History
WPCF-FM was founded by Charles K. and Carlie B. Winstanley. The Winstanleys had a history in radio, founding WQXY in Baton Rouge in 1966, selling it in 1970, and moving their headquarters to Florida. During the Winstanley's tenure in Florida, they had purchased Christian station WPCF and decided to construct an FM simulcast. The station was assigned the call letters WPCF-FM on December 3, 1987, and it began airing less than a week later. After the Winstanleys sold the WPCF cluster in the mid-1990s, they left Florida for Louisiana in the mid-1990s, and became the owners of WYLA and WYLK in New Orleans' Northshore area from 1996 to 1999. Charles also had ownership interest in KJIN and KCIL in Houma.
On March 10, 2000, the station changed its call sign to WQJM, under the "Jammin' Hits 100.1" moniker. They dropped this format for variety hits in 2001, calling themselves "Wave 100.1", causing them to change their signs again accordingly on June 25, 2006 to WVVE.[2] Over time, this format transitioned to include some classic hits staples. In 2010, the format was spun to female-oriented Hot AC, under the new name "V-100".
On April 15, 2014, at 10 AM, WVVE dropped its Hot AC format and began stunting with a loop of the song "Let's Groove" by Earth, Wind & Fire. The station and its website were promoting that on the 17th, at 10am, "Panama City will find its groove". The station flipped at that time to Rhythmic Oldies as Groove 100.1". The first song on Groove 100.1 was "Fantastic Voyage" by Lakeside. The new Facebook page for the station promotes Groove 100.1 as "Feel good old school from the 70s, 80s, and 90s".
On the night of July 31, 2016, a direct lightning strike destroyed the transmitter of sister station WYYX "97X". On August 8, WVVE would abruptly shift their format from rhythmic oldies to the 97X active rock format, as its original 97.7 FM frequency went silent.
While operating as 97X, WVVE changed their call letters to WYYX on November 2, 2016.
On March 17, 2017, 100.1 FM dropped the "97X" active rock format and began stunting with Christmas music as "100.1 Santa FM". Despite 97.7 re-adopting their WYYX calls the same day, the former WVVE would become known as WWLY during this switch. [3]
At 8am on March 23, 2017, the station began playing classic country, under the "Wild Willie 100.1" branding. [4]
WWLY and its sister stations WILN, WYOO, and WYYX were sold to JVC Broadcasting in June 2025.
