Broadcast area Central Florida Class C City of license Orlando, Daytona Beach Owner Cox Enterprises Branding Star 94.5 | HAAT 451 meters Facility ID 10343 Format Urban adult contemporary Area Central Florida | |
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Translator(s) 107.3 W297BB (Orlando, relays HD2) First air date March 1947 (as WNDB-FM) Frequency 94.5 MHz (also on HD Radio) Slogan Today's R&B and Throwbacks | ||
WCFB is a radio station that is licensed to Daytona Beach, Florida that serves the Greater Orlando area. Its signal can be heard as far west as Inverness and as far north as Gainesville. Under ownership of Cox Radio, its studios are located in Orlando and the transmitter tower is in Pine Lakes.
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History
The station began in March 1947 as WNDB-FM, sister station of WNDB/1150, and was owned by Daytona Beach News Journal. In 1978, the station flipped to soft adult contemporary as WWLV, "Love 94.5". On August 7, 1992, after being purchased by New City Communications, WWLV flipped to country as "B94.5", WCFB. On May 11, 1995, WCFB changed formats to Rhythmic AC, which later evolved to Urban Adult Contemporary as "Star 94.5". This makes WCFB the first urban radio station in years in Orlando to challenge longtime WJHM, which switched formats from rhythmic contemporary to urban contemporary by that time. When WJHM returned to Rhythmic Top 40 in 2011, WCFB once again became the de facto Urban outlet in Central Florida, even though it has always stayed in its own lane with its audience rather than try to compete fiercely for listeners.
WCFB was purchased by Cox Communications in 1997.
A tornado on February 2, 2007 knocked WCFB's signal off the air for a brief period, as it destroyed the transmitter site and a nearby building, near Pine Lakes. The station returned to the air broadcasting from a temporary transmitter located at another Cox owned tower in Christmas for a short period of time before the station's temporary transmitter site moved to high power facilities at a tower in Orange City off of Miller Rd. The replacement tower in Paisley was finished in mid-November 2007. As of October 24, 2008, WCFB has moved back to the Pine Lakes site.
On November 26, 2014, WCFB flipped from Urban AC to classic hip hop. At that time, WCFB dropped the syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show", and replaced it with The Steve Harvey Morning Show. However, due to negative audience feedback, in December 2014, WCFB flipped back to Urban AC, with the classic hip hop format moving to their HD3 sub-channel.
HD2/W297BB
WCFB-HD2 operates with a Spanish Hot AC format. In 2014, the HD2 channel was also placed on a translator at 107.3 MHz with the callsign W297BB. (That translator was originally home to Christian AC-formatted "Reach FM" and simulcasted on iHeartMedia's WRUM-HD2 before Cox bought the translator in August 2013.) On June 16, 2014, WCFB-HD2 (which dropped their urban gospel format) and W297BB began stunting with a "Wheel of Formats", which only consisted of a Christian Pop format known as "Rejoice 107.3", and Soft rock-formatted "107.3 The Dove." This was followed by a 40-hour loop of The Beatles' "Revolution". On June 19 at Noon, WCFB-HD2/W297BB officially flipped to alternative rock, branded as "X 107.3". "X" launched with "Pompeii" by Bastille. The translator/HD2 signal also aired Jacksonville Jaguars programming when sister station WDBO "ESPN 580 Orlando" is occupied by Miami Dolphins programming. WDBO owns the affiliate rights in Orlando for both teams.
On February 22, 2016, at Midnight, after playing "Ways to Go" by Grouplove, W297BB/WCFB-HD2 began stunting with a loop of Newcleus' "Jam On It." At Noon, the frequencies flipped to Spanish Hot AC, branded as "107.3 Solo Éxitos."
HD3
WCFB-HD3 plays "Old School Hip-Hop" music.