WMBM

---

title: "WMBM" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["radio-stations-in-miami", "radio-stations-established-in-1955", "gospel-radio-stations-in-the-united-states", "1955-establishments-in-florida"] description: "Urban gospel radio station in Miami Beach, Florida, United States" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMBM" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Urban gospel radio station in Miami Beach, Florida, United States ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox radio station"]

Field	Value
name	WMBM
logo	WMBM logo.png
city	Miami Beach, Florida
area	Miami area
airdate	October 31, 1954 (as WAHR)
frequency	1490 kHz
format	Urban Gospel
power	1,000 watts full time
class	C
facility_id	40045
coordinates
callsign_meaning	Where Ministry Blesses Many
former_callsigns	WAHR (1954–1958)
WMET (1958–1962)
WSBH (1993–1995)
owner	New Birth Broadcasting Corp. Inc.
website	wmbm.com
affiliations	Westwood One
licensing_authority	FCC
::

| name = WMBM | logo = WMBM logo.png | city = Miami Beach, Florida | area = Miami area | branding = | airdate = October 31, 1954 (as WAHR) | frequency = 1490 kHz | format = Urban Gospel | power = 1,000 watts full time | erp = | haat = | class = C | facility_id = 40045 | coordinates = | callsign_meaning = Where Ministry Blesses Many | former_callsigns = WAHR (1954–1958) WMET (1958–1962) WSBH (1993–1995) | owner = New Birth Broadcasting Corp. Inc. | licensee = | sister_stations = | webcast = | website = wmbm.com | affiliations = Westwood One | licensing_authority= FCC

WMBM (1490 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a gospel format. Licensed to Miami Beach, Florida, United States, the station serves the Miami area. The station is currently owned by New Birth Broadcasting Corp. Inc. and features programming from Westwood One.

History

WAHR

WAHR signed on the air October 31, 1954. Owned by and named for Alan Henry Rosenson, the station aired a continuous music format. Rosenson owned WLRD (93.9 FM), which changed its call letters to WAHR-FM in 1956.

The manager of the station hired a young man, Larry Zeiger, to perform miscellaneous clean-up tasks. When one of the station's announcers suddenly quit, Zeiger was put on the air; Simmons suggested that Zeiger's last name was too ethnic, so he became Larry King. King would become the station's sports director, leaving in 1958 for WKAT.

WMET

Rosenson sold WAHR-AM-FM to Community Service Broadcasters in 1958. After the $150,000 purchase, the new ownership—most of which hailed from Cincinnati—changed the call letters to WMET, continuing a format emphasizing news, sports and adult music. WMET eventually became a full-time Spanish-language outlet, the first in South Florida. In 1961, the owners of daytime-only station WMBM (1220 AM), Florida's first black radio station—which in turn had just absorbed the call letters and some talent of the previous WMBM at 790 AM—agreed to a deal with Latin Broadcasting Company to swap facilities. The deal was finalized and announced in March 1962; Consolidated Communications, which owned WMBM, paid $253,000 to acquire the WMET-AM-FM facility.

WMBM

On April 3, 1962, the WMET intellectual unit moved to 1220 kHz, and 1490 (and 93.9 FM) received a relocated WMBM. WMBM went on to develop a large and popular history as Miami's premier AM station for rhythm and blues, gospel, jazz and programming targeted to an African-American audience. Noted jazz broadcaster China Valles had a popular show on the station. In its 1960s heyday, the station attempted a Thanksgiving turkey giveaway which clogged the MacArthur Causeway with drivers from Overtown seeking free turkeys. Motivational speaker Les Brown was a disc jockey on WMBM.

In 1992, Eddie Margolis bought WMBM from his father. After a failed half-Haitian, half-gospel format, the station flipped to talk in 1993 and briefly adopted the call letters WSBH. On March 10, 1995, the station returned to a gospel format, as it had for much of the 1980s, and the WMBM call letters.

References

References

1. "WMBM Facility Record". United States [[Federal Communications Commission]], audio division.
2. (October 31, 1954). "Radio Station WAHR On Air". Miami Daily News.
3. "History Cards for WMIA (former WAHR-FM/WMET-FM/WMBM-FM)". [[Federal Communications Commission]]}} ([[Wikipedia:WikiProject Radio Stations/History Cards.
4. King, Larry. (2001). "Larry King on Getting Seduced". PBS Digital Studios.
5. Anderson, Norris. (May 23, 1958). "Ever Know A Poor Yankee?". Miami News.
6. "History Cards for WMBM". [[Federal Communications Commission]]}} ([[Wikipedia:WikiProject Radio Stations/History Cards.
7. Anderson, Jack. (May 19, 1958). "'Colonel Hall' Enjoys a Visit". Miami Herald.
8. (January 23, 1961). "WMBM, WFUN: Switcheroo On Radio In Miami". Miami News.
9. Dunn, Kristine. (December 14, 1961). "WMBM To Go 24 Hours". Miami News.
10. (March 23, 1962). "Radio WMBM, WMET Will Make a Switch". Miami Herald.
11. Dunn, Kristine. (April 2, 1962). "WVCG-FM To Boost Power". Miami News.
12. Katel, Jacob. (December 19, 2014). "RIP China Valles, Pioneering Miami Jazz DJ, Friend of Duke Ellington, Dead at 89". [[Miami New Times]].
13. (March 31, 1993). "Transmission: Impossible". Miami New Times.
14. "WMBM Call Sign History". United States [[Federal Communications Commission]], audio division.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::