WKRQ

Infobox_Radio_station
name = WKRQ


area = Cincinnati, Ohio
branding = Q102
slogan = "Cincinnati's Hit Music, 90s and Now"
airdate = 1975
frequency = 101.9 (MHz)
format = Adult Top 40
erp = 16,000 watts
class = B
callsign_meaning = (former) sister station to WKRC, substituted with a Q
owner = Bonneville International
website = [http://www.wkrq.com Q102's website]

WKRQ, known on-air as Q102, is a radio station located in the Cincinnati, Ohio area and broadcasts at 101.9 FM. Its transmitter is located in Cincinnati. It carries an adult-oriented Top 40 format and was owned by CBS Radio until 2006, when it was sold to Entercom. Entercom, in turn, announced in January 2007 that it would be swapping its entire Cincinnati cluster, including WKRQ, to Bonneville International together with three radio stations in Seattle, Washington for all three of Bonneville's FM radio stations in San Francisco, California and $1 million cash. cite web |url=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/300350_radioswap19.html |title=Entercom trades radio stations |accessdate=2007-12-01 |format= |work=Seattle Post-Intelligencer ]

History

WKRQ's CHR format has been in place since 1975, making Q102 one of the longest-running currently broadcasting Top 40 stations in the United States, despite its shift towards serving an adult audience, leaving rival Top 40 WKFS to take the younger demos by default.

In 1980, 16 Year-old Mary Wood won the first one-million-dollar prize ever awarded by any radio or TV station in the United States in a joint contest with sister station WKRC-AM. The feat landed her and the station in the "Guinness Book of World Records".

In May 2007, the station launched an online stream from its website at www.wkrq.com. Also that month, Bonneville officially took over the operations of Entercom's former Cincinnati radio cluster through a local marketing agreement. Entercom officially closed on its acquisition of the stations on November 30. The sale of the Cincinnati cluster to Bonneville was conditionally approved in November of 2007, with the remainder of the deal finally approved in March of 2008. The official transfer of the Cincinnati stations to Bonneville took place on March 14.

Allusions to "WKRP in Cincinnati"

Because the call letters (and format) are similar, some have wondered if the show "WKRP in Cincinnati" is based on anything that happened at WKRQ. Creator Hugh Wilson has said that most of the episodes are based on his real-life experiences at an Atlanta radio station. Most insiders at the time said that the WKRP staff was more like the WKRC staff than the WKRQ staff as they seemed to take on the personality of their leader, Randy Michaels.

References

External links

* [http://www.wkrq.com/index.php Cincinnati's Q102 - WKRQ]
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