City | Daytona Beach, Florida |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Greater Orlando |
Branding | 101.9 AMP Radio |
Slogan | Orlando's Party Station |
Frequency | 101.9 MHz (also on HD Radio) 101.9 HD-2 for Gospel |
First air date | November 1, 1967 (as WMFJ-FM) |
Format | Top 40/CHR |
ERP | 90,000 watts |
HAAT | 987 metres (3,238 ft) |
Class | C |
Facility ID | 73137 |
Transmitter coordinates | 28°55′10″N 81°19′08″W / 28.91944°N 81.31889°W |
Callsign meaning | We're Q A M P Radio |
Former callsigns | WMFJ-FM (1967-1973) WQXQ (1973-1980) WDOQ (1980-1984) WCFI (1984-1986) WORZ (1986-1988) WJHM (1988-2016) |
Owner |
CBS Radio (sale to Entercom pending) (CBS Radio Stations Inc.) |
Sister stations | WOCL, WOMX-FM |
Webcast | WQMP Webstream |
Website | WQMP Online |
WQMP (101.9 FM), also known as 101.9 AMP Radio, is a Top 40/CHR radio station that is licensed to Daytona Beach but primarily serves the Orlando and Space Coast areas of Central Florida. It is owned by CBS Radio. Its studios are located in Maitland and the transmitter tower is in Orange City.
101.9 began as WMFJ-FM on November 1, 1967. Sister to AM 1450 in Daytona Beach, WMFJ-FM was an automated beautiful music station known as Stereo 102. The station's calls were changed to WQXQ in 1973, and the format became automated Album Oriented Rock as Q102. Despite the rock format's success, management felt that a top 40 hit station would have more mass appeal, and so Q102 changed from rock to Top 40 in 1976; initially the station remained automated, but by the end of the 1970s it employed a staff of live and local announcers. The station changed its calls to WDOQ in 1980, but the format remained top 40, the moniker remained Q102, and the ratings remained high. Due to new competition in the Daytona market from WNFI-FM in 1982, Q102 began to more aggressively target the Orlando market as opposed to only Daytona Beach. Although plans for a big 100,000-watt signal that would have extended to St. Augustine, Gainesville and Ocala were scrapped, WDOQ's listenership continued to grow.
In 1984, WDOQ was sold and adopted the new calls WCFI, with a satellite-fed adult contemporary format from Transtar (now Dial Global), using the "I-4" (a tribute to Miami's WINZ-FM) and later Sunny 102 monikers. In 1985, the station was purchased by Duffy Broadcasting for $7.7 million. On June 16, 1986, the format and calls changed again to WORZ, "Z-102FM", a classic rock station. In 1987, it was sold to Beasley-Reed Broadcasting for $9.2 million. On April 1, 1988, the call letters were changed to WJHM, and the station adopted a CHR/Urban format targeting a multicultural audience as "102 Jamz" under the direction of Program Director Duff Lindsey and consultant Jerry Clifton. The station was an immediate success with listeners and within two years, ascended to the top of the 12+ Arbitron Ratings. Some of the DJs included Joe Nasty doing mornings and Cedric Hollywood as mid-day jock (also Music Director). WJHM was purchased by Chancellor Media in 1997. In late 1998, longtime music director Cedric Hollywood, who had been with the station since its inception in 1988, left "102 Jamz" to go to WEDR in Miami. Soon after, it started adding urban based songs to its playlist. Although the station was labeled as "Rhythmic", WJHM remained an Urban station at its core, but would later drop rhythmic-based songs when it got competition when WCFB acquired an urban AC format, resulting in WJHM shifting to urban altogether.