WTIS (1110 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

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, 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 ...

, United States, it serves the Tampa Bay area. The station is currently owned by Esperanza Arroyo, through licensee Q-Broadcasting Corporation, Inc. They also broadcast on FM translator, W266CW 101.1 FM in Tampa. WTIS's AM transmitter and tower are co-located with its sister station, WAMA. The AM frequency broadcasts during daytime hours only, to protect clear channel stations WBT in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

and

KFAB KFAB (1110 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Omaha, Nebraska, with studios and offices on Underwood Avenue in Omaha. It broadcasts a talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. KFAB is a Class A clear channel station, operatin ...

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

History

W. Walter Tison applied on January 31, 1946, to build a new radio station in Tampa. The application was amended in April to specify the daytime-only frequency of 1110 kHz, and 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 ...

approved on July 18, provided Tison divested his interest in Tampa station WFLA. WALT went on the air on December 11, 1946. Tison would go on to found television station

WTVT WTVT (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Tampa, Florida, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Tampa Bay area. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, WTVT maintains studios on Kennedy Bo ...

. WALT was a pioneer Top 40 station in the Tampa area. In the 1960s, a weekly Sunday afternoon broadcast from Tampa Municipal Beach entitled ''Beach Party'' featured ''The Littlest DJ'', Ricky Barone, later known as

Richard Barone Richard Barone is an American rock musician who first gained attention as frontman for the Bongos. He works as a songwriter, arranger, author, director, and record producer, releases albums as a solo artist, tours, and has created concert events ...

The Bongos The Bongos were a power pop band from Hoboken, New Jersey that emerged from the New York City arts scene, primarily active in the 1980s, led by Richard Barone. With their unique musical style, they were major progenitors of the Hoboken indie-pop ...

. In 1970, Suncoast Radio, the owners of future

WQYK-FM WQYK-FM (99.5 MHz, currently branded 99.5 QYK) is a commercial country music radio station in Tampa, Florida. It is under ownership of Beasley Broadcast Group. Its studios are in St. Petersburg (city of license) while its transmitter is east of ...

99.5, bought WALT and relaunched it as a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

station, WQYK. The signal was simulcast with WQYK-FM until 1976, when the AM station was sold to a religious broadcaster and its call letters changed to WTIS. (The WALT callsign would later be reassigned to AM and FM stations in

Meridian, Mississippi Meridian is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, seventh largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 41,148 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and an estimated population in 2018 of 36,347. It is the count ...

.) In addition to its regular religious programming, WTIS aired ''The Debra Evans in the Morning Show'', ''The

Herman Cain Herman Cain (December 13, 1945July 30, 2020) was an American businessman and Tea Party movement activist within the Republican Party. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Cain grew up in Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College with a bachelor's d ...

Show'', ''The Pete O'Shea Show'' and ''The Adam Smith Show''. On January 1, 2017, WTIS notified the

that it had suspended operations on December 31, 2016 because it had lost its lease to the transmitter site, located near the intersection of 50th Street and Causeway Boulevard in the Palm River-Clair Mel area of Hillsborough County. It requested authorization to remain off the air for six months while it searched for a new site. The authorization was granted on January 18, 2017. The station has since been sold to Q Broadcasting Corporation, the owners of WAMA 1550 kHz. The station would return to the air with an oldies pop music format as "Timeless 1110 and 101.1", but would very soon flip to a Spanish-language

Salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: A ...

and Merengue format, with an announcement that they would change to a more general Spanish-language format on April 30, 2018. On April 30, 2018, WTIS flipped to Spanish Variety (Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Spanish Pop and Rock). George Arroyo passed away on October 25, 2022, leaving ownership of WTIS/W266CW to Ezperanza Arroyo.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for WTISLa Mega Tampa Bay Facebook
* * {{Daytime-only radio stations in Florida

TIS TIS, Tis or Tis may refer to: Organisations * Taporoporo'anga Ipukarea Society, an environmental NGO based in the Cook Islands * TransInvestService (TIS), is a large Ukrainian private terminal operator and stevedore operating in the Port of Yuzhn ...

Radio stations established in 1946 1946 establishments in Florida

Spanish-language radio stations in Florida