WKAT (AM)
WKAT (1450 AM, "Radio Vida") is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish-language Christian radio format, known as "Radio Vida." Licensed to Miami, Florida, the station is owned by the Salem Media Group, through licensee Salem Communications Holding Corporation.[2]
City | Miami, Florida |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Miami area |
Frequency | 1450 kHz |
Branding | Vida 101.9 FM / 1450 AM |
Programming | |
Format | Spanish Christian radio |
Ownership | |
Owner | Salem Media Group (Salem Communications Holding Corporation) |
WQVN | |
History | |
First air date | 1947 |
Former call signs | WWPB (1947-1956)[1] WSKP (1956-1966)[1] WOCN (1966-2019)[1] |
Technical information | |
Facility ID | 43034 |
Class | C |
Power | 1,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 25°50′22″N 80°11′23″W |
Translator(s) | W270CV (101.9 MHz, Miami) |
Links | |
Website | RadioVidaMiami.com |
WKAT broadcasts at 1,000 watts using a non-directional antenna. The transmitter is off NE 71st Street in Miami.[3] Programming is also heard on FM translator W270CV at 101.9 MHz, with its tower on SE 2nd Street at Biscayne Boulevard.[4]
History
In 1947, the station first signed on the air.[5] Its original call sign was WWPB and it was powered at only 250 watts. The call letters were chosen to represent its owner and general manager, Paul Brake. The following year, Brake put an FM station on the air, 101.5 WWPB-FM (today WLYF).
Around 2000, the station, known as WOCN, switched to Spanish-language programming. It was branded as "WOCN Radio 1450," broadcasting a talk radio format. It was a brokered programming station which sold its time to hosts who then sold their own advertisements to support their shows. The station was known in the Cuban-American community for its leftist commentators.[6] It later switched to a sports radio format, using programming from the ESPN Deportes network.
Its call sign was changed to WKAT on September 16, 2019.[7] The WKAT call letters were popular in Miami for many years on 1360 AM, which was a long-time English-language talk station that had been an early stopping point for broadcaster Larry King and others. That station is now WQVN, broadcasting to the Haitian community.
References
- History Cards for WKAT, fcc.gov. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
- "WKAT Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
- Radio-Locator.com/WKAT
- Radio-Locator.com/W270CV
- Broadcasting Yearbook 1950 page 113
- "WOCN-AM SOLD FOR $6 MILLION". Miami Herald. July 29, 2006.
- Call Sign History, fcc.gov. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
External links
- WKAT in the FCC's AM station database
- WKAT on Radio-Locator
- WKAT in Nielsen Audio's AM station database