Smooth Jazz returns to Orlando

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Not long after heritage Smooth Jazz WLOQ-FM Orlando flipped to Spanish after Gross Communications sold the station to TTB Media, there’s a new local FM (8/18) in that market at 102.5 FM with the Smooth Jazz format.  “Smooth Jazz 102.5” signed on as 250-watt W273CA. The translator is owned by Clear Channel Radio (Central Florida Educational Foundation) and also simulcasts on its 107.7 WMGF HD-2.


Broadcast Architecture Owner/President Allen Kepler says their Smooth Jazz format will serve over 200,000 listeners disenfranchised by the recent switch of WLOQ: “This marks our third return of the format this year! Recent convert Smooth Jazz 104.7, The OASIS in Detroit is already reaching over 130,000 listeners and KBDB-AM 1400 in Reno debuted with a 1.0 share, which truly shows the format’s potential on an AM signal.”

RBR-TVBR observation: Like the issues in metro Detroit with WIOT-FM Toledo filing a complaint with the FCC over co-channel interference with Smooth Jazz 104.7, we may see similar complaints from Cox Media Group’s Active Rock 102.5 WHPT-FM The Bone in Tampa/Sarasota. With the recent demise of heritage Rocker WHTQ-FM in Orlando, some Rock-starved listeners of The Bone on the West side of Orlando to Haines City/Lakeland may now have issues receiving it. Bubba the Love Sponge (who was in Orlando on WHPT) is also on The Bone.