WSPD

WSPD

City of license	Toledo, Ohio
Broadcast area	Toledo, Ohio
Branding	1370 WSPD
Slogan	The Talk of Toledo
Frequency	1370 (kHz)
First air date	April 15, 1921
Format	News/Talk
Power	5,000 watts
Class	B
Facility ID	62187
Callsign meaning	W SPeeDene Oil W SPeeDy
Former callsigns	1921-1928: WTAL
Affiliations	Fox News Radio
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Website	www.1370wspd.com

WSPD (1370 AM) — branded The Talk of Toledo - 1370 WSPD — is a news-talk radio station licensed to Toledo, Ohio. WSPD broadcasts on a full-time basis with 5,000 watts, including a directional signal pattern at night. The station is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications.

WSPD's studios are located in downtown Toledo at Superior and Lafayette Avenues, and their transmitter is located on Oregon Road near Wales Road in Northwood. The transmitter site still contains a small DJ booth - reportedly the original broadcast studio - and features three unique free-standing towers.

Current programming on WSPD features local hosts Fred LeFebvre, Brian Wilson and Fritz Wenzel, in addition to syndicated programs such as The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Glenn Beck Program, Coast to Coast AM and The Mutual Fund Show with Adam Bold. WSPD is affiliated with Fox News Radio, which provides live top-of-the-hour newscasts, actualities, and breaking national news coverage.

History

WSPD is Toledo's longest running radio station, originally started on-air as WTAL in April 1921. It would be purchased by the nascent Storer Communications in January 1928, and was renamed WSPD. The call letters came from "Speedene Oil," a brand of gasoline that Storer Communications' founders, George B. Storer and brother-in-law J. Harold Ryan, owned and marketed. For decades, WSPD was commonly known as "Speedy 1370". Some locals still refer to the station as "Speedy" although that nickname is no longer officially used on the air (recently, traffic reports on WSPD were renamed "Speedy Traffic," a nod to the heritage slogan).

WSPD was the flagship of Storer Broadcasting until 1980, when it was spun off to "WSPD, Inc." Toledo Broadcasting Inc. acquired the station in 1986; eventually it would be sold to Jacor, and most recently, to Clear Channel. In the early 1990s, WSPD transitioned from a full-service adult contemporary/MOR station to its current news/talk format - mainly with a conservative focus - and became known as "News Radio 1370 WSPD." The station went by the slogan "News/Talk 1370" from late 2005 until the winter of 2011, and is now merely known as "1370 WSPD".

The WSPD call letters were once shared with TV channel 13, when both were commonly owned by Storer Broadcasting. The TV station's call letters changed to WTVG in 1980 when the radio stations were sold off to Wood Broadcasting, and Storer Broadcasting retained control of the TV station.

WSPD has been the flagship station of University of Toledo football and men's basketball since the mid-1960s, heading a network of five affiliate stations across Ohio and Michigan as of August 2011. The station is also the chief Northwest Ohio affiliate of Cleveland Indians baseball. WSPD carries all weeknight and weekend Indians games that do not conflict with U-T broadcasts. Weekday afternoon games are heard on sister station WCWA.

Although only 5,000 watts it had enormous influence in the Toledo market due to unusually high ratings. Some on-air alumni of WSPD include: Connie Desmond, Art Barrie, Jim Ubelhart, Jeanne Overton, Bob Seybold, Randy Huston, Jean Shepherd, Bob Martz, Don Edwards, Neal Carmean, Chuck Parmelee, Ed Hunter, Jerry Keil, Eddie Kootz, Frank Venner, Jack Mitchell, Deborah Boyce, Rich Hoffer, Jerry Anderson, Larry Weseman, Art Edgerton, Lou Hebert, Mike Stanley, Ron Tindall, Paul W. Smith, Jim (Ted) Bayer, Doug Bermick, Lee Conklin, Bill Stewart, Pat Brogan, Dave Macy, Lee Kirk, Sean Baligian, Scott Sloan, Mark Standriff, Ted Dalaku, Jim Donkel, Kent Slocum, Dick Scott, Bill Nordstrom, Scott Sloan, Paul Stowers, Bob Frantz and Denny Schaffer.

WSPD was also instrumental in the very early show business days of Toledo-native Teresa Brewer, who sang on the radio station as a child in the 1930s. Deborah Boyce hosted the first, nightly, evening drive-time jazz show in the country on AM radio from 1977-1979.

In 2007, long-time station engineer Bill Rossini brought WSPD into the digital-age with the introduction of (hybrid) digital "HD Radio" (IBOC) broadcasting over WSPD (during daylight hours). On September 14, 2007, WSPD began 24-hour hybrid digital radio broadcasting. WSPD formerly broadcast in AM Stereo in the 1980s, into the 1990s.

External links

• Official website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WSPD
• Radio-Locator Information on WSPD
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WSPD