City | Bethesda, Maryland |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Metro Washington area |
Branding | "SportsTalk 570" |
Slogan | "Powered by ESPN" |
Frequency | 570 (kHz) (also on HD Radio) |
First air date | April 9, 2001 |
Format | Sports/talk |
Power | 5,000 watts (day) 1,000 watts (night) |
Class | B |
Facility ID | 11846 |
Transmitter coordinates | 39°8′3.0″N 77°18′14.0″W / 39.134167°N 77.303889°W |
Callsign meaning | W-"SPort(Z)Talk 570" |
Former callsigns | 2001–2010: WTNT 1998–2001: WWRC 1992–1998: WTEM 1948–1992: WGMS |
Affiliations |
ESPN Radio SB Nation Radio |
Owner |
Red Zebra Broadcasting (Red Zebra Broadcasting Licensee, LLC) |
Sister stations | WTEM |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | sportstalk570 |
WSPZ (570 AM) — branded SportsTalk 570 — is a sports radio station licensed to Bethesda, Maryland and serving the Washington metro area. It has a daytime power of 5,000 watts from a transmitter in Germantown, Maryland.
WSPZ's current programming is sports radio, chiefly as an all-network complement to sister station WTEM. It is the flagship for SB Nation Radio's morning show hosted by WTEM afternoon personality Steve Czaban, and carries the ESPN Radio programming lineup throughout the rest of the day, while WTEM has an all-local lineup. WSPZ also airs Virginia Cavaliers football and select Baltimore Orioles games not aired on WTEM.
WSPZ and WTEM are owned by Red Zebra Broadcasting, a broadcasting firm owned by Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins.
In the 1960s through the early 1990s, WSPZ was WGMS, broadcasting classical music. A proposal in the 1970s to convert WGMS to a Top-40 station upset many of its influential listeners; WGMS received an exception from the then-existing rule to simulcast its programming with its sister station, WGMS-FM.
WGMS was sold to Washington, D.C. venture capitalists Steven and Mitchell Rales, which converted the music station into WTEM, a sports-talk station, on May 24, 1992. Chancellor Broadcasting purchased the station in August 1996. Chancellor Broadcasting restructured and became known as AMFM Inc. in 1999. In 2000, AMFM Inc. merged with Clear Channel Communications.