City Germantown, Tennessee Branding 94.1 The Wolf Frequency 94.1 MHz | Broadcast area Memphis, Tennessee Slogan Memphis' New Country First air date 1978 (as WLVS-FM) | |
WLFP is a country music radio station. It is licensed to Germantown, Tennessee, and serves the Memphis area. The station broadcasts at 94.1 MHz frequency.
WLFP is a Class C2 FM station that transmits with an ERP of 50,000 watts from a tower just south of the Mississippi state line, near Olive Branch, Mississippi, and its studios are located in Southeast Memphis.
History
The station's original owner was Sam Phillips, who founded Memphis' Sun Records in the 1950s, and is credited with discovering Elvis Presley. The station was originally WLVS-FM (named in honor of Elvis Presley) and had offered a Rock music format when it signed on in 1978, when it was at 94.3. That was until 1979, when it flipped to country. It flipped to Beautiful music as WEZI in 1983, but would drop the format by the end of the decade for Oldies as WODZ, and by 1992, they would switch frequencies to 94.1. In February 1993, they would go Country as WOGY with the branding of "Froggy 94," and they would continue in that direction into the new millennium. However, after Entercom bought the station in 2000, change was in the air at 94.1. While it was rumored that the station would flip formats by the holidays that year, the format remained.
Finally, on January 24, 2001, at 10:05 a.m., Froggy signed off with "All the Good Ones Are Gone" by Pam Tillis, and 94.1 began stunting with the sound of a ticking clock. At 2:35 p.m., after a few delays, they flipped to Modern AC as "94.1 The Buzz", with the callsign soon changed to WMBZ. The first song on "The Buzz" was "Even Flow" by Pearl Jam.
While at the outset the change did attract a lot of listener attention, the effect was not as long-lived as Entercom would hope. While The Buzz did manage to sound the death knell for then-WKSL and spark minor format tweaks at then-rival WMC-FM, overall it was not enough. Despite later adding Kidd Kraddick for morning drive, The Buzz began a slide in 2004 that would last the remainder of the format's tenure.
On October 27, 2006, at 5 p.m., the station began stunting with a robotic countdown to 10 a.m. on the following Monday, October 30 (as well as putting in occasional non-sequiturs in between numbers.) At the same time, the former Buzz website was replaced with a similar countdown clock, promoting that "The most interesting and exciting 24 hour entertainment channel in Memphis radio history" would launch at that time. At the time promised, 94.1 flipped to Rhythmic AC as WSNA, "Snap! 94.1, The Rhythm Of Memphis", with the first song on "Snap!" being "Let's Get It Started" by The Black Eyed Peas.
On October 17, 2008, at 2 p.m., after playing "Bye Bye Bye" by 'N Sync, WSNA flipped to classic hits as "Classic Hits 94.1 KQK". The station's call letters were changed to WKQK. The first song played on "94.1 KQK" was Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll." The station played music from the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. The new format's morning team would include long-time WMC-FM hosts Steve Conley and Karen Perrin. Snap!'s website was never taken down; rather, it was replaced with a banner ad promoting the change to KQK, and it remains as such today, even after the classic hits format ended.
On September 26, 2014, at 6 PM, after playing "Last Dance" by Donna Summer WKQK flipped back to country as "94.1 The Wolf". The first song on "The Wolf" was "This Is How We Roll" by Florida-Georgia Line. On October 3, WKQK changed their call letters to WLFP to go with the "Wolf" branding.