WPOI, "Hot 101.5", is an FM radio station in Tampa, Florida broadcasting a CHR (Top 40) format.

The station's HD-2 channel is known as "Star 101.5" and airs a Modern AC format.^[1]

The station's main rivals are WFLZ, WSJT, and, to a lesser extent, WMTX and WLLD.

History [link]

The station started out in 1961 as WGNB. In 1974 it became WKES, which was a religious station operated by the Moody Bible Institute. In 1997, Paxson Communications purchased WKES, who promptly changed the call letters to WILV and aired a "Love Songs" format branded as "Love 101.5".

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 All-80's as "The New 101-5 The Point". The first song as "The Point" was "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds. The station was modeled after KHPT in Houston that had launched the previous year. The call letters became WPOI on January 14, 2002. The original tagline was "The Best of the 80's and More", which included late 70's and early 90's tracks, along with 80's 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 70's" tagline from the on-air liners, thus removing all pre-1980's music from the station.

In September of 2010, the station adopted the "The Best Music of the 80's and 90's" slogan.

In May of 2011, the "New" was finally dropped from the station's name. Around the same time, the "New" was dropped from the name of sister stations WWRM and WXGL.

On July 1, 2011, at 10:00am, the station dropped its 80s and 90s format, with Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory" as its final song, and began stunting. One hour later, the station flipped to CHR as "Hot 101-5", with LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem as its first song. The station hopes to target a female-friendly 18-49 audience (especially young adults in the 18-34 age bracket) with a music-intensive current-based playlist that borders towards Dance-pop tracks, with less talk and commercials than its competitors.^[2]

References [link]

1. ^ "Cox Announces HD2 Formats In Atlanta & Tampa". All Access Music Group. April 25, 2006. https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/8925/cox-announces-hd2-formats-in-atlanta-tampa. Retrieved July 1, 2011. 
2. ^ "Hot 101.5 turns up the heat on WFLZ and ‘MJ’" from Tampa Bay Times (July 4, 2011)

External links [link]

• Official website of Hot 101.5
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WPOI
• Radio-Locator information on WPOI
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WPOI

Coordinates: 27°49′12″N 82°15′40″W / 27.820°N 82.261°W / 27.820; -82.261