WLAA (1600 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 ...

broadcasting a Regional Haitian format. Licensed to

Winter Garden, Florida Winter Garden is a city west of Downtown Orlando in the western part of Orange County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 46,051 as of 2019. History ...

, United States, it serves the Orlando area. The station is currently owned by Shanti Persaud, through licensee Unity Broadcasting LLC.

History

WLAA was first licensed, as WGOA, in 1957, to E. V. Price in Winter Garden, for 1,000 watts daytime-only on 1600 kHz. The call letters were changed to WOKB on May 25, 1959, to WXXO on April 4, 1988, to WXTO on January 22, 1990, and back to WOKB on January 31, 1994.

Expanded Band assignment

On March 17, 1997, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that eighty-eight stations had been given permission to move to newly available " Expanded Band" transmitting frequencies, ranging from 1610 to 1700 kHz, with WOKB authorized to move from 1600 to 1680 kHz. A Construction Permit for the expanded band station was assigned the call letters WTIR (now WOKB) on April 12, 1999. 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. However, this 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.

Later history

On May 6, 2008, the two stations on 1600 and 1680 AM swapped call letters, with WOKB transferred to the expanded band station at 1680 AM, and WLAA moved to 1600 AM. 1600 AM's call letters later changed to WNTF on November 13, 2017, and back to WLAA on June 1, 2018. As of 2018, the

Regional Mexican Regional Mexican is a Latin music radio format encompassing the musical genres from the different parts of rural Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Genres include banda, country en español, Duranguense, grupero, mariachi, New Mexico ...

"La Nueva Que Buena" format has moved to WKIQ 1240 AM.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for WLAA
(covering 1956-1979 as WGOA / WOKB) {{Spanish Radio Stations in Florida Mexican-American culture in Florida

LAA Laa or LAA may refer to: Laa * Laa an der Thaya, Lower Austria * Laa (Gemeinde Zettling), Styria * Oberlaa, Unterlaa, Erlaa (disambiguation), Laaer Berg * Laamaikahiki, King of Kauai * Laalaa people, an ethnic group in Senegal * Lehar language, a ...

Regional Mexican radio stations in the United States