WPOI, "Hot 101.5", is an FM radio station in Tampa, Florida broadcasting a CHR format. The station's HD2 channel currently simulcasts alternative rock sister channel WSUN as of August 6, 2019. Owned by Cox Radio, its studios are located in St. Petersburg, and the transmitter site is in Riverview.
History
The station started out in 1961 as WGNB. In 1974 it became WKES, which was a religious station operated by the Moody Bible Institute, from studios at the Moody-affiliated Keswick Christian School in Seminole. In 1997, in a three way swap, Paxson Broadcasting acquired Lakeland Christian station WCIE 91.1 from the Carpenter's Home Church, who in turn swapped the station with Moody's WKES. WKES would soon move to 91.1 FM; after a brief simulcast period, the WKES call sign would move to 91.1, while 101.5 would become WILV, broadcasting a "Love Songs" format branded as "Love 101.5", in July of that year. WILV was a failure, and in 1998, Paxson Communications was bought out by Clear Channel Communications. With that, on September 19, 1998, the format changed to Rhythmic oldies as WFJO, "Jo 101.5". In 1999, Cox Radio purchased WFJO along with several other stations. On December 15, 2001, the station flipped to an all ‘80s format, branded as "The New 101-5 The Point". The first song as "The Point" was "Don't You " by Simple Minds. The station was modeled after KHPT in Houston, Texas that had launched the previous year. The call letters became WPOI on January 14, 2002. The original tagline was "The Best ofthe '80s and More", which included late-1970s and early-1990s tracks, along with 1980s product. In 2006, "The Point" started adding more 1990s songs to the playlist. In 2009, the station added songs as late as 2000. "The Point" also removed the "Late '70s" tagline from the on-air liners, thus removing all pre-1980s music from the station. In September 2010, the station adopted "The Best Music of the '80s and '90s" slogan. In May 2011, the "New" was finally dropped from the station's name. Around the same time, the "New" was dropped from the name of sister stationsWWRM and WXGL. On July 1, 2011, at 10:00 am, after playing Bon Jovi's"Blaze of Glory", the station began stunting with random song clips. One hour later, the station flipped to CHR as "Hot 101-5", with LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" as its first song. The station has taken direct aim at WFLZ, and targets an 18–49 year old audience with a music-intensive current-based playlist that borders towards Dance-pop tracks, with less talk and commercials than its competitors.
