Technical Profile: WTNI

AM Technical Profile: WTNI

Frequency:: 1640
Format:: Variety Hits
Transmitter Location:: [map] [bird's eye] [street view] Approximately 2 miles north of I-10 west of Tucker Road, between Glendale and McClellan Roads.
Power (ERP):: Day: 10 kW; Night: 1 kW
Antenna:: 1 tower
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files

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[Audio] Top of the hour ID audio, recorded 9 March 2021. M4A format. 220 kb, 25 seconds.

// WANG Biloxi
// W292GD Biloxi; Owned by Telesouth Communications

Silent
History:: This expanded band station was put on the air by WVMI and simulcast their news/talk format, which originally sat at 570 kHz. For the history of that facility, see DWVMI.; Early in 2011, this station ran low power due to tower work. The Special Temporary Authority covering the work claimed that salt air degraded the tower and made it it is unsafe at its original height. The STA allowed them to operate at lower power from a shortened antenna system. The STA was granted November, 2010. The construction permit for a new, electrically shorter antenna, was granted at the start of March, 2011. The license to cover for the new tower was granted right near the end of June 2011.; Although it made the jump to the expanded band as a talk station, it appears that FM competition put it under and it is now (as of the summer of 2011) simulcasting AM 1490 WXBD in Biloxi with sports talk as "The Team". In September 2011 the two AMs picked up an FM simulcast when "Hank" country WUJM flipped to sports. Alpha Media acquired the station in 2013. The FM dropped out of the simulcast in September 2014. WXBD (now WANG, seriously) on 1490 kHz picked up an FM translator later, and the stations are currently marketed as "103.5 The Champ".

The station was sold, along with most of the rest of the Alpha Media cluster in Biloxi, to Telesouth Communications for $2.5 million in December 2018. In March 2019, WANG and the translator were broken off from the trimulcast to launch a (second) Classic Country format in the market, leaving WTMI as the sole home of Sports Talk as "1640 The Champ". That sports apparently ended sometime before the summer, because as July 2019, 1640 is also airing the "103.5 The Possum" classic country format.

In December 2020, it was reported that the WANG/WTNI/W278CE multicast was flipped to a Traveler's Information type service known as "106.3 Casino Radio".

The Traveler's Information format was dumped in October 2021 for Variety Hits, bringing back the long-running "Bob FM" moniker to the market.

The station was noted to be off the air through much of 2024; a Silent STA (Special Temporary Authority) was finally filed in late June 2024 citing a bad plate contactor keeping the station off the air. Oddly, they also filed a Silent STA for simulcast partner WANG, citing different technical issues for that station being off the air.