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WTCX - A History

WTCX-FM 99.5 St. Petersburg – WTCX was a 31,000 watt classical music station and the first Tampa Bay FM to introduce stereo sound. It went on the air in 1959 from a tiny studio at the transmitter and tower site at 5750 North Haines Road in St. Petersburg, and was owned by Trans-Chord Company (Harry C. Offutt, Jr., president).  

While known primarily for its classical music format, there were those at the station who wanted a format flip to album rock but were met with resistance from management. However, WTCX did eventually play six hours of album rock daily from 7 to 9am in the morning and from 9pm to 1am at night in 1969/1970, making it Tampa Bay's first radio station to play rock music in stereo.

In 1971, Jacksonville country radio pioneer Marshall Rowland, owner of the city's WQIK, acquired the station, which was in bankruptcy and had gone silent, and turned it into Tampa Bay’s first stereo country music station, WQYK-FM.

Other names from WTCX history include James Midkiff (pres. Trans-Chord Inc.), Harry T. Brown (GM/sales manager), John Walker (chief engineer), Ken Simpson (PD), Murray Carpenter (Trans-Chord CEO & GM/commercial manager (1963-1970), John Herb (chief engineer 1964), George Gray (president Trans-Chord Inc.), Doug Pidgeon (station manager 1966), Pat Garossi (chief engineer 1966), Dick Mattus (ass't GM 1966), Pat Munson (office manager 1966), Marie Carpenter (sales head 1967-1970), Jim Sharpe (chief engineer 1967), Chris Carpenter (on-air 1967-1970), George Laurie (aka 'Bobby Flyer' on-air 1969-1970), Russ Dillow (aka 'Just Russ' on-air 1969), Tom Latto (on-air 1969), John H. Price (GM/sales manager 1970), David Knepper (sales), Connie McDonald (sales), and Tim Trott.


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Station History