WSDZ


WSDZ is a Catholic formatted radio station licensed to Belleville, Illinois, serving the Greater St. Louis. The station, which began broadcasting in 1947, is owned and operated affiliate Immaculate Heart Media's Relevant Radio network. The WSDZ broadcast license is held by Caron Broadcasting, Inc.
WSDZ's studios are located on Weber Hill Road in St. Louis, while its transmitter is located south of Belleville.
WSDZ, along with KMOX, are responsible for activation of the St. Louis area Emergency Alert System.

History

The station began in July 1947 as WIBV, daytime only, on 1060 kHz with 250 W power. It was owned by Belleville Broadcasting Co.
WIBV aired various types of music, and broadcasting a variety of high school sports into the Metro-East area for many years, until the mid-1990s, when it became an all-news/talk station, a fore-runner of KTRS.
WIBV became WSDZ, when it transferred all of its programming over to KSD, which became KTRS in early 1997. It then became the Radio Disney affiliate for the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area.
On August 13, 2014, it was announced that Radio Disney planned to sell all of its remaining owned-and-operated stations in order to focus more on the network's programming, co-branded events, and digital outlets. Disney originally planned to temporarily shut down the stations in question on September 26, 2014. However, Disney changed their plans at the last minute, and all stations would remain on the air, continuing to broadcast Radio Disney programming until each were sold.
On September 15, it was announced that Salem Media Group acquired the last five Radio Disney owned-and-operated stations for sale for $2.225 million. WSDZ was acquired through Caron Broadcasting, Inc., for $275,000. The sale of WSDZ was completed on December 18, 2015.
On December 11, 2015, Radio Disney programming went off the air and WSDZ went silent, pending its new format. On December 22, 2015, WSDZ signed back on the air with their new conservative talk format as "1260 AM The Answer".
On October 30, 2017, WSDZ changed their format from conservative talk to urban gospel, branded as "Praise 95.1 & 1260".
In November 2019, the station was sold to Immaculate Heart Media, Inc. and it became an affiliate of Relevant Radio.