WOKV (AM)

WOKV (690 kHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to the Jacksonville, Florida, United States. WOKV is owned by Cox Media Group and broadcasts an all-sports format from studios in Jacksonville's Southside district and transmitters in Orange Park and Baldwin.

WOKV
CityJacksonville, Florida
Broadcast areaJacksonville metropolitan area
Frequency690 kHz
BrandingESPN 690
Programming
FormatSports
AffiliationsESPN Radio
Ownership
OwnerCox Media Group
(Cox Radio, LLC)
WAPE-FM, WEZI, WJGL, WOKV-FM, WXXJ, W258CN
History
First air date
October 23, 1958 (1958-10-23)
Former call signs
WAPE (1958–1989)
WJKF (July–September 1989)
WPDQ (1989–1994)
Call sign meaning
"OK"
Technical information
Facility ID53601
ClassB
Power50,000 watts day
25,000 watts night
Transmitter coordinates
30°07′56.3″N 81°41′58.9″W (day)
30°18′28.5″N 81°56′22.5″W (night)
Links
WebcastListen Live
Websiteespn690.com

690 AM is a Canadian and Mexican clear-channel frequency, on which CKGM in Montreal, Quebec and XEWW-AM in Mexico City, Mexico share Class A status.

History
For the history of WOKV at 600 kHz prior to 1993, see WBOB (AM).

The Big Ape

AM 690 first signed on the air on October 23, 1958, as WAPE.[1] It was a daytimer, owned by Brennan Broadcasting. WAPE was originally powered at 25,000 watts and required to be off the air at night. In 1963, the station got a boost to 50,000 watts by day and it also got nighttime authorization, running 10,000 watts after sunset; a previous attempt to add 25,000 watts of night power in 1960 was dismissed as contravening the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement.[2]

For more than two decades, WAPE operated as a popular Top 40 station, known as "The Big Ape". Comic actor Jay Thomas started his professional career as the station's morning man.[3] The Brennan family sold the station in 1970 to Stan and Sis Atlass Kaplan for $1.48 million.[4]

Eastman Radio acquired WAPE in 1980.[5] The next year, despite a rating increase, WAPE flipped to country.,[6] as young people switched to FM for listening to hit songs, the station flipped to country music; several years later, it converted to a Christian radio format. And in 1986, WAPE migrated to 95.1 MHz (formerly rhythmic contemporary WJAX-FM) and restarted its Top 40 format as WAPE-FM.

News/talk

In 1989 WAPE was bought by Genesis Communications, which changed the call sign to WJKF and then to WPDQ and switched the format to news/talk.[7] The station carried a mix of local hosts and nationally syndicated shows. It ran world and national news from the ABC Information Network.

In 1993, Prism Radio Partners bought WPDQ for $400,000.[8] The following year, Prism bought talk station WOKV (600 AM) and oldies station WKQL (96.9 FM) for $3.75 million.[9] The company moved the talk programming and call letters of WOKV from 600 to 690 kHz.

Cox Radio acquired WOKV and several other Jacksonville-area stations in 2000. In 2006, Cox upgraded WOKV's nighttime signal to 25,000 watts after sunset, with a broader pattern, and also added an FM simulcast on 106.5 FM, formerly WBGB, now WXXJ. This made WOKV one of only a few large-market news/talk radio stations at the time to simulcast on both AM and FM. In 2013, the FM simulcast was upgraded when WOKV swapped out 106.5 MHz for the former WFYV-FM at 104.5, broadcasting with 100,000 watts; the 106.5 frequency returned to a music format, first as soft AC WEZI and currently as alternative rock WXXJ.

AM 690 WOKV was the flagship for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars from the team's inception in 1995 through 2013. 1010 WJXL took over that role in 2014.

In 2010, WOKV was added as a Primary Entry Point to the Emergency Alert System as part of a doubling of the number of designated PEP stations.[10]

Flip to sports

On January 2, 2019, WOKV (AM) split from its simulcast with WOKV-FM and changed its format to sports, branded as "ESPN 690" with programming from ESPN Radio.[11]

AM 690 facilities

WOKV has one of the strongest daytime AM signals in the Southeast.[12] In addition to the Jacksonville metropolitan area, its non-directional 50,000 watt daytime signal covers the Atlantic coast, as far south as Melbourne, Florida, and as far north as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, an area that includes Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina. At night, the station reduces power to 25,000 watts and uses a directional antenna to protect clear channel Class A station CKGM in Montreal as well as older, high power stations on the 690 frequency, including XEWW in Baja California, Mexico and CBU in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Programming

WOKV AM 690's programming is made up primarily of ESPN Radio shows, with some live play-by-play coverage of sporting events.

References
  1. Broadcasting Yearbook 1960 page A-131
  2. "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. June 6, 1960. p. 104. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  3. "Jay Thomas Dead At 69". Radio Ink. August 24, 2017. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  4. "Are FCC threats spur to sales boom?" (PDF). Broadcasting. December 28, 1970. p. 59. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  5. "WAPE Sold To Eastman" (PDF). Radio & Records. August 22, 1980. p. 3. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  6. "Street Talk" (PDF). Radio & Records. February 6, 1981. p. 18. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  7. Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1991 page B-68
  8. Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1994 page B-76
  9. Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1995 page B-83
  10. Stimson, Leslie (September 22, 2010). "New PEP Station in Florida Dedicated". Radio World. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  11. Cox to Launch ESPN 690 Jacksonville Radioinsight - November 6, 2018
  12. "WOKV-AM NEWS TALK 690 - BUSINESS OFC". cylex-usa.com. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.