MIAMI — In 1972, the Miami skyline was forever changed by the opening of One Biscayne Tower, topped by an iconic broadcast tower that until now has been used by two Spanish Broadcasting System FMs.
The Miami of 2019 is very different than that of 47 years ago, let alone 1984, when new construction displaced the building as the tallest structure in South Florida. New construction has dwarfed One Biscayne Tower.
It’s perhaps therefore fitting that the FMs using this tower are set to relocate to new facilities — on a higher structure in the bustling Brickell district.
According to a new filing with the FCC, SBS’s WRMA-FM 95.7 — licensed to North Miami Beach — and WCMQ-FM 92.3, licensed to Hialeah, have applied for Special Temporary Authority to operate from their outstanding construction permit facilities at reduced power.
Why? The lease at One Biscayne Tower is ending, concluding a historic period for radio broadcasting in Miami.
The request will effectively allow “Ritmo 95.7,” which specializes in Cubatón music made popular by reggaetón and Latin hip-hop artists in Cuba, and Hispanic Adult Hits “Z92” to use transmitters atop the Panorama Tower.
That’s a mixed-use 85-story skyscraper opened in 2017 that is presently the tallest structure in Florida.
Given the improved height, SBS’s electric bill may be slightly lower: For WCMQ-FM, it will ultimately reduce its power output from 31kw to 17kw as it jumps from 617 feet to 853 feet. When all is said and done, Z92’s signal contour will stretch as far south as Key Largo and as far north as Boca Raton — all of the Miami market as measured by Nielsen Audio.
For WRMA, a notoriously challenged facility short-spaced to iHeartMedia CHR/Pop 100kw WLDI-FM in Juno Beach, a reduction in power from 40kw to 17kw is being done with the rise in elevation.
The result: similar coverage of the Miami market as WCMQ-FM, but less of a city-grade signal in northern Broward County, not considered a key target area for Ritmo’s niche Latin programming.
One Biscayne Tower has housed several FM signals since 1972. The first tenants were what is presently WZTU-FM 94.9 and WHQT-FM 105.1. Later, what is today WMIA-FM 93.9 went on the tower. In the 1980s, WCMQ-FM took a spot on the building, with WRMA-FM following after Hurricane Andrew in August 1992 destroyed its original broadcast tower in Goulds, Fla.
