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By PAMELA DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 20, 2000
WFLA-Ch. 8 wasn't the only place people called Sunday night to complain about the television station's decision to pre-empt Tiger Woods' U.S. Open finish. They also flooded the switchboard of radio station WFLA-AM 970, thinking the two media outlets are one and the same.
They're not.
WFLA-Ch. 8 is owned by Media General and WFLA-AM 970 is now owned by Clear Channel Communications. Media General used to own WFLA-AM and FM (WFLA-FM is now WFLZ-FM 93.3). When the radio stations were sold to Blair Broadcasting Corp. of Florida in 1982, Media General wanted the radio station to adopt new call letters but Blair refused.
Channel 8 then changed its call letters from WFLA to WXFL because at the time the Federal Communications Commission mandated that TV and radio stations could not use the same call letters if they were not owned by the same company.
When that FCC rule changed under deregulation of the broadcast industry, Jacor Communications, which owned WFLA-AM at the time, agreed to Channel 8's sharing the WFLA call letters.
"It seemed to us that it was only a positive that our call letters would be appearing on TV all day, every day on a major network affiliate," said Sue Treccase, operations manager for WFLA-AM 970.
The radio station received about 100 calls Sunday during the locally hosted Mark Beiro Show, which airs from 7 to 10 p.m. Beiro's show usually gets about three to four calls an hour, according to show producer and board operator Jeff Fisher.
Fisher put some of Sunday's angry callers on the air to vent their frustrations about Channel 8's decision.
"It was fun," Fisher said. "When anything like that happens it's great (for the show)."
Radio veteran Don Imus, whose nationally syndicated Imus in the Morning show airs locally on WTAN-AM 1340 from 6 to 10 a.m., was hospitalized Sunday after being thrown from a horse at his ranch in New Mexico.
Imus, 59, suffered five broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a broken collar bone and a shoulder separation after being thrown as much as 10 feet.
Before the accident, Imus was already scheduled to be on vacation for two weeks.
It's not known how long his accident will keep him off the air.