WMBM
Urban Gospel | |
Affiliations | Westwood One |
---|---|
Ownership | |
Owner | New Birth Broadcasting Corp. Inc. |
History | |
First air date | October 31, 1954 (as WAHR) |
Former call signs | WAHR (1954–1958) WMET (1958–1962) WSBH (1993–1995) |
Call sign meaning | Where Ministry Blesses Many |
Technical information | |
Facility ID | 40045 |
Class | C |
Power | 1,000 watts full time |
Transmitter coordinates | 25°46′10.00″N 80°8′11.00″W / 25.7694444°N 80.1363889°W |
Links | |
Website | wmbm.com |
WMBM (1490
History
WAHR
WAHR signed on the air October 31, 1954. Owned by and named for Alan Henry Rosenson,[2] the station aired a continuous music format. Rosenson owned WLRD (93.9 FM), which changed its call letters to WAHR-FM in 1956.[3]
The manager of the station hired a young man, Larry Zeiger, to perform miscellaneous clean-up tasks. When one of the station's announcers suddenly quit, Zeiger was put on the air; Simmons suggested that Zeiger's last name was too ethnic, so he became Larry King.[4] King would become the station's sports director, leaving in 1958 for WKAT.[5]
WMET
Rosenson sold WAHR-AM-FM to Community Service Broadcasters in 1958.[6] After the $150,000 purchase, the new ownership—most of which hailed from Cincinnati—changed the call letters to WMET, continuing a format emphasizing news, sports and adult music.[7] WMET eventually became a full-time Spanish-language outlet, the first in South Florida. In 1961, the owners of daytime-only station WMBM (1220 AM), Florida's first black radio station—which in turn had just absorbed the call letters and some talent of the previous WMBM at 790 AM[8]—agreed to a deal with Latin Broadcasting Company to swap facilities.[9] The deal was finalized and announced in March 1962; Consolidated Communications, which owned WMBM, paid $253,000 to acquire the WMET-AM-FM facility.[10]
WMBM
On April 3, 1962, the WMET intellectual unit moved to 1220 kHz, and 1490 (and 93.9 FM) received a relocated WMBM.
In 1992, Eddie Margolis bought WMBM from his father. After a failed half-Haitian, half-gospel format, the station flipped to talk in 1993[13] and briefly adopted the call letters WSBH. On March 10, 1995, the station returned to a gospel format, as it had for much of the 1980s, and the WMBM call letters.[14]
References
- ^ "WMBM Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
- ^ "Radio Station WAHR On Air". Miami Daily News. October 31, 1954. p. 10-A. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
- ^ FCC History Cards for WMIA (former WAHR-FM/WMET-FM/WMBM-FM)
- ^ King, Larry (2001). "Larry King on Getting Seduced". Blank on Blank (Interview). Interviewed by Cal Fussman. Los Angeles: PBS Digital Studios. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
- ^ Anderson, Norris (May 23, 1958). "Ever Know A Poor Yankee?". Miami News. p. 3C. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
- ^ FCC History Cards for WMBM
- ^ Anderson, Jack (May 19, 1958). "'Colonel Hall' Enjoys a Visit". Miami Herald. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
- ^ "WMBM, WFUN: Switcheroo On Radio In Miami". Miami News. January 23, 1961. p. 4B. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ Dunn, Kristine (December 14, 1961). "WMBM To Go 24 Hours". Miami News. p. 7B. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ "Radio WMBM, WMET Will Make a Switch". Miami Herald. March 23, 1962. p. 2-F. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ Dunn, Kristine (April 2, 1962). "WVCG-FM To Boost Power". Miami News. p. 4B. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ Katel, Jacob (December 19, 2014). "RIP China Valles, Pioneering Miami Jazz DJ, Friend of Duke Ellington, Dead at 89". Miami New Times. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
- ^ a b Almond, Steven; Defede, Jim (March 31, 1993). "Transmission: Impossible". Miami New Times. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
- ^ "WMBM Call Sign History". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
External links
- WMBM in the FCC AM station database
- WMBM in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
- FCC History Cards for WMBM