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| Broadcast area | South Florida |
| Frequency | 850kHz |
| Branding | 850 WFTL |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | February 14, 1948; 77 years ago (1948-02-14) |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | "Fort Lauderdale" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 29490 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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| Repeater(s) |
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| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | www |
WFTL (850AM) is acommercial radio station inWest Palm Beach, Florida, serving parts ofPalm Beach County,Broward County, andMiami-Dade County.[2] The station airs anews-talkformat and is owned byHubbard Broadcasting, through licensee WPP FCC License Sub, LLC.
By day, WFTL is powered at 50,000 watts, the maximum for commercial AM stations in the United States. As850 AM is aclear channel frequency, to avoid interference to other stations, WFTL reduces power at night to 20,000 watts. It uses adirectional antenna with a six-tower array. Thetransmitter is nearU.S. Route 27 inOkeelanta.[3]
Weekdays on WFTL begin withThe South Florida Morning Show with Jennifer Ross and Bill Adams. Another local show hosted by Joyce Kaufman is heard in mid-afternoons. The rest of the schedule isnationally syndicatedconservative talk programs:Brian Kilmeade,Dan Bongino,Erick Erickson,Joe Pags,Lars Larson,America in the Morning andRed Eye Radio.
On weekends, the station airs specialty shows on health, money, real estate and the law. Syndicated weekend hosts includeBill Handel,Michael Brown,Bill Cunningham and Markley, Van Camp & Robbins. Most hours begin with an update fromABC News Radio. WFTL is the South Florida home ofFlorida State Seminoles football.
The stationsigned on the air on February 14, 1948.[4] Its originalcall sign was WEAT, and it was owned by the Lake Worth Broadcasting Corporation, headed by Robert Rounsaville. Itscity of license wasLake Worth and it broadcast on 1490 kHz with 100 watts of power.[5]
WEAT was anaffiliate of theNBC Radio Network, carrying NBC's dramas, comedies, news and sports during the "Golden Age of Radio". Programming ranged from NBC Theater toEddie Cantor.[6] In a few years, the power increased to 250 watts.
In 1954, WEAT changed its community of license to West Palm Beach and moved to850 AM. That allowed it to increase to 1,000 watts of power.
For many years, WEAT was owned by billionaireJohn D. MacArthur. In 1969, WEAT added an FM counterpart,WEAT-FM (Easy 104.3). The FM played quarter hour sweeps ofeasy listening music. In the 1970s, the AM station switched to acountry music format, with national news supplied by the ABC Information Radio Network.[7] On October 1, 1982, WEAT moved to atalk radio format. On April 16, 1984, it becameadult contemporary station WCGY, emphasizing 1960s and 1970s music; it would devote 25 percent of its playlist to current music.[8] By April 1985, the station was once again known as WEAT, and was simulcasting WEAT-FM.[9]
In October 1986, sportscasterCurt Gowdy sold WEAT-AM-FM to J.J. Taylor Companies Inc. ofNorth Dartmouth, Massachusetts, for an undisclosed price.[10] In May 1992, WEAT-FM switched to an adult contemporary format. According to theSun-Sentinel, on the AM side, WEAT adopted a more conservative easy listening format to keep the station's 45-and-older listeners. The studios were re-equipped for digital sound, with all the music on compact disc and all the commercials run from acomputer hard drive.[11] In July 1994, WEAT switched to anall-news format[12]
In October 1995, WEAT-AM-FM were sold to OmniAmerica Group ofCleveland for an estimated $18 million.[13] In May 1996, WEAT was sold with seven other stations for $178 million to Chancellor Broadcasting Co.[14] WEAT was sold again in June of that year, along with WEAT-FM andWOLL (94.3 FM), toAmerican Radio Systems ofBoston.
In April 1998, the station was sold to James Hilliard's James Crystal Enterprises for $1.5 million and changed its call letters to WDJA. The call sign represented "Dow Jones Averages", with WDJA becoming a business talk station.[15] In November 2000, Jack Cole, formerly ofWJNO, began a daily hour-long show.[16] Cole left the station in October 2001 because of a brain tumor;[17] he died three months later.[18]
In October 2003, the station relaunched as "Live 85" with call letters WFTL, swapping with aFort Lauderdale station at 1400. "Live 85" featured an all-news format.[19] In August 2005, after the all-news format failed, the station became "NewsTalk 8-5-oh WFTL".
WFTL and co-owned stationsKBXD, WFLL, andWMEN, were purchased out of bankruptcy from James Crystal Enterprises by Mark Jorgenson's ACM JCE IV B LLC in a transaction that was consummated on August 6, 2015. The purchase price was $5.5 million.[20] The station was operated by Palm Beach Broadcasting until that company was acquired byAlpha Media in February 2016. Alpha announced its intent to purchase the station outright in February 2017. Alpha's purchase of WFTL and WMEN, at a price of $2 million, was consummated on April 27, 2017.
On September 27, 2018, Alpha Media agreed to sell the West Palm Beach cluster toHubbard Radio.[21] The sale, at a price of $88 million, was consummated on January 23, 2019.
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26°32′31.2″N80°44′29.2″W / 26.542000°N 80.741444°W /26.542000; -80.741444
