Was that an FM station? What was its frequency?
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Your favorite stations from the past in Tampa-Saint Pete area.
- Thread starter Yabadabado1
- Start date
WYNF was an FM station. 94.9MHz.
Remember when the Power Pig people threw roofing nails in the competition station's parking lot.... that was entertainment!
I'm not sure "entertainment" is the word I'd use. Vandalism maybe. No excuse for something like this.
True, it may have been hyped a bit!!! Before that, the heaviest stunt was totally bumper stickering the van of your competition...
The actual event was the repeated dumpster diving in the trash of WRBQ, with the Power Pig van legally parked in the street.
I think the WRBQ staff could have ended that stunt pretty quickly by going out and peeing/pooping all over the stuff in the dumpster.
I was working in Miami then, the Power Pig really shook the place up. The record company guys/women from Miami also worked the Tampa stations, they'd have the latest Power Pig updates every week back then! That was a fun time...
WZNE -- or Z98 for about 20 minutes around 1985 -- was a kickass pop music station, made from the ruins of 98 Rock. They played long versions of songs that Q105 trimmed the hell out of.
On AM, WFLA was great until it went all in for Trump, 24/7. It was entertaining albeit political-leaning-conservative talk.
On AM, WFLA was great until it went all in for Trump, 24/7. It was entertaining albeit political-leaning-conservative talk.
Many trips from Long Island to FL and the Clearwater-New Port Richey strip (relatives, friends, and my first-ever paid vacation).
The fave always was WDAE 1250 and their 'Chicken Rock'. That's pop songs by the older artists and milder current pop by newer acts. WSUN and WFLA were also into that AC route -- many of the songs overlapped -- but for some reason I liked WDAE the best of the three.
The rockers were WFSO ('Heavy 57') ; WLCY (the newsman talked up the jingle at the top of the hour), and fake-Draker WCWR 1470 Dunedin.
WALT 1110 was a good, top 40-ish form of C&W. WWBA 680 was Beautiful Music. R&B was from WSOL 1300, WTMP 1150 and WRXB 1590 St.Pete Beach. Those last 6 were daytimers. WLCY had no competition whatsoever at night (but I do remember driving one eve around Indian Rocks Beach, and in one WLCY null heard an ID from KWK St. Louis!!
Finest studio setting was WTAN 1340, right on a cove in Clearwater. Too bad they were a dull station.
Great DX spot -- and Alt 19 between Clearwater and Palm Harbour was the most scenic road I ever traveled. At places along there (and even somewhat inland) the wee WJOE 1080 from Port St. Joe was a daily gem from about 200 miles across the Gulf, at 1000 watts.
Nighttime there, off a 'shrug' Philco portable, KYOK 1590 would blast in from Houston after WRXB signed off. An overnight regular was KWKH from Shreveport, with a gal doing a C&W show she pronounced 'The Rydio Ry-anch'.
The Tampa Bay area was like the flat suburbs of Long Island, only with palm trees.
Thanks for the memories, Yabadadoo. I think my acne is starting to come back.
The fave always was WDAE 1250 and their 'Chicken Rock'. That's pop songs by the older artists and milder current pop by newer acts. WSUN and WFLA were also into that AC route -- many of the songs overlapped -- but for some reason I liked WDAE the best of the three.
The rockers were WFSO ('Heavy 57') ; WLCY (the newsman talked up the jingle at the top of the hour), and fake-Draker WCWR 1470 Dunedin.
WALT 1110 was a good, top 40-ish form of C&W. WWBA 680 was Beautiful Music. R&B was from WSOL 1300, WTMP 1150 and WRXB 1590 St.Pete Beach. Those last 6 were daytimers. WLCY had no competition whatsoever at night (but I do remember driving one eve around Indian Rocks Beach, and in one WLCY null heard an ID from KWK St. Louis!!
Finest studio setting was WTAN 1340, right on a cove in Clearwater. Too bad they were a dull station.
Great DX spot -- and Alt 19 between Clearwater and Palm Harbour was the most scenic road I ever traveled. At places along there (and even somewhat inland) the wee WJOE 1080 from Port St. Joe was a daily gem from about 200 miles across the Gulf, at 1000 watts.
Nighttime there, off a 'shrug' Philco portable, KYOK 1590 would blast in from Houston after WRXB signed off. An overnight regular was KWKH from Shreveport, with a gal doing a C&W show she pronounced 'The Rydio Ry-anch'.
The Tampa Bay area was like the flat suburbs of Long Island, only with palm trees.
Thanks for the memories, Yabadadoo. I think my acne is starting to come back.
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I lived south of Clearwater in the early 90's. My main stations were Mix 96 on 95.7 (WMTX-FM Clearwater/WMTX-AM Pinellas Park) and WMNF 88.5.
WMNF still exists as such. Quirkly lil' .org station. I learned to like free-form public radio through WMNF, and I still listen every so often, thanks to their webstream.
WMTX moved at some point from 95.7 to 100.7, and is still Mix. Though, having said that, we are almost 32 years removed from my having moved there. So, "Mix" stations may serve the same purpose they always did, but the music they list is different.
WMNF still exists as such. Quirkly lil' .org station. I learned to like free-form public radio through WMNF, and I still listen every so often, thanks to their webstream.
WMTX moved at some point from 95.7 to 100.7, and is still Mix. Though, having said that, we are almost 32 years removed from my having moved there. So, "Mix" stations may serve the same purpose they always did, but the music they list is different.
They really are different stations. Mix 96 died around the summer of 1997. Mix 100.7 was born around late summer 1999 because Clear Channel was popping up "Mix" branded stations all over the country with similar formats. They likely chose the WMTX call letters because they were available.
Regrettably most of those stations have tanked - WDAE-1250 is now Spanish and infomercials with I believe the latest calls are WHNZ- Spanish language conservative talk with some informercials in English from time to time. 570- Formally WFSO is now Salems Political/Religious talk (as is 760, 860,910 and 930). For a few years WTBN had a significantly signal with towers north of Tampa in the LandO’Lakes area of Pasco county; but they have since sold that property and relocated to a tower in Clearwater and instead of 5,000 watts, they are 250 watts day and 750 watts night! Speaking of WWBA-680; they were strictly instrumental, no vocals whatsoever, their slogan was “Music Too Beautiful for Words” (much like Escape channel 69 on SXM).
1470 - not sure of their call letters this week, sold their towers and land and moved to the Lake Egypt area of Tampa; sharing a tower site with WTMP-1150. 1470 advertised briefly as being digital only and they sounded good in stereo; but that only lasted several months. (Even though I believe Radio Locator still shows them as being digital). Now their signal seems worse than it was after their original move to Tampa/Egypt Lake and they seem to be off the air, often.
Maybe the only bright spot on the AM band is WTMP; they are broadcasting in HD with the my vehicle’s JBL HD radio; I get their RDS, some picture art on some of the songs as well as receiving them in stereo!! They are rock, soul and Motown! The do turn off their HD at night; they also have either 2 or 3 translators as well.
When I was growing up; living in s.e. Saint Petersburg near the water, I had two choices at night for rock; WLCY-1380 and WKXY-930 out of Sarasota.
So many memories!
@ Gr8Oldies: I guess I'm a few weeks older than you. Like by a mere 400 weeks. See, I was at the same REI there in '72, hi.
@Gar: Took a visit to 'Tampa Bay's 86 WAZE' one Sunday afternoon in 1980. Their setting was in a spot that looked to be half-industrial park and half scrub barrens. The guy on the air was musically doing the best pop-song radio I ever heard. I asked if he were the music director, too. He said, 'Nah. I'm just playimg what I want. Tomorrow moning we're going all-Spanish.'
A Long Island pal who moved down there for a while once pointed out a spot, a vast city block -- maybe in Largo? -- where he said four tower arrays there were from four different stations ..... all of them licensed to different COLs --and none of them licensed to there !
DX-wise back up in Queens, WSUN 620 was a faint but steady AMer, at least on Monday mornings. WLCY was a regular Sunday Morning catch when NYC locals foreign-language WBNX and share-time religious WAWZ often had to untie their shoelaces from each other, making local 1380 a great DX spot. (Logging 22 different 1380 stations while being the lousiest of the four DXers who hung out near JFK airport with two local full-time regionals says something about that frequency.)
@Gar: Took a visit to 'Tampa Bay's 86 WAZE' one Sunday afternoon in 1980. Their setting was in a spot that looked to be half-industrial park and half scrub barrens. The guy on the air was musically doing the best pop-song radio I ever heard. I asked if he were the music director, too. He said, 'Nah. I'm just playimg what I want. Tomorrow moning we're going all-Spanish.'
A Long Island pal who moved down there for a while once pointed out a spot, a vast city block -- maybe in Largo? -- where he said four tower arrays there were from four different stations ..... all of them licensed to different COLs --and none of them licensed to there !
DX-wise back up in Queens, WSUN 620 was a faint but steady AMer, at least on Monday mornings. WLCY was a regular Sunday Morning catch when NYC locals foreign-language WBNX and share-time religious WAWZ often had to untie their shoelaces from each other, making local 1380 a great DX spot. (Logging 22 different 1380 stations while being the lousiest of the four DXers who hung out near JFK airport with two local full-time regionals says something about that frequency.)
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