WFTL
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| City | West Palm Beach, Florida |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | South Florida |
| Branding | 850 WFTL |
| Slogan | Florida's Talk Leader |
| Frequency | 850 kHz |
| Repeater(s) | WRMF-FM HD2 97.9-2 |
| First air date | 1948 |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 50,000 watts day 24,000 watts night |
| Callsign meaning |
ForT Lauderdale Florida's Talk Leader |
| Affiliations | Westwood One, ABC News Radio, Florida State University Seminoles Radio Network |
| Owner | Mark Jorgenson (operated by Alpha Media) (ACM JCE IV B LLC) |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 850 WFTL |
WFTL (850 AM) is a News/Talk radio station licensed to West Palm Beach, Florida with studios located in West Palm Beach. The station operates with 50,000 watts daytime power and 24,000 watts nighttime power, providing coverage of Palm Beach, Broward, and part of Miami-Dade Counties. The station is currently owned by Mark Jorgenson, through licensee ACM JCE IV B LLC, and operated by Alpha Media.
The station is the South Florida home of Florida State Seminoles football.
The station launched as WEAT on February 14, 1948. Licensed to Lake Worth Broadcasting Corporation, the station broadcast on 1490 kc. with 100 watts of power. In 1954 WEAT changed its community of license to West Palm Beach and moved to 850 kc. at 1,000 watts of power.
For many years prior to October 1, 1982, WEAT was owned by billionaire John D. MacArthur and was paired with WEAT-FM (Easy 104.3). In October 1986 sportscaster Curt Gowdy sold the station to J.J. Taylor Companies Inc. of North Dartmouth, Mass., for an undisclosed price. In October, 1995, it was sold with WEAT-FM to OmniAmerica Group of Cleveland for an estimated $18 million.
In May 1996, WEAT was sold with seven other stations for $178 million to Chancellor Broadcasting Co., and WEAT was sold again in June of that year, along with WEAT-FM 104.3 and WOLL-FM 94.3 to American Radio Systems of Boston.
In April 1998, the station was sold to James Hilliard's James Crystal Enterprises for $1.5 million and changed its call letters to WDJA. (Dow Jones Averages) becoming a business talk station.
WFTL, along with co-owned stations KBXD, WFLL, and WMEN, was purchased out of bankruptcy from James Crystal Enterprises by Mark Jorgenson's ACM JCE IV B LLC in a transaction that was consummated on August 6, 2015, at a purchase price of $5.5 million. The station was operated by Palm Beach Broadcasting until that company was acquired by Alpha Media in February 2016. Alpha announced its intent to purchase the stations outright in February 2017.
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Wikipedia