Technical Profile: WPNS

AM Technical Profile: WPNS

Frequency:: 1140
Format:: Standards
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] At the corner of Cedar Avenue and Kailyn Court in Niceville.
Power (ERP):: Day: 3 kW
Critical Hours: 2.4 kW; Night: 12 watts
Antenna:: Day: 1 tower
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files
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Owned By:: Andala Enterprises
History:: There are some discrepancies with the early history of this station. According to FCC data, the original construction permit was issued in 1986 to Harold R. & Louise J. Harding, but was passed on to Willie J. Martin in 1987. They show the station filing a license to cover (going on the air) in 1989, over a year after the original construction permit was allowed to lapse. The calls that were originally assigned were WWOU, but it is questionable whether the station ever went on the air permanently at this time. Archived copies of the Broadcasting Yearbook don't show this station as on the air until 2000.

The calls changed to WBZR in 1998 while the station was likely still off air. Destiny Communications acquired the station in 2001 and it had a locally-oriented news/talk format at debut. The station's license was transferred to Flagship Communications in 2003 and around that same time the calls changed to WNWF (NorthWest Florida). They continued the news/talk programming; the station was known during this era as "1120 Fox News Radio". Flagship was owned by a local lawyer who planned to start up his own talk radio network.

From the beginning, the station appears to have been diplexed with 1340 WFSH (now deleted).

Flagship would pass the station on to Andala Enterprises in 2007. Andala flipped the station to progressive talk some time after they acquired it.

In 2013 they applied for a change to 1140 kHz, which added more power during the day and the first nighttime service authorization for the station. The station was reported to be on air with these increased facilities in early 2016 but there was no signal observed on 1120 or 1140 kHz from Pensacola in mid-March of that same year.

Andala Enterprises, Inc. purchased the station in February 2016 and the license transfer was official in May; They (Pensacola lawyer John Ralls) had been LMA'ing the station since November 2015. The station was reported to have dropped sports talk for adult standards in October 2016. The station filed a silent notice in October 2017, citing damage from Hurricane Irma, which hit in August 2017, three months before the notice was filed. In December 2017, the station finally filed a license to cover for their 1140 kHz facility. Despite these moves, the station remains off-air. While the station was off the air, the company applied for an FM translator. A clerical mistake meant the application was filed for Evergreen, Alabama, where the company had another station. In turn, the Evergreen AM's translator application listed Destin, too. Neither was granted.

The station filed a resumption of operations notice with the FCC in January 2018, but again, no one can confirm that this station is on air.

In December 2018 this station swapped call signs with the AM in Evergreen that had been in the translator city of license mixup, discussed earlier. This station became WPNS and the other took the WNWF calls.

The station filed another request to remain silent April 2021; it resumed operations (presumably, again, no one has confirmed it has ever been on) in June 2021.