Media in the Tampa Bay area

Floridian metropolitan area

The Tampa Bay media market is Florida's second-largest metropolitan area with a variety of print, online and broadcast media outlets serving the region. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the population for the Tampa-St. Petersburg Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) at 3,194,831 according to the 2019 est. The Tampa Bay media market also includes Citrus, Manatee, Sarasota and Polk counties which is over 5,000,000 when combined with the Tampa Bay (MSA).[1] Polk County is also served by media from Orlando.

## Newspapers and magazines

[edit]

See also: List of newspapers in Florida

The first newspaper in Tampa was the Florida Peninsular.

The major daily newspaper serving the area is the Tampa Bay Times. The Tampa Bay Times, which was known as the St. Petersburg Times from 1898 until January 2012, is the largest newspaper by circulation in the southeastern United States at over 400,000, which is over 50% more than Florida's next largest newspaper, the Orlando Sentinel.[2] It distributes a free Monday-through-Friday tabloid called tbt* in most areas of Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties. The Tampa Tribune was Tampa's longest-running newspaper, first published in 1895. The Tribune was one of several local daily newspapers serving Tampa in the early 20th century, but after buying the Tampa Times in 1958, it became Tampa's main morning daily for the next several decades. (The Tribune published the Tampa Times as an afternoon daily until 1982.) In more recent years, "The Trib" published a portfolio of standalone weekly newspapers throughout the region, many of which are still published by the Tampa Bay Times, including the Plant City Courier & Tribune, Brandon News & Tribune, South Shore News & Tribune, Northeast News & Tribune, Carrollwood News & Tribune, South Tampa News & Tribune, Northwest News & Tribune, Central Tampa News & Tribune, The Suncoast News, and the Spanish language CENTRO Tampa. Stiff competition with the St. Petersburg / Tampa Bay Times for subscribers and advertising revenue led to several changes of ownership and rounds of layoffs for the Tampa Tribune during the 2000s, and in May 2016, the Tampa Bay Times bought and folded its main competitor. The Times added some of the Tribune's reporters and columnists to its staff while laying off others as it consolidated operations.[3]

The Tampa Bay area is also served by a variety of regional newspapers and weeklies. La Gaceta is a weekly trilingual (English, Spanish and Italian) newspaper published in Tampa's historic Ybor City since 1922.[4] Two newspapers serve the local black community: the Florida Sentinel Bulletin (Tampa) and The Weekly Challenger (St. Petersburg). Creative Loafing Tampa (also known for a time as the Weekly Planet) is the area's primary alternative weekly. The Oracle serves the University of South Florida and its surrounding community. The Tampa Bay Business Journal is the region's business publication of record. The Osprey Observer is a weekly that serves East Hillsborough County with five separate publications, three of which carry the Osprey Observer moniker and a fourth, The Christian Voice that is distributed through local churches. Some lesser-known papers include Tampa Bay Newspapers TBNWeekly and the Tampa Bay Informer.

Several print magazines serve the Tampa Bay area. Tampa Bay Magazine, established in 1986, is printed monthly and features dining and entertainment content. Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine was established in 2007, and it features content for and about local families.

Several cities outside the Tampa-St. Petersburg core but within the Tampa Bay media market have smaller-circulation daily newspapers with overlapping coverage and distribution areas. They include The Bradenton Herald, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, The Ledger of Lakeland, The News-Chief of Winter Haven (published by The Ledger), the Citrus County Chronicle (based in Inverness), and previously Hernando Today (based in Brooksville) as well as Highlands Today (based in Sebring). Both of the Today newspapers were published by The Tampa Tribune. Hernando Today was shuttered by the Tribune in 2014; Highlands Today was briefly continued by the Times before being sold and merged into the Highlands News Sun.

## Television

[edit]

WUSF-TV studios in Tampa

The Tampa Bay area is the nation's 11th-largest TV market and largest TV Market(DMA) in the state of Florida, according to Nielsen Media Research,[5] with 1,859,820 TV households.

Fourteen television stations serve the region (network O&O's in bold):

* WEDU (Channel 3, PBS) (Cable 3)
* WEDQ (Channel 3.4, PBS)
* WFLA (Channel 8, NBC) (Cable 8)
* WTSP (Channel 10, CBS) (Cable 10)
* WTVT (Channel 13, Fox) (Cable 13)
* WCLF (Channel 22, Christian Television Network)
* WFTS (Channel 28, ABC) (Cable 11)
* WMOR (Channel 32, independent)
* WTTA (Channel 38, The CW) (Cable 6)
* WSNN-LD (Channel 39, MyNetworkTV)
* WWSB (Channel 40, ABC, Sarasota) (Cable 7)
* WTOG (Channel 44, independent) (Cable 4)
* WRMD (Channel 49, Telemundo)
* WFTT (Channel 50, religious)
* WVEA (Channel 62, Univision, with UniMás on DT6)
* WXPX (Channel 66, Independent, with Ion Television on DT2)

Local cable-only stations include Bay News 9 and Spectrum Sports Florida (operated by Charter Communications)

The Tampa Bay television market is only one of a handful of markets to have duplicate network affiliations (in this case, ABC) in the same market. The reason for this was that WTSP, channel 10 which was the ABC affiliate at the time, had a smaller transmission tower in southwest Pasco County in Holiday. This resulted in a poor to non-existent ABC signal in the southern half of the market. The rest of the network television stations broadcast from a higher tower in the Riverview area of east-central Hillsborough County. When the three (ABC, CBS, and Fox) television stations switched network affiliation, the ABC affiliate now could be picked up in the southern half of the market. At around the same time, WTSP became a CBS affiliate and received a waiver increase their power, but it did not correct the problems with reception in Sarasota County. In 2011, WSTP received a waiver to move their transmitter to the Riverview antenna farm which alleviated their reception issues in Sarasota County. They did need to dampen their signal slightly to the southeast as to not interfere with the station broadcasting on channel 10 in Miami-Fort Lauderdale. With the switch in networks, the Sarasota ABC affiliate (WWSB, Channel 40) now deemed redundant by ABC. WWSB was served a termination notice from ABC, but they petitioned the FCC to maintain the affiliation with ABC and it was granted. WWSB transmits from an antenna near Rye in Manatee County and can be received in all but the far northern counties of the market. It has also been included on several of the cable TV systems as an alternative to WFTS, channel 28 in Tampa.[6]

## Radio

[edit]

The Tampa Bay area is the nation's 19th largest radio market, according to Arbitron Research.[7] More than 70 radio stations exist, split almost evenly between the AM and FM band. Most major programming formats are represented by the corporations of iHeart Media, the biggest owner of radio stations in the area, followed by Cox Media Group and Beasley Broadcasting. The area is also home to at least two non-profit radio stations, WMNF and WUSF. Christian stations include The Joy FM and WBVM. In addition, many Orlando-area stations can be heard in the northern and eastern reaches of the metropolitan area.

These stations were rated by Arbitron in January 2014:

* WXTB (98 Rock) Active Rock
* WWRM (Magic 94.9) Adult Contemporary
* WMTX (Mix 100.7) Adult Contemporary
* WDAE All Sports
* WHFS Business News
* WPBB (98.7 The Shark) Classic Rock
* WSUN (97X) Alternative
* WXGL (107.3 The Eagle) Classic Hits
* WRBQ-FM (Q105) Classic Hits
* WSMR Classical
* WCIE Contemporary Christian
* WBVM Contemporary Christian
* WJIS Contemporary Christian
* WFUS (US 103.5) Country
* WQYK (99.5 QYK) Country
* WUSF Public Radio
* WFLA News Talk Information
* WHNZ News Talk Information
* WFLZ (93.3 FLZ) Pop Contemporary Hit Radio
* WTBV (101.5 The Vibe) Urban Adult Contemporary
* WKES Religious
* WLLD (WILD 94.1) Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio
* WDUV (105.5 The Dove) Soft Adult Contemporary
* WYUU (Maxima 92.5) Spanish Hot Adult Contemporary
* WHPT Talk/Personality
* WBTP Classic Hip Hop
* WMNF (WMNF 88.5 FM) Community/Variety
* WRUB (Rumba 96.7) Spanish Tropical

## See also

[edit]

* Florida media
* List of newspapers in Florida
* List of radio stations in Florida
* List of television stations in Florida
* Media of cities in Florida: Fort Lauderdale, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Key West, Lakeland, Miami, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Tampa Bay metro market hits milestone - Tampa Bay Business Journal, July 18, 2007
2. ^ ACCESS ABC: eCirc for US Newspapers Archived 2012-10-27 at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ Tampa Bay Times buys and folds the Tampa Tribune - The Poytner Institute, May 3, 2016
4. ^ La Gaceta Newspaper – History Archived 2012-04-18 at the Wayback Machine
5. ^ "Audience Is Everything®" (PDF). www.nielsen.com. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
6. ^ Wikipedia articles on WWSB and WSTP
7. ^ Arbitron Radio Market Rankings – Winter 2012

## External links

[edit]

* "US Newspaper Directory: Florida: Tampa". Chronicling America. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress.
* Pinellas News (2005-2010) — newspaper with full text and full pages images from the Florida Digital Newspaper Library
* Gabber (2007-) — newspaper with full text and full pages images from the Florida Digital Newspaper Library

* v
* t
* e

Tampa Bay area

Topics|

* Tampa Bay
* Climate
* History
* Media
* Sports
* Tampa International Airport
* Hillsborough County Public Schools
* Pinellas County Schools
* University of South Florida

Central cities|

* Tampa
* St. Petersburg
* Clearwater

Smaller communities|

* Pinellas Park
* Temple Terrace
* Brandon
* Zephyrhills
* Plant City
* Largo
* Dunedin
* Tarpon Springs
* Lutz
* Sun City Center

Counties in MSA|

* Hernando
* Hillsborough
* Pasco
* Pinellas

See also: Florida

* v
* t
* e

Broadcast television in the Tampa Bay area and surrounding areas

This region also includes the following cities/areas: St. Petersburg
Clearwater
Lakeland
Bradenton
Sarasota

Full power|

* WEDU 3
* PBS
* WEDQ 3
* PBS
* WFLA-TV 8
* NBC
* WTSP 10
* CBS
* WTVT 13
* Fox
* WCLF 22
* CTN
* WFTS-TV 28
* ABC
* WMOR-TV 32
* Ind.
* WTTA 38
* The CW
* WWSB 40
* ABC
* WTOG 44
* Ind.
* WVEA-TV 50
* Univision
* WFTT-TV 62
* Scientology Network
* WXPX-TV 66
* Ind.

Low-power|

* W05CO-D 5
* WPDS-LD 14
* W31EG-D 15
* WSVT-LD 18
* Daystar
* WARP-CD 20
* WXAX-CD 26
* Defy
* WTAM-LD 30
* W32FH-D 33
* WSPF-CD 35
* TCT
* WSNN-LD 39
* MyNetworkTV
* W16DQ-D 43
* WTBT-LD 45
* Diya TV
* WZRA-CD 48
* WRMD-CD 49
* Telemundo

Outlying areas|

* WYKE-CD 47
* CTN, Lecanto, repeater of WCLF

ATSC 3.0|

* WMOR-TV 32

Cable|

* FanDuel Florida
* FanDuel Sun
* Bay News 9
* Tampa Bay
* News 13
* Orlando
* SNN
* Sarasota

Streaming|

* 10 Tampa Bay+
* ABC Action News+
* ABC Action Weather 24/7
* Very Tampa Bay

Defunct|

| Broadcast|

* WLWA 14
* Religious Ind.
* WHRT-LP 17
* Ind.
* W31CZ-D 31
* TBN
* W36CO 36
* TBN
* WSUN-TV 38
* ABC
* WALM-LD 51
* TBN
* WMOR-LP 63
* Ind.

|

Cable|

* InfoMás
* Spectrum Sports

Florida broadcast television areas by city
Fort Myers
Gainesville/Ocala
Jacksonville
Miami/Ft. Lauderdale
Mobile/Pensacola
Orlando
Panama City
Tallahassee
Tampa/St. Petersburg
West Palm Beach

* v
* t
* e

Radio stations in the Tampa Bay area of Florida

This region includes the cities Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater.

By AM frequency|

* 570
* 620
* 680
* 760
* 820
* 860
* 910
* 970
* 1010
* 1040
* 1110
* 1150
* 1250
* 1300
* 1340
* 1350
* 1380
* 1400
* 1450
* 1470
* 1500
* 1520
* 1550
* 1590
* 16201

By FM frequency|

* 88.5
* 88.9
* 89.7
* 90.5
* 91.1
* 91.5
* 92.5
* 93.3
* 94.1
* 94.9
* 95.7
* 96.1
* 97.1
* 97.9
* 98.7
* 99.5
* 99.9
* 100.7
* 101.5
* 102.5
* 103.5
* 104.7
* 105.5
* 106.3
* 106.5
* 107.3

| LPFM|

* 90.1
* 96.3
* WBPU-LP
* WSCQ-LP
* WURK-LP
* 96.5
* WCWR-LP
* WSPE-LP
* 96.7
* WMTB-LP
* WZPH-LP
* 99.1
* WUJM-LP
* WVVD-LP
* 100.1
* WGGF-LP
* WGPY-LP
* WVVF-LP
* 101.1
* 101.9
* 102.1
* WPBW-LP
* WWFH-LP
* 104.1
* 105.1
* 106.9
* 107.9
* WPHC-LP
* WNRH-LP
* WZWC-LP

|

Translators|

* 90.9
* 91.9
* 92.1
* 92.3
* 92.9
* 93.7
* W229BM
* W229DJ
* 94.5
* W233AV
* W233CV
* 95.3
* 96.1
* 96.7
* W244BE
* W244EG
* 97.5
* 98.3
* 99.1
* 100.3
* 100.9
* 101.1
* 101.9
* W270DH
* W270DU
* 102.1
* 102.9
* 103.1
* 103.9
* W280DK
* W280DW
* 104.3
* W282CC
* W282CI
* 105.9
* 106.1
* 106.9
* 107.7

NOAA Weather Radio
frequency|

* 162.45
* 162.55

Digital radio
by frequency & subchannel|

* 1150
* 88.5-1
* 88.5-2
* 88.5-3
* 88.5-4
* 89.7-1
* 89.7-2
* 90.5-1
* 90.5-2
* 90.5-3
* 92.5-1
* 92.5-2
* 92.9-1
* 92.9-2
* 93.3-1
* 93.3-2
* 94.1-1
* 94.9-1
* 94.9-2
* 95.7-1
* 95.7-2
* 95.7-3
* 96.1-1
* 96.1-2
* 97.1-1
* 97.1-2
* 97.9-1
* 97.9-2
* 98.7-1
* 99.5-1
* 99.5-2
* 100.7-1
* 100.7-2
* 100.7-3
* 101.5-1
* 101.5-2
* 102.5-1
* 102.5-2
* 103.5-1
* 103.5-2
* 104.7-1
* 104.7-2
* 105.5-1
* 105.5-2
* 106.5-1
* 106.5-2
* 106.5-3
* 107.3-1

By call sign|

* "Bulls Radio"1
* KEC38
* KHB32
* W215CJ
* W220EK
* W221DW
* W222CI
* W225CQ
* HD2
* W229BM
* W229DJ
* W233AV
* W233CV
* W237CW
* W241DH2
* W244BE
* W244EG
* W248CA
* W252DF
* W256CT
* W262CP
* W265BJ
* W266CW
* W270DH
* W270DU
* W271DL
* W275AZ
* W276CX
* W280DK
* W280DW
* W282CC
* W282CI
* W290BJ
* W291CW
* W295CF
* W299CI
* WAMA
* WBPU-LP
* WBTP
* HD2
* HD3
* WBVM
* HD2
* HD3
* WCIE
* WCWR-LP
* WDAE
* WDCF
* WDUV
* HD2
* WFLA
* WFLZ
* HD2
* WFUS
* HD2
* WGES
* WGGF-LP
* WGHR
* WGPY-LP
* WGUL
* WHBO
* WHNZ
* WHOT
* WHPT
* HD2
* WJBR
* WKES
* WLCC
* WLLD
* WMGG
* WMNF
* HD2
* HD3
* HD4
* WMTB-LP
* WMTX
* HD2
* HD3
* WPBB
* WPBW-LP
* WPHC-LP
* WPSO
* WQBN
* WQTA-LP
* WQYK-FM
* HD2
* WRBQ-FM
* HD2
* WRUB
* HD2
* HD3
* WSCQ-LP
* WSDX-LP
* WSPE-LP
* WSUN
* HD2
* WTAN
* WTBN
* WTWD
* WTBV
* HD2
* WTEC-LP
* WTIS
* WTMP
* WTMP-FM
* HD2
* WUJM-LP
* WURK-LP
* WUSF
* HD2
* WVVD-LP
* WVVF-LP
* WWBA
* WWFH-LP
* WWJB
* WWMI
* WWRM
* HD2
* WWZT-LP
* WXGL
* WXJB
* WXPP-LP
* WXTB
* HD2
* WXYB
* WYFE
* WYUU
* HD2
* WZHR
* WZIG-LP
* WZPH-LP
* WZWC-LP
* WYPW-LP

Defunct|

* WFTI-FM (91.7 FM)
* WGBP
* "WKID" (96.7 FM)1
* WPCQ-LP (96.3 FM)
* WSUN (620 AM)

Radio stations in Central Florida
Daytona Beach
Lakeland-Winter Haven
Melbourne
Orlando
Tampa Bay

Other nearby regions
Gainesville/Ocala
Sarasota
Sebring-Arcadia

See also
List of radio stations in Florida

* * *

Notes
1\. Part 15 station with notability.
2\. Station is silent.
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template