City Windermere, Florida Branding "103.1 The Wolf" First air date 1966 (as WLOQ) | Broadcast area Greater Orlando Frequency 103.1 MHz | |
Slogan Country Hits and Throwbacks | ||
WOTW is a radio station currently airing a country music format. WOTW is licensed to Windermere, Florida and is serving the Orlando area.
History
Originally, 103.1 was a smooth jazz station with the call letters WLOQ. It was the last independently owned radio station in the Greater Orlando area.
In 2011, after CEO John Gross retired for medical reasons, WLOQ was sold to TTB Media Corporation. At midnight on August 1, WLOQ signed off 103.1 after 35 years with "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, and WLOQ's smooth jazz format moved exclusively online. The station then began stunting with all-Elvis Presley as "Elvis 103.1". On August 3 at 9PM, the station flipped to Spanish CHR as KQ103, launching with 20,000 songs in a row.
On August 1, 2011, WLOQ changed their call letters to WHKQ. The WLOQ branding and smooth jazz format continues as an internet-only radio station, at WLOQRadio.com. The WLOQ branding was revived in August on a translator, 102.5 W273CA in Orlando, with a simulcast of 107.7 WMGF-HD2's Smooth Jazz format.
On September 5, 2014, JVC Media, a New York-based broadcasting company that has been expanding its portfolio of radio properties in Florida, acquired WHKQ from TTB. It should be noted that JVC Media's owner, Vic Latino, has a radio history in the Orlando radio market as an alumnus of WPYO during its early years as a dance outlet. That same month, 2 websites were registered possibly showing JVC, upon closing the sale, may flip WHKQ to country as My Country 103.1 to go up against longtime giant K92.3. Other websites registered showed WHKQ possibly flipping to Dance as Party 103.1. JVC has also requested to change the station's call letters to WOTW.
JVC's purchase of WHKQ was consummated on December 15, 2014 at a price of $10 million. That night, at Midnight, after on-air staff members bid farewell and began redirecting listeners to WRUM, the station began stunting with simulcasts of other stations owned by JVC Media (the new WOTW call letters would take effect on the 16th). On December 19, at Noon, the stunting switched to sounds of a heartbeat and wolves howling. At 1:03 p.m. that day, the station officially flipped to country as "103.1 The Wolf". The first song on "The Wolf" was My Kinda Party by Jason Aldean, the first of 10,000 songs in a row to launch The Wolf.