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WTEM

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WTEM (AM 980 kHz) is a radio station that serves the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. Its format is sports talk and is commonly known as SportsTalk 980. It used to be the D.C. outlet for ESPN Radio before Red Zebra Broadcasting acquired the rights. It is currently a Fox Sports Radio affiliate, and began carrying its weekday morning show, The First Team on FOX, on July 10, 2006. The First Team, fittingly enough, is hosted by 980 veteran Steve Czaban.

Sports Talk 980 is also the home of The Sports Reporters with Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban, The Brian Mitchell Show and The John Thompson Show.

WTEM currently serves as the flagship station of the Washington Wizards and Georgetown University Hoyas Basketball networks. SportsTalk 980 also airs Virginia Tech football and Baltimore Orioles baseball as an affiliate station.

WTEM's studios are located in Rockville, Maryland, and its transmitter is located in Hyattsville, Maryland. It operates with 50,000 watts power during the day and 5,000 watts power at night. The signal can be heard weakly but clearly as far west as Clarksburg, West Virginia, and as far south as Richmond, Virginia in daytime.

Contents

History

Before WTEM

The station was originally licensed as WRC, which was then an NBC Radio affiliate, through the 1990s. NBC owned and operated the station from 1923 to 1987, when the General Electric corporation, which owned NBC, sold off its radio properties. Eventually, WRC radio birthed WRC-FM (93.9 MHz, now WKYS) and WRC-TV (channel 4).

WRC carried Willard Scott and Ed Walker as the Joy Boys for many of these years, and also carried the Monitor radio program on weekends. From 1972 to 1975, WRC broadcast a Top 40 format (it was one of the Greaseman's early radio stops); it switched to NBC News and Information Service programming from 1975 to 1977.

When WRC was purchased by Greater Media in 1987, the callsign was reassigned as WWRC, since NBC retained the rights to the WRC call sign for WRC-TV which continues to this day.

Sports Radio 570 - The Team

Before moving to 980 kHz, WTEM was known as Sports Radio 570 - The Team and on the frequency of 570 kHz, which previously had been used by classical music station WGMS. WTEM made its debut on May 23, 1992. At the beginning, WTEM emulated the program lineup and even imported the jingles from WFAN, the first all-sports radio station in the United States. At that time, New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica and WNBC-TV sports anchor Len Berman hosted mid-day sports shows on WFAN. Similarly, WTEM used sport journalists, which turned out to be Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser and CBS Sports announcer James Brown, to host two mid-day radio shows. In 1992, like Lupica and Berman, The Tony Kornheiser Show aired from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and The James Brown Show aired from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.. From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Kevin Kiley and Rich "The Coach" Gilgallon hosted Kiley and the Coach, which emulated the highly successful Mike and the Mad Dog radio program. It turned out extremely well for Kornheiser, but not so well for Kiley and the Coach. WTEM also acquired the radio rights to broadcast the Washington Redskins between 1992 and 1994.

However, the ratings of WTEM struggled mightily in the beginning. In order to boost the ratings, WTEM introduced Imus in the Morning on July 19, 1993 to replace Bruce Murray and Bob Berger in the 6-10 a.m. morning slot. After Kiley and the Coach was canceled, WTEM started to broadcast The Tony Kornheiser Show live between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and then replay between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to boost the afternoon drive-time ratings until the show moved to ESPN radio in January 1998.

When The Tony Kornheiser Show launched in 1992, because Tony needed to focus on writing his Style column in the Washington Post weekly, he usually did not host the show on Thursdays. Usually Andy Pollin, the Sports Director at WTEM, would guest-host Tony's Show on Thursdays. Between 1996 and 1997, Warner Wolf was named the guest host of The Tony Kornheiser Show on Thursdays until he moved to New York as a substituting sports anchor on Imus in the Morning. Tony started to host on Thursdays when he was on ESPN Radio.

When The Tony Kornheiser Show on ESPN Radio debuted on January 5, 1998, the show aired 1-4 p.m.. WTEM filled the 10 a.m.-1 p.m. time slot with Doc Walker and Al Koken hosting Doc and Al Show and the 4-7 p.m. time slot with Kevin Kiley and fellow comedian Chuck Booms.

SportsTalk 980

On March 9, 1998, WTEM moved from 570 kHz to 980 kHz. After the move, WTEM is branded as SportsTalk 980.

When John Thompson resigned as the head coach of the men's basketball team at Georgetown University. WTEM invited Thompson to host a one-hour show within The Doc and Al Show (10:30-11:30 a.m.) called Timeout with Thompson starting March 3, 1999 before the 1999 NCAA Tournament began. At the same time, WTEM introduced The Jim Rome Show, assigned it to the 12-3 p.m. slot and moved The Tony Kornheiser Show to the 4-7 p.m. slot as a tape delay show to replace Kiley and Booms. Because of this new schedule, The Doc and Al Show was cut short to 2 hours. Kornheiser did not like the idea because he would lose the callers from the WTEM broadcasting area.

After the 1999 NCAA Tournament, because of the positive reviews, Thompson was named the host of The John Thompson Show airing 10 a.m.-12 p.m. with Walker and Koken as his sidekicks, replacing The Doc and Al Show.

On September 13, 1999, ESPN radio moved The Tony Kornheiser Show to his favorite 10 a.m.-1 p.m. slot to make room for The Dan Patrick Show. WTEM accommodated the move by moving The John Thompson Show to 3-5 p.m., reducing The Jim Rome Show to 2 hours and creating a new program called The Sports Reporters hosted by Andy Pollin between 5-7 p.m.. Jim Rome voiced his displeasure on the air, attacked Kornheiser and demanded WTEM to get his third hour back.

On April 9, 2001, Mike and Mike in the Morning (6-9 a.m.) and the Tony Bruno Extravaganza (9-10 a.m.) replaced Imus in the Morning, which moved to WTNT to boost the station's ratings.

On May 23, 2002, WTEM celebrated its tenth anniversary as a sports talk station with a special Sports Reporters show starting at 5 p.m.

In December 2005, the station's studios were moved from Bethesda, Maryland, to 1801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, to relocate with other Clear Channel-owned stations.

Because of Tony Kornheiser's preparation for ESPN's Monday Night Football, The Tony Kornheiser Show is on hiatus after the April 28, 2006 broadcast. The return date of the show is uncertain. Starting on May 1, 2006, The Sports Reporters with Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban fills in the 9 a.m.-12 p.m. slot, a new show hosted by Brian Mitchell and Bram Weinstein airs between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m., and The John Thompson Show is extended through 7 p.m..

In early June 2006, the Brian Mitchell show changed again. Bram Weinstein left WTEM and was replaced by Kevin Sheehan.

Current Local Hosts

On-Air Personalities Previously Appearing on WTEM

External links

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AM Radio Stations in the Washington, D.C. Market


By Frequency: 
570 | 630 | 700 | 730 | 780 | 820 | 900 | 930 | 950 | 980 | 1030 | 1050 | 1120 | 1160 | 1220 | 1260 | 1310 | 1340 | 1390 | 1450 | 1460 | 1480 | 1500 | 1540 | 1560 | 1580 | 1600


By Callsign: 
WABS | WACA | WCTN | WDCT | WFAX | WFED | WFMD | WGOP | WILC | WKDL | WKDV | WKIK | WLXE | WMAL | WMET | WOL | WPGC | WPWC | WTEM | WTNT | WTOP | WTWP | WUST | WWGB | WWRC | WYCB | WZHF








 





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