Technical Profile: WWBA

AM Technical Profile: WWBA

Frequency:: 820
Format:: Hot Talk, Sports
Transmitter Location:: [map] [bird's eye] [street view] Just east of Largo Middle School, near the intersection of 8^th Avenue SE and Donegan Road.
Power (ERP):: Day: 50 kW
Day: 10 kW (CP); Night: 1,000 watts
Night: 630 watts (CP)
Antenna:: Day: 2 towers [pattern - PDF]; Night: 3 towers [pattern - PDF]
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files
[FCC]
[FCCdata.org]
[FCCInfo]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]; Reception good only during day.
// W252DF Largo, FL
Owned by Genesis Communications
History:: Was sports formatted as WZTM at one time, as "The Team" then switched to Spanish music.; .; In September 2008 Genesis Communications, owner, moved their talk format from WWBA 1040 to WMGG with a simulcast. Later, it was announced that the talk would move to 820 along with the calls; 1040 got the WBHO calls and ESPN sports format of Tampa area 1470. The station branded as "The Big One", much like WLW 700 in Cincinnati. That lasted until January 2012, when Genesis moved WWBA to an all-news format using America's Morning News and America's Radio News Network. The station is part of a chain covering all of central Florida as "News Talk Florida". It later went back to a conservative Talk format.

In June 2019 the station began operating under a LMA (Local Marketing Agreement) with NIA Broadcasting, who switched the format to Classic Country. It lasted until September 2019, when the station went back to Talk with the addition of Bubba The Love Sponge. That run, in turn, ended in May 2020, when Genesis took the station back over and returned it to a Hot Talk and Sports Talk format as "The Big 8".

In May 2022, the station received a permit to drop power to 10 kW days and 630 watts night, with a different nighttime pattern. When this facility is put on the air, it will likely no longer be audible along the Florida gulf coast.