WSPR (1490 AM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

West Springfield, Massachusetts West Springfield is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 28,835 at the 2020 United States Census. The city is also known as "West Si ...

, and serving the Springfield metropolitan area. The station is owned by John Fuller, through licensee Red Wolf Broadcasting Corporation. It airs a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and contemporary hit

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

known as Bomba FM. WSPR programming is also heard on 250-

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

station 104.5 W283CK, West Springfield.Radio-Locator.com/W283CK
/ref> Much of the programming originates at

WMRQ WMRQ-FM (104.1 MHz) is an alternative rock radio station licensed to Waterbury, Connecticut, and serving the Greater Hartford media market. WMRQ-FM is owned by Red Wolf Broadcasting and has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 14,000 watts. ...

- HD2 in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, which also feeds a network of FM translator stations around

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

History

The station first

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

the air on August 28, 1949. Its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

was originally WTXL. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, WTXL aired a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

format. Although it was programmed well, it never achieved rating success due to the heavy competition from crosstown

WHYN WHYN can refer to: * WHYN (AM), a radio station at 560 AM located in Springfield, Massachusetts * WHYN-FM, a radio station at 93.1 FM located in Springfield, Massachusetts * WGGB-TV, a TV station which formerly carried the WHYN-TV call signs locate ...

(560 AM). With a 5,000-watt signal and much lower on the AM dial, WHYN could easily be heard around

Western Massachusetts Western Massachusetts, known colloquially as “Western Mass,” is a region in Massachusetts, one of the six U.S. states that make up the New England region of the United States. Western Massachusetts has diverse topography; 22 colleges and u ...

and northern

. WTXL's signal, at the time 1,000 watts by day, 250 watts at night, was harder to pick up. In 1974, WTXL transitioned to a

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

format. A year later, the station was sold to a group headed by Boston radio host Jerry Williams. WTXL then went off the air for two months before returning under the new ownership as WNUS, running

NBC Radio The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...

's News and Information Service (NIS), a 24-hour

all news radio All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news stations can run the ...

service. The station was assigned the call letters WACM by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

on September 15,

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

. On July 3, 2015, WACM changed its format from Spanish Tropical music to

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...

, along with

WXCT WXCT (1370 AM, "Alt 98-7") is a commercial radio station in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The station is owned by Bahakel Communications along with WDEF-FM, WDOD-FM, and WUUQ. WXCT has an adult album alternative radio format. The studios are located ...

(990 AM). On November 22, 2015, WACM rebranded as "Kool Radio Good Times... Great Oldies". On April 1, 2016, WACM changed back to Spanish tropical, simulcasting WSPR (1270 AM). On April 13, 2016, WACM changed its call sign to WSPR, swapping call letters with 1270 AM. On May 1, 2016, WSPR split from its simulcast with WACM (which flipped to oldies) and rebranded as "Bomba 1490".

Previous logo

File:KoolRadioGTGO.jpg

References

External links

* * * SPR (AM) Mass media in Hampden County, Massachusetts West Springfield, Massachusetts Radio stations established in 1949 1949 establishments in Massachusetts SPR Tropical music radio stations {{Massachusetts-radio-station-stub