 | |
| Broadcast area | South Florida metropolitan area |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 1360kHz |
| Programming | |
| Language | Haitian Creole |
| Format | Haitian |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WKAT | |
| History | |
Former call signs | WKAT (1937–2018) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 27713 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 9,300watts day 400 watts night |
| Translator(s) | 102.3 W272DS (Miami) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | wqvn.co |
WQVN (1360kHz) is acommercialAMradio station,licensed toNorth Miami and servingSouth Florida. It is owned by Nelson Voltaire, with the license held by Radio Piment Bouk. Programming is in theFrench Creole language, and is targeted at listeners fromHaiti.
By day, WQVN is powered at 9,300wattsnon-directional. But at night, to reduce interference to other stations on1360 AM, it reduces power to 400 watts. Thetransmitter is on NE 71st Street inMiami.[2] Programming is also heard on 250-wattFM translatorW272DS at 102.3MHz.[3]
WKAT was first licensed by the FCC on December 3, 1937 to operate on 1500 kHz, transmitting from North Bay Road in Miami Beach. The original licensee was Miami Beach mayor A. Frank Katzentine.[4] The frequency was moved to 1330 kHz in 1940, and the current 1360 kHz on the "Radio Moving Day" on March 29, 1941.[5]
In the 1940s, singer-songwriterArthur Fields worked at the station while in semi-retirement[6] when the station had a popular music format.
WKAT spent the 1960s and 1970s as a Miami Beach-based local talk station.[7]
Prior to 2005, WKAT had been South Florida's last remaining classical music station.[7]
Theconservativetalk radio format began in 2005 with a lineup that resembled other outlets owned bySalem Communications:Michael Medved,Laura Ingraham,Hugh Hewitt,Michael Savage, andWilliam Bennett among others. And like the other stations, its tagline was "Where Your Opinion Counts."
In 2005–06, WKAT was the radio station that carried games of theFlorida Pit Bulls, a defunct franchise in theAmerican Basketball Association, later joining theContinental Basketball Association, as theMiami Majesty.
WKAT next began airing Salem Communications' "Radio Luz" Spanish-language Christian format, which also airs on sister station WWDJ 1150 in Boston.
On December 11, 2017,Salem Media Group sold WKAT to Miami-Haitian broadcaster and activist Nelson Voltaire,[8] known under his on-air name “Piman Bouk.” The station switched to Haitian language programming under anLMA in January 2018.
Salem retained the Radio Luz format and iconic Miami “WKAT” callsign and moved them to sister stationWHIM. The station on 1360 AM concurrently changed its call sign to the current WQVN.
Larry King's early radio career was spent at WKAT, where he hosted a morning show at Pumpernik's restaurant on Miami Beach, interviewing entertainers working in Miami, includingJackie Gleason andFrank Sinatra.[9]
For two years, WKAT 1360 AM was the South Florida home for talk radio hostNeil Rogers, who debuted on the station in March 1976 in the 3 to 6 PM afternoon drive shift and left in 1978.
25°57′36″N80°16′13″W / 25.96000°N 80.27028°W /25.96000; -80.27028
