WORL-AM
660Altamonte Springs
Original Call Letters: WGNZ (Construction Permit)
Originally Licensed: 1984
Original City of License: Christmas
Original Power: 1,000 watts
Original Format: Business
Network Affiliation(s): Money Watch Radio Network
Owner(s): 1984-Floyco, Inc (Carl J. Auel)
-James Crystal Orlando, Inc.
2003-JCE Licenses, L.L.C.
2006-Salem Communications Corp (Station swap-value set in excess of $6 million)
History Of Call Letters and Formats: WGNZ-1984-silent
WGOR-1986-silent
WORL-1986-Business
WORL-2003-Sports Talk "WORL 660 The Fan"
WORL-2005-News/Business/Talk
WORL-AM History
Thanks to Marc Tyll for this history of WORL.
Although never on the air, originally Floyco, Inc., owned by Carl J. Auel, was granted a construction permit for WORL as
WGNZ sometime around 1985. Auel had several AM construction permits from around Florida including WWLO-AM 1430 Gainesville and WLVJ-AM 640 Royal Palm Beach (West Palm Beach). The original frequency was 650khz and was assigned to Titusville, Florida. The original authorized power was10kw daytime only operating with an East-West directional pattern. There was no night time authorization due to WSM Nashville being located less than 750 miles from Central Florida and operating on the same frequency. WSM is the dominate clear channel station for night operation on 650khz. Within a year of Auel receiving the construction permit for 650khz, he filed an application with the FCC to change the city of license to Christmas, Florida as that community's first service. A call letter change to WORL was applied for and granted as well since the original WORL-AM 1270 had dropped those heritage calls in favor of becoming business radio WHBS. The application to change the city of license to Christmas was granted, but the station never went on the air on 650khz. Sometime in the late 80s Auel petitioned the FCC to change the frequency to its currently dial position of 660khz with a reduced daytime power of 1kw and the additional of night service, also with 1kw, operating with an East-West directional day and night pattern using three towers. Auel had also specified in his application to once again change the city of license, this time to Altamonte Springs as its first service. The application was denied, but upon a refiling the application was granted Auel sold the construction permit to James Crystal Enterprises, Inc. (JCE, Inc.) in the late 1990s. JCE placed WORL on the air in 1999 as an all news stations using AP 24-hour audio news programming. Soon after the format became sports before becoming a financial news and business talk radio format. In early 2006, JCE traded WORL with Salem Communications for Salem's KNIT-AM 1480 Dallas, Texas. Salem switched WORL to mainstream news talk and paired the station with its newly acquired Christian teaching and talk formatted WTLN-AM 950 Orlando and WHIM-AM 1520 Apopka.
12-13-06 From Brian; "... the WORL
calls were first used on 950 in Boston until sometime in the 70's (see WORL-AM 1270) when the Boston station switched to WRYT. After the WORL calls were assigned to 660 in Florida, the Boston station tried to get them back, but 660 would not let them go. The Boston station settled for WROL, which are the calls used to this day.