WQAM (AM)
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| City | Miami, Florida |
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| Broadcast area | South Florida |
| Branding | Miami Sportsradio 560 WQAM |
| Frequency | 560 kHz |
| First air date | February 1921 |
| Format | Sports Talk |
| Power | 5,000 watts (day) 1,000 watts (night) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 64002 |
| Callsign meaning | Sequentially assigned. Later adopted slogans based on the call letters, including We're Quality A M Radio |
| Former frequencies | 834 kHz (1923) 1060 kHz (1923-1924) 1120 kHz (1924-1925) 1140 kHz (1925-1926) 1050 kHz (1926-1927) 980 kHz (1927) 780 kHz (1927-1928) 1240 kHz (1928-1929) |
| Affiliations |
CBS Sports Radio Miami Dolphins Florida Panthers Miami Hurricanes ACC Radio Network |
| Owner |
CBS Radio (sale to Entercom pending) (WQAM License Limited Partnership) |
| Sister stations | WBFS-TV, WFOR-TV, WKIS, WPOW |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wqam.com |
WQAM (560 AM, "Miami Sportsradio 560 WQAM") is a South Florida radio station owned by CBS Radio. The call letters WQAM were jokingly claimed to stand for We Quit At Midnight ... since the station signed off at midnight every night until 6:00 the next morning. Its studios are in Miami Gardens and the transmitter is in Virginia Key, Florida.
On December 23, 2015 WQAM was granted a Federal Communications Commission construction permit to move to the WOCN transmitter site and decrease day power to 4,100 watts.
WQAM is one of Florida's oldest radio stations, receiving its first broadcasting license, issued to the Electrical Equipment Company of Miami, in January 1923. The station's early history was related to WFAW, also of Miami, which was licensed to the The Miami Daily Metropolis from June 16, 1922 to June 11, 1923. In the beginning, the young station was helped with programming by the newspaper, until the paper ended its participation.
Things were primitive in the early days. Fred W. Barton, 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 1000 watts in 1928 and WQAM became a full-time affiliate of CBS. In 1947 it switched to ABC Radio. In 1948 Barton sold his interest and The Miami Herald newspaper became the station's owner.
WQAM is famous for its days in the 1960s, under ownership of Storz Broadcasting, when it presented a Top Forty format and competed vigorously with rival WFUN (at 790 AM). In February 1964, the station interviewed and heavily promoted The Beatles' second and third nationally televised appearances on CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show live from the Deauville Hotel in North Beach, Miami Beach. By far Miami and South Florida's preeminent radio station at the time, baby boomers from Jupiter to Key West, and down to Havana, 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 airing Casey Kasem's American Top 40, and Cuban youngsters used to gather at a friend's house 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 which Watermark had put out on vinyl records at a speed of 33 RPM. On February 29, 1980, after many years as contemporary music station, competition from FM competitors forced the station to switch to a country music format, but not after running a montage of music and sound bites from its Top 40 days. From that time WQAM was known as 56 Country WQAM and was successful in the ratings and had many veteran DJ's. WQAM shared studio's with then WKQS now WKIS @ 9881 Sheridan Street in Cooper City, FL then owned by Sunshine Wireless.
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