WIRL (1290 AM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting a

conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

format. Licensed to

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria Metropolitan Area in Ce ...

, United States, the station serves the Peoria area and broadcasts in AM stereo. The station is currently owned by Midwest Communications, Inc. WIRL can also be heard in HD on sister station WPBG-HD3. WIRL itself is not licensed to broadcast in HD.

History

WIRL began broadcasting February 18, 1948, on 1290 kHz with 5,000 Watts of power (full-time). It was licensed to Illinois Valley Broadcasting Company with studios in the Jefferson Building in Peoria. WIRL was most famous as a successful

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "cont ...

radio station from 1960 until approximately 1984. During its tenure, its only competition was daytime-only WPEO 1020 AM. Popular disc jockeys were Robyn Weaver, Lee Ranson, Jerry Barr, Jim French, Timmy "Old Weird" West, Bill McCluggage, Lee Malcolm, Wayne R. Miller, Howard Taylor, Pete Stewart, VLJ, Charlie O'Day, John Sebastian Bachman, Ann Holub, Dave Phillips, Steve Young, Scott Robbins, Ron Thorn, with Mark Wainwright and many more. For many years WIRL broadcast

Bradley Braves The Bradley Braves are the intercollegiate athletics teams of Bradley University, located in Peoria, Illinois, United States. The Braves' athletic program is a member of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) and competes at the NCAA Division I lev ...

basketball games not aired on WMBD (AM). In the late 1970s, FM station WKZW 93.3 a.k.a. KZ93 (now WPBG) began programming a Top 40 format and siphoned away many listeners from WIRL until 1984, when they began to evolve into a full service personality and adult contemporary station. Personalities included Lee Malcolm, Gene Konrad, Kurt Schaeffer, Denise Henley, Steve Larson, Marc Truelove, Steve Young and Darryl Parks. The

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

format lasted until the early 1990s; the station also programmed oldies, standards, and sports talk. In November 2000, the station changed to all-sports "Fox Sports 1290" with the callsign WWFS. The station returned to the WIRL call sign when it adopted the

classic country Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades. Repertoire The radio format specializes in hits from the 1950s through the early 1980s, and focus primarily on inn ...

format in March 2005. A station from New York now uses the callsign "WWFS". On March 15, 2013, WIRL changed their format to oldies, branded as "Good Time Oldies" and began simulcasting on FM translator W274BM 102.7 FM. On February 4, 2019, Alpha Media announced that it would sell its Peoria cluster to

Midwest Communications Midwest Communications is a Wausau, Wisconsin-based radio broadcasting company. It owns 82 radio stations located primarily within the Midwest United States, in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Illinois and ...

for $21.6 million. The sale closed on April 30, 2019. On February 28, 2022, WIRL 1290 AM has switched to a conservative/far-right wing talk radio format, branded as "Freedom 95.9" (simulcasting 95.9 W240DM Peoria and WPBG-HD3). The oldies format is still available on 102.7 W274BM and WPBG-HD2WIRL Moves From Superhits To Freedom
Radioinsight - February 28, 2022

Previous logo

(WIRL's logo from 2005 to 2013 under former classic country format) (WIRL's logo from 2013 to 2022 under previous oldies format)

References

External links

The Big 1290
— tribute site with pictures and soundclip archives
FCC History Cards for WIRL
{{Authority control Radio stations established in 1948 IRL Midwest Communications radio stations