WIZE

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WIZE

City of license	Springfield, Ohio
Branding	WIZE AM 1340
Slogan	Springfield's NEW Home for Country
Frequency	1340 (kHz)
First air date	November 1, 1940
Format	Classic Country
Power	1,000 watts
Class	C
Facility ID	62208
Callsign meaning	Pronounced as wise
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Sister stations	WCHD, WDSJ, WYDB, WMMX, WONE, WTUE, WXEG
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	wizeam.com

WIZE (1340 AM) — branded WIZE AM 1340 — is a commercial radio station in Springfield, Ohio owned by Clear Channel Communications as part of their Dayton cluster. The station's main format is classic country targeted towards Springfield, and their transmitter - and former studios - are also located in Springfield.

Prior to April 22, 2011, WIZE operated as a near 24-hour simulcast of WONE 980-AM, most recently, with sports talk programming from Fox Sports Radio, in addition to The Jim Rome Show.

History

The station took the air on November 1, 1940, and was very active in the community. Its founder and first owner was The Radio Voice of Springfield Inc.

In the station's early days, nationally known comedian Jonathan Winters had a program on WIZE. However, in the mid 1960s, WIZE adopted a Top 40 format, increasing its popularity and revenue. Under the leadership of Station Manager Steve Joos, listenership (and advertising revenues) grew to the point that WIZE was the most profitable station in the Great Trails Broadcasting chain. WING in Dayton, WCOL in Columbus and WGTZ, Eaton (formerly WJAI) were also owned by Great Trails.

The station was moved from its downtown location on West High Street to a location on Miracle Mile. In order to comply with zoning regulations, the building had to be set back from the road and had to look like a residence. As a result, WIZE's studios had a country setting while remaining in the city. Among the list of past employees include Jim Baldridge(later of WHIO-TV), Duke Rollins, Sonny Palmer, Paul Carman, Ron Allen (now with ESPN International),the late John Hall (John Stalder), Johnny Walker (DJ born 1942) (later of WKEF-TV), Lee Brenner (Lee Aufdenkampe), John King (F. John Damewood), Geoff Davis, Jerry "T" Tritle, and Pat Barry (who achieved more recognition as a TV weatherman in Cincinnati). WIZE was also the home to news and sports director Gerry Allen (Gerry Pavelka) and notable news reporters Karen Anderson and Darryl Bauer (now of WHIO-AM).

In 1982, Joos left WIZE to accept a position in Columbus. He was replaced as General Manager by Joe Taylor who instituted numerous changes in the station. He brought in two new staff members (Sandy Alexander and Dennis Carter) and changed the format to a unique middle-of-the-road type format. This was at a time when FM radio was becoming more popular and AM stations were having problems attracting listeners and advertising revenues. Taylor thus instituted an all-out sales push, selling commercials for as little as a dollar. As a result, the station was oversold, often running as much as 40 minutes of commercial material each hour.

Taylor only lasted a few years as General Manager, and was replaced by George Wymer (son of WING, Dayton, radio legend Jack Wymer) with the intention of purchasing the station from Great Trails. He was unable to make the purchase and left the station.

The next General Manager was Jerry Staggs, who eventually did purchase the station. Under Staggs' watch, WIZE associated with the former WBLY, the predecessor of WULM as part of a local marketing agreement with owner RAY (Ronald A. Yontz) 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. This simulcast with WCKY would eventually be severed in 2007, when WONE/WIZE would start to air local sports talk in the afternoon, as well as clearing Fox Sports Radio in the morning hours (which eventually led to a clearance of Dayton native Dan Patrick's late morning show.)

WIZE continued to relay WONE until April 22, 2011, when it broke away to carry a country oldies music format. WULM's usage of the former WIZE studios at the WIZE transmitter site ended in June 2010 (when after being sold to Radio Maria Inc. as a repeater of originating station KJMJ in the spring of 2008), the WULM studio equipment was moved to the Father Boyle Center near St. Bernard Parish at 920 Lagonda Avenue which will feed local live programs to originator KJMJ and its repeater network...as a result,the WIZE studio building now sits nearly vacant as WIZE programming is fed from Dayton.

References

Greater Cincinnati Radio Guide

External links

Official WIZE website

Query the FCC's AM station database for WIZE

Radio-Locator Information on WIZE

Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WIZE

v t e Radio stations in the Dayton, Ohio market

By FM frequency	88.1 88.9 89.3 89.5 89.5 89.9 90.3 91.3 92.1 92.9 93.7 94.5 94.9 95.3 95.7 96.5 96.9 97.3 98.1 98.3 98.7 98.7 99.1 99.9 100.7 101.1 101.5 102.5 102.9 103.5 103.9 104.7 105.9 106.5 106.9 107.3 107.7

By AM frequency	910 980 1110 1130 1210 1290 1340 1410 1500 1570 1600

By callsign	W254BA W254BJ W266BG W273BQ WBZI WCHD WCLI-FM WCSU-FM WCWT-FM WDAO WDHT WDPG WDPR WDPS WDSJ WEDI WEEC WFCJ WFTK WGNZ WGRR WGTZ WHIO WHIO-FM WHKO WING WIZE WKCD WKET WMMX WNKN WONE WPFB WPTW WQRP WREW WROU-FM WSWO-LP WTUE WUDR WULM WUSO WWSU WXEG WYDA WYDB WYNS WYSO WZLR

Ohio radio markets Akron Canton Cincinnati Cleveland Columbus Dayton Lima Marietta Toledo Youngstown-Warren Other Ohio radio regions Ashtabula Ironton Mid-Ohio Sandusky Southern Ohio See also List of radio stations in Ohio

v t e Country music radio stations in the state of Ohio

By frequency	770 910 1090 1130 1320 1340 1500 1540 1560 1590 92.1 92.3 94.1 94.3 94.3 94.5 94.9 95.3 96.1 97.5 97.7 98.3 99.1 99.5 99.9 99.9 100.3 100.5 100.5 100.9 100.9 101.3 101.5 101.5 102.1 103.1 103.7 103.7 104.5 104.5 104.7 104.9 105.1 105.1 105.5 105.7 107.1 107.1 107.5 107.7 107.7

By callsign	WAIS WBGI-FM WBZI WCHO-FM WCJO WCKY-FM WCLI-FM WCLT-FM WCOL-FM WEDI WFGF WGAR-FM WHKO WHOK-FM WIMT WIZE WKFI WKFM WKKJ WKKO WKKY WKLM WKNA WKXA-FM WLZZ WMJK WMRN-FM WNCO-FM WNNF WNUS WOBL WPFB WPFX-FM WQKT WQMX WQXK WRAC WSEO WSRW WTGR WTNS WTUZ WUBE-FM WWKC WXBW WXIZ WYBL WYCL WYDB WZOM WZVL

By city	Ashland Ashtabula Bellaire Belpre Buchtel Caldwell Chillicothe Cincinnati (WNNF) Cincinnati (WUBE-FM) Circleville Cleveland Clyde/Sandusky Columbus Coshocton Dayton Defiance Eaton Englewood/Dayton Findlay Fostoria Gallipolis Geneva Hillsboro Huron/Sandusky Jackson Lima Lima Logan Luckey/Toledo Marion Medina/Akron Middletown Millersburg Montpelier Nelsonville Newark Niles Oberlin Pemberville/Toledo Philo Salem Springfield Toledo Uhrichsville Union City Urbana/Enon Waverly Washington Court House West Union Wilmington Wooster Xenia

See also adult contemporary classic hits college country news/talk NPR oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in Ohio

Coordinates: 39°56′33″N 83°47′15″W / 39.94250°N 83.78750°W / 39.94250; -83.78750

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