Early years On December 9, 1933, the station signed on as WMBR, on 1270
kilocycles. It was owned by the Florida Broadcasting Company and transmitted using 100 watts. In the 1940s, WMBR moved first to 1400 kHz and transmitting with 250 watts, then move to 1460 kHz and increased its power to 5,000 watts. WMBR was a
CBS Radio affiliate, and carried its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports,
soap operas,
game shows and
big band broadcasts during the
Golden Age of Radio. In 1948, it added an FM station, WMBR-FM (now
WEJZ), and in 1949, it put a TV station on the air, WMBR-TV (now
WJXT). WMBR-TV was the first TV station in Jacksonville and carried programming from all the major networks initially. Meanwhile, in 1942, another AM station went on the air in Jacksonville: WJDC on 1270 kHz. It was owned by the Jacksonville Broadcasting Company. In a few years, it had moved to 600 kHz. It changed its
call sign to WPDQ and was an
ABC affiliate. Henderson Belk, a North Carolina businessman, purchased WPDQ in 1964 from
Brush-Moore Newspapers.
Moving to AM 600 In the 1960s and early 1970s, WPDQ carried a
Top 40 format, while WMBR stayed with its
full service middle of the road (MOR) format. In 1975, after Belk sold the station to Robert Rounsaville of Atlanta, the two stations made a switch. WMBR took the better frequency of 600 kHz, describing its format as "Bright MOR Personality." WPDQ moved higher up the dial to WMBR's old frequency, 1460 kHz, continuing its Top 40 format. In 1977, AM 600 switched its call sign to WSNY, calling itself "Sunny 60", although the format remained the same. Then, in 1980, the call sign were changed to WAIV, and began
simulcasting Top 40 programming from its FM
sister station WAIV-FM, known as "The Big Wave".
From Country to Talk pop country became the new format in 1981 with a call sign change to WOKV, known as "OK 60 The Unrock". Music continued on WOKV through the 1980s, with various adjustments from pop country to
adult contemporary to
oldies. In 1986, the station was bought by
EZ Communications. AM 600 would then flip to a
news/talk format, and was Jacksonville's original home of the
syndicated Rush Limbaugh Show. In 1994, Prism Radio Partners acquired the former WAPE, "The Big Ape". WAPE had Jacksonville's best AM signal, transmitting with 50,000 watts by day
non-directional, and 10,000 watts at night with a directional signal. The WOKV callsign and news/talk programming was moved to 690 AM; the WPDQ callsign was again returned to AM 600, and flipped to an
adult standards format.
Sports and Radio Disney In 1996, WPDQ flipped to sports talk as "The Ball"; concurrent with the flip, WPDQ changed call sign to WBWL. Cox Radio purchased the station in 1999, and in April 2002, WBWL was sold to
The Walt Disney Company, and became Jacksonville's affiliate for
Radio Disney on August 1 of that year.
WBOB Talk children's/
contemporary hit radio programming lasted until October 1, 2010, when Radio Disney sold WBWL to Chesapeake-Portsmouth Broadcasting Corporation. The call sign were changed to WBOB, and the format flipped to
conservative talk radio, featuring
Bill Bennett's Morning in America,
Laura Ingraham and
Glenn Beck, along with a variety of local news and talk programming. As of the 2014 season, WBOB broadcasts games from the
Jacksonville Sharks Arena Football League. Also in the mid-2010s, WBOB got a power boost, going from 5,000 watts day and night, to 50,000 watts in the daytime and 9,700 watts at night. == Programming ==