History
WKRQ signed on the air in 1947 as WCTS which aired a classical format. WCTS would change its call letters to WKRC-FM in 1950 and for 20 years. WKRC-FM would air a classical music format. In 1970, WKRC-FM would become a top 40 station as "Stereo 102". In 1972, WKRC-FM became WKRQ and would become "Q102" in 1975. 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 an adult top 40 format most recently, leaving rival Top 40 WKFS to take the younger audience by default. Even though it is more top 40 than most adult top 40s, WKRQ is reported by Mediabase & Nielsen BDS as a hot adult contemporary station.
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 earned her and the station a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
WKRQ 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. 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 2007, with the remainder of the deal finally approved in March 2008. The official transfer of the Cincinnati stations to Bonneville took place on March 14.
WKRQ became the only hot adult contemporary station in Cincinnati since the flip of WNNF to adult album alternative in 2009. WNNF returned to hot AC in 2011, only to dump it again the following year.
On January 19, 2011, it was announced that Bonneville International will sell WKRQ and several other stations to Hubbard Broadcasting for $505 million. The sale was completed on April 29, 2011.
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