WTMP (AM)

WTMP is a radio station serving the Tampa Bay, Florida, broadcasting on 1150 AM. The station is licensed to Scott Savage, Receiver, and operated under a local marketing agreement by WestCoastMedia.

Station history

During its original 57 year-tenure on this frequency and on FM 96.1, and currently, WTMP is currently playing an urban adult contemporary targeting the African American community in the Tampa Bay area. Its main urban competitors are WBTP and WRXB. Its target audience is African Americans between the ages of 25-54 and is the current home of the Tom Joyner Morning Show. "The D.L. Hughley Show" is also carried by the station, whose slogan is "Tampa Bay's Classic Soul and Today's R&B".

WTMP, on 1150 AM originally, has been a longtime heritage Urban Contemporary station in the market. Noted R&B vocalist and Tampa native King Coleman got his start as a DJ on WTMP in the 1950s. In the late 1990s, the station, then-owned by Broadcast Capital, was bought by Tama Broadcasting, which has headquarters in Tampa, thus making WTMP the flagship. Long controlled by the Cherry family, Tama also owns stations in Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, Savannah, Georgia and Greenville, South Carolina; it owns newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Pierce. The owner went on to buy the then-WGUL in 2002 and made it a Hip Hop/Urban station (and home to Russ Parr in the Morning) as WTMP-FM. Even after a format change to rhythmic oldies, that station did not do well due to its rimshot signal, so it ended up as a simulcast of WTMP a year later. The rimshot signal, which barely reaches the Hillsborough County line from its transmitter southeast of Brooksville, also couldn't be moved closer to Tampa or upgraded with changes to the tower or wattage, due to interference issues with other stations broadcasting on 96.1 and nearby frequencies.

The Tampa Bay would see an Urban-formatted Hip Hop station months later called WBTP; WLLD is a Rhythmic-formatted Hip Hop station and has been around years prior. Such competition was a minor setback for WTMP as it was losing younger listeners to WBTP, but it was already restructured to an Urban Adult Contemporary by then anyway. Outside the R&B and Classic Soul playlist tenure, it also offered Gospel (early weekday mornings and Sundays), Old School Mix shows Friday nights and Blues Sunday nights. In addition, it also had talk shows on weekends.

On September 2, 2011, after a 57-year run, WTMP's legacy as a R&B outlet came to an abrupt end at 3 PM, as Davidson Media Group took over operation of the station under a local marketing agreement from Tama, who filed for bankruptcy and placed the station in court-ordered receivership. Davidson then flipped the combo to a Spanish tropical format. All of the syndicated shows and airstaff were already pink-slipped a day before the flip.^[1]

It was announced that WTMP would return to an Urban AC format on May 1, 2014.^[2] The two stations were split from common operation with the flip, as the operation of WTMP was taken over by WestCoast Media, while the FM was retained by Davidson.^[3]

On March 14, 2016, WTMP flipped to classic hip hop as "Boomin' 1150".^[4]

Former logos

See also

WTMP-FM

References

External links

• Official WTMP (AM) Website
• Tama Broadcasting
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WTMP
• Radio-Locator Information on WTMP
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WTMP

Coordinates: 28°04′07″N 82°33′08″W / 28.06861°N 82.55222°W / 28.06861; -82.55222