In December of 2001, after over 20 years of providing the South Florida market with its only major classical music outlet, WTMI-FM (93.1) changed its format and call letters only one year after Cox Radio bought the station from Marlin Broadcasting. Initially, the station’s new owners hadn’t hinted that there would be any such switch, but little by little WTMI’s long-time listeners began noticing certain off-putting signs that the times, they were a-changin’. Long-time DJs – including programming director Ken Martin – quit, and the station began “experimenting” with off-putting “tricks” to test the waters for the format switch. There’d be long, uninterrupted stretches of music with no introductions or comments about the composers or the musical works, and there were mini-format switches, with the station unpredictably airing hard rock or “dance” music instead of the familiar compositions by Beethoven, Debussy, Mozart, Chopin, or Wagner.
Eventually, however, the station’s new manager, Mike Disney, announced Cox’s real intentions in late fall of 2001: After “careful consideration,” Disney claimed with a straight face, Cox had analyzed the South Florida market and concluded that although WTMI’s classical music listeners were loyal and therefore appreciated by Cox, there was more money in the “hot” and South Beach-friendly “dance” format, which is really a catch-all term for a mix of disco, trance, house, and hip hop music.
There was, to be sure, consternation and outrage from the area’s comparatively small classical music audience, but neither angry letters to the editor at the Miami Herald nor even angrier e-mails to Disney swayed Cox Radio, whose owners were only interested in WTMI’s strong transmitter signal and not, apparently, in its audience’s feelings.
On December 31, 2001, shortly before noon, WTMI aired its final classical piece. As the last notes faded out, there was a long pregnant pause, followed by the sarcastically-tinged voice of a DJ, going over the possible formats that the station owners were considering. Would the station have a format of classical music? Country? Rock? Talk? Spanish-language?
Then, in an in-your-face intro to the new Party 93.1 FM, listeners were greeted by the beat-heavy Shut the Fuck Up and Dance. The new era had begun with a raised middle finger to the station’s old format and, metaphorically speaking, the aural equivalent of slamming the door to those who had protested Cox’s agenda so vehemently.
Classical music, it seemed, was dead in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market.
A few years later, a trio of investors, including Andres Cantor, a well-known Spanish-language sports commentator, bought WKAT-AM, a Spanish-language talk station, and changed its format to classical. They tried their best to make up for the loss of WTMI, but the station was hampered by a weak signal and lack of financial support, and not even the return of Ken Martin and Joe Cassara to the market could overcome these deficiencies, and within a year, WKAT no longer aired classical music.
Once again, it seemed, South Florida was one of the many major radio markets without a radio station dedicated to classical music.
That is, until Wednesday, October 24, 2007, when the former Christian-oriented WMCU-FM (89.7), now owned by American Public Media Group, switched its call letters to WKCP and its format to, yes, classical music.
APMG, which is the parent company of Minnesota Public Radio, bought WMCU for $20 million in September of 2007, not long after a similar offer for a Christian-format station in the Washington, D.C. market was rebuffed.
According to Minnesota Public Radio’s website, AMPG decided to purchase WMCU because, as President and CEO Bill King was quoted as saying, “Miami is the largest city in the country that doesn’t have a classical music service,” which, for a metropolitan area that plays host to the Florida Grand Opera, the New World Symphony, and attracts many performers and ensembles from all over the world, is a somewhat anomalous cultural black eye.
The switch was originally intended to take place in the last week of October or the first few days in November, but management moved up the start-up date to head off a possible restraining order; a small group of disgruntled WMCU listeners, apparently upset over the switch, wants to sue the former owners Trinity International Foundation and AMPG because the plaintiffs supported the Christian station with donations and feel their interests were not respected.
Historically speaking, this type of legal action hardly ever succeeds, so unless the station drops the ball by making bad programming decisions or it has technical problems like WKAT did, it looks as though classical music may have returned to South Florida, and, hopefully, for good this time.
