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Your favorite stations from the past in Tampa-Saint Pete area.

Y

Yabadabado1

Swiping a thread from the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale page, what were your favorite stations? I left the area in 1970 but mine were WLCY & WSUN and, since I was a weird kid, WWBA with their beautiful music format.
 
i was only in Sarasota briefly for First Phone Wonder School (REI) in 1980, but the Q105/Y95 Top 40 battle was hot (Y95 owned by Taft with a couple of personalities from Q102 in Cincinnati). I found myself listening to "Supermix 96" which had backed off from its "96 Fever" disco format to a mix of disco, R&B and top 40.

I remember 102.5 with the WSRZ calls and a jazz-flavored AOR format (more Steely Dan, not much Foreigner if any) called The Wave, "WSRZ Sarasota-St. Petersburg. Making waves on Tampa Bay".
 
frankberry said:
WLCY, "Elsie," had huge numbers before WRBQ (Q105) entered the scene in 1973Yep,
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frankberry said:
"Elsie" was the one I made my very first song request to and it was strange hearing my squeaky pre-teen voice coming outta the radio ["Something Stupid" by Frank & Nancy Sinatra]. That's what I listened to the most in the afternoon/evenings. One I would have loved to been on when I returned to the area in 1982.....but sadly, long gone before I came back.
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Chronological order:
WOKF 96 Fever and WQXM 98 Rock
WYNF 95 FM
WKRL Classic Rock 97.9
WFLZ Power 93
WXTB 98 Rock and WTBT Thunder 105.5
WSUN 97X and WXGL The Eagle 107.3
 
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WDAE-FM 101 (1972) First Top 40 FM station in the area. Only issue was Rounsaville (the owner) was too cheap to upgrade the signal (32,000 watts in mono from the 390 ft. tower in Downtown Tampa -101 N. Tampa Street) while he was spending to upgrade BJ105 in Orlando. In spite of that, the station came in #1 in the ratings early in 1973. (Brother John Moore, Ted Webb, Chip Taylor, Rob Snowden, Larry Stevens and Chuck Monroe were the major on-air talents) Q- 105 came on in December 1973 with 100kw and $100 give aways and as you can imagine, the rest is history. They flipped the station to WAVV Beautiful Music in January 1975.
 
My personal frame of reference is 1980 and forward. I'd have to mention a few stations.

Q105 from the '80s when it meant everything to everybody. Great full service elements, community outreach, and adult hit music meant everyone could listen. It was truly a "cradle to grave" station.

WPLP and WFLA. The talk wars of the '80s. Then when they cooled off we had WSUN which was best when we had Bob Lassiter and Neil Rogers on the same station.

WGUL. They had one of the best adult standards formats I've ever heard anywhere.
 
I lived in the area in the 90's, thought FLZ and 98 Rock were outstanding. Steve Duemig had a very good show on DAE.

For pure comedy, however, nothing beat TanTalk 1340. I actually listened to Imus when they carried him, and some of the brokered shows were so incredibly bad that they were just laugh-out-loud funny.

Also an honorable mention to pre-syndication Glenn Beck on WFLA. Not a political show at all, and whenever he followed a Rays' day game, he'd fill to the top of the hour with a parody of a Cox station. Almost drove off the road a few times I was laughing so hard.
 
RMarino said:
My personal frame of reference is 1980 and forward. I'd have to mention a few stations.

Q105 from the '80s when it meant everything to everybody. Great full service elements, community outreach, and adult hit music meant everyone could listen. It was truly a "cradle to grave" station.

WPLP and WFLA. The talk wars of the '80s. Then when they cooled off we had WSUN which was best when we had Bob Lassiter and Neil Rogers on the same station.

WGUL. They had one of the best adult standards formats I've ever heard anywhere.
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I remember listening to WPLP for talk but WFLA seems to have escaped my notice.
 
RMarino said:
WPLP and WFLA. The talk wars of the '80s. Then when they cooled off we had WSUN which was best when we had Bob Lassiter and Neil Rogers on the same station.
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If I am remembering correctly, I applied at WPLP back in the early 80s. I think the studio was in a wooded area and the GM or PD [whomever it was that interviewed me] just gave off weird, creepy vibes. Had me come back for a second interview and then went off on a tirade about "why are you even here?" and ranting about some other stuff. I just excused myself and said "adios" and fled the place. Just being out in a wooded area, made me feel like I was waiting for Scooby Doo & the rest of the crew to come running in and rip the mask off the guy to find out he had the station's real GM/PD hostage somewhere.
 
My favorite was The Power Pig. Power Jam mix shows all the way!
Next, Q105 in the same time period during The Power Pig. Mix shows & more rhythmic leaning kept me locked.
3rd, Wild 98.7 when they were playing Tampa Hip Hop in the late-90s to early 2000s. They introduced me to Tampa Tony & Krazy.
4th, Z93 before they became The Power Pig. It was a great sounding Oldies station, especially on "Hot Fun Saturday Night".
 
95YNF
620 WSUN (when they were simulcasting WIOD Mimi..Neil Rogers, Rick & Suds, ect)
14QPD, Lakeland
970 WFLA (back in the Bob Lassiter and Lionel days)
"Play 91" (late ,80s early ,90s 910 WPLA)
 
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