WTMP switches format from urban to Spanish

A Tampa radio station with a long history of serving a predominately black audience has switched formats to reach a young adult Latino audience.

On Friday, financially troubled WTMP (1150 AM, 96.1 FM) became "La Bahia," meaning "The Bay," playing Spanish and tropical music instead of urban adult contemporary and classic soul.

Also gone is the syndicated "Tom Joyner Show." The staff has been let go and a new WTMP website is "under construction."

For 57 years, WTMP was a voice in Tampa's black community. It now is being programmed by the New York-based Davidson Broadcast Group.

"This is a loss for our community and people are saying, 'Who speaks for us now?' " said Alex Jordann, a WTMP on-air personality who in recent months also was program director, musical director and production director.

Felix Perez, president of Davidson, which operates 32 stations along the East Coast, says that his company is "respectful of the station's history but we feel that there are a lot of Hispanic people who will like our format."

"This is our first station in Florida," Perez said. "We will start with just music for now and by Sept. 12 we expect to have our own personalities and programming. There is a growing Latino market and this is a business decision."

WTMP has struggled with financial problems for several years, said Scott Savage, a court-appointed receiver who is trying to recoup a $20 million loan owed by previous owners.

"The station is competing against FM stations with deeper pockets such as CBS and Clear Channel. We tried everything that we could to keep it going but with limited resources," said Savage, who has leased WTMP's programming to the Davidson Group. If the format succeeds, Davidson might be a buyer.

Jordann says WTMP might have been able to dig out of its financial problems if the station management "had started digging sooner."

"Now the hole is too deep," he said.

"I hate to see what has happened to WTMP because I am a Tampa native and the station has a lot of history," he said.

"They play the music but there is no local connection to the community," Jordann said.

James Tokley, Tampa's poet laureate, who used to host a black history month program with the late Bob Gilder on WTMP, said the station will be greatly missed in the black community.

"WTMP was a bridge across troubled waters," Tokley said. "(The station) helped our community develop a consensus. To our knowledge, that bridge is gone."