City | Belleville, Illinois |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Greater St. Louis |
Branding | 1260 AM The Answer |
Slogan | Intelligent. Conservative. |
Frequency | 1260 kHz |
First air date | 1947 (as WIBV) |
Format | Conservative Talk |
Power | 20,000 watts day 5,000 watts night |
Class | B |
Facility ID | 4622 |
Transmitter coordinates | 38°27′31.00″N 89°57′41.00″W / 38.4586111°N 89.9613889°WCoordinates: 38°27′31.00″N 89°57′41.00″W / 38.4586111°N 89.9613889°W |
Callsign meaning |
W St. Louis DiZney (former owner) |
Former callsigns | WIBV (1947-1998) |
Affiliations | Salem Radio Network |
Owner |
Salem Media Group (Caron Broadcasting, Inc.) |
Website | www |
WSDZ (1260 AM) is a Conservative Talk formatted radio station licensed to Belleville, Illinois, serving the Greater St. Louis. The station, which began broadcasting in 1947, is owned and operated by Salem Media Group. The WSDZ broadcast license is held by Caron Broadcasting, Inc.
WSDZ's studios are located on Webster Hill Road in St. Louis, while its transmitter is located south of Belleville.
WSDZ along with KMOX are responsible for activation of the St. Louis area Emergency Alert System.
The station began in July 1947 as WIBV ("Belleville's Voice"), daytime only, on 1060 kHz with 250 W power. It was owned by Belleville Broadcasting Co.
WIBV aired various types of music, and broadcasting a variety of high school sports into the Metro-East area for many years, until the mid-1990s, when it became an all-news/talk station, a fore-runner of KTRS.
WIBV became WSDZ, when it transferred all of its programming over to KSD-AM, which became KTRS in early 1997. It then became the Radio Disney affiliate for the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area.
On August 13, 2014, it was announced that Radio Disney planned to sell all of its remaining owned-and-operated stations (including WSDZ and with the lone exception of KDIS in Los Angeles) in order to focus more on the network's programming, co-branded events, and digital outlets. Disney originally planned to temporarily shut down the stations in question on September 26, 2014. However, Disney changed their plans at the last minute, and all stations would remain on the air, continuing to broadcast Radio Disney programming until each were sold.
On September 15, it was announced that Salem Media Group acquired the last five Radio Disney owned-and-operated stations for sale (including WSDZ) for $2.225 million. WSDZ was acquired through Caron Broadcasting, Inc., for $275,000. The sale of WSDZ was completed on December 18, 2015.