WMNF

WMNF (W Member-sponsored Non-commercial FM) is a listener-supported community radio station from Tampa, Florida.

WDAE

Tampa's WDAE (Wonderful Days And Evenings) is credited as the first radio station to be licensed in the state of Florida having gone on the air at 833 AM in May, 1922. They carried a Top-40 format when the top sticker came out in the 1970s or early 1980s. Lieutenant Al Ford was a popular traffic reporter for WDAE (and later WSUN.) He passed away in 2008.

1250 AM is now News/Talk "Impact Radio" WHNZ. The WDAE call letters live on at 620 AM in Tampa at "The Sports Animal."

WTIS

WTIS (W Tampa InSpirational) is a Religious Teaching station from Tampa, Florida.

Blanchard's Balloon

On this date in 1793, Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first balloon ascent in North America. He took off in his hydrogen-filled craft from a prison yard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which, at the time, was the capital of the United States. George Washington witnessed the launch and gave the non-English speaking Blanchard a letter that would introduce him wherever he landed (which ended up being Deptford Township, New Jersey.) This effectively was the first American airmail delivery. In 1809 Blanchard had a heart attack while up in a balloon in the Netherlands. He fell out and died a few weeks later from the severe injuries. His wife Sophie died 10 years later while ballooning in Paris, the victim of a combination of highly-flamable hydrogen and fireworks. Tampa, Florida’s WRBQ used this balloon sticker in the mid-1980s. Q105 had been a longtime CHR station in the Tampa Bay area and still uses the same logo to this day, although they now carry a Classic Hits format. Here's a couple more WRBQ stickers: 

circa 2017

circa 1990This looks like it might date from the early 1980s or even late 1970s, perhaps when they were still a Rock station.

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. To celebrate all you have to do is call everyone "matey" and say "arrr" a lot. On second thought, don't. Please just don't do it. It's beneath you and really, really annoying.

Pirate Radio 102.1 was an unlicensed, illegal "pirate" radio station which broadcast in the Tampa, Florida area in the mid-to-late 1990s. It was run by a self-described "redneck biker," played Rock music and had paying advertisers. Check out these pictures of the operation before it was shut down by The Man. They even had a logoed station van!