WQBN - A History
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WQBN-AM 1300 Temple Terrace – Tampa’s WTYM (previously an oldies station before switching back to Spanish in 1982) was acquired by WTYM Radio, Inc. (Frank DeTillio, president) in 1987 and flipped its calls to WQBN (sounds like “Cuban”). The outlet was licensed to the Tampa suburb of Temple Terrace and operated from studios at 3303 W. Columbus Drive. Around 1993, operations moved to 3825 W. Henderson Boulevard.
In 1996, WQBN came under the ownership of Radio Tropical Inc. (Efrain Archilla, president), a 100% locally owned Hispanic enterprise and, two years later, relocated to 5203 N. Armenia Avenue.
Today (2012), Super Q 1300 WQBN, Tampa Bay’s first 24-hour Latin music station, delivers a 5,000-watt directional daytime signal and 1000 watts at night from a tower site on E. Washington Street, south of Adamo Drive (Hwy 60). It is West Central Florida’s exclusive "CNN En Español" affiliate and carries USF Bulls football play-by-play in Spanish.
Other names from the history of WQBN include Mark Jorgenson (GM-1987), George W. Harvey (co-owner/GM-1987), Mike Gillespie (sales manager-1988), Puly Sequeira (PD-1988), Jose Rodriguez (music director-1988), Mario Quevedo (news director-1988), Ray Alba (chief engineer-1988), Jorge Capdevila (music director-1989), Bruce Herzog (chief engineer-1989), Amarilis Rivera (PD/music director-1993), Bill Brown (chief engineer-1993), Carlos Alberto Martinez (PD/music director-1994; GM/sales manager-1997), Chris Gladfelter (sales manager-1996), Mark Vila (sales manager-1998; GM-1999), Art Karmard (chief engineer-1998), Manuel E. Semprit (station manager, PD, and news director-1999), and Ed Pendino (chief engineer-1999).
Others in WQBN history are Carlos Jose Peralta, Maria Teresa Capin (news-1980’s), Woody Garcia, Gus Quintero, J. Keith Cornett (sales), Edith Vasquez (mornings/music director 1991), Margaret Granados (business manager 1994), Abel Feria, Angel Luis Maisonet, Pedro Valdés, Luis A. López (community relations coordinator), Zilia Carrasco, José Gustavo González, Roberto Ferrer, Joyceo Cordero, and Alvaro López Echeverry.
(Please contact us if you have additional information to share about WQBN.)
Station History
1987 - 2012 Other Tampa Bay Area Stations (History)
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