WBGZ AM 1570

Broadcasting at 1570 kHz on the AM dial, this talk radio station carries a format focused on news, information, and community affairs serving the greater Metro East region of Illinois. The station's roots trace back to February 4, 1948, when it signed on under the call letters WOKZ, with studios situated in the Stratford Hotel in downtown Alton. Operations were originally held by the Illinois-Alton Broadcasting Company, making it one of the longer-running AM outlets in the region with more than 75 years of continuous broadcasting history. The station adopted its current WBGZ call letters at some point in its history and has since maintained a talk radio identity that distinguishes it from music-formatted competitors in the St. Louis metropolitan market. In addition to its primary AM frequency, the station's programming is also carried on FM translator W296DR at 107.1 MHz, extending its reach to listeners who prefer the FM band or are in areas with weaker AM reception. This translator arrangement is typical of smaller AM stations seeking to remain competitive in an era when FM listening dominates. The station's website functions as a community information hub, regularly publishing local news items covering topics such as municipal appointments, school district affairs, and regional developments in the Alton and surrounding Illinois communities. This community-oriented approach reflects the station's long-standing role as a local information source in the Metro East area, where it has served listeners across multiple generations.