In 1985, Jefferson-Pilot sold WGBS to buy WNWS (790 AM), then its direct competitor, merging the two stations' programming on the 790 frequency that had a better signal into Broward County.

The 710 facility, with its strong signal into Cuba, was then spun off to Cuban-American businessman Amancio Suárez, resulting in the foundation of WAQI Radio Mambí.

Known for its hardline anticommunist stance from the start, Mambí has ranked among the most popular Spanish-language stations in South Florida and is also jammed by the Cuban government; however, it has also been criticized for disseminating disinformation, particularly by groups on the left.

On January 10, 1939, Tom M. Bryan filed for a construction permit to build a new local radio station to serve Fort Lauderdale on the frequency of 1370 kHz, with 250 watts during the day and 100 at night.

[3] The Federal Communications Commission granted Bryan the permit on July 12, 1939, and on December 3, 1939, WFTL made its first broadcasts from studios and a transmitter site on Andrews Avenue.

[4] Bryan had brought other pioneering local businesses to Lauderdale prior to building WFTL; these included the city's first ice plant and telephone company.

While there was concern that the association of Horton with a local newspaper, the morning Fort Lauderdale Times,[6] could block the sale,[7] the FCC approved on July 1.

[9] Materials restrictions associated with the outbreak of World War II slowed work, but by late 1942, the building expansion had been completed, as had the necessary three-tower array.

[21] Prior to the change in network affiliation, the station dropped the WFTL call sign and took Storer's initials as its own, becoming WGBS on April 16.

[35] Likewise, WGBS adopted a beautiful music/middle of the road format similar to one successfully implemented by co-owned WJW in Cleveland, Ohio, earlier in the year.

It built a new transmitter site in South Broward, allowing it to raise its nighttime power to 50,000 watts, and a new, colonial-style office building was constructed at 710 Brickell Avenue, leaving the Mayfair after 20 years.

In July 1985, Jefferson-Pilot announced it would purchase one of the direct competitors to WGBS, WNWS (790 AM), with its superior signal in Broward County and stronger ratings.

[60] Mambisa was headed by Amancio Víctor Suárez, a 49-year-old self-made millionaire with no broadcast experience, and named for the mambises, Cuban independence fighters of the 19th century.

Much like its direct format competitors—WQBA (1180 AM), WOCN (1450 AM) "Unión Radio", and WRHC (1550 AM)—Radio Mambí provided primarily news and talk programming alongside soap operas and music.

[69] The irony was that the main interference generated was not within Cuba, where station officials claimed to have a large audience, but in Florida, where high-power Radio Rebelde and WQBA signals clashed.

[76] Six years later, after a decade of successful ownership, Suárez announced he would sell the remaining 51 percent of Mambisa to Heftel, which by that time also owned WQBA.

[77] The deal was amended during consideration by the FCC to remove clauses that gave Suárez a stake in Heftel and a management contract[78] before being approved and consummated in September.

[85] This move enabled Univision to sell the 117.7-acre (47.6 ha) former WAQI transmitter site in Miramar in early 2020 for $39 million for redevelopment as 385 single-family homes.

[86] On June 3, 2022, Univision announced it would sell a package of 18 radio stations across 10 of its markets, primarily AM outlets in large cities (including WAQI and WQBA) and entire clusters in smaller markets such as McAllen, Texas, and Fresno, California, for $60 million to a new company known as Latino Media Network (LMN); Univision proposes to handle operations for a year under agreement before turning over operational control to LMN in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Latino Media Network is headed by Stephanie Valencia, who headed Latino outreach for Barack Obama, and Jess Morales Rocketto, a Democratic activist, with investors and advisors including Eva Longoria, former Florida Republican Party chair Al Cárdenas, longtime television anchor María Elena Salinas, and former Miami-Dade College president Eduardo J. Padrón.

[96] Six Republican lawmakers, five of them from the Florida delegation—senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, representatives Carlos A. Giménez, María Elvira Salazar, and Mario Díaz-Balart, as well as senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas—wrote a letter to FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel urging her agency to "thoroughly scrutinize" the transaction when filed and casting it as a "desperate" move by Democratic operatives, noting their concern over a proposed sale of WSUA (1260 AM) to ATV Holdings, which had fallen apart earlier that year.

[101] However, several hosts departed the station, including Dania Alexandrino, Lourdes Ubieta, and Nelson Rubio, to found a new company known as Americano Media, which promised to start the "first Spanish-language conservative talk radio network"; Ubieta claimed that Univision offered them and other presenters a bonus worth thousands of dollars in exchange for staying and signing a confidentiality agreement, which Pérez Castellón, who stayed, denied.

[102] The FCC approved the Latino Media Network sale in November 2022,[103] and the purchase with respect to all stations except WADO in New York City was consummated on December 30, 2022.