ABOVE: WLOF / Channel 95 AM Radio Top 40 list for the week of February 28 thru March 6, 1970. The weekly top 40 flyers were given away at local Orlando record stores. this one was from Bill Baer Records at Colonial Mall.
WLOF was a popular AM rock radio station in Orlando in the 1960s and 1970s when AM was the only show in town! It was a time when local station program managers and DJs created weekly top 40 lists and were sometimes as popular as the artists they played.
Some of the DJs that were popular in 1970-1973 were Bill Vermillion “The Weird Beard”, Pat O’Day (mornings), Tom Sherwood (Thomas Sirilo), Bill Barber, Doug Van Allen, T. Michael Jordan, and we can’t forget WLOF news director Allen Moore.
For a glimpse into the past check out this YouTube video about WLOF featuring actual footage of a car commercial featuring most of the DJ’s kids in the 1970s knew and loved: Pat O’Day, “The Weird Beard” Bill Vermillion, Tom Sherwood, Bruce Wayne.
DJ Pat O’Day created the best ever Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) test.
Listen to sound checks and show recordings of “The Weird Beard” Bill Vermillion
ABOVE: WLOF / Channel 95 AM Radio Top 40 list for the week of February 28 thru March 6, 1970. The weekly Top 40 flyers were given away at local Orlando record stores. This one was from Bill Baer Records at Colonial Mall.
WLOF Top 40 - February 1970
WLOF / Channel 95 AM Radio Top 40 list for the week of February 28 thru March 6, 1970. The weekly top 40...
WLOF Top 40 - February 1970
WLOF / Channel 95 AM Radio Top 40 list for the week of February 28 thru March 6, 1970. The weekly Top 40...
Just FYI, WLOF has a Facebook group with lots of old post about the good old days.
Thanks for visiting Orlando Memory and sharing this info! Share the link so it will be here on the post. We hope you find more posts and share your memories with us all! THE ORLANDO MEMORY TEAM
Never let those great memories die!!
Greetings Mick! Wouldn’t it be amazing if somewhere there was a recording of WLOF from say, 6 a.m. to midnight and one of the local stations would run it so all the young folk could experience the hey days of rock n roll? Those are truly the glory days for me. Bill Barber, Pat O’Day, Bill Vermillion, Tom Sherwood and more. Thanks for your comment. Hope you find more posts that bring back happy memories of days gone by. THE ORLANDO MEMORY TEAM
Anyone remember The Uncle Hubie Show from the early 70’s I believe was on channel 35 in Orlando? My family moved away from Orlando in 1972 and I always wondered what became of him. If anyone knows please chime in. Thanks!!
Greetings! Uncle Hubie’s Penthouse Barnyard was on WSWB-TV, Channel 35 in Orlando from 1974-1975. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11493054/
Thanks for visiting Orlando Memory. We’ll look around and see what we can find. In the meantime, we hope you find posts that bring back fond memories of Orlando. THE ORLANDO MEMORY TEAM.
Long before my time but I have developed an interest in local radio. For those interested, I’m currently compiling a spreadsheet that attempts to track every record that entered the Top 40 rotation at WLOF and WHOO. The link to that spreadsheet is under LINKS below.
This is for preservation’s sake. If anyone has any old surveys from WABR, WHOO, WLOF, or any other local stations, email me at Olsmokey1001@gmail.com
Hello, I know this is about WLOF, but I found this posting because of someone mentioning WKOB. I found a 45rpm record that lists that station as the source, from 1984. I’d love if anyone would have information on who was on the air, working there, or potentitally owned it around that timeframe. I’m from Orlando and love the song, so I’d absolutely love to get more information on this record and who may have been involved in the group. If anyone could be of assistance please respond here or send me an email. Cheers!
my email is: pparkerbb@gmail.com
Greetings Parker! Hope someone gets back with some info for you. I never listened to WOKB, but this site has info on all the old stations and people who worked there. Hope it helps! Thanks for visiting Orlando Memory. We hope you find more posts that bring back memories of the good old days! http://cflradio.net/
Thank you! I’ve at least narrowed it down, I know that if I made contact with Billye Love that she’d probably have the answers, from what I’ve gathered she probably would have been running the contest that lead to the 45rpm being created. I can’t find any information on her, so if anyone could help that would be amazing!
I was a DJ at WLOF in the late 70’s. Used the name Cowboy Chris O’Neal. Worked with Bill Barber who was at BJ105 at the time. He became one of my closest friends. We had the coolest station promotion vehicle ever. A rebuilt classic Rolls Royce dubbed The Rockin’ ROLLS. Anyone here remember that? Better yet any pics of the 95LOF ROCKIN’ ROLLS??
I remember you cowboy! later in life you worked at WOFL – channel 35. We played in the media softball league together – i was with the orlando sentinel. good times, great memories of WLOF
Greetings, Chris! Thanks for visiting Orlando Memory and our post on WLOF. I remember you and Bill Barber on WLOF! Wish we had photos of the Rockin’ Rolls, too! If you ever find one, please let us know so we can add to the post. Have you seen the WLOF FB page? https://www.facebook.com/people/WLOF-Channel-95/100063681457601/ Hope you find additional posts to share your Orlando memories with us! ORLANDO MEMORY TEAM
I remember the jingle was “WLOF, Sooner or Later!” Great song, too.
I remember that as well. Whenever I hear that great old Grass Roots song (Rob Grill lived in Mt Dora during the 90s until his death a few years ago), I “hear” that jingle as well! “W .. L .. O .. F .. Sooner or Later” .. leading into the song. I grew up listening to WLOF in the mid-60s until my dad was transferred away in the early 70s (I moved back a few years later). Everywhere I lived in the U.S., major cities, I never heard a better station than WLOF. Their own “Boss Radio” format was known among the broadcast community throughout the nation at the time. A giant of a station in sleepy little Orlando; a town which most people at the time had never heard of. And WLOF was a HUGE reason why I chose radio as a career. The Boys With The Noise were the best station that I have ever listened to.
Greetings! Thank you for visiting the WLOF post on Orlando Memory. I, too, was inspired to go into radio because of these guys and WSGA in Savannah, Georgia. I got my 3rd Class FCC License when I was just 17 but only worked about a year in an easy listening small-town station before I got married and moved to Orlando to work at WMFE-TV. There weren’t too many gigs for teen girls at the time, but I enjoyed it. I was one of the “Golden Girls” on WLBE-FM in Leesburg, Florida. Kim Peters – Orlando Memory Team.
95 WLOF was the first radio station I tuned into ever in 1973 when I got my first radio – I was 4 . It was a bedside clock radio my grandmother gave me to teach me to tell time. Well, 48 yrs later I’m a rhythm guitarist in a classic rock band all because of my grandmother, that radio, and WLOF and the great music that they played.
Greetings, Amy! Thank you for visiting Orlando Memory and sharing your memories of WLOF. I moved from Georgia to Florida with my family in the summer of 1970 when I was 15 years old. The “Big Ape” (WAPE) in Jacksonville, was very popular, but when I found WLOF, there was no other station for me. The disk jockeys were the best all hours of the day and they played the best of Rock, Pop and Motown! I know there is good music around today, but “the best days of my life” were spent bopping out to the music on WLOF. Please add a link to your band’s site! Thanks for visiting Orlando Memory!
So glad I found this site. WLOF and WOKB were my stations back in the day. Just wondering if any of you still fill in “95 “, when Otis Redding starts the final verse after the bridge on “Dock of the Bay”? I do it every time. Good memories!
Greetings, Tim! Thank you for visiting Orlando Memory and sharing your memories of WLOF 95 Orlando! It has been over 50 years since I started listening to WLOF and I can remember how they sounded on the air – Pat O’Day, Bill Barber, The Weird Beard Bill Vermillion, Bill Barber, Doug Van Allen. I loved Pat O’Day’s Emergency Broadcasting System chant and was so happy to find it online. http://www.cflradio.net has lots of great information on all the stations that were here back in the day. Those were such great times and such great music! Wish we had an oldies station in town who played the songs of the 70s. Thanks for bringing back fond memories.
Where did Tom Sherwood go ?
Unfortunately, Tom Sherwood passed away in 2009 in Oklahoma. He was 79, and a good friend.
Jack Casey “JC”
WLCO, Eustis.
He was older than that in 2009
Hello Jack! Thank you for responding with the info on Tom Sherwood. I’m sorry to hear of his passing. Was Tom Sherwood his read name or an “on air” name. We tried to find him in death index but did not find him. Would like to link to his obit. Looks like you worked at the same radio station as my husband did when he was in high school. His on air was “Jollie Ollie” and he worked the night shift from 6 p.m. to midnight. He followed Jerry Jay.
Hey Kim….sorry to be so long replying. Tom’s real name was Thomas Sirilo.
Sorry I don’t remember your husband. I know that the Lake County stations went through call letter changes. I worked at WLCO, 1240 KHz.
JC
Thanks for the info on Tom Sherwood. Jolly Ollie (Oliver Peters) worked at WLCO in Eustis from about 1970-1972 – night shift 6-midnight.
Thank you for visiting OrlandoMemory.info! I was a HUGE fan of WLOF from the time we moved to Florida in June 1970 until I moved to Jacksonville in 1976. It was the thing I missed most about leaving Orlando; however, Jacksonville did have the Big Ape – WAPE – located down in Orange Park south of town. Do you remember the Greaseman? https://www.pinterest.com/pin/33073378489950833/
I have no idea what happened to Tom Sherwood. As far as I can remember, he was likely in his mid to late 40s when I met him on a visit to the station around 1971. If my guess is correct, he may not be with us any longer.
I was in radio around that time at a low watt station in Leesburg and my boyfriend worked at another little station in Eustis. It is hard to remember back that long ago, but we both think that Sherwood was not his real last name, so it would be difficult to locate where he went after WLOF, especially since disc jockeys many times changed their “on air” names.
The person who set up the web site below posts information on anyone who worked an any of the radio stations in the Orlando area. If you ever find out where Tom went when he left WLOF, I’m sure he’d love to add it to his site as would wE!
http://cflradio.net/950_WLOF_AM.htm
Thank you again for visiting Orlando Memory.
I don’t thing Bill Barber was on WLOF 95AM. He was on WBJW 105.1
Hi, Bill worked the evening shifts when I was in high school. Check out his bio at http://cflradio.net/Bill_Barber_Bio.htm He was just a kid, younger than I was at the time!
Yes, Bill Barber was there, mid-late 60’s into early 70’s – he would later work at both BJ-105 and K-92.