WNMA (1210
AM) is a
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
licensed to
Miami Springs, Florida
Miami Springs is a city located in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city was founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss, "The Father of Naval Aviation", and James Bright, during the famous "land boom" of the 1920s and was originally named Country Club Estat ...
, serving the
Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. It airs a Spanish-language Christian format known as "Radio Oasis 1210". The station is owned by
Multicultural Broadcasting
Multicultural Broadcasting is a media company based in New York City founded by Chinese-American businessman Arthur Liu. It caters mostly to the Asian American community and owns television and radio stations in several of the top markets in mul ...
and currently operated by Adrian Pontes.
It broadcasts with 47,000 watts during the day and 2,500 watts at night. The signal can be received from as far north as
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
to as far south as the upper Florida keys. The nighttime directional pattern of WNMA protects
1210 in Philadelphia, a
Class A 50,000-
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
station.
History
WFEC and WMBM
WFEC signed on April 10, 1949. The daytime-only outlet broadcast on 1220 kHz
and was owned by the Florida East Coast Broadcasting Company. However, Florida East Coast reached a deal by the end of 1949 to sell the station to Howard B. Steere, an advertising executive from
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
. Early in 1950, an attempt made before the station had signed on to move it to 1230 kHz, thereby allowing it to broadcast at night, was denied by the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC); in 1951, Steere asked to move WFEC to 1240 kHz, which would also allow it nighttime operation, but the move was dismissed a year later.
Steere sold WFEC in 1952 to
David Haber, owner of an automobile repair company and a fleet of taxi cabs in New York, for the same purchase price he had paid two years ago—$50,000. Haber then filed to obtain a construction permit for a television station on channel 10 the next year, proposing to co-locate the TV transmitter with the radio station at 350 NE 71st Street.
With five other applicants seeking the channel, Haber dropped out in November.
Under Haber and continuing under the second Florida East Coast Broadcasting Company, station programming was primarily aimed at a Black audience. As early as December 1952, WFEC promoted itself in trade advertising as "the only station in Florida featuring all-negro programming".
Robert Earl Sawyer hosted a weekly program, "Negro Review", on WFEC in 1952. 1957 brought
King Coleman
Carlton "King" Coleman (January 20, 1932 – September 11, 2010) was an American rhythm and blues singer and musician, known for providing the vocals for the 1959 hit single, " (Do The) Mashed Potatoes", recorded with James Brown's band. Over ...
, formerly of
Tampa
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
's
WIOK
WIOK (107.5 FM) is an American radio station in Falmouth, Kentucky. The station plays a Southern Gospel format. The station is owned and operated by the Hammond Broadcasting, Inc. It broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 6,000 watt ...
. When the station gained a competitor—WMBM (800 AM, later
790 AM
The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 790 kHz: The Federal Communications Commission classifies 790 AM as a regional broadcast frequency.
In Argentina
* LR6 Mitre in Buenos Aires
* LRA22 in San Salvador de Jujuy, Jujuy
* ...
)—in the mid-1950s, it also lost DJ Milton Smith, known as the "Fat Daddy"; WFEC continued to promote a "Fat Daddy Show" with another DJ, while WMBM promoted Smith as the "Original Fat Daddy".
In 1955, WFEC and two other Miami stations—WMBM and WAHR—came under scrutiny by the FCC for their airing of programs by "tipsters" claiming to help listeners predict—and bet on—horse race winners. The stations won license renewals after removing the programs. The station was sold later in the year from Haber to a new Florida East Coast Broadcasting Company, owned by
General Teleradio executive Harry Trenner and WFEC general manager Herbert Schorr, for $70,000. Two years later, a new group of stockholders, known as Fraternity Associates, bought a third of WFEC in exchange for a $135,000 loan. In 1960, WFEC was sold to Consolidated Communications of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
for $250,000, with the new owners pledging to retain the station's format.
The WMBM call letters became available when 790 AM changed its call letters to WFUN in January 1961 and became a general-market
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...
outlet. WFEC took on the WMBM call letters as well as several personalities that had previously broadcast on WMBM at 790. However, WMBM also sought what had already been denied twice to the 1220 facility: the ability to broadcast at night. At the end of 1961, it began negotiating a deal with Latin Broadcasting Company, the owners of
WMET (1490 AM), which would see WMET and WMBM swap facilities. The deal was finalized and announced in March 1962; Consolidated paid $253,000 to acquire the WMET-AM-
FM facility.
WMET and WOAH
On April 3, 1962, the WMBM intellectual unit moved to 1490 kHz, and 1220 received a relocated WMET, a Spanish-language outlet. Three years later, however, the station dropped Spanish-language programming and changed its call letters to WOAH, airing Miami's first full-time country music format; the format flip left
WFAB
WFAB (890 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. It is licensed to Ceiba, Puerto Rico
Ceiba () is both a small town and a municipality in northeast Puerto Rico. It is named after the famous Ceiba tree. Ceiba is locat ...
as the city's only Spanish-language radio station. Another attempt was made in 1965 to change the station's frequency; however, the FCC dismissed Latin's application to shift to 1190 kHz in 1969.
WLTO and WCMQ
On January 9, 1969, WOAH changed its call letters to WLTO, returning to Spanish-language programming. However, the station would not experience major turbulence until 1972, when its ownership consortium, Dynamic Broadcasting, sold the outlet to Herbert S. Dolgoff for $450,000. Dolgoff changed the call letters to WCMQ and instituted a Spanish-language pop music format; he did not speak any Spanish when he bought the station but said he was trying to learn.
The new WCMQ call letters connected the station to a lengthy broadcasting heritage in Cuba, where
CMQ had been one of the most important broadcasters in the country prior to the Cuban Revolution, when the radio station became the core of the
Radio Rebelde
Radio Rebelde (English: Rebel Radio) is a Cuban Spanish-language radio station. It broadcasts 24 hours a day with a varied program of national and international music hits of the moment, news reports and live sport events. The station was set up ...
national network. A month after they were adopted by the Miami radio station, CMQ Corporation, a production company owned by the Mestre brothers who had owned CMQ before its nationalization, objected to the new moniker, claiming that WCMQ was attempting to traffic in the former Cuban broadcaster's goodwill and reputation. The FCC Broadcast Bureau overrode the objection, but on appeal, the full commission granted CMQ's application for review on February 21, 1973, citing the potential for confusion between the American and Cuban outlets and ordered the radio station to revert to its previous WLTO call letters. The Miami station countered by noting that the Cuban station had not used the call letters on air since 1968. On July 31, 1974, WLTO became WCMQ again; the next year, the FCC denied a petition by CMQ Corporation to deny the license renewal of WCMQ.
As WCMQ, the station upgraded from 250 watts of daytime power to 1,000 in 1978. It also gained an FM partner in 1974 when Dolgoff acquired WQXK-FM in
Hialeah
Hialeah ( ; ) is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. With a population of 223,109 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Hialeah is the sixth-largest city in Florida. It is the second largest city by population in the Mi ...
and relaunched it as
WCMQ-FM
WCMQ-FM (92.3 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a salsa music and Spanish & English AC format. Licensed to Hialeah, Florida, United States, the station serves the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area. WCMQ's studios are located at the Raul Alarcon Broad ...
.
Dolgoff attempted to sell WCMQ-AM-FM in 1979 to American Radio and Television, owned by Michael F. Leone and Joy S. Davis, for $4.5 million; the sale collapsed in July 1980. By 1981, WCMQ AM aired an ''Oro Puro'' ("Pure Gold") oldies format, complementing the younger sound of WCMQ-FM. In the early 1980s WCMQ made its fourth—and successful—attempt to change frequencies and broadcast at night. In 1981, the station filed to change its city of license from Miami to Miami Springs, move from 1220 to 1210 kHz, increase its daytime power and add nighttime service. The station moved to 1210 in 1985 and began transmitting in
C-QUAM
C-QUAM (Compatible QUadrature Amplitude Modulation) is the method of AM stereo broadcasting used in Canada, the United States and most other countries. It was invented in 1977 by Norman Parker, Francis Hilbert, and Yoshio Sakaie, and published i ...
AM stereo, the first such station in South Florida.
After having owned WCMQ-AM-FM since 1972 and 1974, respectively, Dolgoff sold the pair for $15 million to
Spanish Broadcasting System
Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. (SBS) is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States. SBS is also invested in television and internet properties, deriving the majority of its income from advertising through i ...
in 1986, marking his retirement from station ownership. SBS ownership brought an overhaul to the AM, which was sinking in the ratings, and changed its moniker from "Radio Alegre" to "Radio Centro" with a faster-paced format.
In the 1990s, WCMQ's programming shifted to talk. The station was the charter Spanish-language broadcaster of the expansion
Florida Marlins
The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park.
The franc ...
Major League Baseball team in 1993, with
Felo Ramírez
Rafael "Felo" Ramírez (22 June 1923 – 21 August 2017) was a Cuban-American Spanish language sports announcer, most notably for the Miami Marlins.
Born in Bayamo, Cuba, Ramirez was also a boxing expert, having broadcast fights for Latin Americ ...
as play-by-play announcer, under a deal that included affiliates in Latin America. Tomás García Fusté, a market veteran, defected from competitor
WQBA
WQBA (1140 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish talk format. Licensed to Miami, Florida, United States, the station is currently owned by Uforia Audio Network with programming from TUDN Radio. Previous call letters were WMIE, owned by ...
in 1993 after more than a decade at that station.
Expanded band assignment
On March 17, 1997 the FCC announced that 88 stations been given permission to move to newly available "
Expanded Band" transmitting frequencies, ranging from 1610 to 1700 kHz, with WCMQ authorized to move from 1210 to 1700 kHz.
The call sign for the original WCMQ on 1210 AM was changed to WNMA on November 25, 1997, thus allowing a construction permit for the expanded band station on 1700 AM to inherit the historic
WCMQ call letters on December 5, 1997. The FCC's initial policy was that both the original station and its expanded band counterpart could operate simultaneously for up to five years, after which owners would have to turn in one of the two licenses, depending on whether they preferred the new assignment or elected to remain on the original frequency.
Due to this requirement, on February 23, 2006 the station on 1700 AM, now with the call letters
WJCC, was deleted. However, numerous other joint standard/expanded band station pairs had been permitted to operate beyond the initial five year deadline, and a petition to resume operations was granted, with WJCC's license restored on October 4, 2012. Since then, the FCC deadline has been extended multiple times, and both stations have remained authorized. One restriction is that the FCC has generally required paired original and expanded band stations to remain under common ownership.
One-on-One Sports and Radio Única
In 1997, citing a desire to exit AM radio and focus on music-formatted FM stations, SBS sold its three AM outlets—WCMQ,
KXMG in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
and
WXLX
WXLX (103.7 FM) is a radio station licensed to Lajas, Puerto Rico
Lajas (, ) is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Lajas Valley in southwestern Puerto Rico, on the southern coast of the island, bordering the Caribbean Sea, ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
—to the
One-on-One Sports radio network, in a $45 million transaction that saw One-on-One enter station ownership for the first time.
For WCMQ listeners and air staff, the move was a shock. García Fusté found out from the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
news wire, and his WCMQ program ''Micrófono Abierto'' was flooded with calls. However, for WCMQ, it ended up not being goodbye, as the station moved to a
new expanded band license at 1700 kHz. That station signed on November 17, 1997—the same day that 1210 kHz flipped to One-on-One as WNMA.
One-on-One sold WNMA and WCMQ in February 1998 to the Radio Única Spanish-language radio network in a $9 million transaction. WNMA was one of 13 owned-and-operated Radio Única stations, and network operations also were based in Miami. García Fusté continued to host a program. Additionally, WNMA became the Spanish-language home of
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...
football under a two-year deal in 2001.
Sale to Multicultural
In 2003, Radio Única declared bankruptcy and sold its 15 stations to
Multicultural Broadcasting
Multicultural Broadcasting is a media company based in New York City founded by Chinese-American businessman Arthur Liu. It caters mostly to the Asian American community and owns television and radio stations in several of the top markets in mul ...
for $150 million. As part of the bankruptcy, the company laid off 220 employees, including 76 in Miami.
As with most other Multicultural stations, WNMA featured brokered programming. In 2006, Venezuelan radio network began buying air time to broadcast some of its programming in Miami, hoping to build an audience and fearful of potential reprisals as
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...
consolidated media power in Venezuela.
In 2011, Deportes Media took over WNMA under a
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
and ran the
ESPN Deportes
ESPN Deportes (, ''ESPN Sports'') is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (whi ...
Spanish-language sports network on the station; WNMA replaced WOCN and increased the signal coverage of the network in south Florida. However, Deportes Media collapsed in 2016, losing its various local marketing agreements in Miami and other cities, and
WMYM
WMYM is a radio station licensed to Kendall, Florida, serving the Miami metropolitan area as the flagship station of the Spanish-language sports network Unanimo Deportes. WMYM is broadcast on 990 kHz.
History
WFAB "La Fabulosa" broadcast a Sp ...
(990 AM) replaced it in the network.
After ESPN Deportes moved to WMYM, WNMA returned to talk, airing programming in English and Spanish.
1210 The Man
In late 2018, Cielo Media, led by former
Salem Media Group
Salem Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SALM; formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher formerly based in Camarillo, California (moved most operations to Ir ...
Miami general manager, Tony Catalyud, began leasing WNMA. It relaunched the station as a male-oriented talk outlet, "1210 The Man", in March 2019.
The station added a series of Caribbean talk shows to its Saturday lineup in September; the programs, which debuted in the 1980s, had aired over
WZAB (880 AM) before it was sold to Immaculate Heart Media and became part of the
Relevant Radio
Relevant Radio (corporate name Relevant Radio, Inc.) is a radio network in the United States, mainly broadcasting talk radio and religious programming involving the Catholic Church. It is the largest Catholic radio network by owned station base. R ...
network.
Oasis
In June 2021, Adrian Pontes leased the station and relaunched it with Spanish-language Christian programming as "Radio Oasis 1210". One of the programs on the station will be his afternoon show, which had previously aired on
WEYS-LP 87.7.
References
External links
Official websiteStreema - WNMA 1210FCC History Cards for WNMA(covering 1946-1980 as WFEC / WMBM / WMET / WOAH / WLTO / WCMQ)
{{Multicultural Broadcasting
NMA NMA may refer to:
*National Management Association, American association for teaching leadership in business management
*National mapping agency, organisation that produces topographic maps and geographic information of a country
*National Meat Asso ...
Multicultural Broadcasting stations
1949 establishments in Florida
Radio stations established in 1949
NMA NMA may refer to:
*National Management Association, American association for teaching leadership in business management
*National mapping agency, organisation that produces topographic maps and geographic information of a country
*National Meat Asso ...
NMA NMA may refer to:
*National Management Association, American association for teaching leadership in business management
*National mapping agency, organisation that produces topographic maps and geographic information of a country
*National Meat Asso ...