WSUN-FM
Encyclopedia
WSUN-FM is a commercial modern rock
music radio station
in Tampa, Florida
, broadcasting on 97.1 FM
.
and northern Pinellas
Counties. The station later became WVTY, then WLVU, carrying an easy listening format. In 1998, the station would relocate to 97.1 FM (swapping frequencies with Citrus County
's WXOF
), to better reach the Tampa Bay market. Soon afterward, Cox Radio would acquire WLVU in a swap (see below), and transfer its WSUN calls to FM, adopting an oldies format as Oldies 97.1.
Mired with a subpar signal and being one of two Oldies stations in the market did not allow WSUN to take off in the Tampa Bay area. While rumors of Cox flipping the station to All-80’s ran rampant, the station began stunting with music from 2001: A Space Odyssey
. At 5:00 p.m. on November 3, 2000, the Tampa Bay area got its first taste of an alternative rock formatted station in many years with the debut of 97X. The first song, Hemorrhage
by Fuel
was dedicated to Modern Adult-Contemporary WSSR
and Active Rocker WXTB
, both of whom are owned by competitor Clear Channel Communications
.
signed on, then a time-share with WFLA
. The station moved to its longtime 620 kHz frequency in 1929, and got the frequency all to itself in 1941, when WFLA moved to 940 kHz (then to 970 shortly afterward). From the 1960s into the 1980s, WSUN was known as a leading country-western
formatted station, benefiting from its signal that covered all of Florida's Gulf Coast by day and reached into Texas
by night.
Owned by the city of St. Petersburg
throughout most of its early life, the city sold WSUN radio and its television counterpart, WSUN-TV
, to Hy Levinson, a Detroit broadcaster and owner of that city's WCAR
radio. In 1970, WSUN-TV would go dark, while WSUN radio and its then-sister, WQXM-FM
, would be sold to the broadcasting arm of pharmaceutical company Plough, Inc.
In the mid-1980s, Plough would later sell WSUN and WQXM separately, with WSUN being sold to Taft Broadcasting
, then-owner of WTSP
television and WYNF-FM
.
In the late-1980s, WSUN flipped to all-news, following its purchase by CBS Radio
from Taft. It then later flipped to a news-talk format, which remained after its purchase from Cox Broadcasting in the 1990s. In 1998 Cox swapped its 620 AM signal for the 97.1 signal owned by the Concord Broadcasting Group, whose easy-listening station, WLVU-FM, moved from 106.3 to 97.1 shortly before the swap. After the move to FM, WSUN adopted an oldies format as "Oldies 97.1", while Concord changed 620's calls to "WSAA", becoming a simulcast of Bay News 9
. (It would later be sold to Clear Channel Communications
, becoming the new frequency for WDAE.) http://members.aol.com/jeff99500/wfla.html
locations, although later volumes were made available at other locations. Proceeds from the first album's sales benefited Audubon of Florida's Coastal Islands Sanctuaries Program. For subsequent albums, proceeds from the sales benefit The Nature Conservancy
. The albums' goal is to provide exclusive acoustic performances and to help raise money and awareness to the needs of environment in Florida
.
The latest installment in the series, Volume 7, released on September 8, 2011, includes performances by Foster the People
, A Day to Remember
, Silversun Pickups
, Manchester Orchestra
, Matt Schultz from Cage the Elephant
, Sick Puppies
, Young the Giant
, The Joy Formidable
and Grouplove
.
Modern rock
Modern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...
music radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
in Tampa, Florida
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
, broadcasting on 97.1 FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
.
History
The station signed on sometime in the late-1970 on the 106.3 FM frequency as WHBS, a station that served primarily PascoPasco County, Florida
Pasco County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 344,765. The July 1, 2007 census estimate according to the U.S. Census Bureau for the county is 462,715. Its county seat is Dade City, Florida which is in the northeast part of the county - somewhat...
and northern Pinellas
Pinellas County, Florida
Pinellas County is a county located in the state of Florida. Its county seat is Clearwater, Florida, and its largest city is St. Petersburg. This county is contained entirely within the telephone area code 727, except for some sections of Oldsmar, which have the area code 813...
Counties. The station later became WVTY, then WLVU, carrying an easy listening format. In 1998, the station would relocate to 97.1 FM (swapping frequencies with Citrus County
Citrus County, Florida
Citrus County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 118,085. The U.S. Census Bureau 2008 estimate for the county was 141,416 . Its county seat is Inverness, Florida...
's WXOF
WJQB
WJQB is a radio station broadcasting ABC Radio's True Oldies format. Licensed to Spring Hill, Florida, USA, it serves the northern Tampa Bay area, including Hernando and Citrus Counties . The station is currently owned by WGUL-FM, Inc...
), to better reach the Tampa Bay market. Soon afterward, Cox Radio would acquire WLVU in a swap (see below), and transfer its WSUN calls to FM, adopting an oldies format as Oldies 97.1.
Mired with a subpar signal and being one of two Oldies stations in the market did not allow WSUN to take off in the Tampa Bay area. While rumors of Cox flipping the station to All-80’s ran rampant, the station began stunting with music from 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
. At 5:00 p.m. on November 3, 2000, the Tampa Bay area got its first taste of an alternative rock formatted station in many years with the debut of 97X. The first song, Hemorrhage
Hemorrhage (In My Hands)
"Hemorrhage " is a song by the rock band Fuel, released as the first single from their second album Something Like Human. The single spent twelve weeks at number one on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart and is the band's most successful song to date...
by Fuel
Fuel (band)
Fuel is an American rock band formed by guitarist/songwriter Carl Bell and bassist Jeff Abercrombie in 1989. Originally known as Small the Joy, they changed the group's name to Fuel sometime in 1994...
was dedicated to Modern Adult-Contemporary WSSR
WBTP
WBTP is a Urban Contemporary radio station that serves the Tampa Bay area that plays hip-hop, R&B, and soul music that aims towards the African American community. Its target audience is African Americans between the ages of 18-34, but its main competitors are WLLD which has a very similar target...
and Active Rocker WXTB
WXTB
WXTB — branded 98 Rock — is a commercial radio station in the Tampa, Florida area. However the station can be heard as far north as Ocala and Williston due to its strong signal...
, both of whom are owned by competitor Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
.
The call letters
The "WSUN" calls have been used in the St. Petersburg area since 1927, when WSUNWSUN (defunct)
WSUN was a radio station which broadcast to Tampa Bay Area, Florida from 1927 until 2001.-History:The radio station began operating at 620 kHz in October 1927. In 1928 it was moved to 580 kHz, then to 900 kHz that year...
signed on, then a time-share with WFLA
WFLA (AM)
WFLA is an AM radio station in Tampa, Florida, serving the Arbitron Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater market with additional listenership to the east in the adjacent Lakeland-Winter Haven market and to the south in the adjacent Sarasota-Bradenton market...
. The station moved to its longtime 620 kHz frequency in 1929, and got the frequency all to itself in 1941, when WFLA moved to 940 kHz (then to 970 shortly afterward). From the 1960s into the 1980s, WSUN was known as a leading country-western
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
formatted station, benefiting from its signal that covered all of Florida's Gulf Coast by day and reached into Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
by night.
Owned by the city of St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
throughout most of its early life, the city sold WSUN radio and its television counterpart, WSUN-TV
WSUN-TV
WSUN-TV was a television station in St. Petersburg, Florida from 1953 to 1970 and was the first TV station in the Tampa/St. Petersburg television market.-Early history:...
, to Hy Levinson, a Detroit broadcaster and owner of that city's WCAR
WDFN
WDFN is a sports-talk radio station in the Detroit, Michigan, market. It broadcasts in the AM radio band at 1130 kHz. WDFN is owned by Clear Channel Communications, and until the end of the 2008-09 NBA season, was the flagship station for the Detroit Pistons....
radio. In 1970, WSUN-TV would go dark, while WSUN radio and its then-sister, WQXM-FM
WXTB
WXTB — branded 98 Rock — is a commercial radio station in the Tampa, Florida area. However the station can be heard as far north as Ocala and Williston due to its strong signal...
, would be sold to the broadcasting arm of pharmaceutical company Plough, Inc.
Schering-Plough
Schering-Plough Corporation was a United States-based pharmaceutical company. It was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering as Schering AG in Germany. In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough to form Schering-Plough. On November 4, 2009 Merck & Co...
In the mid-1980s, Plough would later sell WSUN and WQXM separately, with WSUN being sold to Taft Broadcasting
Taft Broadcasting
The Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated, was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio....
, then-owner of WTSP
WTSP
WTSP is a CBS-affiliated television station in St. Petersburg, Florida . It broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 10....
television and WYNF-FM
WWRM
WWRM is an adult contemporary music formatted radio station serving the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida radio market. WWRM began on 107.3 , but later moved to 94.9 with its soft AC format...
.
In the late-1980s, WSUN flipped to all-news, following its purchase by CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
from Taft. It then later flipped to a news-talk format, which remained after its purchase from Cox Broadcasting in the 1990s. In 1998 Cox swapped its 620 AM signal for the 97.1 signal owned by the Concord Broadcasting Group, whose easy-listening station, WLVU-FM, moved from 106.3 to 97.1 shortly before the swap. After the move to FM, WSUN adopted an oldies format as "Oldies 97.1", while Concord changed 620's calls to "WSAA", becoming a simulcast of Bay News 9
Bay News 9
Bay News 9 is a cable news television network located in St Petersburg, Florida. It currently serves the Tampa Bay Area including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, Polk, Pasco, Hernando, and Citrus counties...
. (It would later be sold to Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
, becoming the new frequency for WDAE.) http://members.aol.com/jeff99500/wfla.html
Concerts
- The Next Big Thing concert series, formerly at Coachman Park in Clearwater, FloridaClearwater, FloridaClearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...
, is now being held at the 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre.
Current
- Drew, Seth, and Danielle - Mornings
- Danielle - Middays
- Fisher - Afternoon Drive
- Geo - Nights
- Dick - Weekends / Tasty Fresh
Former
- Rich FieldsRich FieldsRichard Wayne "Rich" Fields is an American broadcaster, spokesman, announcer and meteorologist, best known for being the announcer of the American version of The Price Is Right from 2004–2010....
, the current announcer for CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's The Price is RightThe Price Is RightThe Price Is Right is a television game show franchise originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and created by Bob Stewart, and is currently produced and owned by FremantleMedia. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also includes merchandise such as video games, printed...
and Gameshow Marathon, was a DJ at WSUN-FM during its oldies format period. - Napoleon - The first version of the morning show was Fisher and Napoleon.
- Crissy - The original night jock (7p-12a).
- Pat Largo - The original morning drive jock (10a-3p). Also the first host of Local Motion.
- Ford Prefect - Did a few weekend shifts, but best known for hosting Sunday School (old school alternative) on Sunday nights.
- Professor Brian- Hosted Sunday School with Ford Prefect
- Jimmy - Original part-timer. Did weekends, over-nights, and fill-shifts. Also hosted Local Motion with Tre.
- Kate - Was the on and off night jock after Crissy left.
- Tre - Weekends, Fill-shifts, and co-hosted Local Motion with Jimmy.
- Phoebe - Nights & Middays | Currently midday host and music director for Hot101.5
97X Green Room
The 97X Green Room is a annual series of compilation albums of live music recorded for WSUN-FM's Green Room series. All albums contain acoustic versions of popular songs from artists heard on the station. It was released for sale primarily at Tampa Bay area Best BuyBest Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
locations, although later volumes were made available at other locations. Proceeds from the first album's sales benefited Audubon of Florida's Coastal Islands Sanctuaries Program. For subsequent albums, proceeds from the sales benefit The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization that works to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive....
. The albums' goal is to provide exclusive acoustic performances and to help raise money and awareness to the needs of environment in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
.
The latest installment in the series, Volume 7, released on September 8, 2011, includes performances by Foster the People
Foster the People
Foster the People is an American indie pop band formed in Los Angeles, California in 2009. The group is composed of Mark Foster , Mark Pontius , and Cubbie Fink...
, A Day to Remember
A Day to Remember
A Day to Remember is an American rock band from Ocala, Florida. Founded in 2003 by guitarist Tom Denny and drummer Bobby Scruggs, the band has released four studio albums, nine singles and eight music videos...
, Silversun Pickups
Silversun Pickups
Silversun Pickups is an alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2002. The band comprises Brian Aubert, Nikki Monninger, Christopher Guanlao, and Joe Lester....
, Manchester Orchestra
Manchester orchestra
Manchester Orchestra is an American indie rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2005. The group is currently composed of rhythm guitarist-singer-songwriter Andy Hull, lead guitarist Robert McDowell, keyboardist and percussionist Chris Freeman, bassist Jonathan Corley, and drummer Tim Very...
, Matt Schultz from Cage the Elephant
Cage the Elephant
Cage the Elephant is an American rock band from Bowling Green, Kentucky, that formed in mid-2006. Since their formation, the band has gained a large following in the US as well as the UK and Canada for their sound and their high-energy live performances. The band released their self-titled debut...
, Sick Puppies
Sick Puppies
Sick Puppies is an Australian rock band, formed in 1997. The band consists of vocalist and guitarist Shimon Moore, bassist Emma Anzai and drummer Mark Goodwin....
, Young the Giant
Young the Giant
Young the Giant is an American alternative rock band that formed in Irvine, California, in 2004. The band's line-up is Sameer Gadhia , Jacob Tilley , Eric Cannata , Payam Doostzadeh , and François Comtois...
, The Joy Formidable
The Joy Formidable
The Joy Formidable are a three-piece band formed in 2007 in North Wales and currently located in London, England. The band consists of Ritzy Bryan , Rhydian Dafydd , and Matt Thomas ....
and Grouplove
Grouplove
Grouplove is an American indie rock band which was formed in 2009 by Hannah Hooper, Christian Zucconi, Sean Gadd , Andrew Wessen and Ryan Rabin .-Biography:Grouplove began when Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi forged a friendship with...
.