iHeartMedia has flipped 94.5 W233AV Gulfport, 99.1 W256CT Bayonet Point, and 105.9 W290BJ West Tampa FL from Classic Hip-Hop “Throwback Tampa Bay” to a simulcast of News/Talk 970 WFLA.
The combined signals will give WFLA coverage on FM through most of the high density areas of the market. That was something that WFLA’s existing translators 96.7 W244BE Brandon and 102.9 W275AZ Wesley Chapel South were never able to do and as such were never fully promoted by the station. This time the station is emphasizing listeners to find them on FM: “Don’t worry, we will still be on 970AM. But we encourage our listeners to now listen to us on our new and CLEAR FM signal.”
WFLA ranked thirteenth in the Tampa/St. Petersburg market with a 3.4 share in the September 2018 Nielsen Audio ratings making it the most listened to AM station in the market.
Original Report 1/11: iHeartMedia Classic Hip-Hop “Throwback Tampa Bay” 94.5 W233AV Gulfport/99.1 W256CT Bayonet Point/105.9 W290BJ West Tampa/WMTX-HD2 Tampa FL will debut a new format on Monday, January 14.
The station is running sweepers redirecting listeners to co-owned Urban “95.7 The Beat” WBTP and promoting additional “throwbacks” being added to the Beat’s playlist.
iHeartMedia launched the Classic Hip-Hop format on the translators in December 2016. At the time WBTP was second in the market with a 6.3 share, however in the December 2018 Nielsen Audio ratings it had dropped to sixteenth with a 3.2. The “Throwback” format held a 0.9 share in the December monthly.
Nathan Obral 
radioguy805 
Is there any indication of what WFLA’s previous translators are going to do? IMO, they would be well-served by switching to WDAE and giving that station more FM penetration to the north and southeast…
It honestly amazes me that for all these years 96.7 has been licensed to Brandon but when you look at their coverage map on radio locator you see that the tower is located in Holiday. Brandon is not even located within the fringe coverage for this translator.
I do agree about using the 96.7 signal to expand the content from 620 and 95.3 This would be a major improvement in Tarpon Springs and New Port Richey especially at night when they suffer more from interference from 95.3 Crystal River.
I noticed this week they did indeed switch the 96.7 signal to WDAE. 102.9 is still rebroadcasting WFLA