| Simulcast ofWQAM-FM,Miramar | |
|---|---|
| |
| Broadcast area | South Florida |
| Frequency | 560kHz |
| Branding | 104.3 WQAM |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Sports radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | January 23, 1923; 102 years ago (1923-01-23) |
Former frequencies |
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Call sign meaning | None; assigned from a sequential list[1] |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 64002 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 25°50′23.3″N80°11′22.2″W / 25.839806°N 80.189500°W /25.839806; -80.189500 |
| Repeaters |
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| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (via Audacy) |
| Website | www |
WQAM (560AM) is a commercialradio station licensed toMiami, Florida, United States, featuring a sports format in simulcast withWQAM-FM. Owned byAudacy, Inc., WQAM serves theMiami metropolitan area and much ofSouth Florida as the flagship of theMiami Heat, theFlorida Panthers,Miami Hurricanes football and basketball; is the area affiliate ofInfinity Sports Network and theBetMGM Network; and is the radio home forJoe Rose. Studios for WQAM and WQAM-FM are located in Miami, while WQAM's transmitter resides in Miami'sLittle River neighborhood. In addition to a standardanalog transmission, WQAM is simulcast on digital subchannels ofWPOW andWKIS, and is available online viaAudacy.
WQAM is one of Florida's oldest radio stations. According toFederal Communications Commission (FCC) records, the station was first licensed on January 23, 1923, corresponding with the first license issued with the WQAM call letters.[3] However, multiple alternative dates have been stated for its founding, due to the opinion that WQAM's history should actually start with an earlier Miami station,WFAW. Moreover, although government records state that WFAW was licensed toThe Miami Daily Metropolis from June 16, 1922 until its deletion on June 11, 1923, Fred W. Borton later claimed that WFAW had actually been first licensed to him, although there are no records supporting the existence of WFAW prior to the initialMetropolis grant.
In addition to its possible link to WQAM, WFAW's origin date in turn has been variously reported to actually be from 1920 to 1922, including:
On December 9, 1922, theMiami Metropolis announced that broadcasts over its station, WFAW, were being suspended, pending a move to a new Electrical Equipment Company location, with the existing WFAW transmitter to be dismantled.[10] On January 27, 1923, theMetropolis reported that a 100 watt transmitter to be used by the newspaper's broadcast service, that was designed and built by F. W. Borton of the Electrical Equipment Company and installed at Electrical Equipment's offices at Northwest Fourth Street, would make its debut broadcast the next evening.[11] Two days later, the newspaper wrote: "With the completion of the enlarged radio plant of The Miami Daily Metropolis and Electrical Equipment Company, The Metropolis announces that the government has granted a new charter and also changed the station number to (WQAM). The station number until today was (WFAW)."[12] However, WQAM was licensed to the Electrical Equipment Company, and WFAW to theMiami Daily Metropolis, and government regulators at the time considered them to be separate stations, so the two are reported individually in a March 1, 1923 government listing of active licenses.[13] Thus, the FCC History Cards documenting WQAM's records list January 23, 1923 as its "Date First Licensed", corresponding with the first license issued with the WQAM call letters.[3]
The president of the Electrical Equipment Company was W. W. Luce. WQAM was initially licensed for operation on the 360-meter (833 kHz) "entertainment" wavelength.[14] The call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call signs.
Fred W. Borton, who became president of the Miami Broadcasting Company, made many of the electrical parts himself. In 1926, the station increased its power to 500 watts. The station was the first in the United States to install a permanent remote pick-up from the U. S. Meteorological Department. Power was increased to 1,000 watts in 1928, and WQAM became a full-time affiliate ofCBS. In 1947, it switched toABC Radio. In 1948, Barton sold his interest in the station andThe Miami Herald assumed entire ownership.[15]
In the beginning, the young station was helped with programming by the newspaper, until the paper ended its participation.[15]
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WQAM is famous for its ownership byStorz Broadcasting in the 1960s. Storz installed aTop 40 format on WQAM and the station competed vigorously with rival WFUN (nowWAXY). In February 1964, WQAM interviewed and heavily promotedThe Beatles' second and third nationally televised appearances onCBS'sThe Ed Sullivan Show live from the Deauville Hotel inNorth Beach,Miami Beach.
By far Miami and South Florida's predominant radio station at the time,baby boomers fromJupiter toKey West, and even inHavana, listened to WQAM for the latest in local and American pop music from the 1960s well into the late 1970s. At that time, WQAM was one of the many AM radio stations airingCasey Kasem'sAmerican Top 40, and Cuban youngsters used to gather at friends' houses to listen to the countdown of America's most popular songs, especially the 8-hour-long year-end show of Billboard's top 100 songs of the year in which thesyndication company that owned the show had put out on vinyl records at a speed of 33RPM.
WQAM It ended its run as a Top 40 station on February 28, 1980, which was a leap year and Dan Halyburton signed them off with a montage of music, soundbites andjingles from PAMS. WQAM then switched to acountry music format. The station was known as "Sun Country WQAM."
On September 23, 1985, Sunshine Wireless bought WQAM from Storz broadcasting. At that time, AM radio was getting heavy competition from FM competitors and young people were increasingly tuning in FM stations for their hit music. Sunshine Wireless now had an AM country station, with personality DJs, NBC News, and local information. WQAM was then known as "56 Country WQAM" in the mid 80s, and was successful in the ratings under the direction of program director Jon Holiday. WQAM had many veteran DJ's for the country format like Mike Bell, Mitch Lewis, Johnny Dolan, and George Sheldon, who had his start in radio at WQAM in 1986. WQAM shared studios with then-WKQS at 9881 Sheridan Street inCooper City. In 1986, WQAM would addsports talk programming in the evening hours with Ed Kaplan.
By 1989, WQAM had been unable to achieve a full share point in theArbitron surveys with its mix of country music and sports. In 1990, the station abandoned its country music format in favor of thesatellite-fed "Kool Gold" service, which aired 1950s and '60soldies.[17]
Around 1992, WQAM became anall-sports station.[18] WQAM is theflagship station forMiami Dolphinsfootball,Florida Panthershockey, andUniversity of Miami Hurricanes athletics. WQAM was sold to Beasley Broadcasting in 1996.
At first, WQAM aired programming from theYahoo! Sports Radio network. On January 2, 2013, the station switched itsaffiliation toCBS Sports Radio for after-hours programming.[19]
On October 2, 2014,Beasley Broadcast Group announced that it would trade five radio stations inPhiladelphia and Miami (including WQAM) toCBS Radio in exchange for 14 stations located inTampa,Charlotte and Philadelphia.[20] The swap was completed on December 1, 2014.[21]
On December 23, 2015, WQAM was granted aconstruction permit to move its transmitter tower approximately 10 miles (16 km) north from Virginia Key to the [1360+1450] transmitter site at 360 NE 71st Street in the Little River neighborhood of Miami. The move was coupled with a decrease in daytime power from 5,000 watts to 4,100 watts.[22] The move allowed WQAM to use only one tower for its broadcasts instead of multiple towers on expensive South Florida real estate.
On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom (nowAudacy, Inc.).[23] The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17, making WQAM a sister station to fellow sports station 790WAXY.[24]
On August 2, 2019, Entercom announced that WQAM would re-launch as560 The Joe on August 5, as part of a re-alignment of its sports talk lineups. WAXY's ESPN Radio affiliation was swapped to WQAM, clearingThe Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (as its new flagship station),Stephen A. Smith, and the network's overnight and weekend programming (notwithstanding conflicts with sports play-by-play). In turn, some of WQAM's local hosts were moved to WAXY's lineup, while Marc Hochman andChanning Crowder's afternoon program would be simulcast by both stations (but with an opening hour exclusive to WAXY).[25]
As part of a larger realignment of ESPN Radio's schedule on August 17, 2020 (which saw Dan Le Batard cut to two hours, and the premiere ofGreeny withMike Greenberg), WQAM began to simulcastHochman and Crowder from WAXY in full.[26]
On October 26, 2021, Audacy realigned WQAM and WAXY's programming once again. WQAM rebranded as560 Sports and regain its CBS Sports Radio affiliation. Some local WAXY programming was also switched to WQAM. Meanwhile, WAXY replaced much of its local programming withsports betting-oriented shows from Audacy'sBetQL Network.[27] WAXY later flipped toSpanish-language oldies and talk.[28] WQAM began airing BetQL programming in the evening and CBS Sports Radio shows overnight and on weekends.
On August 7, 2025, WQAM's sister station, WSFS, dropped itsalternative rock format (branded as “The Shark”) and flipped to a simulcast of WQAM.[29] (The 104.3 facility had previously simulcast WAXY from 2012 to 2015.) With the change, WSFS adopted new call lettersWQAM-FM on August 18.[30]
The move was made to provide an FM home for WQAM's shows and affiliations. Most notably, it makes WQAM-FM the new FM broadcast flagship for theMiami Heatbasketball team.[29] Both stations began calling themselves "104.3 WQAM".
