ALT 104.5 streams alternative rock and indie discovery from Philadelphia, pairing today's biggest alt bands with fresh talent and a morning lineup built around the city's music scene. It broadcasts under the call letters WRFF, but the frequency it occupies has carried almost every format radio has ever tried.
Six Decades, Half a Dozen Identities
104.5 signed on in February 1965 as WRCP-FM, simulcasting its AM sister station's middle-of-the-road programming under greeting card company Rust Craft, according to Wikipedia's history of the station. It switched to country in 1967, went independent as WSNI in 1977, and spent the next two decades drifting between beautiful music, adult contemporary as "Sunny 104.5," and hot AC as "Star 104.5," at one point even hiring Philadelphia soul legend Teddy Pendergrass to record station jingles in 1988.
Alice, Rumba, and a Christmas Idea Everyone Copied
A 1999 flip turned the station into "Alice 104.5," chasing 70s, 80s and 90s rock hits against rival WMGK with voicetracked DJs recording remotely. When Sunny returned in 2002, the station quietly pioneered an all-Christmas November format, an idea Philadelphia's B101 later borrowed for itself. By 2006 the frequency had turned Spanish-language entirely, rebranding as "Rumba 104.5" for tropical and dance music before the format shifted again within a year.
Modern Rock Finally Sticks
Clear Channel flipped the station to modern rock on May 16, 2007, under new call letters WRFF and the name Radio 104.5. That identity held for thirteen years before the current ALT 104.5 branding arrived on May 26, 2020. Since 2017, the station has thrown an annual birthday festival pulling in major alternative rock acts, turning a frequency with no fixed identity for forty years into one of Philadelphia's reliable live-music institutions.
Tune In
After a run through country, beautiful music, Spanish tropical and AM-era soul jingles, 104.5 finally settled on the format that stuck. Stream ALT 104.5 free on Radio Shuffle for Philadelphia's current alternative rock lineup.