM 900. Smith had purchased Ocala’s heritage country station WMOP-AM 900 in 1996 and switched the programming to One-On-One Sports radio, later becoming ESPN Radio. While Smith was awaiting the engineers to complete the technical portion with an STL capable of  reaching Gainesville from Ocala, WGGG went back on the air with a temporary classical music format. Once the two stations were interconnected, Smith was able to extend Floridasportstalk programming throughout North Central Florida, including the entire Gainesville-Ocala Metro and Total Survey Area with a signal from two stations: WMOP-AM 900 Ocala and WGGG-AM 1230 Gainesville. Today WGGG continues to rebroadcast ESPN and local sports programming which originates in Ocala from WMOP. The stations combined to carry NASCAR, Florida Seminoles, Florida Gators (on WMOP), local high school sports and national sports from ESPN. Together the stations are known as ESPN 900 and 1230.

More history from David Reaves
Eventually the City of Gainesville sold WGGG to Quality Broadcasting, Inc., owned by Delray Beach resident Victor M. Knight. Knight owned WDBF-AM 1420 Delray Beach, and WNDB-AM 1150 and WDNJ-FM 94.5 Daytona Beach, Florida. The format remained mostly big bands, adult standards, MOR and news programming, but the CBS Radio network was dropped, leaving WGGG as an independent radio station. Beautiful Music and Classical formatted WRUF-FM 103.7 soon became the area’s CBS affiliate, leaving WGGG without a national network. A power increase was applied for and granted, allowing WGGG to increase its  power to 1,000 watts non directional day but remained 250 watts at night. Soon after buying WGGG, Knight began to realize WGGG was experiencing a decline in market share. Additionally, the ever increasing and growing popularity of progressive rocker WGVL-FM 105.5, caused management to seriously consider a new format and marketing strategy for WGGG. In 1968 the MOR and big band tunes were replaced with top 40. The station became known as “Rock 1230”, “G 1230”, “Super G” and “Super GGG”. The strategy was an overnight, but short lived, success. So plans were underway once again to reformat WGGG into a profitable radio station. Because of the growing popularity and market acceptance of Top 40 formatted “Music Radio Eighty-Five, WRUF”, management  determined Top 40 would be the best alternative. Former WUWU-AM 1390 “The WOO WOO” morning man S. W. “Boomer” Hough was hired to become WMGG's new morning host and program  director. Under Boomer’s programming style, WGGG quickly became the number one radio station in Gainesville, maintaining that position for many years. Seeing an opportunity to get the best return on investment now that WGGG went from “worst to first”, Knight sold WGGG to Chicago radio talk host Howard A. Miller for $1.2 Million in 1978. In MY recollection, the best times WGGG ever had were, by a LONG shot, those that are completely missing or glossed over by Mr. Tyll's account! The rest of the history (before and after these paragraphs) seems correct enough to me, though admittedly I had much less contact with WGGG after I left Gainesville in 1979. The following details are from memory, and to the best of my knowledge. I am certainly open to thoughtful correction, :-) and I would be honored to have some or all of this information fact-checked and incorporated into your website.

From Albert Nelson "...the station was held together and managed by Dolph Chamberlin. Every day was a struggle with some of the equipment which appeared to be from WW2 or the Korean war. I am surprised that nothing has been written about Dolph in the history records. At that time we introduced a mobile unit and on weekends we broadcast from a drive in restaurant, sorority houses and anywhere else where people would have us. Also tried for a while having a remote broadcast from Wolfie's restaurant in downtown Gainesville.

From Ron Hayes
In 1966, WGGG was purchased by University Broadcasting Co.  The company’s president, Robert (Bob) Brown, had big ideas about promoting the station, capitalizing on the musical tastes of the youthful student population of the University of Florida , and the popularity of the Top 40 format in general.  Gainesville already had two Top 40 stations, WDVH, at 980, and WUWU, at 1390.  Both of these stations had more powerful signals (at 5,000 watts each), but they were somewhat handicapped by their daytime-only status.  University Broadcasting overcame WGGG’s weaker signal disadvantage with some positive improvements in the engineering department.  It became the loudest spot on the dial, creating the illusion of a much more powerful radio station. Brown immediately put his plans in place to dominate the market.  The CBS affiliation was dropped, and the local news department was beefed up (with three full-time news people on staff, including legendary Gainesville news director, Don Reid.)  General Manager Elliott Harris and Program Director Mal Harrison gathered a group of high-powered air personalities, including such names as Jack Shaw, Don Wright, Tommy Woods, Don Steele, Wayne Buttram and Steve “Boom-Boom” Cannon.  The station’s continuity writers (Steve Gustafson among them) created local ads with a keen sense of humor for the station’s advertisers, making sure that even WGGG’s commercials were entertaining to listeners.  On-air contest/promotions were constant, offering prizes with considerably larger jackpots than those which had previously been common in the market.  All of this was designed to attract major attention.  The plans worked.  WGGG quickly became the top-rated station in the market.  Changes were taking place in Gainesville radio. New FM station, WGVL-FM 105.5 came on the air in 1970, with a Country & Western format.  A short time later, Top 40 station WDVH-AM 980 finally gave in to WGGG’s dominance, and also switched to Country.  WGGG was sold in 1971 to Quality Broadcasting Company, owned by Victor M. Knight of Delray Beach, Florida.  The company also operated WDBF-AM 1420 in Delray, WNDB-AM 1150 and WDNJ-FM 94.5 in Daytona Beach. Although Knight himself was well-known as a promoter of American Standards and Big Bands, he wisely continued WGGG’s winning ways as Gainesville’s Top 40 giant. Under Quality Broadcasting, Elliott Harris was General Manager, Pete Winters (aka Pete Sautter) was Program Director, with Don Reid continuing as News Director.  An Arbitron audience survey from the period showed WGGG with an incredible 74% share in the six-station market.  The company transferred Harris to assume management of its stations in Daytona Beach in 1973, in an attempt to boost sagging ratings there.  Victor Knight’s secretary/assistant, Elsie Mercer, was named to replace Harris as WGGG General Manager.  Also in 1973, Pete Winters moved into a full-time sales position, and the station’s Music Director, Ron Hayes, was promoted to Program Director.   Other on-air personnel included Jason McCrae (formerly of WDVH), Lloyd Hart (formerly known as Dave Carr at WUWU), Don Steele, Jay Stone, and “Diamond Jim” Sibrey. Rather than give in to the competition, three other Gainesville radio stations made moves at this time to try to take at least part of WGGG’s audience. University of Florida’s WRUF made the switch to a Rock format.  WUWU-AM 1390, was sold, and its call letters changed to WAKA.  Program Director Mike E. Harvey (formerly of Miami’s legendary WFUN) took steps to “freshen up” its Top 40 sound. WGVL-FM 105.5 gave up its country format in favor of Album Oriented Progressive Rock.  Over time, these changes, along with WDVH’s increasing success with its modern country sound, began to finally take its toll on WGGG’s hold on the market. 

Heath Cline