WWFL-AM 1340
Clermont
Original Call Letters: WSLC
Originally Licensed: Sep 1962
Original City of License: Clermont
Original Frequency: 1340
Origin of Call Letters: 1340
Origin of Call Letters: Location; South Lake County
Original Power: 1,000 watts
Original Location: Highway 50 between Clermont and Groveland
Original Format: MOR
Network Affiliation(s):
Owner(s): 1962-Lake County Broadcasting Company
1971-Central Florida Investments, Inc
-Leisure Time Communications
1983-K.A.B. Communications Inc
1985-K.A.B. Communications Inc ($237,000)
1985-Root Company
1986-Talbert Gray
1987-American Broadcast Association ($255,000)
1989-StarStrip Communications Inc.
1996-Central Florida Investments, Inc.
History Of Call Letters and Formats: WSLC-1962-MOR "South Lake County"
WWFL-1971-Rock/Country
WWFL-1978-A/C
WWFL-1983-MOR
WWFL-1986-Big Bands
WWFL-1987-Dark
WWFL-1988-Nostalgia/Big Bands
WWFL-1996-Traveler Information
History Of WWFL
From Brian Douglas; "...It was restricted to 250 watts in many hours (it appears to be slightly short-spaced with WROD-AM 1340
I was the P. D. for "Rock/Country 1320" when it hit the air Halloween 1988.
From Tommy Roberts comes this part of the history of WWFL. "The first song (played) was "Layla". When I applied for an air shift I asked the G. M. (the new owners son) who the P. D. was, he said, "what's a P. D.?", so I got the job (lucky me). These people didn't know what logs were or anything else for that matter, but I was actually paid good for the time I was there. The format came about because the owners wanted country and their son wanted rock, so let's compromise! I made it rock and country and we had a great time with it. There was more rock than country, but all were happy and we had fun remember fun radio?). That is until they started screwing around with the money and the station was sold to some dude that had an ad agency in New York and knew more about radio than anyone else, although he had never owned a station before. He was a royal pain in the ass and I left before we came to blows. The station was in one side of a building that also housed a rental car company. You had to listen in audition, because the signal wasn't strong enough to reach the studios.
Jerry Nicholas Barbierri fills in some more history of WWFL.
"...In the mid 70's I was P.D. of WDMV-AM 700 (Wonderful Del Mar Va) on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We were owned by Leisure Time Communications who also owned WWFL. Unfortunately WWFL was not making money and Leisure Time was using our profits to keep them afloat. In the fall of 1978 our GM, Andy Douds, was sent by Leisure Time to turn WWFL around. The station was MOR at the time. Andy and his wife moved to Clermont and he soon called for me to come down and help put into place the very successful adult contemporary format that we were doing at WDMV-AM. I flew down during Halloween and boy was it hot. I remember driving in to Clermont from the airport at night and looking for the lights of the tower but I couldn't find them. I soon learned that there were no lights because the tower was too short that it didn't need any. (And we were going to compete against Orlando's AC outlets?) The station was so small that there were cinder block wings extending out from each side of the building to make it look bigger from Highway 50. For some reason that always sticks in my mind when I think about WWFL. The station did a great job of covering regional Friday night football but that was about their only bright spot from a money making standpoint. We implemented the format change and Leisure Time wanted me to stay at WWFL as the PD but I opted to go back to WDMV. Andy remained on board about two years and I believe in 1980 Leisure Time sold the station. By that time I was promoted to GM at WDMV and we brought Andy back to Maryland to be our General Sales Manager. I finally got out of the business in 1985 to pursue a different career path. I also remember there was one hell of a barbecue place near the Orange Tower where we ate almost every day. The owner was a huge Florida Gator fan. It was great food and I wish I remember the name and wonder if it is still there.
1983- It's always a thrill to get info from folks who "were there". In 1983 K.A.B. Communications Inc. purchased the station and Ken Peach was kind enough to tell us about the station at that time. In an email from Ken; "You note under WWFL that KAB Communications was the owner from 1983 to 1985. KAB stood for Ken, Anne (my wife) and Bud (my father), the three investors. Steve Drake, a broadcast engineer and friend from New Jersey, later became a fourth investor. I was 29 years old with 12 years experience in commercial radio in New Jersey (I started in high school) when I moved to Clermont to buy WWFL. It was losing $10,000 per month when I bought it in the Fall of 1983. The original building had no working plumbing and flooded with every rain storm. The 8 employees had to walk around the block to a house that the former owner used for offices and a bathroom. The feed line to the tower was connected with a pair of rusted pliers. The protective fence was knocked down, but no one could get through the 6 foot high grass to get close to the tower anyway! My dad dug a ditch to prevent the water (getting in to) the building, built a wood floor with carpeting to improve the inside, and pumped the septic tank to reactivate the bathroom. We painted the building, installed an automation system (Schaefer 800 with 3 Otari reel to reel machines) and cut a deal with the adjacent Emerald Lakes mobile home community to have a bush hog clear the field around the tower. We also erected a new fence and secured the tower connection. After surveying the community, we implemented an MOR format from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. While I did not fire the staff, they didn't agree with most of the changes and left over a six month period. At that point, the operations broke even. With FCC notification, I arranged with Buddy's Taxi in Clermont to operate the station by remote control, so I was able to staff 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and fully automate the last four hours. From there, it was a simple change to join the Satellite Music Network in late 1984 to run 1,000 watts 24/7 with no one in the building. Tony Crane was my part time announcer who recorded all the breaks for the automation to insert into the network programming. I spent my day selling time, doing production, news and public affairs. We had coverage of all city council meetings, etc. In 1985, we went through a second major killer freeze that wiped out the citrus economy and many of our advertisers. Meanwhile, the FCC forced FM stations to maximize power or be forever downgraded. As a result, my 1,000 watt AM signal was now forced to compete with 15 100,000 watt FM signals. I could see the writing on the wall. I put the station on the market in the summer of 1985 and sold to a wonderful Midwestern couple. I predicted at the time that homes would one day replace the dead citrus. Today, the community of 6,000 that I served has been replaced by a suburb of 50,000! Timing is everything!
WWFL Personalities
Jim Shirah-1965
Tommy Roberts
George Crossley-1981
Ken Peach
Tony Crane
Other Names In WWFL History
Duane McConnell-1962-Owner
J.O. Tice, Sr.-President-Lake
County Broadcasting Company
Vincent Byrnes-Station Manager-Lake
County Broadcasting Company Jerry Nicholas Barbierri-1978-1980
Paul Rice-Program Director-Lake
County Broadcasting CompanyAndy Douds-1978-1980-General Manager
Ken
Peach-1983-K.A.B.
Communications Inc Anne
Peach-1983-K.A.B.
Communications Inc Bud
Peach-1983-K.A.B.
Communications Inc
Michael Hirschman-1985 Sharon Hirschman-1985 James Underwood-1985-President-Root Company Mark
Manafo-1987President-American Broadcast
Association
David
Siegel-1996-President-Central Florida
Investments, Inc. (Central Florida Time Share magnate)