On December 22, RBR+TVBR reported on a transaction that will see a reborn “Ritmo” offer Tropical programming to Hispanics across the Delaware Valley, courtesy of Miguel Amador and his Ritmo Broadcasting.
Ritmo also operates a Top 40 operation with call letters that pay homage to a pioneering hit music FM that once served Philadelphia, and a FCC filing now shows he’s buying the AM and FM translator used to power up WIFI.
With an LMA in place since November 2, WIFI 92.9 is now serving a small speck of the Philadelphia and Trenton, N.J., markets.
Its branding is associated with W255DJ in Burlington, N.J., covering Levittown and Langhorne, Pa., and Bordentown, N.J.
The translator is being fed by Class B WIFI-AM 1460 in Florence, N.J., a four-tower facility with 5kw day/500 watts at night. The tower site is along Burlington Columbus Road, and one of the towers is home to the W255DJ transmitter. WIFI-AM also primarily serves Levittown, Bordentown and communities between Trenton and Philadelphia. Thus, it indirectly competes with Townsquare Media’s WPST-FM 94.5 in Trenton.
Ritmo Broadcasting is purchasing the facilities from Real Life Broadcasting and is paying $275,000 for them. A $150,000 deposit has been made by Amador.
The broker in this transaction is Dave Garland.
The original WIFI dates to 1958, when Mel Golub established the station at 92.5 MHz. It was a pioneer of FM stereo, with broadcasts dating to 1961. In the late 1960s it adopted a progressive rock format, before its sale in 1970 to General Cinema Corp. brought a change to Top 40. With WFIL-AM shifting to Adult Contemporary in fall 1977 and WIBG changing to “Wizzard 100” in 1977 and exiting Top 40 in 1980, WIFI was the primary Top 40 station in Philadelphia until the famed debut of “Hot Hits” under Mike Joseph at CBS’s WCAU-FM 98.1. The launch led WIFI to drop the format, leading to its eventual purchase by Beasley Media Group. After an initial stab in fall 1983 with a unique CHR/Rhythmic and R&B blend mimicking WKTU-FM in New York, Beasley famously changed WXTU in March 1984 to Country — a format that remains today, under Beasley ownership.
