| City of license | Miami, Florida |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | South Florida |
| Branding | Sportsradio 560 WQAM |
| Frequency | 560 kHz |
| First air date | February 1921 |
| Format | Sports Talk |
| Power | 5,000 watts (day) 1,000 watts (night) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 64002 |
| Callsign meaning | We're Quality AM Radio |
| Affiliations | Yahoo! Sports Radio Miami Hurricanes ACC Radio Network |
| Owner | Beasley Broadcast Group |
| Sister stations | WHSR, WKIS, WPOW, WSBR, WWNN |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wqam.com |
WQAM (560 AM, "Sportsradio 560") is a South Florida radio station owned by Beasley Broadcast Group. The call letters WQAM were claimed to stand for We Quit At Midnight ... since the station signed off at midnight every night until 6 AM the next morning.
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The station was Florida's first radio station, going on the air in February 1921 when a license was issued to WFAW.[1] In the beginning the young station was helped with programming by the Miami Metropolis newspaper, but after the paper stopped its participation in 1922 the station adopted the call letters WQAM in January 1923.
Things were primitive in the early days. Fred W. Barton, president of the Miami Broadcasting Company made many of the electical parts himself. In 1926 the station increased its power to 500 watts. The station was the first in the United States to install a permanent remote pick-up from the U. S. Meteorological Department. Power was increased to 1000 watts in 1928 and WQAM became a full time affiliate of CBS. In 1947 its affiliation was changed to the American Broadcasting System. In 1948 Barton sold his interest and The Miami Herald became the station's owner.[2]
The station is famous for its days in the 1960s, under ownership of Storz Broadcasting, when it presented a Top Forty format and competed vigorously with rival WFUN (at 790 AM). These were the WQAM "glory years." In 1964, WQAM promoted the Beatles heavily prior to their second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which took place in Miami Beach.
On February 29, 1980, after many years as contemporary music station, competition from FM competitors forced the station to switch to a country music format, but not after running a montage of music and sound bites from its Top 40 days. WQAM was widely listened to in Cuba, especially in Havana, where youngsters used to pick up the signal effortlessly with ordinary radio sets. It was hip to listen to it and during the late 1970s when the only form of fun young Cubans had was to gather at a friend's house to dance to American music, there were hosts who had recorded tapes of WQAM programming aired during the week and eventually played those tapes at their Saturday night home parties. Generations of high school boys and college students used to keep tabs on Casey Kasem's American Top 40 on WQAM.
Around 1992, WQAM became an all-sports station
Currently, WQAM is the University of Miami Hurricanes flagship station.
WQAM ceased broadcasting in HD Radio during daytime hours only, but is simulcast on WPOW-FM HD3.
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