WXTB 97.9
FMIn telecommunications, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency . In analog applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal...
is a
Tampa, FloridaTampa is a Gulf Coast city in Hillsborough County, on the west coast of the state of Florida in the United States. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. The population of Tampa in 2000 was 303,447...
area commercial Album Oriented Rock/
Active rockActive rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across Canada and the United States. Active rock plays current rock artists with a mix of classic rock songs.-Format background:...
radio stationRadio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both...
that mixes music that is popular in the
Modern RockModern rock is a term commonly used to describe a rock music format found on American commercial radio. Generally beginning with late 1970s punk but referring especially to rock music since the 1980s, the phrase "modern rock" is used to differentiate the music from "classic rock", which focuses on...
and
Heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States...
genres. Known by the brand moniker
"98 Rock", the station airs
active rockActive rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across Canada and the United States. Active rock plays current rock artists with a mix of classic rock songs.-Format background:...
music and the
Lex and TerryLex and Terry are two nationally syndicated morning drive radio hosts broadcasting from Dallas, Texas on KEGL 97.1 FM. Their show is distributed and sold by Envision Radio Networks....
morning show.
History
WQXM-FM signed on in 1977 as Album Oriented Rock (AOR) station 98ROCK. With studios and transmitter located on Starkey Road in unincorporated Pinellas County, 98ROCK joined the growing Tampa Bay radio market, which included ratings leaders WLCY 1380AM and WRBQ Q105. Owned by
Schering-PloughSchering-Plough Corporation is a pharmaceutical company founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering as Schering AG in Germany. In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough to form Schering Plough.Schering Plough manufactures several pharmaceutical drugs, the most well-known of...
, 98ROCK quickly rose to the top of the music scene, riding the wave of arena rock based stations driven by
Lee AbramsLee Abrams currently is the chief innovation officer for the Tribune Company, a post he has held since March 11, 2008. Previously, he was chief programming officer for XM Satellite Radio and a longtime radio producer, programmer and music producer....
"Superstars" format. Early on-air personalities included area legends such as Russ Albums and Nick Van Cleve.
With the aggressive rise of the Y95 successor "Florida's Best Rock 95FM" in 1981, WQXM changed program directors. New PD George Hawris felt that rather than pursue the crowded rock demographic, the station should jump on the
new waveNew Wave is a genre of rock and pop music that emerged in in the middle to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, and...
/new romantics bandwagon. The station changed format in 1982, becoming "the best NuRock" 98ROCK. A huge slide in ratings resulted as listeners defected to 95FM.
Failing to stem the tide, WQXM underwent another format change. Despite the fact that Top 40 was over-represented in the Tampa Bay area radio market with competition such as ratings leader WRBQ Q105, WQXM became Top 40 outlet WZNE "Z98" in 1983.
Poor marketing and weak branding (sample billboard slogan: "Four in a Row... For Ever"), along with poor Arbitron numbers resulted in yet another change of format. In January 1986, WZNE-FM changed its call letters to WKRL-FM, and new owner Sandusky Broadcasting relocated the studios to an office complex in Feather Sound outside St. Petersburg, Florida and relaunched as Classic Rock 97.9. Despite many personnel changes and promotional efforts, WKRL 97.9 rarely achieved notable Arbitron results. A rebranding effort occurred in June 1988, as the station was renamed 98ROCK. This marked a return to the iconic and popular 98ROCK block-letter branding that the station used in the late 1970s, which had also been used by quite a few other stations across the country such as 96ROCK Atlanta.
The greatest effort was spent trying to crack the Morning Drive numbers for the 18-34 male age group, dominated at the time by Ron Diaz and Ron Bennington, aka Ron and Ron of CBS station WYNF. Management eventually settled on the duo of Brian Smith and Bruce Barber, a team that had achieved some success at stations in northern markets. Despite being very approachable by fans, the team seemed unable to break into the Tampa Bay market and languished in 10th place behind much smaller stations with talk or beautiful music formats.
The classic rock format lasted until late December, 1989 when the signal went silent briefly, and then Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" began playing in constant rotation, eventually lasting for 24 hours. Finally, the repetition gave way to the announcement on New Years Eve 1989 that 98ROCK, now controlled by Great American Broadcasting, would be the first all-Led Zeppelin format station in the country, playing the band's entire catalog in its entirety as well as solo efforts by the bandmates and their other music-related projects. WKRL received national coverage from MTV to CBS to many other outlets, and was the first station to get worldwide coverage for a true "artist flip", where a broadcaster based its entire business on one group or solo artist.
Two weeks unfolded with conjecture from various news outlets as to how long this format could last, given that all studio Zeppelin recordings at the time added up to less than 10 hours of continuous play. The station responded over the following week by adding a few classic acts such as the Rolling Stones and Van Halen. With the bells of AC/DC's "Hells Bells" playing in the background, a major announcement came at noon on January 18, 1990 that the station would be changing its call letters to WXTB, and the station would be relaunched as 98ROCK "Pure Rock and Roll".
New Program Director Greg Mull, brought in from K-ROCK Ft. Myers to replace the outgoing Beau Raines, immediately reorganized the On air personality list. Brian Smith and Bruce Barber, morning DJ's who trailed in the ratings, were released and replaced by Tom "Sea Bass" Sebastian, who stunted his first few weeks as "Buck Maui". Ted Canorazzi took the name "Ted Kamikaze" and assumed the 10am - 2pm slot. Scott Legere and Austin Keyes kept their afternoon and evening spots, respectively. Kelli Kasey and "Big Rig" Ron Michaels rounded out the schedule.
The inevitable conflicts broke out between WXTB 98ROCK and 95YNF. An ad campaign was launched at WYNF stating that the station had been in the Tampa Bay area for 13 years and would be there long after everyone else was gone. What the campaign failed to mention was that the only thing that had lasted for 13 years was the call letters "WYNF", and that they had spanned multiple owners, managers, and program formats, beginning with the disco/pop oriented "Y95" in the mid-late 1970s. The response from 98ROCK was an innovative billboard campaign featuring a 95YNF banner that had most of its center ripped out to expose a 98ROCK billboard underneath, getting the message across that YNF's time had passed.
After a few years of struggling to find ratings success, and to establish promotional relationships that had been dominated by CBS-owned competitor 95YNF (even at shows supposedly hosted by 98ROCK, invariably the popular YNF personality Charlie Logan would take the stage to kickoff the concert), WXTB bested WYNF in the ratings. Within a year, CBS buried 95YNF permanently, changing the station to WARM 94.9, and sending the WYNF call letters to an obscure lower powered station many miles away.
98ROCK became a huge ratings success, aggressively exposing the Seattle bands in 1991 early on and the nu-metal bands of the mid to late 1990s before other stations across North America outside of those bands' home bases caught on. This "Active Rock" format and style would soon launch hundreds of stations across the United States and North America in the coming years and even affect the playlists of so-called modern rock stations that were becoming hugely popular in the mid-1990s.
WXTB 98ROCK also launched the "Livestock" series of weekend outdoor festivals. A tongue-in-cheek portmanteau of "Live Aid" and "Woodstock" initially set in a cow pasture in Zephyrhills, during its 15 year run Livestock brought well known national acts such as Soundgarden and Tesla together with lesser-known bands hoping for a chance at success.
WXTB-FM was also the home of the top rated Sea Bass & Marla Morning Show, and later the flagship of the former regional radio host Todd Clem, better known as Bubba the Love Sponge. He arrived on the air for the mornings at a time when the station was struggling to find a morning personality to replace the popular and highly successful Sea Bass who left when the Morning Show was at its peak.
Bubba had handled nights for Contemporary Hit station WFLZ 93.3 "The Power Pig". A huge backlash followed for months where Bubba's urban-influenced broadcast style conflicted with the hard rock listener mentality. The station moved its studios from Feather Sound Corporate Center to new owner Clear Channel's broadcast complex in southwest Tampa, Florida in 2000 in an attempt to consolidate overall operations of Clear Channel stations in the area.
Following a record-setting fine assessed by the Federal Communications Commission in February 2004 over alleged indecent content, he was fired as the morning host of WXTB-FM, which also ceased the syndication of Bubba's show carried by a number of affiliated stations mainly throughout the Southeast. The station has never quite recovered ratings or revenue wise from losing Bubba, who has since taken up the morning spot at rival 102.5 "The Bone".
WXTB 98ROCK still continues its current active rock programming to this day and since December 1992 has hosted the Tampa Bay Children's Home auction and Pay for Play weekends (eventually taking over for the now-defunct WYNF-FM)-which auctions off rock memorabilia for donations and receives funds from donors in exchange for playing a wide variety of music requests (including those out of format).
Notable Personalities
WXTB was home to the "Sea Bass" morning show hosted by Tom Sebastian from 1990-93. Marla Stone was added to make "Sea Bass & Marla" from 1993-1995.
Bubba the Love SpongeBubba the Love Sponge is a controversial radio talk show host. Bubba's radio shows are broadcast on Howard 101 at Sirius Satellite Radio and on various Cox Radio stations....
from 1996 until his firing in 2004. He was succeeded by the
Monsters in the MorningThe Monsters in the Morning is a talk radio show on WTKS-FM Real Radio in Orlando, Florida, USA and XM Radio Channel 152. It is a morning show that runs from 6 am-11 am ET. The show is a mix of current events, comedy, and stunts. Discussions involve the serious to the totally bizarre...
and later The Buckethead Show. Currently the morning drive slot is held by Lex and Terry.
"Big Rig" Ronnie Michaels remains at the station as the midday anchor. He's the only remaining member left from the original airstaff.
Scott Legere- Tampa Bay Bucs radio host
Austin Keyes - National voice talent
Ted Kamizaze - National Voice talent
Brian Medlin - Runs Voice Over agency
Seabass - retired in South Florida
Concerts
- Livestock concert series; now retired
- 98RockFest new annual concert series
External links