WFED (1500 AM) is a 50,000-watt Class A radio station in the Washington, D.C. region. The station, which brands as Federal News Network, broadcasts a news talk format focused on issues and news pertaining to members and staff of the United States government. Owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, WFED's studios are located at Hubbard's broadcast complex in northwest Washington, while its transmitter is located at a three-tower array in Wheaton, Maryland. WFED transmits with a power of 50,000 watts continuously. A single tower is used during the day, providing at least secondary coverage to large portions of Maryland (including Baltimore) and Virginia. At night, power is fed to all three towers in a directional pattern to protect Hubbard's flagship radio station, KSTP in St. Paul, Minnesota. This results in areas of Northern Virginia getting only marginal coverage at best. However, even with this restriction, WFED's signal can be heard across most of the eastern half of North America with a good radio. WFED became a Primary Entry Point station for the Emergency Alert System in 2014. As of July 1, 2017, WFED is also available on WTOP-FM-HD2 in the Washington, D.C. area. History Formation of Federal News Network The format was launched by Bonneville International, former owners of terrestrial-based all-news station WTOP, as FederalNewsRadio.com—the first Internet-only all news station, and the first Internet station to make the jump to terrestrial radio—on February 22, 2000. For some time before then, WTOP had significant listenership among federal employees, and many of them had emailed the station asking for more coverage tailored to federal employees. The programming concept has changed little to this day, except that the Associated Press' All News Radio service originally filled in during the overnight hours, as a complement to WTOP. It is one of a few radio stations that originated on the Internet prior to moving onto a traditional broadcasting signal. It first found a home on the radio dial in 2004, on the 1050 kHz frequency licensed to Silver Spring, Maryland; that station was founded in 1946 as beautiful music station WGAY, but had become business radio station WPLC by 2004, when Bonneville bought the station and converted it to Federal News Radio and the WFED call letters. When AP All News Radio was terminated, the station began an affiliation with CNN Headline News, which itself was phased out in 2007 by provider Westwood One. In November 2007,