Radio station in San Carlos Park, Florida
WFFY (98.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to San Carlos Park, Florida, and broadcasting to the Fort Myers media market. It airs a rhythmic contemporary radio format and is owned by Sun Broadcasting, with studios on Palm Beach Boulevard in Fort Myers. The station carries the nationally syndicated Breakfast Club from WWPR in New York City in morning drive time.
WFFY is a Class C3 station. It has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 50,000 watts at 117 meters (384 ft). The transmitter tower is off Old U.S. Route 41 in San Carlos Park.[1]
History
Early years
The station signed on the air in 1986; 38 years ago (1986). Its original call sign was WRWX. It went through numerous changes of format and call letters in its first decades on the air.
From 2007 to 2014, the station was known as WDEO-FM, airing Catholic-based talk and teaching programs. It was branded as "Ave Maria Radio" under the ownership of the Ave Maria Foundation. WDEO-FM aired all Notre Dame Fighting Irish football games in the 2008 season using the ISP Sports feed.[2]
K-Love
On September 4, 2014, the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), announced it would purchase WDEO-FM for $2.2 million and convert the station to its Contemporary Christian music network, K-Love.[3] The call sign was changed to WLVO.
On June 24, 2015, Classical South Florida announced the sale of its three South Florida classical stations, including WNPS (88.7 FM) in Fort Myers, to EMF. On July 17, 2015, EMF took over operations of 88.7 and began simulcasting the K-Love format on both WLVO and WNPS (renamed WDLV).[4]
Sun Broadcasting
On August 13, 2015, the license for 98.5 WLVO was converted to commercial broadcasting. EMF announced the sale of WLVO to a local media company, Sun Broadcasting. The sale, however, was quite contentious. Competing radio groups Renda Broadcasting and the Beasley Media Group filed a joint petition with the Federal Communications Commission to deny the sale. While Sun Broadcasting was below ownership limits in the market, the petition made the claim that it operates as one de facto group with Fort Myers Broadcasting. The two companies together share studio and staff. Renda and Beasley argued the sale should not go through because the two companies combined own far more signals than the FCC allowed.[5] In the interim, on August 20, 2015, WLVO switched from K-Love to the Radio Nueva Vida Spanish Christian format.
After two years of airing Radio Nueva Vida programming, the FCC dismissed the petition and approved the sale. On June 12, 2017, the station changed its call sign to WKHW. On June 13, 2017, the purchase of the station by Sun Broadcasting from Educational Media Foundation was consummated, at a price of $3,045,000. The new owners immediately changed the call sign to the current WFFY. On June 15, 2017, WFFY changed its format from Spanish Christian to rhythmic contemporary, branded as "Fly 98.5".[6]
