Did You Know? Key Biscayne’s Own Radio Station

Several of the WSQF Blink Radio hosts gather for a joint broadcast, Aug. 6. 2019 Left to right are Pablo Arraya, Ricardo Gentzch, Carmine Chirico, Madelyn Werder, and Manny Cambo.

The studio is cramped. It’s filled with donated and second hand equipment.  

But inside – it’s where WSQF comes alive. Listen to livestream

It’s live, local radio – with a growing group of hosts hoping you’ll catch their shows ranging from dating and relationships, to politics, sports, and even a personal life coach. In between, there is a solid 80s and 90s playlist. 

The signal? Surprisingly strong for 100 watts – it’s loud and clear on Key Biscayne through the Rickenbacker toll plaza, and can be heard on Miami Beach, and of course, by boaters.

Blink 94.5 is the brainchild of Ace Hardware owner Manny Cambo, who laid out a small fortune to build the station because of his passion for the medium.

Cambo’s station is what’s known as a Low Power FM, a special category of nonprofit station licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to encourage grassroots radio. Awarded by lottery, Cambo snagged a license for Key Biscayne nearly three years ago. 

“FM radio is still the most credible communication medium,” he says. The live nature of broadcasting creates a different kind of mindset than say, a podcast, he maintains. 

 “There is no delete button.” 

It’s also very much a labor of love, entwined with family history and free expression, even if it’s controversial. His grand uncle, Angel Cambo, was the founder of CMQ radio in Havana in 1933, a station lost in 1959 when the NBC affiliate was seized by the Castro government. Cambo says the impetus for the $150,000 investment was a bad experience with trying to start a charter school on the island. 

The station’s creation represents “buying back my freedom of speech.” 

His hope is that the station will keep Key Biscayne “a shining city on a hill” that would honor his late father, Roberto, one of the Village’s founding incorporators in 1991.

Melitsa Waage reacts to a joke during a broadcast of her radio show on Blink Radio, WSQF-FM, July 20, 2019. Waage’s show, Detoxify Your Life, is one of several talk shows on the Key Biscayne-based station (Key News/Tony Winton)

Cambo is an unabashed right-winger – his show is called Concrete Conservative— but other programming is very diverse. It includes By the Balls, a sports show with tennis pros Pablo Arraya and Guillermo Rivas;  A food and culture show, The Concrete Gentlemen, with Carmine Chirico and Ricardo Gentzch;  Dating and relationship advice on Ask Maddie with Madelyn Werder; and Detoxify Your Life with Melitsa Waage, who bills herself as a “transformational influencer.”

What’s next for WSQF? 

Cambo would love more live local programming – news, talk, even live coverage of youth athletics on the island. But, he says, he’s hoping members of the community will step up and help maintain and financially support the nonprofit. 

“The FCC doesn’t hand out these FM radio licenses often,” he says. “So, appreciate it, or lose it.”