WWNN

WWNN (1470 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a talk radio format. Licensed to Pompano Beach, Florida, USA, the station serves the Fort Lauderdale area. Although the station's day power is fifty kilowatts, it is very directional away from Miami stations on 1450 and 1490. The station is currently owned by the Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc., through licensee Beasley Media Group, LLC. Its studios are in Boca Raton and the transmitter is in Lauderhill, Florida.

The Winner's News Network

WWNN began in 1987 on AM980 as a talk format station with a Top 40 format. Motivational speaker Joe Nuckols enticed motivational record company Nightingale/Conant to grant him permission to broadcast cuts from their motivation tape series and broadcast it in a format very much like Top 40 radio stations of the day. Placing them into certain segments every quarter hour (general information, health/lifestyle, money, motivation), "Your Motivation Station" premiered in early 1987 with the intention of being a flagship radio station for a talk-format network called "The Winner's News Network."

After five years with this format, and the station enduring monetary losses, the station was sold to Howard Goldsmith, who had already experienced monetary success with the acquisition of WSBR-AM in 1989.

Joe Nuckols continued working with Nightingale Conant to take the all motivation format to Los Angeles in partnership with John Douglas, a successful entrepreneur and broadcaster. The Los Angeles radio station, KYPA, became the flagship for a group of owned and operated stations including Chicago, Seattle, Dallas, and more. The format was syndicated by ABC Radio Networks until the group of stations was sold to Z Spanish Media.

The Goldsmith era

Goldsmith's apathy towards motivation programming was evident when he scrapped a majority of this programming during the broadcast day for the sake of clients from WSBR who did not feature programs along that station's business talk format. Those individuals were of the field of holisitics who had now found a home on a station where it was rechristened "Health and Motivation Radio" (motivation programming was relegated to those hours that weren't sold, or to the overnight hours, as an alternative to 'dead air').

AM 1470 history

From the 1950s until the 1990s, AM 1470 was the home of soul/R&B station WRBD with studios on Rock Island Road in Lauderhill. The call letters WRBD stood for "Rockin Big Daddy" and featured South Florida radio legends like Joe Fisher, "The Crown Prince" and "The Mad Hatter".

James Thomas ("James T") and Jerry Rushen were involved with WRBD in addition to their legendary 30-plus years at WEDR 99.1 in Miami and now its Cox Broadcasting sister station WHQT "Hot 105". James T was a DJ on WRBD early in his career.

AM 1470 WRBD was very popular soul music station with a signal that covered most of South Florida but broadcast only during daytime hours until the 1980s. During the mid-1970s many WRBD personalities also hosted night time soul music programs on 102.7 FM which was once a sister station to WRBD as WRBD-FM, then WCKO(FM).

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WWNN
• Radio-Locator Information on WWNN
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WWNN