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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Palm Beach County |
| Frequency | 107.9MHz (HD Radio) |
| RDS | SUNNY1079 |
| Branding | Sunny 107.9 |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Classic hits |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | July 4, 1965; 60 years ago (1965-07-04) |
Former call signs |
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| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 1918 |
| Class | C1 |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 130 meters (430 ft) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | www |
WEAT (107.9FM, "Sunny 107.9") is acommercial radio station inWest Palm Beach, Florida. It airs aclassic hitsradio format, switching toChristmas music for much of November and December. It is owned byHubbard Broadcasting, through licensee WPB FCC License Sub, LLC. The studios and offices are on Northpoint Parkway in West Palm Beach.[2] The station plays 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s hits from theTop 40 charts of those decades.
WEAT has aneffective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000 watts. Thetransmitter is located offFlorida State Road 7 at 60th Street North in West Palm Beach.[3]
The station debuted, with thecall sign WPBF (no relation to thepresent-day television station), on July 4, 1965. It was abeautiful music format, playing quarter hour sweeps of mostly soft instrumentalcover versions of popular songs. It was owned by Ken-Sell, Inc. alongsideWIRK (1290 AM). The power was only 26,000 watts, a quarter of its current output.
The station became WIRK-FM on March 5, 1971.[4] Later that year, the station shifted to anautomatedoldies format known as "Olde Golde".[5]
In September 1973, WIRK-FM ended its oldies programming and flipped tocountry music with live, local disc jockeys: Barry Grant mornings, Randy Marsh middays, Dave Roberts afternoons and “Country Gene” Evans evenings.[6] By 1978, it ranked in the top 10 most-listened-to country music stations in the United States, in terms of its share of local listeners.[7]
WIRK-AM-FM were sold in 1983 to Price Communications for $7 million.[8] A year later, it entered into an agreement with actorBurt Reynolds to build a remote studio at his horse ranch inJupiter and broadcast from it from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.[9]
Price sold WIRK-FM and 1290 AM, at the time known as WBZT, to Chancellor Broadcasting in 1994.[10] In 1995, Chancellor traded its West Palm Beach radio stations, including WIRK-FM, toAmerican Radio Systems in exchange for a station in California and $33 million.[11] The next year,CBS bought the entire American Radio Systems group in a $2.6 billion transaction.[12]
In 2012,CBS Radio, citing a desire to focus on larger markets, sold its entire West Palm Beach cluster to Palm Beach Broadcasting for $50 million.[13] The sale included the intellectual unit ofsoft adult contemporary station 104.3WEAT-FM. Because Palm Beach already owned one FM station inWRMF, it had to divest two of CBS's stations to other buyers. Because the 104.3 FM facility was powerful and could be moved into the Miamiradio market, it was tagged for sale.
On June 1, 2012, "Sunny" and the WEAT call letters moved from 104.3 (which became WMSF) to 107.9, whileWIRK and its country format moved to 103.1 MHz, marking the end for formerhot adult contemporary station WPBZ.[14] Dean Goodman folded Palm Beach Broadcasting into another radio holding, Digity, upon the latter's purchase of NextMedia in 2013.[15]
Effective February 25, 2016, Digity, LLC and its 124 radio stations were acquired byAlpha Media for $264 million. Alpha then sold its West Palm Beach cluster toHubbard Broadcasting in 2018 for $88 million.[16]
After having been an adult contemporary station since 1992 (when the original WEAT-FM flipped from easy listening), Hubbard transitioned WEAT to classic hits in 2019, reducing overlap with co-owned WRMF.
In 2020, WEAT started broadcasting inHD.
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26°34′38″N80°14′31″W / 26.5773°N 80.2420°W /26.5773; -80.2420
