WXDJ

For the North Miami Beach, Florida radio station that held the call sign WXDJ at 95.7 FM from 1987 to 2014, see WRMA.
WXDJ
City Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Broadcast area West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood
Branding El Zol 106.7
Frequency 106.7 MHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date August 15, 1962 (as WFTL-FM)
Format Spanish Tropical/Salsa
Audience share 1.8 (Sp'08 P2, R&R[1])
ERP 100,000 watts
HAAT 300 meters
Class C0
Facility ID 66376
Transmitter coordinates 25°59′34.00″N 80°10′27.00″W / 25.9927778°N 80.1741667°W / 25.9927778; -80.1741667
Former callsigns WFTL-FM (1962-1974)
WGLO (1974-1979)
WSDO-FM (1979-1982)
WWJF (1982-1984)
WJQY (1984-1993)
WTPX (1993-1994)
WRMA (1994-2014)
Owner Spanish Broadcasting System
(WRMA Licensing, Inc.)
Sister stations WRMA, WCMQ-FM, WRAZ-FM, WMFM, WSBS-TV
Webcast Listen Live
Website elzol.com

WXDJ (106.7 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish Tropical format. Licensed to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, the station serves the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood area. The station is currently owned by WRMA Licensing, Inc.[2][3] The station is also broadcast on HD radio.[4]

The station is currently owned by Spanish Broadcasting System.

History

This station has quite a history on the frequency of 106.7 FM. It started out on August 15, 1962 as WFTL-FM, sister to 1400 WFTL. In the mid to late 1970s, it was WGLO with a beautiful music format. In the late 1970s, it was WSDO-FM ("Studio 107"). WWJF ("The Joy Of Florida") (1982) later became WJQY on (12/10/1984). Joy 107 FM achieved high ratings with a Lite Adult Contemporary format for nine years until the Miami radio demographics changed. Joy-107's programming consisted of Transtar's syndicated, satellite delivered "Format-41" service.

Station owner Tak Communications wanted to rebrand from Joy 107 to something more modern and fresh. Calls were changed to WTPX (for "Tropics 106.7 FM"), with a Hot Adult Contemporary format established on July 15, 1993. WTPX only lasted 9 months according to the FCC call sign change database. Tak Communications failed at bringing up the poor 2 share 12 plus Arbitron ratings. Tak filed bankruptcy in the early 1990s, and EZ Communications got two of the three Tak radio stations, WTPX and Philadelphia's WUSL, in October 1993.

EZ did not own WTPX very long as they swapped WHQT 105.1 to Cox for WSOC-FM in Charlotte and decided to exit Miami altogether. They could not sell WTPX to Cox, too, because ownership rules prohibited more than two FM's, and Cox already owned WFLC 97.3. So, EZ sold 106.7 FM to SBS (Spanish Broadcasting System) and the calls were changed on October 24, 1994, to WRMA and the station transitioned to a Spanish language format on 12:05am on that date. The last English song that was played on WTPX from 11:53pm until midnight was Donna Summer's "Last Dance", then a short good bye from Joy 107 Veteran & South Florida radio veteran George Sheldon mentioning the past of the 106.7 FM frequency in Southeast Florida by mentioning former call signs WFTL-FM, WGLO, WSDO, WWJF, WJQY, and WTPX. After the top of the hour legal ID, there was about 10 minutes of dead air and then the new Spanish format WRMA-FM made its mark on South Florida radio. The first song was Jon Secada's Spanish version of "Just Another Day". In 2010, WRMA went from playing a lot of new music, often from unfamiliar artists, to a focus on the 1990s and 2000s, with few new songs.[5] However, the move did not click with listeners as it started to see a decline in the ratings.

This would lead to rumors of a possible format flip, which began in May 2012 when SBS began registering domains for WRMA, which was followed by the signing of former WPOW morning host DJ Laz to do mornings at sister station KXOL/Los Angeles. On June 25, 2012 at exactly 12 Midnight (ET) WRMA dropped its Spanish Contemporary format to become "DJ106.7," a Bilingual Dance/Rhythmic, featuring English-language Rhythmic Pop and Dance hits mixed in with Latin Rhythmic currents and utilizing bilingual (mostly English speaking) personalities. The flip coincides with the station bringing back DJ Laz (the inspiration for the station's moniker) to the Miami airwaves on July 4, 2012, when his non-compete clause with WPOW expired, even though he was doing the show from KXOL (but would not be voice tracked as he did it live for Miami listeners).[6] Upon the day of the station's debut of DJ Laz's show the station added more air staffers and mixers to the lineup, most of them alumni from other stations.[7] The station is touting themselves as "Miami's New #1 Party Station" using the same fonts and slogan as KXOL. As such, they faced rival Top 40/CHR WHYI, R&B/Hip-Hop WEDR, and the aforementioned WPOW, who also promotes themselves as "Miami's Party Station" as well. Since the flip, WRMA began to move further away from a bilingual approach and Hispanic Rhythmic direction to a more conventional Rhythmic Top 40 presentation by August 2013, which resulted in Nielsen BDS placing the station on its Rhythmic reporting panel, giving WPOW its first serious competition since WPYM left the air in 2005.

On November 28, 2013, at Midnight, WRMA, citing low ratings and the surprise departure of DJ Laz, dropped their Dance/Rhythmic Top 40 format and began simulcasting WXDJ. The last song played on "DJ" was "Take Over Control" by Afrojack. They have now picked up WXDJ's Tropical format and rechristened itself as "El Zol 106.7". The move gives the Tropical format a more expanded coverage area than it had at 95.7, now WRMA.

References

  1. "Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood Market Ratings". Radio & Records.
  2. "WXDJ Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  3. "WXDJ Station Information Profile". Arbitron.
  4. "HD Radio Station Guide". HD Radio. iBiquity.
  5. Leila Cobo, "Across the Dial," Billboard; 7/10/2010, Vol. 122 Issue 27, p. 16.
  6. "DJ Laz Prepping Miami Return As DJ 106.7 Debuts" from Radio Insight (June 25, 2012)
  7. "DJ Laz Leads New Lineup On DJ 106.7/Miami" from All Access (July 5, 2012)
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