WSPR

Infobox radio station
name = WSPR


city = Springfield, Massachusetts
area = Springfield, Massachusetts
branding = "Power 1270"
slogan =
airdate = 1961
frequency = 1270 kHz
format = Spanish Tropical
power = 5,000 watts (day) 1,000 watts (night)
class = B
facility_id = 18717
coordinates = coord|42|05|24|N|72|36|11|W
callsign_meaning = SPRingfield
former_callsigns =
owner = Davidson Media Group
licensee = Davidson Media Station WSPR Licensee, LLC
sister_stations =
webcast =
website = [http://www.davidsonmediagroup.com/Stations/PAGES/WSPR.htm WSPR Online]
affiliations =

WSPR (1270 AM, "Power 1270") is a radio station licensed to serve Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. The station is owned by Davidson Media Group and licensed to Davidson Media Station WSPR Licensee, LLC. It airs a Spanish Tropical music format.cite web |title=Station Information Profile |work=Arbitron |url=http://www.arbitron.com/]

The station was assigned the WSPR call letters by the Federal Communications Commission.cite web |title=Call Sign History |work=FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database |url=http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/call_hist.pl?Facility_id=18717&Callsign=WSPR]

History

WSPR was launched in 1961 by Alan B. Tindall, a Springfield area resident. Its initial address was 72 Chestnut Street, on the edge of downtown Springfield. The original studio was a converted Spanish colonial style residence, which was painted gold aith a red tile roof. The studios were located just north of the "Quadrangle", a grassy rectangle at the corner of Chestnut and State Streets, one of the city's busiest intersections. Around the Quadrangle, were the main branch of the Springfield Public Library, Grace Cathedral (seat of the local Episcopal diocese), and three museums. WSPR's birth was much ballyhooed. In September, 1961, the infant station gained much needed publicity by broadcasting live from the Eastern States Exposition, a five-state fair (MA, NH, VT, ME, RI), which was located across the river in West Springfield. WBZ, New England's oldest surviving radio station, conducted its first broadcast from the Eastern States Exposition in 1921. The first format for WSPR was Top 40, which proved quite successful. The station's main competition came from WHYN AM, which was the area's main Top 40 outlet. By the mid 1960s, WSPR teamed up with TV station WWLP to create a a 30-minute teen dance show, which aired opposite a similar program on WHYN-TV (now WGGB), sister station to WHYN 560 AM. The show, which featured WSPR's DJ's gained much needed listenership among area teens, since WWLP was then the leading TV station in the market. Of course, it did not hurt that Alan Tindall and WWLP's owner, Bill Putnam, were golfing buddies. Local legend was that the two hatched the dance show idea over drinks at the Longmeadow (MA) Country Club in the summer of 1965.

By the early 1970s, WSPR began to ease itself away from the Top 40 format to a more adult-oriented Middle of the Road format. The theory behind the subtle format change was that an updated format change would better accommodate the station's core listenership, which by now was in its mid to late 20s. Another factor in the change of fromat was the advent of album oriented rock, which had premiered on station WHVY FM (now WMAS FM) in September, 1970. Springfield's initiation to AOR was quite abrupt: WHVY's first song was "Up Against the Wall", which was presented in its uncensored entirety.

WSPR's MOR days lasted until Tindall decided to sell the station in 1977. The sale coincided with another format change, this time to sports-talk radio. Thge station went all out to establish its "jock" credentials, signing contracts to carry the Boston Red Sox, the Boston Bruins, and the Boston Celtics. When the station was not carrying games, it hosted sports call-in shows. This format survived a move of the studios across the river to West Springfield, next-door to WSPR's transmitter.

References

External links

* [http://www.davidsonmediagroup.com/Stations/PAGES/WSPR.htm WSPR official website]
* [http://www.davidsonmediagroup.com/ Davidson Media Group]
*AMQ|WSPR
*AML|WSPR
*AMARB|WSPR