WSFS (FM)

WSFS
City Miramar, Florida
Broadcast area Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area
Branding 104.3 The Shark
Slogan South Florida's Alternative
Frequency 104.3 MHz (also on HD Radio)
HD-2: WAXY
First air date 1969 (as WEAT-FM in West Palm Beach)
Format Alternative Rock
ERP 100,000 watts
HAAT 283 meters
Class C1
Facility ID 29567
Callsign meaning W South Florida Shark
Former callsigns West Palm Beach:
WEAT-FM (1969-2012)
WMSF (2012)
Miami-Fort Lauderdale:
WAXY-FM (2012-2015)
Owner Entercom
(Entercom Miami License, LLC)
Sister stations WAXY, WLYF, WMXJ
Webcast Listen Live
Website 1043theshark.com

WSFS (104.3 FM) – branded 104.3 The Shark – is a commercial Alternative Rock radio station (104.3 FM) licensed to Miramar, Florida serving the Miami metropolitan area. Its studios are in Miami Gardens and the transmitter is in Pembroke Park.

History

The frequency used for WEAT was originally 104.5. It moved to 104.3 some time in the 1970s or 1980s in order to increase their signal while not being short spaced with a Coral Gables station on 105.1. The station on 105.1 was then able to also increase its facility. WEAT (branded as "Sunny") moved to 107.9 on June 1, 2012. It was replaced on 104.3 by the similarly-formatted "Smooth FM," whose first song was "Baby, I Love Your Way" by Big Mountain. Meanwhile, WIRK, which was previously located at 107.9, was moved to 103.1 and replaced WPBZ, which at that time was carrying a Hot AC format. During the "Smooth FM" format, 104.3 had the call letters WMSF. The change came about due to WEAT's previous owners CBS Radio selling their entire West Palm Beach cluster to Palm Beach Broadcasting. To meet ownership limits, Palm Beach needed to divest one station to a different company, which was WMSF, and operated the station via an LMA until it could find a buyer. Before the sale was announced, WEAT was planning to move into the Miami-Fort Lauderdale radio market.

On August 24, 2012, Palm Beach Broadcasting announced its intention to sell WMSF to Lincoln Financial Media for $13 million. Five days later, on August 29, after playing "Caribbean Breeze" by The Rippingtons, WMSF began simulcasting WAXY, branded as "790 & 104.3 The Ticket."[1] On August 31, 2012, WMSF changed their call letters to WAXY-FM. The purchase of WAXY-FM was consummated on December 10, 2012.

On September 19, 2013, WAXY-FM completed its move to the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market as its city of license was changed to Miramar.

WAXY-FM's callsign is not new to the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market as it was used on 105.9 FM, as "WAXY 106", for many years under RKO General and Metroplex Communications (as a sister station to WHYI-FM) before being relegated to the AM station now at 790 through multiple acquisitions, and the station at 105.9 became WBGG-FM, "Big 106".

On December 8, 2014, Entercom announced that it was purchasing Lincoln Financial Group's entire 15-station lineup (including WAXY-FM) in a $106.5 million deal, and would operate the outlets under a LMA deal until the sale is approved by the FCC.[2] The sale was approved on July 14, 2015.[3]

On August 21, 2015, at 11 a.m., WAXY-FM changed their format to Alternative Rock, branded as "104.3 The Shark", launching with 5,000 songs in a row commercial free.[4] This marked the first Alternative Rock station in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale radio market since February 11, 2005, when WZTA flipped to Reggaeton. The first song played under the new format was "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons. The WAXY simulcast was moved to their HD-2 digital subchannel.

On August 28, 2015, WAXY-FM changed their call letters to WSFS to match the "Shark" branding.

References

  1. http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/70124/lincoln-financial-media-acquires-104-3-wmsf-will-flip-to-sports/
  2. "Entercom Acquires Lincoln Financial Media" from Radio Insight (December 8, 2014)
  3. https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/93470/fcc-approves-entercom-acquisition-of-lincoln-financial-media/
  4. Entercom Brings Alternative 104.3 The Shark to Miami

External links

Coordinates: 27°01′34″N 80°10′41″W / 27.026°N 80.178°W / 27.026; -80.178

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, February 10, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.