WSPL (1250 AM) was an American

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

licensed to serve the

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

Streator, Illinois Streator is a city in LaSalle County, Illinois, LaSalle and Livingston County, Illinois, Livingston counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city is situated on the Vermilion River (Illinois River tributary), Vermilion River approximately so ...

. The station is owned by

Shaw Media Shaw Media, Inc. was the television broadcasting division of Shaw Communications. It owned the Global Television Network, which broadcasts nationally via 13 television stations, as well as 19 specialty channels including Slice (TV channel), Slice ...

, through licensee Shaw Local Radio Co., after previously being owned by Studstill Media/Mendota Broadcasting, Inc. until April 2023. The station, established in 1953 as WIZZ, was assigned the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

WSPL by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) on January 25,

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Programming

WSPL aired an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

format; it previously broadcast a

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

format. Local programming on WSPL included a

morning drive Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

show, and sports with Illinois Hall of Fame Broadcaster "Big Al" Hauessler, along with a

tradio Tradio is a type of phone-in radio program formatted to provide a venue for listeners to freely advertise items they have to sell or trade. The concept is analogous to classified ads in local newspapers and most prevalent in the south and midw ...

show called ''The Swap Shop''. Sports broadcasts included

Streator Township High School Streator Township High School, also known as Streator High School (SHS), is a high school located in Streator, Illinois, approximately 90 miles southwest of Chicago. History The school is named after its city's namesake, Worthy S. Streator. The ...

football and, up until recently, simulcasts of

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

baseball and

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

basketball. On January 24, 2023, it was announced that Studstill Media had sold WSPL, along with its sister stations, to

Crystal Lake, Illinois Crystal Lake is a city in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. Named after a lake southwest of the city's downtown, Crystal Lake is northwest of Chicago. The population was 40,269 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Crystal L ...

, for a total of $1.8 million. The sale was under FCC review for just under two months before being finalized on March 23, 2023. Shaw Local Radio officially assumed ownership of WSPL and its sister stations on April 3, 2023. WSPL's 1250 AM facility went silent on September 1, 2023; its programming continued on

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

station W253BX (98.5 FM) and the second

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

channel of WYYS.

Alumni

"Cousin Ed" Nowotarski hosted "Polka Party", a live

polka music Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the A ...

program, on WSPL for 34 years before retiring from broadcasting in November 2001. Nowotarski died in January 2004.

License

Shaw Local Radio requested the cancellation of WSPL's license on March 6, 2024; the Federal Communications Commission cancelled it on March 8.

References

External links

WSPL official website
* * {{LaSalle-Peru Radio SPL Defunct radio stations in the United States SPL Radio stations established in 1953 LaSalle County, Illinois 1953 establishments in Illinois Radio stations disestablished in 2023 2023 disestablishments in Illinois