WWGO-FM 95.5 Ocala FL Jim Zippo 1991

Back in 1991, GO 95FM was Ocala’s new radio station.  Licensed to nearby Silver Springs, this little Class A FM provided a fun Oldies format for North Central Florida.  Unfortunately, it was 100% satellite with no local programming.  I begged and pleaded with the program director to give me a live shift, but to no avail.  To this day, I believe that if a live airstaff had been allowed to compete with Orlando’s Cool 105.9 (which placed a city grade signal into Ocala), GO 95FM would have been a much more successful operation.

This station featured Jim Zippo’s syndicated show “Zippo in the Morning.”  Jim cut personalized liners which ran during his show.  The idea was to give affiliate stations as much of a “localized” sound as possible.  The aircheck contains one such liner, along with a typical Zippo phone bit.  It was recorded about a week before Christmas, 1991.

This recording was made from my residence, 6 miles south of Ocala.  I used a Realistic AM/FM/CD/Cassette boombox with the built-in telescoping antenna.  At just 3,000 watts from a short tower, WWGO’s signal was not very powerful.  They could not run the standard 6,000 watt Class A power output, due to short spacing with WXCV 95.3 in neighboring Citrus County.  Even at this short distance, you can hear a bit of white noise on the signal.  A Sony LN90 cassette captured the original recording.

WWGO_FM_Jim_Zippo_December_1991

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