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WHFS AM & FM - A History

WHFS-AM 1010 Seffner & WHFS-FM 98.7 Holmes Beach – CBS Radio’s adult contemporary WSJT-FM flipped its format and call letters to Sports Radio 98.7 The Fan WHFS at noon on August 2, 2012, becoming Tampa Bay’s first all-sports station to broadcast on FM. One week later, sister station WQYK-AM (Sportsradio 1010) became WHFS-AM with a simulcast of the FM.

The WHFS studios were located with others in the CBS cluster at 9721 Executive Center Drive in St Petersburg. The AM’s 50-kilowatt stick is located on State Road 574 in Seffner and the FM 50-kilowatt transmitter and tower are at a site off CR 694 (Park Blvd.) in Seminole.

WHFS-FM’s inaugural lineup included: 6-10 AM Kirk and Dinger (Kirk McEwen and former Lightning player Chris Dingman), 10 AM-2 PM Gary and the "Commish'' (Justin Pawlowski and Tampa Bay Times sports columnist Gary Shelton, 2-6 PM Rich Herrera and former Buccaneer Booger McFarland, 6-10 PM Todd Wright, and 2-6 AM The Fabulous Sports Babe Nanci Donnellan. The Fan also became the flagship station for University of South Florida Bulls football. On January 2, 2013, WHFS-AM stopped simulcasting the FM and became a full-time affiliate of CBS Sports Radio.

In a multi-station swap, WHFS AM and FM were acquired by the Beasley Broadcast Group from CBS in late 2014. On Dec.4, WHFS-AM dropped its CBS Sports format and changed to a simulcast of Boca Raton sister station WSBR's MoneyTalk Radio programming as MoneyTalk 1010.  WHFS-FM also dropped is sports format and began playing Christmas music, promising a new format would debut the first of the year.

When Jan. 5, 2015 arrived, the FM premiered Tampa Bay’s return of Bubba the Love Sponge (Todd Clem) at 6 A.M. and announced that it would air continuous Bubba shows 24/7 for the next 30 days. When that month was up, Bubba made the big announcement shortly after 9am February 2nd that the station’s new format would be personality-oriented No Rules Radio, featuring the music Bubba likes, and that 98.7’s call letters would change from WHFS to WBRN-FM (Bubba Radio Network).

Bubba's station didn't last long. In early 2017, WBRN flipped its format and call letters to adult contemporary b98.7 WPBB.

Other names in WHFS history include Mike Pepper (PD-2012), Mark Calandrello (promotions-2012), Ben Hill (market manager-2012), Lynne Austin (lead reporter and female voice of 98.7 The Fan-2012), and Bubba the Love Sponge (Todd Clem, mornings 2015).


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Station History