WAQI

WAQI (710 AM) – branded Radio Mambí – is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish News/Talk format. Licensed to Miami, Florida, USA, the station is currently owned by Univision Communications.

The station broadcasts at 50,000 watts around the clock from facilities in Miramar, Florida, but broadcasts on a directional beam at night to the south, to protect Class-A clear channel stations WOR in New York City and KIRO in Seattle. This, in consequence, gives the station a clear signal over the neighboring nation of Cuba. Because of the broadcast area over Cuba, Radio Martí broadcasts an hour of news on WAQI nightly from midnight to 1AM. However, its signal is reported to be jammed in that nation's capital by the co-channel signal of Havana-based Radio Rebelde. [1] The jamming is likely due to intentional suppression of the station's programming, which typically voices anti-Castro, anti-communist sentiment, shared overwhelmingly by the Cuban diaspora of the United States and especially those in the station's home area of South Florida.

Prior to 1985, the station broadcast as WGBS, under the ownership of Storer Broadcasting, going through a number of mainstream adult music and eventually talk formats. Morning man Arnie Warren lasted through several of their final music formats and is considered a notable South Florida announcer. The station was sold due to a conflict of media ownership, as Storer was getting deeply involved with CATV systems within South Florida. Storer sold the station to Jefferson-Pilot (now Lincoln Financial Media), which eventually sold the station to its current owners.

On October 30, 2014 WAQI was granted an FCC construction permit to move to the WQBA transmitter site and decrease night power to 6,300 watts.