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WWMI (1380 AM) is a radio station licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, and serving the Tampa Bay radio market. It is owned by Relevant Radio, a non-profit Catholic broadcasting organization based in Wisconsin. WWMI carries its Relevant Radio network programming.

By day, WWMI is powered at 9,800 watts non-directional. But to protect other stations on 1380 AM from interference, at night it reduces power to 6,500 watts and switches to a directional antenna with a three-tower array. The transmitter is co-located with the tower for WTSP television, off Gandy Boulevard in St. Petersburg.

History

On April 3, 1939, the Federal Communications Commission awarded a construction permit to the Pinellas Broadcasting Company. It was allowed to build a new radio station on 1370 kHz in St. Petersburg, broadcasting with 250 watts during the day and 100 at night. Its call sign during the construction months was WBOX. But it changed to WTSP ("Welcome to St. Petersburg") before launch. The station signed on the air on the morning of November 30. In the same year it was founded, Pinellas Broadcasting was sold to Paul and Nelson Poynter, who owned the St. Petersburg Times.

On March 29, 1941, the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) was enacted. That required WTSP to move to 1380 kHz. Later that year, the station was approved for an increase to 1,000 watts day and 500 watts night. It became the first Tampa Bay network affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System. In late 1946, construction began on a new 5,000-watt facility near the southern approach to the Gandy Bridge, which would also house an FM station. By 1954, WTSP-FM 102.5, established in 1948, had been upgraded to broadcast with 77,000 watts. That same year, however, the station lost in its fight to win a television station on channel 8; rival newspaper The Tampa Tribune and its WFLA were given the nod to build WFLA-TV.

In 1956, Ferris, Joe and Sam Rahall—natives of Beckley, West Virginia, but whose parents were longtime winter residents of St. Petersburg—purchased WTSP AM and FM from the Times for $200,000. The Rahalls opted to dismantle the FM operation, surrendering the license in December. Seeking to update the station "in the modern trend", WTSP became WLCY on July 15, 1959. The new name gave rise to the station's new moniker, "Radio Elsie".

For many years, WLCY was the Tampa Bay area's premier rock and roll station, with offices, studios, and transmitter in the previous WTSP facility on Gandy Boulevard near 4th Street North. The station later shared space with Rahall's WLCY-TV and the new WLCY-FM at the "Rahall Color Communications Center", just east of the original Gandy site. The name of the licensee changed to WLCY, Inc., on June 20, 1963 and then to the Rahall Communications Corporation on October 3, 1969. WLCY began to identify dual city of license as "St. Petersburg-Tampa" in 1976.

Rahall began to divest itself of its Tampa Bay properties, and in September 1978, Florida Radio, Inc. became the station's new owner. WLCY moved out of the TV building and back into the old WTSP studios.

The AM station was eventually sold to Harte-Hanks and was changed to WNSI (News, Sports and Information). After Edens Broadcasting bought the station, it became WRBQ, and flipped to a simulcast of Q105. The simulcast, however, was limited due to FCC rules. As such, WRBQ-AM had a distinct rhythmic and R&B playlist during certain hours of the day circa December 1982. This would eventually end, with a full simulcast that would last until January 24, 1992, when WRBQ flipped to the satellite-fed urban AC format known as "The Touch" and picked up Tom Joyner to host mornings. In July of that year, Edens sold WRBQ-AM-FM to Clear Channel Communications. In February 1999, ABC Radio bought the station and it became WWMI and adopted the Radio Disney format on May 3 of that year.

On August 13, 2014, Disney put WWMI and twenty-two other Radio Disney stations up for sale, in order to focus more on digital distribution of the Radio Disney network.

On September 15, 2015, it was announced that Salem Media Group acquired the last five Radio Disney owned-and-operated stations for sale (including WWMI) for $2.225 million. WWMI was acquired through South Texas Broadcasting, Inc., for $750.000. The sale of WWMI was completed on December 11, 2015.

On December 14, 2015, the station became Salem's Wall Street Business Network affiliate in Tampa Bay. WWMI was now one of two stations in the market airing a business news/talk format, the other being WHFS.

On July 25, 2019, Salem Media Group agreed to sell WWMI and WLCC, as well as WKAT and WZAB in the Miami market, to Immaculate Heart Media, Inc. for more than $8.2 million. On May 17, 2021, WWMI switched to the English-language version of Relevant Radio.

References

1. "Facility Technical Data for WWMI". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
2. Radio-Locator.com/WWMI
3. ^ ‹ The template below (FCC letter) is being considered for deletion. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. ›

   FCC History Cards for WWMI

4. ^ Gum, Coburn (October 28, 1941). "WTSP Joins Mutual to Bring Tampa Bay Listeners Wide Variety of News, Sports, Entertainment, Music". St. Petersburg Times. p. 25. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
5. "Connecticut Man Buys WTSP Transmitter Building For Gas Station And Tea Room". St. Petersburg Times. September 18, 1947. p. 3. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
6. "WTSP Power Increased; New Buildings Planned". St. Petersburg Times. November 16, 1946. p. 13. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
7. "WTSP's '1380' Popular Spot On Radio Dial". St. Petersburg Times. September 6, 1954. p. SP-77. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
8. "WFLA Gets Channel 8, Plans To Be On Air In About Six Months". St. Petersburg Times. August 7, 1954. p. 1. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
9. Hall, Dan (May 6, 1956). "Radio Station WTSP Sold To Rahall Brothers; New Studio Is Planned". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1-B. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
10. "Existing Fm Stations" (PDF). Broadcasting. December 10, 1956. p. 127. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
11. "Modern Trend". The Tampa Tribune. July 19, 1959. p. 13-E. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
12. "Station WTSP Goes Phonetic". The Tampa Times. July 13, 1959. p. 17. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
13. Radio Years.com
14. "The Dong Of A New Marketing Age?; They Lest Their Jobs In San Francisco" (PDF). Radio & Records. 1992-02-01. p. 75. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
15. Stark, Phyllis (July 30, 1994). "Vox Jox". Billboard. Vol. 106, no. 31. p. 122.
16. "Q-105, sister station are sold", St. Petersburg Times (April 1, 1992)
17. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 11 July 1992. pp. 65–. ISSN 0006-2510.
18. "WRBQ-AM changing its format to Disney", St. Petersburg Times (May 2, 1999)
19. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 27 February 1999. pp. 69–. ISSN 0006-2510.
20. "Street Talk" (PDF). Radio & Records. 1999-05-07. p. 30. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
21. Lafayette, Jon (August 13, 2014). "Exclusive: Radio Disney Moving Off Air to Digital". Retrieved August 13, 2014.
22. "Radio Disney to Sell the Majority of Its Stations". Billboard. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
23. Salem Acquires Radio Disney’s Final Five - Radio Insight
24. "Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission.
25. Consummation Notice - Federal Communications Commission
26. Salem Launches 1380 The Biz Tampa - Radio Insight
27. "Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission.
28. Venta, Lance. "Immaculate Heart Media Acquires Four In Miami & Tampa From Salem", Radio Insight. July 29, 2019. Retrieved November 23, 2019.

• Radio Years, Central Florida's Great Radio Stations of the Past

External links

• Facility details for Facility ID 11954 (WWMI) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• WWMI in Nielsen Audio's AM station database

• 1939 establishments in Florida
• Christian radio stations in Florida
• Former subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company
• Radio stations established in 1939
• Relevant Radio stations