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Status of 1590 WHOT (former WRXB)?

RMarino

RMarino

Does anyone know if this station is still on the air? On my last two recent trips to Bradenton, I heard nothing on 1590. Last year I heard them with the Haitian-Creole format, but now I’m not getting any signal at my same location.

And what’s the deal with the 96.1 translator? I have never heard it on any of my visits even though it’s supposedly licensed here in Bradenton.
 
I'm mildly surprised that Cumulus allowed another unrelated radio station to use the WHOT calls on the AM dial.
 
radiofan2023 said:
That isn’t updated consistently.
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They're more accurate than "Wino Willy" living under the Saint Petersburg Pier. That's why I didn't ask him and used radio-locator instead. They"re usually pretty accurate when I've used them but I imagine it's gotta be getting a little more difficult with all the added LPFM stations and translators out there.
 
Michi's FCCData.org is a much better aggregator of FCC information. Radio-locator hasn't been meaningfully updated in nearly 20 years and its framework is over 25 years old.

To that point, here's FCCData's WHOT listing.
 
Unrelated stations can use call letters of a station in a different service IF the original station agrees and that agreement is filed with the call letter request to the FCC.
A recent example is KPNW (AM) Eugene agreeing to let a Seattle FM station use the KPNW-FM call letters.
KBOI (AM) has allowed unrelated TV station to use the KBOI-TV calls.
In the WHOT (AM) case WHOT (FM) would be required to change call letters to WHOT-FM.
 
Motown said:
Doesn’t the FCC control call letters, not Cumulus? I believe a station can protest the FCC if they assign call letters similar to those within the market.
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It has been many decades since the FCC policed similar-sounding calls. Anything goes now.

What you can't do is to reuse a callsign on a different service that's already in use elsewhere - unless you get permission from the user of those calls.

So because Cumulus has WHOT-FM.in Ohio, it had to grant permission for WHOT to be used on AM in Florida.
 
RMarino said:
Does anyone know if this station is still on the air? On my last two recent trips to Bradenton, I heard nothing on 1590. Last year I heard them with the Haitian-Creole format, but now I’m not getting any signal at my same location.

And what’s the deal with the 96.1 translator? I have never heard it on any of my visits even though it’s supposedly licensed here in Bradenton.
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I was in S.E. Saint Petersburg, Tampa and Bradenton this past Tuesday and 1590 WHOt/\ formally WTMP)was completely silent. Will be driving through both Tampa and Saint Petersburg tomorrow (26Apr) will check again.Though licensed to Bradenton, the 96.1 translator‘s antenna is on Snead Island and when on the air (not often) they don’t seem to be operating at full power and those rare times they are on the air, there is a buzzing in the audio. (Btw- haven’t heard them in months - will check that tomorrow as well).
 
drt said:
I was in S.E. Saint Petersburg, Tampa and Bradenton this past Tuesday and 1590 WHOt/\ formally WTMP)was completely silent. Will be driving through both Tampa and Saint Petersburg tomorrow (26Apr) will check again.Though licensed to Bradenton, the 96.1 translator‘s antenna is on Snead Island and when on the air (not often) they don’t seem to be operating at full power and those rare times they are on the air, there is a buzzing in the audio. (Btw- haven’t heard them in months - will check that tomorrow as well).
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Friday-26Apr-did not make it south past USF-SP Campus and the CoastGuard station area- but surprise-surprise 1590 was actually on the air; was not far enough south to determine if the translator on 96.1 was on the air. I have reason to believe it was on the air-but broadcasting the “sounds of silence” - and not the Simon&Garfunkle song!
 
drt said:
Friday-26Apr-did not make it south past USF-SP Campus and the CoastGuard station area- but surprise-surprise 1590 was actually on the air; was not far enough south to determine if the translator on 96.1 was on the air. I have reason to believe it was on the air-but broadcasting the “sounds of silence” - and not the Simon&Garfunkle song!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. 1590 must be on sporadically. As for the translator, I’ve never heard it even once in Bradenton. Snead Island isn’t far, so unless their coverage area is really small, I’d say it’s not on.
 
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