Rock of Daytona
About RADIO
The Rock of Daytona is a radio station that is the result of 33 years of development. It all started in Narragansett Rhode Island in 1992. WBLQ was a small local station where Frank Scott landed his first radio job, right out of broadcasting school. Hired to do overnights, within about three weeks, Frank moved to Mid-Days and never looked back. What was unique about this locally focussed radio station was that it was an “all request” station. While the majority of requests were for Popular music or Rock, there was the occasional song that just did not fit with the flow and it was every DJ’s responsibility to “make it work”. One of Frank’s favorite challenges was going from a Metallica request to Sophie B Hawkins “Damn I wish I was Your Lover”. Frank learned that to get from point A to B, simply required a few “bridge songs” in between. During the 10+ months that Frank worked at WBLQ he learned a great deal about what listeners wanted and how to give it to them without driving other listeners away.
As much as Frank enjoyed the challenge of an all request station, Hartford Connecticut (and the legendary WCCC) was calling. Frank ended up doing nights and after only 18 months assumed morning show responsibilities, filling the same seat that Howard Stern filled in his first morning show gig. While things were moving along rapidly in Frank’s career, he was offered an opportunity that would help him take a step back and learn more about the Programming side of radio. Plus, he could not resist the chance to move to Florida as morning host and Assistant Program Director for a (start up) Alternative Rock Station. On May 1st 1995, WKRO was born and drew the immediate attention of a community that was in need of a cutting edge new station.
Due to the instant success of WKRO, the owners decided to acquire two more stations within’ 16 months. Frank was asked to create a Classic Rock station to complement the Alternative Rock signal. On October 1st, 1996 WHOG was launched. Frank found a co-host in Michigan and the duo dominated morning drive in Daytona for the majority of the next 17 years. With the company going through an ownership change, Frank was moved to the mornings on WNDB, the News/Talk station and Tracy went across town to WROD to assume morning responsibilities. The two would be reunited when Frank was involved in a buyout of WROD, an oldies station, and changed the format to Rock and rebranded the station “ The Rock of Daytona” for the call letters ROD.
Daytona Beach listeners responded immediately to the change and the return of the Frank and Tracy Radio Show. Support from the listeners was overwhelming and the station was everywhere. Over the next 10 years, the station went through a series of engineering challenges and changes. Although online listenership continued to grow, it became more and more difficult to listen to the traditional FM signal. In 2023, Duvall Media Group took on the challenge of resolving the engineering issues and started the process to purchase WROD. The new owners had a business plan in mind to change formats to a talk format.
While Frank stayed committed to the vision of the new owners, the decision was made to create a third Rock station that represented 33 years of music programming knowledge, listener interaction and many research projects. Those music research projects included several that Frank conducted (stealthy) through an online company that he created called “Making Radio Great”. This company (and research) was done in 2010 through 2012, long before the familiar catch phrase was used in a Presidential campaign.
While WHOG remains the market leader for listeners and revenue almost 20 years after being created and WROD was such a huge success from day one, this is the most focused and well thought out radio station Frank has ever created. It is carefully designed to never be boring, keep listeners engaged longer and appeal to Rock fans everywhere.
This is a culmination of 33 years of work, research and experience. Frank is the most proud of this radio station and feels as though "the best is here". Enjoy The Rock!