City Orlando, Florida Branding 98–9 WMMO First air date 1990 (as WEZO) | Broadcast area Greater Orlando Slogan Orlando's Classic Hits | |
Frequency 98.9 MHz (also on HD Radio) | ||
WMMO is a Cox Media Group radio station in Orlando, Florida, broadcasting at 98.9 FM with a classic hits format. The station signed on as WEZO in 1990 before taking its current call letters. Previous owners of this station include Infinity Broadcasting, Granum Communications, and Radio Orlando L.P., a partnership controlled by Jim Martin. Its studios are located in Orlando and the transmitter tower is in Pine Hills.
History
WMMO signed on August 19, 1990 as one of only two radio stations in the world broadcasting from a fully enclosed transmit antenna. The station broadcast from the top of Orlando's SunBank Center (now the SunTrust Center), Orlando's tallest building. When Cox Communications purchased WMMO and WHTQ, the station moved to WHTQ's former tower in Pine Hills for better coverage. This was the original planned location for WMMO's transmitter, but a breakdown in negotiations with WHTQ's former owner, John Tenaglin, forced the change of location to SunBank Center. The station derives its call letters from WMMS in Cleveland, Ohio. The founding programmer and chief engineer, Cary Pall, was reported to have been a fan of WMMS, and secured the call letters to honor the longtime Cleveland rock station. WMMS and WMMO are owned by different companies, and have been owned by different companies throughout their histories despite several ownership changes for each station. The two stations also feature different radio formats.
WMMO is known for its pioneering format, "Rock Adult Contemporary", that blended elements of adult contemporary, adult alternative and album-oriented rock radio. Its creators sought to bring back a listening experience similar to early FM rock stations of the late 1960s and 1970s, focusing on music rather than contests and promotions. A popular slogan in its early days was, "if you want to win money, play the lottery." WMMO used a wide ranging playlist of songs from many genres, and its library stretched from the mid 1960s to the present day, unlike many stations of its time that focused on small slices of music from specific genres. WMMO also made a promise to always identify songs by title and artist frequently, and to never talk over the music as it played, as many Top 40 stations and DJs like to do. "We love the music as much as you do" was a slogan pioneered by WMMO that it still uses today.
90 days after signing on, WMMO was ranked number one in adult listeners in the Orlando market, and was among the ratings leaders in Orlando for its first four years. In the mid 1990s, management changed and the station shifted to a more aggressive playlist of new "progressive" music. Ratings fell dramatically until, in 1996, Cox Radio took over and, for the most part, returned the format to its original Rock AC roots. WMMO has regained its leading position in the market ever since.
In 2008, longtime personalities Jerry Steffen and Jay Francisco were let go. Steffen was at WMMO for 18 years and Francisco for 14 years. Francisco was rehired in 2011.
In 2012, the station abandoned its previous practice of listing the names of several records in a row and instead started to identify one or two songs each time the announcer speaks.
In 2013, WMMO hired Lisa Miller (afternoon host at Minneapolis rock station KQRS) to be the station "voice" for television and other occasional recorded imaging. Lisa was an on-air host with WMMO in the early 1990s when the station began.
In July 2015, WMMO began referring to itself as a classic hits station in an effort to compete with CBS Radio classic hits station WOCL.