On Independence Day, July 4, 1965, the 107.9 frequency signed on as WPBF. It was a beautiful music station owned by Ken-Sell, Inc. alongside WIRK1290 AM. The power was only 26,000 watts, a quarter of its current output. The station became WIRK-FM on March 5, 1971. Later that year, the station shifted to a automatedoldies format known as "Olde Golde".
Country Music
In January 1974, WIRK-FM ended its oldies programming and flipped to country music with live, local talent. By 1978, it ranked in the top 10 most-listened-to country music stations in the United States, in terms of its share of local listeners. WIRK-AM-FM were sold in 1983 to Price Communications for $7 million. A year later, it entered into an agreement with actor Burt Reynolds to build a remote studio at his horse ranch in Jupiter and broadcast from it from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.
Ownership and Frequency Changes
Price sold WIRK-FM and 1290 AM, at the time known as WBZT, to American Radio Systems in 1994. In 1995, Chancellor Broadcasting traded its West Palm Beach radio stations, including WIRK-FM, to American Radio Systems in exchange for a station in California and $33 million. The next year, CBS bought the entire American Radio Systems group in a $2.6 billion transaction. Some stations were divested but CBS kept WIRK-FM. In 2012, CBS Radio, citing a desire to focus on larger markets, sold its entire West Palm Beach cluster to Palm Beach Broadcasting for $50 million. The sale included the intellectual unit of soft adult contemporary station 104.3 WEAT. But as Palm Beach Broadcasting already owned one FM station, 97.9 WRMF, it had to divest two of CBS's stations to other buyers. Because the 104.3 FM facility was powerful and could be moved into the Miamiradio market, it was tagged for sale. On June 1, 2012, Sunny and the WEAT call letters moved from 104.3 to 107.9, while WIRK and its country format moved to 103.1 MHz, marking the end for former hot adult contemporary station WPBZ. Dean Goodman folded Palm Beach Broadcasting into another radio holding, Digity, upon the latter's purchase of NextMedia in 2013.
Effective February 25, 2016, Digity, LLC and its 124 radio stations were acquired by Alpha Media for $264 million. Alpha then sold its West Palm Beach cluster to Hubbard Broadcasting in 2018 for $88 million. After having been an adult contemporary station since 1992, Hubbard transitioned WEAT to classic hits in 2019, reducing overlap with co-owned 97.9 WRMF.
