WTMY-AM 1280 Sarasota – Hugh Keith Enterprises, Inc. (Hugh Keith, president) flipped the format and calls for its 500-watt (340 watts at night) nostalgia WSGX-AM 1280 to golden oldies WTMY in 1991. It operated from offices and studios at the transmitter and tower site, a directional two-tower array, at 2101 Hammock Place, off 17th Street in Sarasota. Studios later moved to 1956 Main Street in downtown Sarasota, and its transmitter and tower relocated to City Island, sharing space with AM-1450. The move resulted in reduced non-directional power (300 watts day/100 watts night). 

 

Pana Media of Sarasota, Inc. (Howard Goldsmith, president) acquired WTMY in 1993 and switched its format to money/talk and health/talk with some programming in Spanish. Metropolitan Radio Group (Gary Acker, president) bought the outlet in 1996, and then Polnet Communications in 2007 (Sarasota’s Suncoast Station/The Talk Station), which aired syndicated programming from national talk show hosts Laura Ingraham, Mancow Muller, and others, as well as some locally-produced shows. 

 

In mid-August 2011, WTMY became a Fox Sports affiliate and transitioned to a 24/7 sports talk format (The Sports Fanatic). New programming additions included local Riverview Rams high school football, FSU football, and a schedule of NFL games. 

The FCC approved Polnet’s sale of WTMY to Southwest Florida Radio Broadcasting, LLC in October 2013. Shortly afterwards, the station flipped its format from sports to big bands/standards and added Doug Miles’ “Big Band Files” to its weekend 8-10 PM lineup. 

 

Ownership changed again in late July 2016 when the station was acquired by Miami’s Solmart Media, Inc., followed by a format change to Spanish. Today (2020) it is branded as "La Numero 99.1" (99.1 is its translator frequency).

 

Names from WTMY history include Edward Peteja (GM-1992), Mike Stone (PD-1992), Ed Edwards (news director-1992), Ed Allen (chief engineer-1992), Bill Wheatley (PD-1993), T. Michael Craft (GM/sales manager-1994), Melanie Ripley (promotions-1994), Roy “Bud” Smith (PD-1994), Frank Pineiro (music director-1994), Peter Schafhausen (news director-1995), Valerie Silver (operations/promotions-1999; GM-2002), Greg Durkin (GM-2008), Jerry Shames (GM-2009), Patrick Hooper and Jennifer Johns (mornings-2009), Lenny Lyons (production director-2009; GM-2010), Phil Russell (host of “Sarasota Late Night”-2009; operations director-2010; GM-2011), Rochelle Herman (sales-2010), Alex Smith (operations-2011), and Gino Norman (operations-2011). 

 

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