WTIS

WTIS (1110 AM) is a radio station. Licensed to Tampa, Florida, United States, it serves the Tampa Bay area. The station is currently owned by George and Esperanza Arroyo, through licensee Q-Broadcasting Corporation, Inc. They also broadcast on FM translator, W266CW 101.1 FM in Tampa. WTIS's AM transmitter and tower are co-located with its sister station, WAMA.

WTIS
CityTampa, Florida
Broadcast areaTampa Bay
BrandingLa Mega Tampa Bay
Frequency1110 kHz
Translator(s)101.1 MHz W266CW, Tampa
First air date1946 (license dates back to 1927)
FormatSalsa and Merengue
Power10,000 watts day
5,500 watts critical hours
ClassD
Facility ID74088
Transmitter coordinates27°52′26.00″N 82°37′53.00″W
Call sign meaningW Tampa InSpirational (based on previous format)
Former call signsWALT (1946-1970)
WQYK (1970-1976)
OwnerGeorge & Esperanza Arroyo
(Q-Broadcasting Corporation, Inc.)
Sister stationsWAMA

The AM frequency broadcasts during daytime hours only, to protect clear channel stations WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina and KFAB in Omaha, Nebraska.

Station history

The station first went on the air in 1927 after being licensed by the Department of Commerce as WMBR in January, 1927. The station was licensed to Premier Electric Company on Franklin Street. The license was for 100 Watts on a frequency of 1109 kHz.[1]

By the end of May 1927, the Tampa radio dealers association was coordinating the daytime broadcast and sponsorships of WDAE and WMBR, with WMBR broadcasting 1 hour a day from the Premier Electric theater. [2]

In 1929, WMBR reported election results in coordination with the Tampa Tribune newspaper, with station owner Frank J Reynolds doing the reporting. The location of the station studio was then reported to be in the Floridan Hotel. [3]

In a 1987 letter, Harry J Mills, the station's chief engineer in 1929, recalled the station was owned by Frank J Reynolds, who owned the Zenith Radio dealership in Tampa. He confirms that the studios were located in the Floridan Hotel, with the transmitter on the roof. [4]

From 1929 to 1931 the station is listed in newspaper schedules on 1210, 1360, and 1370 kHz [5] The changes in frequency were mandated by the recently formed Federal Radio Commission in November 1929. [6]

In 1933, the FRC approved relocating the station to Jacksonville, Florida at the request of station owner Frank J. Reynolds, leaving WDAE as the only station licensed to Tampa[7]

The station would later be relaunched in 1946 as WALT by Walter Tison, president and general manager-sales manager of Tampa Broadcasting (and later, founder of television station WTVT). WALT was a pioneer Top-40 station in the Tampa area. In the 1960s, a weekly Sunday afternoon broadcast from Tampa Municipal Beach entitled Beach Party featured The Littlest DJ, Ricky Barone, later known as Richard Barone of The Bongos.

In 1970, Suncoast Radio, the owners of future WQYK-FM 99.5, bought WALT and relaunched it as a country music station, WQYK. The signal was simulcast with WQYK-FM until 1976, when the AM station was sold to a religious broadcaster and its call letters changed to WTIS. (The WALT callsign would later be reassigned to AM and FM stations in Meridian, Mississippi.)

In addition to its regular religious programming, WTIS aired The Debra Evans in the Morning Show, The Herman Cain Show, The Pete O'Shea Show and The Adam Smith Show.

On January 1, 2017 WTIS notified the Federal Communications Commission that it had suspended operations on December 31, 2016 because it had lost its lease to the transmitter site, located near the intersection of 50th Street and Causeway Boulevard in the Palm River-Clair Mel area of Hillsborough County. It requested authorization to remain off the air for six months while it searched for a new site. The authorization was granted on January 18, 2017.[8] The station has since been sold to Q Broadcasting Corporation, the owners of WAMA 1550 kHz. The station would return to the air with an oldies pop music format as "Timeless 1110 and 101.1", but would very soon flip to a Spanish-language Salsa and Merengue format, with an announcement that they would change to a more general Spanish-language format on April 30, 2018.

References
  1. "Radio Service Bulletin" (PDF). US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Navigation. January 31, 1927. p. 4.
  2. "Local Radio Fans to Hear Day Programs". The Tampa Times. 30 May 1927.
  3. "Tribune furnishes speedy election results over the radio". The Tampa Tribune. 15 Aug 1929. p. One.
  4. Hawes, Leland (5 July 1986). "Radio Days in Tampa". The Tampa Tribune. p. 4-i.
  5. "Today's Radio Programs". Tampa Tmes. 17 June 1931. p. 18.
  6. "Florida radio stations given time extension". The Tampa Tnes. Associated Press. 1 Nov 1929.
  7. "Radio Station WMBR to Move". Tampa Daily Tines. 11 December 1933.
  8. "FCC Notification of Suspension of Operations / Request for Silent STA". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
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