WLLR

WLLR-FM

WLLR-FM is a radio station licensed to Davenport, Iowa, whose format is modern country music. The station's frequency is 103.7 MHz, and broadcasts at a power of 100 kW.

WLLR (commonly known as "No. 1 Country") is owned by Clear Channel Communications, with studios located in Davenport, Iowa. Other stations located in the same complex are KMXG, KUUL-FM, KCQQ-FM, WFXN and WOC.

History of 103.7 MHz

The Davenport allocation for 103.7 FM – representing the second FM station in the Quad Cities – dates to October 1948, when the station signed on as WOC-FM, a companion to its AM sister station, WOC (1420 AM). The station was owned by the Palmer family, a well-known Quad Cities family that started the Palmer College of Chiropractic.

As with most FM radio stations in the 1950s and 1960s, WOC-FM played mostly easy listening and classical music.

The frequency's first major format change came in February 1972, when WOC-FM became the Quad-Cities market's first full-time FM rock station. Adopting a contemporary hit radio format, the station's call letters changed to KIIK, and was known to fans as "KIIK 104." KIIK quickly became very popular with Quad City-area listeners, and soon became the market's top-rated station.

By the late 1980s, with new competitor station WPXR-FM ("Power 98.9") having taken over the CHR/Top 40 market, KIIK changed to a rock oldies station. As KUUL-FM, the station played music from the 1950s through early 1970s. The format change became effective in May 1989, and fans soon identified the "KUUL Red Radio" (a jumbo-sized boombox replica) with the station at its live remote broadcast sites.

The most recent change to the station came in March 1998, when KUUL and WLLR (which had used a country format at 101.3 FM since 1983) swapped frequencies. KUUL's 50s and 60s format moved to 101.3 FM, while the country format took over 103.7 FM.

WLLR - which already had been the Quad-Cities market's top-rated station for a decade - strengthened its dominance in the Quad-Cities market.