WNTF (1580 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Caribbean music format. It is licensed to Bithlo, Florida, United States, and serves the Greater Orlando area. The station is owned by Shanti Persaud, through licensee Unity Broadcasting LLC.
Location
4.5 km
Bithlo is a census-designated place and an unincorporated community in Orange County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bithlo had a population of 9,848. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Bithlo Post Office opened in 1922. For 20 years in the early 20th century, Bithlo was an incorporated town, but in 1929 ceased to function as a town due to economic hardship. By 1941, the town council meetings had ended and in 1944 the Okeechobee Railroad Branch was abandoned. After the end of World War II, the town became known as a waste dump and pollution site. It was in 1970 when the residents of Bithlo petitioned the state legislature to revoke the town's charter. The city was finally unincorporated in 1977, an act which was not finalized until 1982 due to outstanding bonds and legal problems.
Bithlo is the location of several of the broadcasting towers for the digital television stations in the Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne market. It is also home to Bithlo Park and the East Orange Babe Ruth youth baseball and softball program, one of the premier youth baseball and softball programs in Central Florida.
4.6 km
WRDQ is an independent television station in Orlando, Florida, United States. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside ABC affiliate WFTV. The two stations share studios on East South Street in downtown Orlando; WRDQ's transmitter is located near Bithlo, Florida.
WRDQ began broadcasting on April 23, 2000, and has been associated with WFTV throughout its history. The original permit was held by a company headed by Marsha Reece, a former WFTV anchor and reporter, and her husband. Before it launched, Reece contracted with WFTV for programming, and soon after it launched, Cox was able to buy WRDQ outright and create a duopoly. It airs syndicated programming, morning and nighttime newscasts from WFTV, and overflow programming when necessary. One subchannel is leased to provide a high-power signal for WTMO-CD, Orlando's Telemundo station.
4.7 km
WFTV is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside WRDQ, an independent station. The two stations share studios on East South Street in downtown Orlando; WFTV's primary transmitter is located near Bithlo, Florida.
Channel 9 began broadcasting as WLOF-TV on February 1, 1958, after a four-year application process; it brought full three-network broadcasting to Central Florida. The call sign changed to WFTV in 1963. It was originally granted to the Mid-Florida Television Corporation, owned by the Brechner family and other investors. However, the same year the station went on the air, it was discovered as part of investigations into corruption at the Federal Communications Commission that an Orlando attorney had made unethical ex parte contact on behalf of Mid-Florida to FCC commissioner Richard A. Mack. The resulting investigation triggered more than two decades of proceedings that swung between the FCC, a federal court of appeals, and the Supreme Court. A wide range of issues came under discussion, including what Mid-Florida knew about the ex parte contact; what preference should be given to minority ownership of broadcast stations; and the character of a lawyer who was partially paralyzed in a murder-suicide and indicted on gambling charges in the same week.
Under a court order, Mid-Florida ceded operational control of WFTV in 1969 to Channel Nine of Orlando, Inc., a consortium of the five companies vying for the full-time broadcast license. After enduring a fatal collapse of its tower in 1973 and returning to full power in 1975, WFTV rode the rising fortunes of the ABC network in the late 1970s to become the top-rated station in Central Florida. The five companies agreed to a settlement, approved in 1981, that gave all of them varying shares of the station and ended what was then the longest proceeding in FCC history, filling 55 volumes. Many of their 67 shareholders became millionaires when SFN Companies purchased WFTV in 1984 as part of its expansion into the broadcasting industry.
SFN made a $60 million profit within a year by selling the station to Cox in 1985. Cox moved the station to newer, larger studios at its present site in 1990. Although it has faced renewed ratings competition since 2000, WFTV continues to lead ratings in the Orlando–Daytona Beach market.
4.7 km
WWKA is a commercial radio station in Orlando, Florida. It is owned by Cox Media Group and broadcasts a country music radio format. The studios and offices are located in Orlando on North John Young Parkway.
The transmitter tower is in Bithlo, off Fort Christmas Road. The station has an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts with beam tilt. It covers much of Central Florida from Daytona Beach to Palm Bay to Lakeland. WWKA broadcasts in the HD radio format.