WIZE

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WIZE
Broadcast area	Springfield, Ohio
Branding	980 Homer
Slogan	The Sports Animal
First air date	1940
Frequency	1340 (kHz)
Format	sports/talk
Power	1,000 watts
Class	C
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Website	www.wone.com

WIZE is an AM radio station in Springfield, Ohio operating on 1340 kHz. WIZE is owned by Clear Channel Communications and carries a sports talk radio format via a near 24-hour simulcast of WONE 980-AM, as a result, the station uses the on-air nickname "980 Homer." It carries programming from Fox Sports Radio, as well as the Jim Rome Show. Almost all of WIZE/WONE's locally-based daytime lineup is now simulcast from Cincinnati sister station WCKY 1530-AM; in fact, the "Homer" nickname and imaging is the same as WCKY's.

[edit] History

The station took the air on November of 1940. Throughout much of the 1960's and 1970's, WIZE was the most popular Top 40 station in the area. Among the list of past employees include comedian Jonathan Winters, Jim Baldridge, the late John Hall and Johnny Walker. The station was owned by Air Trails Broadcasting (which eventually became Great Trails Broadcasting) and due to its' success, was the most profitable station in the group. WING in Dayton,WCOL in Columbus and WGTZ,Eaton (formerly WJAI) were also owned by Great Trails.

Even though WIZE carried the Top 40 format well into the 1980's, the station itself became oversold in this period, and ratings started to fall. Reportedly, as much as 40 minutes of commercial material were sold in a normal broadcast hour. After efforts to reverse the decline failed, Jerry Staggs took over as general manager, eventually bought the station, and replaced the Top 40 with an adult standards format. Staggs also opererated the former WBLY,the predicessor of WULM as part of a local marketing agreement with owner RAY(Ronald A. Yountz)Broadcasting. By this time,both stations operated in the same building. Staggs sold the station in 1990 to WONE's then-owner, DKM Broadcasting, which dropped all local programming for a simulcast of WONE, effectively ending any and all relationship with Springfield.

After a stint as a country music station, WONE/WIZE changed to Adult Standards on November 29, 1994. It adopted its present sports talk format (as "Sports ONE") on December 8, 2003, competing with Radio One-owned WING. This eventually became a near-total simulcast of then "1360 Homer" in Cincinnati, which continues even as the "Homer" format itself moved from WSAI to WCKY 1530-AM on July 2006.

WIZE's signal is used now to help alleviate coverage problems with the directionally-aimed WONE for the Springfield area. (Concurrently, the same can be said for WONE's main relay of WCKY today filling in certain gaps in the Dayton area.) WIZE's current transmitter site hosts their former studios, which are currently in use by locally-owned WULM 1600-AM, which in 2005 was renovated,updated and dedicated to the memory of John Hall who was WIZE's long time morning personality and the first program director and station manager of WULM before his death in 2004.