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| Broadcast area | Tampa Bay area |
| Frequency | 93.3MHz (HD Radio) |
| RDS | 933FLZ |
| Branding | 93.3 FLZ |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Contemporary hit radio |
| Subchannels | HD2:Pride Radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | 1948 (1948) |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | "Florida Z" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 29732 |
| Class | C |
| ERP |
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| HAAT | 472 meters (1,549 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 27°49′10.8″N82°15′38″W / 27.819667°N 82.26056°W /27.819667; -82.26056 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | 933flz |
WFLZ-FM (93.3MHz) is a commercial radio station inTampa, Florida. It airs acontemporary hit radio (CHR/Top 40) format and is owned and operated byiHeartMedia. The station's studios and offices are located on Gandy Boulevard in South Tampa. Local DJs are heard on weekdays, withsyndicated shows, includingAmerican Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest, theiHeartRadio Countdown, theRemix Top 30 with Hollywood Hamilton andOn The Move with Enrique Santos, heard on weekends.
WFLZ has aneffective radiated power (ERP) of 97,000 watts. Thetransmitter is off Rhodine Road inRiverview, Florida, amid othertowers for Tampa-area TV and FM stations. WFLZ-FM broadcasts in theHD Radio format; the HD2 subchannel carriesPride Radio, an iHeart service forLGBTQ listeners, while the HD3 subchannel formerly carriedEvolution, iHeartMedia'sdance music/EDM service.
In 1948, the stationsigned on as WFLA-FM, one of Tampa Bay's and Florida's earliest FM stations.[2] (An early FM station at 105.9 in Tampa that is todayWMTX went on the air in 1947.) WFLA-FM mostlysimulcast the programming from AMsister stationWFLA. WFLA-AM-FM wereaffiliates of theNBC Red Network, carrying its dramas, comedies, news and sports. The stations were owned by the Tribune Company, which also owned the daily newspaper,The Tampa Tribune. In 1955, a TV station was added,WFLA-TV, which carriedNBC television programming, since the radio stations were NBC affiliates.
In the 1960s, WFLA-FM ended the simulcast with the AM, switching tobeautiful music. It played quarter-hour sweeps of instrumentalcover versions of popular songs,Broadway andHollywood show tunes. In 1966, theTribune and its three stations were sold to Richmond Newspapers, which becameMedia General in 1969.
In 1981, it changed to acountry music format, as WOJC, "Orange Country 93". However, it was unable to compete against country powerhouses at the time,WSUN andWQYK-FM.
On March 19, 1984, it changed again toadult contemporary music, bringing back the WFLA-FMcall sign and using the name "93 FLA". While it was a little more successful, it still faced competition fromWNLT andWIQI. It was then reformatted into WPDS ("Paradise 93") on September 26, 1985, playingsoft adult contemporary music.
The FM station changed its call letters to WFLZ in October 1987. The next year in 1988, WFLA and WFLZ were both purchased byJacor Broadcasting.[3] And on July 25 of that same year, the station dropped adult contemporary and flipped to 1960s and 1970soldies as "Z93". The oldies format lasted only a year. The Tampa Bay radio landscape change was influenced by aSt. Petersburg Times "Favorite DJ" contest. A disc jockey on a small AM station,WHBO, won. Most radio insiders thought one of the DJs from the area's popular and dominant Top 40/CHR stationWRBQ-FM, known as "Q105", would gather the most votes. The executives at Jacor saw that WRBQ, which, up to that point, had been the dominant FM Top 40 leader in Tampa for about 15 years, might be vulnerable from another full-power FM station playing contemporary hits.
During a week of stunting in September 1989, including an hour of anurban contemporary micro-format, Z93 DJs demanded that Q105 pay them up to $4 million if they wanted to remain the only Top 40 station in the Tampa Bay market. Q105 ignored the demands of Z93, as well as daily newspapers such as the Tampa Times and local Tampa television news coverage that the ransom request was receiving.
At 8:15 a.m. on September 25, Z93 DJsJack Harris and Dr. Don Carpenter called Q105's owner, Gary Edens, at a private hotel room on the West Coast (5:15 am. Gary's time), waking him up to offer him one last chance to pay the $4 million ransom to keep Z93 from switching to Top 40. Live on 93.3 then, Edens finally responded: "Come on guys! Looking forward to it. Let's go! Have a happy day!" This was followed by four sample clips of the songs: "The Last Time" byThe Rolling Stones, "Hello, Goodbye" byThe Beatles, "Too Late to Turn Back Now" by theCornelius Brothers & Sister Rose, and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" bySteam. After a minute-stunt of sound effects of electric wires and pigs squealing,Power 93, The Power Pig would then be launched, with "Cold Hearted" byPaula Abdul being the first song played.[4] The station aggressively targeted Q105 with promotions such as handing out "Screw The Q" T-shirts at various on-the-street events. Within 71 days of the format flip, "The Power Pig" had overtaken "Q105" in the Tampa market ratings, and would eventually lead to WRBQ flipping tocountry in June 1993. The Power Pig was co-created by Randy Michaels, operations manager Marc Chase, and Michael Albl, who originally conceived the marketing concept.
In March 1995, "The Power Pig" branding was dropped as the station re-branded as "93-3 FLZ", using the slogan "The New Music Revolution". WFLZ evening disc jockeyBubba the Love Sponge had his show also airing for a couple of hours a day on a station inJacksonville. For a few months, WFLZ was simulcast on co-ownedKHTS-FM inSan Diego while a new CHR format was created for that market.
In 1998, Jacor Broadcasting was acquired by Clear Channel Communications (nowiHeartMedia). That put WFLZ under the same roof as its former competitor, WRBQ, until that station was sold off toInfinity Broadcasting in 1999. This created an awkward situation, as some of the staff of WRBQ, who were subject to personal attacks from WFLZ, had moved to higher positions in Clear Channel that oversaw their old rivals at WFLZ.
In 2000, the station underwent a slight re-imaging, adopting a new logo and the slogan "The #1 Hit Music Channel." Longtime morning man and operations manager BJ Harris left WFLZ for a station inCincinnati to do afternoons and PD work. WFLZ was theflagship station for theMJ Morning Show hosted byTodd Schnitt, which was also aired on other Clear Channel FM stations in Florida andMissouri.
In 2004, it earned the "CHR Station of the Year" and "CHR Personality of the Year" (for Kane) awards in theRadio Music Awards. In 2011, it was named FMQB "CHR Station of the Year".
On January 19, 2012, Clear Channel announced that after 18 years, theMJ Morning Show would be discontinued. The final broadcast was on February 17, 2012. Clear Channel announced that the Kane Show would take over the morning spot.[5]
On April 4, 2014, radio DJs Jeff Daly and Josh Foreman, also known asRatboy and Staypuff, announced they would be moving toPhiladelphia to host an afternoon-drive slot from 3 to 7 at co-owned Top 40 stationWIOQ. Radio DJ Nathan "Brody" Halegua took over the slot from 7 pm to midnight on April 7.
On October 30, 2015, at 3:00 pm, WFLZ temporarily changed its name to "Taylor 93.3" to honorTaylor Swift. The last concert on her1989 World Tour in the U.S. was in Tampa atRaymond James Stadium.[6]
On April 11, 2020, the Kane Show ended. After over a month of running with no morning DJ, iHeart announced that "THEjoeSHOW", hosted by Joe Carballo, Ashley Nics and Producer Jed from sister stationWKQI in Detroit, would host mornings beginning June 1.[7]
On January 25, 2021, to celebrate theTampa Bay Buccaneers winning theNFC Championship Game and making history as the first team to play aSuper Bowl at home, the station re-branded as "93-3 B-U-C." The "B-U-C" branding continued on the day after the Buccaneers won the game.
During Hurricane Milton in 2024, WFLZ simulcasted the audio ofWFLA-TV's live news coverage. The iHeart-specific coverage that aired statewide aired in Tampa on the other stations in the cluster.
WFLZ-FM's HD2 subchannel, which signed on in 2006, programmed adance music format. At the start, it was launched as an extension of WFLZ's popular weekend mix showThe House Party. In 2015 the subchannel switched to the "Evolution" EDM brand, but customized for Tampa-area listeners, billed as "Evolution 93.3 Tampa Bay." The subchannel also served as a reporter toBillboard'sDance/Mix Show Airplay Chart, in part due to having more of local content apart from the national "Evolution" network.
On June 26, 2019, WFLZ-FM-HD2 flipped to iHeart's "Pride Radio" format targeting theLGBTQ community, while Evolution moved to a newly created HD3 subchannel.[8] "Evolution 93.3" has since been replaced with the national "Evolution" radio network as the flagship station.