WTPA (AM)

WTPA (1590 AM) is a commercial American radio station that broadcasts a Haitian Creole-language talk format. Licensed to Palm River-Clair Mel, Florida, with studios and a transmitter in St. Petersburg, it serves the Tampa Bay area.

WTPA
CityPalm River-Clair Mel, Florida
Broadcast areaTampa Bay
Frequency1590 kHz
BrandingRadio Nouvelle Lumiere
Programming
Language(s)Haitian Creole
FormatTalk
Ownership
OwnerGulf Coast Broadcasting
(Tampa Radio, Inc.)
History
First air date
1959 (as WILZ)
Former call signs
WILZ (1958-1976)
WRXB (1976-2019)
Call sign meaning
TPA: IATA airport code for Tampa International Airport
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID57478
ClassB
Power5,000 watts day
1,000 watts night
Transmitter coordinates
27°44′3.00″N 82°41′8.00″W
Translator(s)96.1 W241DH (Bradenton)[note 1]
Links
Public license information
Profile
LMS
Websitetampa.sakpase.fm

History

Originally owned by Holiday Isles Broadcasting Company, the station signed on the air as WILZ on December 4, 1957, from its studios at 7500 Boca Ciega Drive in St. Pete Beach, Florida.[1] Its initial programming format consisted of nostalgic pop music featuring "all time favorites from 1925 to the present."[1] One of its disc jockeys in the early 1960s was Elmo Tanner, the former singer and whistler with the Ted Weems Orchestra.[2]

In 1969, Millbeck Broadcasting bought the station, maintaining the nostalgia format but adding New York Mets baseball.[1] The station subsequently changed its format to Top 40 as Z16 and, in 1973, changed to an oldies format as Solid Gold 16.[1] In 1975, WILZ was bought by Gene Danzey, a former General Manager for WTMP in Tampa, who retooled the station as WRXB, the region's first black-owned station.[3]

Danzey would later sell the station in 1996 to Rolyn Communications, Inc.[4] A transfer was requested to Metropolitan Radio Group in 1996, but that transfer was not completed until 1999. In 2000, Gary Acker (owner of Metropolitan Radio Group) died, and control of the station passed to his estate, which was overseen by Mark Acker. In 2007, the station was sold to Walter Kotaba's Polnet Communications.

Past announcers at WRXB included Jim Murray, Rob Simone and Sister Dianne Hughes. WRXB also featured state legislator Wengay Newton (D-St. Petersburg) with a weekly community program, along with Pastor Brian Anderson's The Voice of the Village and Undignified Praise and Worship, produced by Richard Guess.[5] Other announcers included Ivan Summers and Tony King hosting TK's Midday Cafe.

On August 20, 2009, WRXB had its first major format change in more than 30 years when it switched to 24-hour gospel programming.[3] Gene Danzey died of respiratory failure on May 29, 2012.[3]

The station went off the air on November 14, 2017.[5]

Effective September 26, 2019, Polnet Communications sold WRXB and translator W241DH to Sam Rogatinsky's Gulf Coast Broadcasting for $165,000. The station's call sign was simultaneously changed to WTPA. At that time, the newly renamed station began broadcasting Haitian Creole programming as Radio Nouvelle Lumiere, modeled after Rogatinsky's WPBR in West Palm Beach.

Effective August 7, 2020, the station moved its community of license from St. Pete Beach to Palm River-Clair Mel.

Notes
  1. This translator is currently rebroadcasting WCIE (FM) under special temporary authority until it can move to Tampa.

References
  1. "WILZ - A History". RadioYears.com. Retrieved 2014-07-21.
  2. "Risher Motors newspaper ad featuring Elmo Tanner". The Evening Independent. 17 November 1961. Retrieved 2014-07-21.
  3. Tampa Bay Times: "Gene Danzey launched the first local black-owned radio station", June 7, 2012.
  4. http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/altc_list.pl?Facility_id=57478
  5. Moore, Waveney Ann (December 8, 2017). "Historic WRXB-AM no longer on the air". St. Petersburg Times. p. 12.
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