Wikipedia
WBEL (1380 AM) is a news/talk radio station in South Beloit, Illinois with studios in Janesville, Wisconsin. WBEL, which signed on in 1948, originally focused primarily on the Beloit, Wisconsin area, and until 1998 aired an adult standards format along with some talk programming; that August, it switched to a sports radio format affiliated with ESPN Radio, changed its call letters to WTJK, and began marketing itself to the Janesville and Rockford, Illinois areas. In 2001, WTJK was purchased by Good Karma Broadcasting and became the first ESPN Radio station in the company.
In January 2014, Good Karma announced that it would sell WTJK and sister station WWHG (105.9 FM) to Scott Thompson's Big Radio; as part of the deal, the new owners began operating the stations through a local marketing agreement on February 1. Big Radio announced that it would decrease WTJK's ESPN Radio programming and add more local news; on April 14, 2014, the station converted to a talk radio format, featuring local programming (including drive time simulcasts with sister station WEKZ-FM) from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m.; ESPN Radio programming continues to be carried during nights and weekends. The sale was completed on May 12, 2014 at a purchase price of $1.45 million. On October 13, 2014, the call letters were changed back to WBEL.
WBEL may refer to:
- WBEL (AM), a radio station (1380 AM) licensed to South Beloit, Illinois, United States
- WBEL-FM, a radio station (88.5 FM) licensed to Cairo, Illinois, United States
- White Box Enterprise Linux, a Linux distribution