| City of license | Tampa, Florida |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Tampa Bay area, Florida Suncoast, Nature Coast, Central Florida |
| Branding | 93.3 FLZ |
| Slogan | Tampa Bay's Hit Music Channel |
| Frequency |
93.3 HD-2 (93-3 FLZ HD-2 "Club Phusion") for dance music |
| Format | CHR/Pop (Dance "Club Phusion" on HD2) |
| ERP | 99,000 watts |
| HAAT | 414 meters |
| Class | C |
| Facility ID | 29732 |
| Callsign meaning | nod to original callsign WFLA Z was used on former Z-93 branding |
| Owner | Clear Channel |
| Sister stations | WBTP, WDAE, WFLA, WFUS, WHNZ, WMTX, WXTB |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 933flz.com |
WFLZ-FM is a CHR/Pop station broadcasting in the Tampa Bay area, Florida, USA. Before the 1990s, the station played the oldies format before switching to Top 40 to compete against local CHR Q105. The station became 93.3 The Power Pig, and later was re-imaged to 93.3 FLZ. The station is the flagship station for the MJ Morning Show hosted by Todd Schnitt, which is also played on other Clear Channel FM stations in Florida and Missouri. The station has a class C signal operating at 99,000 watts, and is one of the most powerful FM radio stations in Florida, covering four of the state's radio markets.
WFLZ currently broadcasts in HD format. 93.3 HD-1 simulcasts the analog WFLZ-FM 93.3 MHz ("93-3 FLZ HD-1 Hit music"), whereas 93.3 HD-2 exclusively broadcasts dance music ("93-3 FLZ HD-2 Club Phusion").
Contents |
The station began in 1948 as WFLA-FM, one of Tampa Bay's, and Florida's, first FM stations. For most of its early life, WFLA-FM carried a light, "Beautiful music" format. The station was owned by The Tampa Tribune, which also owned WFLA and WFLA-TV in Tampa. In 1966, the Tribune and its three stations were sold to Richmond Newspapers, which became Media General in 1969.
In 1981, after spending most of its early life as a Beautiful Music station, it changed to a country format, as WOJC, "Orange Country 93". However, it was unable to compete against country powerhouses at the time, WSUN and WQYK-FM.
In the mid-1980s, it changed again to a more-conventional adult contemporary format, bringing back the WFLA-FM calls and using the name "93FLA". While it was a little more successful, it still faced competition from WNLT and WIQI.
It was then reformatted into WPDS ("Paradise 93"), a soft adult contemporary formatted station, but this too was unsuccessful.
WFLA-FM and its AM sister, WFLA-AM, were purchased by Jacor Broadcasting in 1988. It changed its calls to WFLZ and soon changed to oldies, as "Z93". Competing against WHBO, it lasted only a year.
In March 1995, The Power Pig dropped its aggressive image and change to 93-3 FLZ. Its slogan was "The New Music Revolution". FLZ disc jockey Bubba soon syndicated to WJBT in Jacksonville for 2 hours. In 1996, Jacor Communications absorbed Citicasters, Inc, and WXTB and what is now WFUS. For a few months, WFLZ simulcasted on KHTS-FM in San Diego as a CHR format was created for San Diego's market. In 1996, Jacor Broadcasting sold its Tampa Bay TV station WTSP-TV to Gannett Broadcasting in exchange for 6 radio stations in 3 markets, one of which was local Hot AC rival WUSA-FM. Also, Bubba the Love Sponge was promoted to mornings on sister station WXTB. In 1998, Jacor Broadcasting was acquired by Clear Channel, putting WFLZ under the same roof as its former competitor, WRBQ, until it was sold off to Infinity Broadcasting. This created an awkward situation, as the staff of WRBQ, who were subject to personal attacks from WFLZ, had moved to higher positions in Clear Channel that oversaw their old rivals at WFLZ.
In 2000, the station underwent a slight re-imaging, adopting a new logo and the slogan "The #1 Hit Music Channel". Meanwhile, Bubba the Love Sponge took former producer Mike Calta (aka Cowhead) to court. Bubba claimed that Calta could not use the Cowhead name at his new position as morning man at WRBQ, but the courts sided with Calta, and he retained the name at Q105. In the same month, long time morning man and operations manager BJ Harris left WFLZ for Cincinnati to do afternoons and PD work. MJ remained at mornings on WFLZ, turning it into The MJ Morning Show. The next year, MJ started his own afternoon show The Schnitt Show on Clear Channel's heritage talker in Miami, WIOD, shortly following the September 11 attacks in 2001. MJ/Schnitt continued to do the show from Tampa despite the Miami broadcast. Three months later, the show was added locally to WFLA. Upon the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' victory at the Super Bowl, WFLZ changed its branding to 93.3 B-U-C temporarily. In 2004 it earned the "CHR Station of the Year" and "CHR Personality of the Year" (for Kane) awards in the Radio Music Awards.
93.3 FLZ remains the most listened to radio station in the Tampa Bay area with close to 800,000 people tuning in each week.
In 2009, the station conducted it's first "Meet Ball" concert on Valentine's Weekend. In 2009 the performing artist was Gavin DeGraw, in 2010 it was Kris Allen and in 2011 it was Paper Tongues. While this event highlights a national recording artist/group, it is also a popular singles mingle event which draws over 1,000 people.
In 2009, the station conducted it's first "Jingle Ball" concert which is now held annually in December. The performing artists were Pitbull, The Fray, Jordin Sparks, Sean Kingston, Boys Like Girls, We The Kings, Ke$ha, Jason Derulo, Adam Lambert, 3OH!3 and Iyaz. In 2010 the performers were Maroon 5, B.o.B., Enrique Iglesias, Bruno Mars, Train, Shontelle, Dev, Mike Posner and The Ready Set.
In 2006, 93.3 FLZ created a social networking site called "The Pig Pen". The station promoted the Pig Pen as the "local" version of MySpace. The name "Pig Pen" was probably taken from WFLZ's previous station image "The Power Pig." In 2009 this social networking site was discontinued.
On January 31, 2007, the station was fined $10,000 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a purported prank phone call to Nicollette Sheridan in the middle of the night made by MJ that took place in November 2004.
When it comes to poking fun at celebrities at a Top 40 station, WFLZ is famous for it. One of the celebrities the station has targeted is Britney Spears.
The first incident began on June 18, 2007, when the station made headlines after the MJ Morning Show placed at least three outdoor advertisements (2 in the Tampa Bay area, one in Jacksonville) featuring Internet photos of Spears with her shaved head, along with the face of Kelli and the slogans "Total Nut Jobs", "Shock Therapy" and "Certifiable". The advertisements were placed on billboards owned by WFLZ's sister company Clear Channel Outdoor. Evidently being notified about the billboards, Spears and her representatives were not pleased, and threatened to sue Clear Channel if they were not removed immediately. Clear Channel consented and they were removed the following day. The decision to have them removed had Kelli upset that his employers caved in to legal pressure from Spears' representatives.[1][2]
The second flack would flare up again in January 2009, when the station made headlines by being one of the first to play Spears' controversial single "If You Seek Amy". The title, when said quickly sounds like the singer is spelling out an obscenity, f-u-c-k, followed by the word "me". The station broadcast an edited version, and even created a version with morning host MJ Kelli saying "MJ" in place of "Amy." but that did not stop complaints from The Parents Television Council.[3]
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||