WINQ - A History
WINQ-AM 1010 Tampa – Tampa’s AM-1010 was originally 50,000 watt directional daytimer WINQ, put on the air in November 1960 by Rand Broadcasting (Rex Rand, president), owner of Miami’s 50-kilowatt WINZ. Studios were located in a suite of offices in downtown Tampa’s Hillsboro Hotel and its transmitter and multi-tower array were on State Road 574 in Seffner.
WINQ played a middle-of-the-road music format and, in 1961 became a Mutual network affiliate. Most of the network programs were news and information shows, featuring the network’s top personalities and commentators, like Arlene Francis, Fulton Lewis, Jr., Gabriel Heatter, Westbrook Van Voorhis, and Frank Singiser; sportscasters Bill Stern and Leo Durocher; and announcer, Tony Marvin.
In 1965 WINQ switched to news/talk (“The Talk of Tampa Bay”) and added CBS radio network offerings like “The CBS World News Roundup” and “CBS World News Tonight,” “Arthur Godfrey Time,” the network’s hourly news, and personalities Art Linkletter, Lowell Thomas, Douglas Edwards, and Phil Rizzuto. There was also a local buy-sell-trade show called “Tradio” which aired weekday mornings at 9:15.
After six years doing news/talk, expenses were mounting and Rand was slipping into debt. Cost-cutting measures were put into effect beginning in 1971 due to the station’s inability to attract a consistently large listening audience. The two-way phone conversation programming was dropped and the station switched to a country music and news format. However, CBS news, Arthur Godfrey, and other network services were retained. It also closed its offices and studios in the Hillsboro Hotel and moved to the tower site on Highway 574 in Seffner which became its new city of license.
In 1978, Rex Rand was dead from a plane crash off the Florida coast, and AM-1010 had a new owner, Gore Broadcasting of Tampa-St. Petersburg (Harold W. Gore, president), and a religious format. The call letters became WCBF (We’re Christians By Faith) in 1981 when the station was acquired by Sudbrink Broadcasting (Robert W. "Woody" Sudbrink, president) and aired religious programming that consisted mostly of shows produced by area churches.
Other names from WINQ’s history include Rich Pauley (mornings-1962), Duncan Mounsey (GM-1963), Martin Ross (sales manager-1963), Dick Crippen (mornings-1963), Jim Bartlett (1963), Bob Shorey (1963), Al Martinez (1963), Bob Bradley (1963), George W. Fee (GM-1964), Al Brooks (sales manager-1964), Bob Walters (PD-1964), Bob Shorenstein (news director-1964), Hans Danker (chief engineer-1964), Bob Collins (mornings-1965), Bob Stone (late afternoons-1965; PD-1967), Hal Levin (GM-1965), Charles Peterson (afternoons/PD-1965), Mark Wheeler (afternoons-1966), Jim Gallagher (mid-days-1966), Hal Murray (mornings’ “Murray-Go-Round”/”Tradio”-1967), Jean Morris (“Partyline”-1967), David Upson (mornings-1965; “Clues in the News”/”Win with WINQ”-1967), Priscilla Parker (1967), Bob Fender (news director-1968), Bynum Bailey (chief engineer-1968), Van Wilson (mid-days’ “Bird-Watching Society”-1965; PD-1969), Tom Corcoran (news director-1969), Mel Berman (GM-1970), Mark McGee (operations manager 1970-71), Russ Wittberger (GM-1971), Paul Parle (news director-1971), Dave McKay (David McElroy, PM news director 1971-72), Bob Waugh (1971), Don Nash (chief engineer-1972), Phil Scott (mornings/chief engineer; GM-1975;), Bill Brown (PD/music director-1975), Rob Whitehurst (music director-1976), Ruth Greenberg (GM-1979), Kevin McKenzie (1979), Howard Hewes, Dean Drapin, Bob Rourke (GM), Barry Banther (GM-1981), Leslie W. Crist (station manager-1981), Donna Morrow (sales manager-1981), John Morrow (music director-1981), Don Currier (operations manager-1981), and Nelson Leto (news director-1981).
Station History
1960 - 1981 Other Tampa Bay Area Stations (History)
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