• My Account
  • Your Profile
  • Member Archives
Friday, July 11, 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 11/29/2019: Revisiting Miami’s tower farm

Scott Fybush by Scott Fybush
November 29, 2019
in Florida, Free Content, Tower Site of the Week
0

Text and photos by SCOTT FYBUSH

WFOR-WTVJ tower
WFOR-WTVJ tower

Back in 2015 when we first visited south Florida, we spent the better part of a day checking out the forest of tall towers that sits along the Broward/Miami-Dade county line, carrying the lion’s share of the TV and FM signals that serve the vibrant south Florida market.

We got close to the bases of nearly all of them, and inside transmitter buildings at three major sites.

But there was one that eluded our close scrutiny, because we didn’t have an engineer with us at that point who had the gate codes to get through all the gates that stand between public roadways and what was then informally called the “CBS Tower,” the westernmost of the seven tall sticks in the tower farm, almost all the way out to Florida’s Turnpike.

This 1049-foot candelabra was built in the early 1990s for what was then WTVJ (Channel 4) when it was owned by NBC; it became CBS’ tower after the 1995 swap that gave CBS channel 4 (now WFOR) – and the radio arm of CBS moved in here as well when it owned WKIS (99.9) and WPOW-FM (96.5).

WTVJ-WFOR and WKIS
WFOR-WTVJ building
WFOR-WTVJ building

It’s now an American Tower site, with multiple TV tenants that include WFOR and sister station WBFS (Channel 33), NBC’s WTVJ (Channel 6), what was then Tribune’s WSFL (Channel 39) and Univision’s WLTV (Channel 23).

We didn’t get in to any of the TV rooms, but we did see the two FMs here: even though American Tower installed a massive FM panel antenna on one arm of the candelabra and left lots of space for combiners and transmitters, it’s just two former CBS-owned FMs here, the main transmitter for WKIS (99.9) and the aux for WPOW-FM (96.5), which remained here even after changing hands from CBS to Beasley to Entercom.

WKIS 99.9
WKIS 99.9
WPOW 96.5 aux
WPOW 96.5 aux

It’s a big, clean room here with just the two FMs in one corner and a big loft area with just a relatively small combiner for this pair of signals.

WPOW 96.5
WPOW 96.5
WPOW 96.5
WPOW 96.5

As long as we’re out and about with the engineer who has the keys, we use this chance to see something else that eluded us on our 2015 visit: WPOW’s main transmitter room over at the Guy Gannett master FM tower less than a mile away.

WBGF 93.5
WBGF 93.5

We saw almost every other room in this fascinating facility back then, so it was nice to get inside this first-floor room to see the main Nautel and backup BE for “Power 96.5.”

(Where’s the aux for WKIS? A few miles to the north in Pembroke Pines in southern Broward County, just west of I-95, at the tower that’s also home to WHFT-TV, iHeart’s WBGG-FM 105.9 and SBS’ WXDJ 106.7.)

From here, it’s a long slog north in I-95 traffic to get to West Palm Beach for the night, then another long drive west the next morning across interior Florida en route to a few days in Fort Myers and then Sarasota. We saw a lot of the Palm Beach stations back in 2015, so there was only one new tower site on that leg of the trip: WBGF (93.5 Belle Glade) has its tower next to the water treatment plant in South Bay, near the southern end of Lake Okeechobee. This class C3 signal rimshots West Palm Beach from the west, and simulcasts a dance format (“Revolution Radio”) with another full-power FM, WZFL 93.5, in the Keys, as well as with 93.5 translators in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Thanks to Eddie Huerta for the tours!

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 south Florida IDs next Wednesday, over at our sister site, TopHour.com!

Next week: Fort Myers

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: WFORWKISWPOW-FMWTVJ
Previous Post

Top of the Tower Podcast #045: Steve Hausmann’s Life on the Air

Next Post

NorthEast Radio Watch 12/2/2019: Remembering John Lyons

Scott Fybush

Scott Fybush

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

Related Posts

NorthEast Radio Watch 7/7/2025: Boston Mourns LB
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 7/7/2025: Boston Mourns LB

In this week’s issue… Remembering Boston's Lyndon Byers - CRTC approves Rogers, Evanov spins - Towers come down in PA, and might go up in NY - More FM moves in Ontario

by Scott Fybush
July 7, 2025
NorthEast Radio Watch 6/23-30/2025: Another Great Day in Alpine
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 6/23-30/2025: Another Great Day in Alpine

In this week’s issue… Honoring radio's greatest inventor - Maine morning vet retiring - Buffalo names new HOF inductees - PA's Loftus retires

by Scott Fybush
June 30, 2025
Top of the Tower Podcast #65: Back and Forth With PA’s Jason Togyer
Free Content

Top of the Tower Podcast #65: Back and Forth With PA’s Jason Togyer

In this week's episode - Top of the Tower is back with a new spring/summer season of conversations with some of the most interesting people in radio! This week, it's another joint episode, a two-way chat with my good friend Jason...

by Scott Fybush
June 22, 2025
NorthEast Radio Watch 6/16/2025: Townsquare, Corus Cut Deeper
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 6/16/2025: Townsquare, Corus Cut Deeper

In this week’s issue… Oneonta signals go dark - Whiteoaks takes over in Niagara - Corus empties Ottawa studios - CBS-FM shuffles talent - Armstrong anniversary to be honored

by Scott Fybush
June 16, 2025
Next Post
NorthEast Radio Watch 12/2/2019: Remembering John Lyons

NorthEast Radio Watch 12/2/2019: Remembering John Lyons

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.