City Clearwater, Florida Branding 95.7 The Beat | Broadcast area Tampa Bay Area | |
Slogan Tampa Bay's Hip-Hop and R&B Frequency 95.7 MHz (also on HD Radio)
95.7 HD-2 for Quiet Storm First air date August 19, 1963 (as WTAN-FM) | ||
WBTP is an urban contemporary radio station that serves the Tampa Bay area that plays hip-hop, R&B, and soul music that aims towards the African American community. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia. Its target audience is African Americans between the ages of 18-34, but its main competitor is WLLD, which has a very similar target audience as well. It was the home of former Russ Parr Morning Show co-host, Olivia Fox, who was host of the station's morning drive show from 2004 to mid-2006. Licensed to Clearwater, the station's studios are located in South Tampa and the transmitter site is in Gandy.
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On some days, WBTP can be received as far east as Melbourne.
History
95.7 signed on in 1963 as WTAN-FM with an easy listening format. In the mid-1970s, the station became WOKF with a disco/dance format as "OK96", and later with the "Supermix 96" and "96 Fever" brandings. In 1980, after the death of disco, the station flipped to adult contemporary as WCKX, "96KX" (pronounced "96 Kicks"). In 1982, it re-branded as "Magic 96" with the WMGG call letters. In 1985, it re-branded again as "W-Lite 95.7" with the WNLT call letters, which later changed to "Lite Rock 95.7". On November 5, 1990, the station shifted to Hot AC as "Mix 96" with the WMTX call letters. On August 4, 1997, the station shifted to Modern AC as "Star 95.7" with the WSSR call letters.
On October 27, 2003, at 5 p.m., after stunting with a loop of directing listeners to sister stations WFLZ, WMTX and WXTB, WSSR flipped to Urban Contemporary as 95.7 the Beat with the current WBTP call letters. It remained jockless for nearly the first 4 months and received lukewarm reception from the African American community of the area. However, the station has now beaten its closest competitor, WLLD, in ratings since late 2004, though not consistently. For example, WLLD claimed a ratings victory for Summer 2006 by .3 rating points, according to Arbitron.[1] Former competition came from Urban AC-formatted WTMP, which flipped to a Spanish Tropical format in September 2011, after 57 years of serving Tampa Bay's African American community (that station would revert to Urban AC in 2014).