WTPA (AM)

WTPA

Pompano Beach, Florida United States
Broadcast area	South Florida
Frequency	980 kHz
Programming
Language(s)	Haitian Creole
Ownership
Owner	Sam Rogatinsky (HMDF, LLC)
History
First air date	May 1, 1959 (1959-05-01) (as WLOD)
Former call signs	WLOD (1958–1978) WPIP (1978–1982) WBSS (1982–1986) WWHR (1986–1987) WWNN (1987–1997) WHSR (1997–2021)
Call sign meaning	Moved from 1590 AM in the Tampa area
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	27420
Class	B
Power	5,000 watts day 2,500 watts night
Transmitter coordinates	26°20′06″N 80°15′55″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS

WTPA (980 AM) is a radio station that is currently broadcasting a Haitian Creole format. Licensed to Pompano Beach, Florida, United States, the station is owned by Sam Rogatinsky, through licensee HMDF, LLC. Its studios are in Boca Raton; the last transmitter site used was in Parkland.

History

WLOD and WPIP

The Pompano Beach Broadcasting Corporation received a construction permit for a daytime-only radio station on 980 kHz in Pompano Beach on October 15, 1958. WLOD, standing for "Wonderful Land of Dreams",^[2] went on the air on May 1, 1959. The station went through several changes of ownership in its first few years. Before going on air, Wellington Shilling and Charles Johnson had sold their stakes to Arthur Harre and Leonard Versluis; within a year, the station had been acquired by the Franklin Broadcasting Company, which owned it until selling to Sunrise Broadcasting Company in 1965.^[3] The station sponsored a women's tennis tournament, which was dubbed the WLOD International.^[4]

After a series of attempts to improve WLOD's power and to broadcast at night, WLOD finally got both in 1978 with an improvement to 2,500 watts day and the addition of nighttime service with 500 watts.^[3] The station did not change its easy listening format, but it did use the move to relaunch as WPIP.^[5]

WBSS and WWHR

In 1981, WPIP's easy listening sound gave way to oldies, branded as "98 Gold, Blue Suede Radio". However, the choice of August 16 turned out to be a poor one to debut a new format: the station planned to be off the air, but instead it had to run hourly updates with Tropical Storm Dennis heading for the state.^[6] WPIP rebranded the next year as WBSS, for "boss", to complement the new format.^[7] A popular program in the WBSS era that also aired on other stations was the "Shoppers' Bazaar", hosted by Dick Vance, but the show was canceled in August 1983 after Vance, whose real name was Albin Richard Bloomburg, Jr., was investigated for misrepresentation in travel packages promoted on the program.^[8]

On December 5, 1986, WBSS changed its call letters to WWHR, coinciding with a new "urban gold" format.^[9] The move to a syndicated satellite format led to layoffs of most of 980 AM's air staff, with the station's operations director as the only local DJ in morning drive; the station also began broadcasting in AM stereo.^[10]

WWNN

In 1987, Sunrise sold WWHR to 777 Communications, Limited Partnership, for $1.4 million.^[11] The new ownership, headlined by West Palm Beach advertising agency owner Dudley Baker^[12] and with Joe Nuckols as general manager, changed the call letters to WWNN and relaunched the station on August 2 as the "Winner's News Network", featuring motivational programming.^[13] The WNN format, the first of its kind in the nation,^[14] included four- to five-minute segments of motivational tapes, obtained through an agreement with the Nightingale-Conant company and primarily focusing on sales and personal relationships, interspersed with news, weather and traffic reports^[13] and came with plans for national syndication.^[15] Because the station played ideas, not records, it played music between each motivational excerpt to help listeners digest each snippet.^[16]

At least one person found fault with WWNN's motivational programming, saying the station did not practice what it preached: a man charged in 1989 that the station refused to interview him for a position because he was blind, leading the Florida Federation for the Blind to protest outside a station self-help event.^[17]

In 1992, Howard Goldsmith's HMS Broadcasting, owner of Boca Raton's WSBR (740 AM), acquired WWNN and relocated its operations to Boca Raton.^[18] Goldsmith retained the motivational format in morning and afternoon drive, but much of WWNN's other programming became health talk.^[19] The WWNN call letters were moved in 1997 when Goldsmith acquired a much stronger, 50,000-watt signal at 1470 AM, the former WRBD.^[20]

WHSR

With WNN moved to 1470 kHz, 980 kHz entered into a new phase of its history and changed its call letters to WHSR, broadcasting programming in Haitian Creole.^[21] Most of WHSR's airtime was brokered to Lesly Jacques, a former Radio Métropole sports commentator who paid $600,000 a year in 1999 for 22 hours a day of airtime, operating as Radio Haiti Amérique Internationale and selling most of it to other programmers and using the rest for his own shows.^[22] He had started with a four-hour slot on the station after WWNN moved to 1470, and he had a devoted fan club and a retail store.^[23] Operations remained the same after Beasley Broadcast Group of Naples acquired Goldsmith's three broadcasting outlets in 2000 for $18 million.^[24]

Jacques's popularity came under some fire after Haiti's 2000 presidential election, as some in the community protested that Jacques did not give airtime to supporters of the country's new president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.^[25] Edouard Laventure, an Aristide supporter who was fired by Jacques for alleged breaches of their agreements, claimed that Jacques had become too self-important.^[26] In 2002, Jacques was on air for 60 hours a week on WHSR.^[27] In addition to its music and talk programming for the Haitian community in South Florida, the station aired a variety of other brokered talk shows, including one hosted by a Jewish rabbi,^[28] Muslim programming, and Indian and Hindu programming.^[29]

Closure

In September 2019, the city of Parkland approved the acquisition of the Nob Hill Road transmitter site used by WHSR and WSBR from Beasley for $7.1 million; the city is to use the land, and an adjacent 12-acre parcel owned by the city, for a future park.^[30] As a result of the sale, both stations signed off at midnight on December 1, 2019.^[31] Haitian programming that had been on WHSR moved to another Haitian station in South Florida, WSRF (1580 AM).^[32] Indian programming that had been on WHSR moved to WHSR's sister station WWNN.

Effective February 3, 2021, Beasley sold WHSR and translator W280DU to Sam Rogatinsky's HMDF, LLC for $362,500. On November 1, 2021, Rogatinsky moved the WTPA call letters from 1590 AM near Tampa that November to allow that station to become WHOT.

References

1. "Facility Technical Data for WTPA". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
2. "A Star is Born in Broward County". Fort Lauderdale News. May 1, 1959. p. 9-E. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
3. "History Cards for WTPA". Federal Communications Commission. (Guide to reading History Cards)
4. Bondurant, Bill (March 19, 1969). "Liddy And His 18 Headaches". Fort Lauderdale News. p. 1D.
5. "WLOD Gets FCC Okay For More Power, Time". Fort Lauderdale News. June 20, 1978. p. 6B. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
6. Kelley, Bill (August 18, 1981). "Radio station format switches at bad time". Fort Lauderdale News. p. 6D. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
7. Sympson, Ron (June 14, 1982). "You, too, can cruise with a real dream boat". Fort Lauderdale News. p. C1. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
8. Kohn, Keith (September 23, 1983). "Warrant issued in travel-package case". Miami News. p. 8A. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
9. "Radio Stations". News/Sun-Sentinel. February 14, 1987. p. 16D. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
10. Altaner, David (February 2, 1987). "AM RADIO STATION TO DOUBLE LISTENERS' PLEASURE". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
11. "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. April 27, 1987. p. 104. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
12. Glabman, Maureen (June 22, 1987). "SOUTHLAND ADVERTISING LEADER, PARTNERS BUYING RADIO STATION". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
13. Mirrer, Lori (August 19, 1987). "Radio station plays 'hit ideas instead of hit records'". Miami News. Scripps-Howard News Service. p. 4C. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
14. Altaner, David (October 5, 1987). "AM radio station hopes to motivate listeners". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. p. 7. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
15. Tucker, Neely (October 23, 1987). "Waves of inspiration". Florida Today. pp. 8B, 7B. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
16. Williams, Elisa (February 8, 1988). "Motivation station plans to syndicate". Palm Beach Post. p. 4. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
17. Neal, Terry (July 28, 1989). "Charge of Unfairness: Blind man accuses radio station of hiring discrimination". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. p. 8-B. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
18. Doup, Liz (August 11, 1992). "Up in the Air". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. pp. 1E, 6E. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
19. Curry, Pat (September 24, 1992). "Healthy motivation". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. p. 3E. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
20. Rusnak, Jeff (April 3, 1997). "Changes at WRBD". Sun-Sentinel. p. 3E. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
21. Bennett, Brad (June 30, 1997). "Little Haiti: Immigrant shops bring Caribbean color to Delray". Sun-Sentinel. pp. 1B, 5B. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
22. Monnay, Thomas (September 18, 1999). "The sound of freedom". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. pp. 1D, 6D. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
23. Dozier, Marian (May 5, 2000). "Station's success based on education". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. pp. 1B, 2B. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
24. "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. January 10, 2000. p. 84. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
25. Dozier, Marian (March 22, 2001). "Protesters rip radio host". Sun-Sentinel. pp. 1B, 2B. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
26. Dozier, Marian (March 9, 2001). "Demonstration follows firing at Haitian radio station in Boca Raton". Sun-Sentinel. pp. 1B, 2B. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
27. Port, Susan T. (April 1, 2002). "Tuning in for Haitian interests". Palm Beach Post. pp. 1D, 12D. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
28. "Rabbi on radio". Sun-Sentinel. September 26, 1997. p. 5E. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
29. Bernard, Peter (March 19, 2001). "A festival to dye for". Sun-Sentinel. p. 3B. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
30. "Regular City Commission Meeting-Minutes, Thursday, September 12, 2019". City of Parkland. September 12, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
31. Venta, Lance (December 1, 2019). "$7.1 Million Land Sale Leads To Sign-Off Of Two South Florida AMs". RadioInsight. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
32. Excéus, Valencie (November 23, 2019). "A night of inspiration..." Retrieved December 1, 2019 – via Facebook. A night of inspiration with keynote speaker, author Rene Godefroy; the last official 980AM event. The station is moving to 1580AM, to bigger and better things. Thank you to Lesly Jacques for 22 years of service to the community.

External links

• Facility details for Facility ID 27420 (WTPA) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• WTPA in Nielsen Audio's AM station database