Technical Profile: WTYS

AM Technical Profile: WTYS

Frequency:: 1340
Format:: Country
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] South of downtown on FL-73 (S Jefferson Street), southbound just before Kent Drive. Co-located with WTYS-FM.
Power (ERP):: Day/night: 780 watts
Antenna:: 1 tower
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files
[FCC]
[FCCdata.org]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
[Studio] Street View imagery of the station's studio on Jefferson Street in Marianna.; Co-owned with WTYS-FM by Jimmy Adams
// W282CM Marianna, FL
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit issued to John H. Phipps in the summer of 1947, for a new 250 watt full time station on 1340 kHz, with the initial calls of WFLR. The station came on the air in May 1948 as WTYS. The transmitter site was originally a mile out of Marianna on US-90, while the studios were at the corner of Caledonia and Lafayette Streets in Marianna. (They may have moved to a site a half-mile east of Marianna near the Chipola River before the station signed on. It's unclear.) The original transmitter was a RCA BTA-250L.

Was a Mutual station with 250 watts in 1957 according to the Radio Annual. The station was sold to Jack Howard Mann in 1959, who in turn sold it to James W. Tate in 1960. In 1961 the station boosted its daytime power to 1 kW while staying 250 watts at night, with an RCA BTA 1R. In 1967, the studios and transmitter relocated to the site they're at today, south of downtown Marianna on FL-73 (Jefferson Street).

In 1974, the license was transferred to The Jackson Broadcasting Corporation. At that time, the format was Country, although by the 80's, it had become more diversified, with a mix of Country, Black programming and Adult Contemporary. The license was transferred to Marianna Radio in 1983. The station went into receivership in 1986, under William F. Dunkle, III.

By 1990, the station appears to have had a mix of Adult Contemporary and Oldies music. The station spawned WTYS-FM in 1991. At the end of the decade, it was doing a News/Talk format and under the ownership of Jimmy Adams.

In the 2000's, the station had a stint doing Oldies again, but by 2005 it was Classic Country.

The station was knocked off the air by Hurricane Michael in October 2018 after part of the tower came down. The station was silent until well into 2019, when it resumed operations running 50 watts of power into an antenna on what was left of the original tower. In the summer of 2019 the station applied to go back to full power. It would use a folded-unipole skirt antenna on the tower, which also houses WTYS-FM and the translator for the AM, which as of August 2019 is not on the air yet. Due to the less efficient design of the antenna, the power levels will be increased from 540 watts to 780 watts, with only a minimal improvement in the coverage area. That application was granted in late August 2019, and a license to cover for that was filed in late January 2020. The station had also been granted a permit for an FM translator in January 2018, but it did not sign on until January 2021.