WWMI

WWMI
City of license St. Petersburg, Florida
Broadcast area Tampa Bay Area
Branding Radio Disney Tampa Bay
Slogan Your Music, Your Way
Frequency 1380 kHz
Format Children's Radio
Power 9,800 watts day
6,500 watts night
Class B
Facility ID 11954
Transmitter coordinates 27°52′15.00″N 82°37′3.00″W / 27.8708333°N 82.6175000°W
Callsign meaning We Want MIckey
Former callsigns WTSP (through late-1950s)
WLCY (late-1950s to 1981)
WNSI (1981-1982)
WRBQ (1982-1999)
Affiliations Radio Disney
Owner The Walt Disney Company
(Sale pending)
(Radio Disney Group, LLC)
Website www.radiodisney.com

WWMI (Radio Disney AM 1380) is a radio station broadcasting a children's radio format. Licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, the station serves the Tampa Bay Area. The station is owned by The Walt Disney Company.

History

Former Radio Disney logo, used from 2008-2010.

Brothers Joe, Sam, and Farris Rahall bought the city's Mutual Broadcasting System affiliate, WTSP-AM 1380 and its FM, 102.5, from the St. Petersburg Times in 1956. Not interested in pursuing FM, they shut it down a year later. On July 15, 1959, the AM's call letters and format switched to WLCY ("Radio Elsie") and Top 40.

For many years, WLCY-AM was the Tampa Bay area’s premiere rock and roll station, with offices, studios, and transmitter in the previous WTSP facility on Gandy Boulevard near 4th Street North.

The disc jockeys during the era were known as "The Swingin' Gentlemen" and included "Stanley Steamer" Jim Stanley (mornings), Johnny Dart (Stan Grams), Rick Morgan, Mark Wheeler, "Shy Guy" Roy Nilson (also the Program Director), Al Dunaway, "Swingin' Sweeney," Johnny Rebel (Herb Hunt), George Nix, Jack E. Rabbitt, Dick Stambaugh (later Dick Starr in Miami), Tedd Webb, Bob Tracey, "Big Daddy" Don Owens, Pepper Lipsinx (James Wayman), Frank Lynn, Kenny Parks, Bob Collins, Bob Cannon, (Clande Miranda), Jeff Laurence, Johnny Stevens, Dave Archard, Bob Carr, D.J. O'Day, Rock Robbins (Bob Bernstein), Murph McHenry, Al Summers, Jack Kane, Bobby Lyons, Dean Drapin, Ron Parker, Dutch Walker, Wade West, Jim Clark, Johnny Byrd (Dennis Waters), Daylon Rushing, Mike Scott (Jim Shirah) and Lolita (Dottie Groven).

Clair Linn provided news and the "WLCY Weather Chick" was Charlene Mathias. Newsman Marshall Cleaver hosted a late-night call-in show, Open Mike, and was succeeded by Harvey Sheldon. Jingles were tagged with, "WLCY, One-thirty-eight!"

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-AM 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.

In 1981, the station was sold to Harte-Hanks and was changed to WNSI-AM (News, Sports and Information), and later, WRBQ-AM. In 1999, ABC Radio bought the station and it became WWMI.

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.[1][2]

References

  1. ↑ Lafayette, Jon (August 13, 2014). "Exclusive: Radio Disney Moving Off Air to Digital". Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Radio Disney to Sell the Majority of Its Stations". Billboard. Retrieved 13 August 2014.

External links