• My Account
  • Your Profile
  • Member Archives
Monday, May 12, 2025
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links
No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

No products in the cart.

No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
No Result
View All Result

Site of the Week 11/6/2015: West Palm Beach, part I

Scott Fybush by Scott Fybush
November 6, 2015
in Florida, Free Content, Tower Site of the Week
0

Text and photos by SCOTT FYBUSH

WRMB 89.3
WRMB 89.3
WPTV's tower
WPTV’s tower

West Palm Beach, Florida – sunshine, right?

Not the day we showed up in March, but cloudy skies and a bit of wind couldn’t dissuade us from checking out some of the towers to be found in this fast-growing market 50 miles or so up the coast from Miami.

If you’re from upstate New York, as we are, it’s a given that some member of your family has probably retired somewhere in southern Palm Beach County, and so we ended up spending a couple of nights in Boynton Beach visiting with assorted aunts and uncles and parents’ friends and so on. And, of course, seeing towers, starting with the cluster that sits along the western edge of the metro, where US 441/State Route 7 forms the western boundary between rampant suburbia and what’s left of the Everglades.

WRMB (89.3) is the FM station licensed to Boynton Beach, with studios along Boynton Beach Boulevard and a tower a few miles to the west, near the Florida’s Turnpike interchange with Boynton Beach Boulevard. This tower was probably out in the open when WRMB signed on in 1979; today, it sits behind one of the ubiquitous gated communities that fill the landscape here.

The WPEC and WPTV towers
The WPEC and WPTV towers

WWRF 1380
WWRF 1380
WPBR 1340
WPBR 1340

WRMB’s 500-foot tower is dwarfed by a cluster of three more towers that sit just to the north and west across 441 where it meets Lantana Boulevard. This is the main tower farm for West Palm Beach, including the market’s two oldest stations. CBS affiliate WPEC (Channel 12/RF 13) is at the left in the shot from 441 above; at right is the candelabra for NBC affiliate WPTV (Channel 5/RF 12) and ion’s WPXP (Channel 67/RF 36). This tower also has several FMs on it: Way-FM’s WAYF (88.1 West Palm Beach) and what was public radio WPBI (90.7 West Palm Beach) in March. (It was subsequently sold and is now K-Love’s WFLV.)

A third tower, off in the distance to the west, carries Fox affiliate WFLX (Channel 29/RF 28), public TV WXEL (Channel 42/RF 27) and independent WHDT (Channel 59/RF 42), along with WRMF (97.9 Palm Beach).

Heading east toward the beach from here takes us past two AM sites: WWRF (1380 Lake Worth) started out in 1959 as 500-watt daytimer WLIZ; later on, it did religion as WLVS before becoming today’s “Radio Fiesta” with Spanish tropical music, running 1000 watts ND-D. Translator W245AY (96.9) also operates from the AM site near the Lake Worth Blvd./I-95 interchange.

Just up the road, this heavily-laden tower also carries WPBR (1340 Lantana), which signed on in 1957 as Palm Beach-licensed WQXT and spawned WQXT-FM (97.9), today’s WRMF. WPBR programs to the Haitian community in town, and it’s also heard over a translator at 96.1.

WXEL's building
WXEL’s building

WXEL's lobby
WXEL’s lobby

Our next morning in Palm Beach County started out sunnier as we headed south toward Boca Raton and the WXEL public broadcasting studios. This has been one of the more turbulent public broadcasting stories of the last few decades: what started out as schools-owned WHRS-FM (91.7, later 90.7) in 1969 added WHRS-TV (Channel 42) in 1982, bringing local public TV to a region that had become accustomed to watching Miami’s WPBT (Channel 2) on cable and over the air.

WHRS-FM/TV became WXEL-FM/TV in 1985 as ownership passed to a local community group, but that didn’t last long. In 1997, the stations went to Barry University, a Catholic school that kept them going as NPR and PBS outlets before deciding to sell them off. An initial plan that would have put the TV in the hands of New York’s WNET fell through, and that’s when radio and TV split. WXEL-FM was sold to American Public Media to become WPBI, part of a three-station “Classical South Florida” network that was then sold off to K-Love not long after our visit.

WXEL's studio
WXEL’s studio

WXEL production control
WXEL production control

WXEL-TV went to a new community group, which tried mightily to keep things going here, in part by leasing out some of this large facility. The former WXEL-FM offices and studios on the north side of the building are now used by Newsmax.tv, the conservative news and talk channel that also uses one of the TV studios on the south side of the building. The other large TV studio is still used by WXEL, along with an adjacent production control and master control facility.

WXEL master control
WXEL master control

WDJA 1420
WDJA 1420

Not long after our March 2015 visit, WXEL announced that it was entering into an agreement to join forces with Miami’s WPBT; it’s not clear what will become of this facility once that transition is complete, probably sometime in 2016.

One more AM site while we’re down at the southern edge of the county: what’s now WDJA (1420 Delray Beach) started out in 1952 as WDBF. Today, it runs 5000 watts day, 500 watts night from this two-tower array right on a golf course where Atlantic Boulevard meets I-95.

Thanks to WXEL’s Kevin Howie for the tour!

SPRING IS HERE…

And if you don’t have your Tower Site Calendar, now’s the time!

If you’ve been waiting for the price to come down, it’s now 30 percent off!

This year’s cover is a beauty — the 100,000-watt transmitter of the Voice Of America in Marathon, right in the heart of the Florida Keys. Both the towers and the landscape are gorgeous.

And did you see? Tower Site of the Week is back, featuring this VOA site as it faces an uncertain future. 

Other months feature some of our favorite images from years past, including some Canadian stations and several stations celebrating their centennials (buy the calendar to find out which ones!).

We still have a few of our own calendars left – as well as a handful of Radio Historian Calendars – and we are still shipping regularly.

The proceeds from the calendar help sustain the reporting that we do on the broadcast industry here at Fybush Media, so your purchases matter a lot to us here – and if that matters to you, now’s the time to show that support with an order of the Tower Site Calendar. (And we have the Broadcast Historian’s Calendar for 2025, too. Why not order both?) 

Visit the Fybush Media Store and place your order now for the new calendar, get a great discount on previous calendars, and check out our selection of books and videos, too! 

 

And don’t miss a big batch of Palm Beach IDs next Wednesday, over at our sister site, TopHour.com!

Next week: Our Florida coverage concludes with more West Palm Beach sites

Share this:

  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • More
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
Tags: WAYFWPBIWPBRWPECWPTVWPXPWRMBWWRFWXEL
Previous Post

NERW 11/2/2015: A Great Night in Midtown Manhattan

Next Post

NERW 11/9/2015: More Clouds for Troubled Cumulus

Scott Fybush

Scott Fybush

Editor/Publisher, NorthEast Radio Watch and Tower Site of the Week

Related Posts

Top of the Tower Podcast #061: Rob Bertrand at NAB/PREC 2025
Free Content

Top of the Tower Podcast #061: Rob Bertrand at NAB/PREC 2025

Top of the Tower talks with Inrush Broadcast's Rob Bertrand about the future of broadcast engineering as a service

by Scott Fybush
May 6, 2025
NorthEast Radio Watch 5/5/2025: Public Media’s Uncertain Future
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 5/5/2025: Public Media’s Uncertain Future

In this week’s issue… Public media faces a CPB-less future - Elections change broadcasters' fates - Another AM goes silent - K-Love buys in PA, Holy Family sells in Mass. - Bell hands off Peterborough stations

by Scott Fybush
May 5, 2025
NorthEast Radio Watch 4/28/2025: Letterman’s Maine Surprise
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 4/28/2025: Letterman’s Maine Surprise

In this week’s issue… "Nite Show" goes out in style - Remembering Erie's McKay - Rhodes retires in Scranton, Russo in Buffalo - Islanders drop radio team

by Scott Fybush
April 28, 2025
NorthEast Radio Watch 4/14 and 4/21/2025: Post-NAB Wrapup
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 4/14 and 4/21/2025: Post-NAB Wrapup

In this week’s issue… After NAB, hope and confusion - WZLX, WBEB relaunch morning shows - WJTO, WLAM stay alive for now - MBC takes over Bell stations - Remembering Mimi Griswold, Herb Squire By SCOTT FYBUSH Jump to: ME...

by Scott Fybush
April 16, 2025
Next Post
NERW 11/9/2015: More Clouds for Troubled Cumulus

NERW 11/9/2015: More Clouds for Troubled Cumulus

Log In

Join Now | Lost Password?

Get Fybush.com Updates

Get Fybush.com updates emailed directly to your inbox!

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.