WFLA (Boca Raton, Florida)

WFLA
City	Boca Raton, Florida
Broadcast area	Palm Beach County, Florida
Frequency	400 meters
Programming
Format	Defunct (was Music, news, real estate advertising)
Ownership
Owner	Mizner Development Corporation
History
First air date	February 5, 1927
Technical information
Power	1,000 watts

WFLA was an AM radio station owned and funded by the Mizner Development Corporation in Boca Raton, Florida, which Mizner was trying to develop. The frequency was 400 meters (about 750 kilohertz) and the power was 1,000 watts. With an exaggeration typical of Mizner, this was to be a clear-channel station which would be heard in "most of the eastern United States".[1]

The station went on the air on 5 February 1927. It broadcast only in the evening.[2] The station was located at the corner of Palmetto Park Road and what today is NW 4th Avenue, in Boca Raton. Its roof was palmetto fronds (because of lack of money).[1]^{:218 n. 28}

It billed itself as "The Voice of Tropical America". The Palm Beach Post and the New York Times "agreed to share a news hour between five and six o'clock," though the source does not clarify what "sharing" meant. "When not broadcasting news, or 'the facts of Florida', the station planned to feature modern adaptations of Seminole Indian music."[1] Irving Berlin was an investor in the Mizner Development Corporation, and Mizner referred at one point to a planned Irving Berlin nightclub in Boca Raton,[1]^:145 so it might be Berlin's "modern adaptations" that he had in mind. Its primary purpose was, as an amenity, to help convince visitors to buy lots.[1]

It is not known when it ceased broadcasting, but certainly before Federal licensing of radio stations began in 1927–1928. The Corporation went into bankruptcy in 1926, before the station started broadcasting, and was liquidated in 1927.[2] There is no reference to the station after the Corporation's assets were liquidated, on which see Clarence H. Geist.

References

Curl, Donald W. (1992). Mizner's Florida. American Resort Architecture. The Architectural History Foundation and the MIT Press. p. 147. ISBN 0262530686. First published 1984.
Gates, Harley D. (October 1981). "Boca Ratone [sic], Florida: A Romance of the Past a Vision of the Future" (PDF). Spanish River Papers. 10 (1). Retrieved January 4, 2018. First published 1967?

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[mizner-1] Curl, Donald W. (1992). Mizner's Florida. American Resort Architecture. The Architectural History Foundation and the MIT Press. p. 147. ISBN 0262530686. First published 1984.

[papers-2] Gates, Harley D. (October 1981). "Boca Ratone [sic], Florida: A Romance of the Past a Vision of the Future" (PDF). Spanish River Papers. 10 (1). Retrieved January 4, 2018. First published 1967?