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WBZ (AM)
Encyclopedia
WBZ is the call sign
for an AM
radio station
in Boston, Massachusetts owned by CBS Radio
, itself owned by the CBS Corporation
. Originally based in and broadcast from Springfield, Massachusetts
, WBZ was the first commercial radio station in the United States. WBZ moved to Boston in 1931 in a swap with a now-defunct synchronous repeater, WBZA.
WBZ radio, which broadcasts at 1030 kHz, is the oldest surviving commercial radio station in New England
, as it began broadcasting from Springfield in 1921. WBZ currently runs an all-news
format during the day and a talk radio
format at night, with hosts including Dan Rea
, Steve LeVeille, and Jordan Rich
. The station has long been one of the highest-rated stations in the Boston area, and covers much of the eastern United States
and Canada
at night with its 50,000-watt
clear-channel signal from its transmitter
location in Hull, Massachusetts
, which has been used by the station since 1940. The transmitter is a two tower directional array where each tower is 160 metres (524.9 ft) tall.
WBZ is an affiliate of the co-owned CBS Radio Network
, as well as ABC News Radio
and AP Radio
for national and international news as well as some features (from 1980 to 2005, the station carried noted radio raconteur Paul Harvey
's broadcasts from ABC Radio), but the bulk of the station's schedule, except some weekend programming, is produced in-house. WBZ has also been heavily involved in charitable work, with its annual Christmastime fund drive for Boston's Children's Hospital (which it does along with sister TV station WBZ-TV
) being the most high-profile.
It was the home of talkmaster David Brudnoy
for 18 years, until the day before his death in 2004. Other notable hosts included talk show host Bob Kennedy, poet/radio host Dick Summer, disc jockeys Bruce Bradley, Jeff Kaye, Ron Landry and later, Larry Justice, jazz
DJ turned talkmaster Norm Nathan, late-night talker and humorist Larry Glick
, and morning hosts Carl DeSuze, Tom Bergeron
and Dave Maynard.
From 1929 to 1953, WBZ operated a shortwave station that eventually became known as WBOS
; the call sign has since been reassigned to what is now a mainstream rock
station. Additionally, from 1940 until 1981, the station made half-hearted attempts to launch FM service, at various points operating FM service on 100.7 (now occupied by WZLX
, a current sister to WBZ), 92.9 (now occupied by the aforementioned WBOS, owned by Greater Media
) and 106.7 (now WMJX
, also owned by Greater Media); these stations were either closed down or sold to other chains, with the WBZ-FM
call letters eventually being reused in 2009 on a co-owned sports radio
station at 98.5.
on September 15, 1921; it was the first license to specify broadcasts on 360 meters (833 kilohertz), and was subsequently deemed to be the first license for a commercial broadcast station (although other stations, such as 1XE/WGI
in Medford Hillside and sister station KDKA
in Pittsburgh, were already broadcasting under different license classifications). The station's original transmitter and studios were located at the Westinghouse factory on Page Boulevard in East Springfield
; however, WBZ's inaugural program, on September 19, 1921, was a remote broadcast
from the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield
. The studios were moved to the luxurious Hotel Kimball
in Metro Center
Springfield by early 1922. The original format was general entertainment and information, which included live music (often classical music
and opera
), sport
s, farm reports, special events, and public affairs programming. Despite WBZ being housed in Springfield's top hotel, its location in a mid-sized market rendered it somewhat difficult to attract top-flight artists to the station, leading Westinghouse to open a studio at the Hotel Brunswick in Boston on February 24, 1924. WBZ also expanded its news programming via a partnership with the Boston Herald and Traveler
. It also carried a considerable amount of sports broadcasts, including Boston Bruins
hockey, Boston Braves baseball, and Harvard Crimson football
.
Because of its comparatively wide reach, the station often referred to itself as "WBZ, New England" as opposed to associating itself solely with Springfield or Boston. However, even after several power boosts (the station broadcast at a power of 100 watts in 1921, but was using 2,000 watts in April 1925), the station still had some trouble reaching Boston, leading Westinghouse to sign on WBZA, a 250-watt station at 1240 kHz, on August 20, 1925. Efforts were soon made to operate WBZA as a synchronous repeater of WBZ, by then at 900 kHz; this process was difficult, as the two transmitters often interfered with each other even in Boston, and WBZA went back and forth between the two frequencies for nearly a year before finally going to full-time synchronous operation in June 1926. WBZ also continued to boost the power of its primary East Springfield transmitter; it was granted permission to operate with 5,000 watts on March 31, 1926, and by 1927 it was operating with 15,000 watts. Meanwhile, a combination of WBZ's growth and continued difficulties with the WBZA signal led the station to move its Boston studio to the Statler Hotel (now the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers
) on June 1, 1927 and activate a new WBZA transmitter on June 9. The Federal Radio Commission
(FRC) moved WBZ and WBZA to 990 kHz on November 11, 1928.
Amidst the technical changes, WBZ also began engaging in network activities; by 1925 it often shared programs with WJZ
in New York City
(which Westinghouse had also started in 1921, but sold to the Radio Corporation of America two years later), and a WBZ special commemorating the 150th anniversary of Paul Revere
's "Midnight Ride" was also fed to WRC
in Washington, D.C.
and WGY in Schenectady, New York
. This paved the way for the station to become a charter affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company
(NBC) on November 15, 1926, carrying the WJZ-originated NBC Blue Network
beginning on January 1, 1927.
, a location chosen to also provide service to Worcester
and Providence, Rhode Island
. WBZA was then moved to the East Springfield transmitter, which now operated with 1,000 watts and served more to bolster WBZ's signal in an area not adequately served from Millis. The Boston studios (which now also served as WBZ's main studios) would move as well, relocating to the Hotel Bradford on July 1, 1931; some programs continued to originate from the Springfield studios at the Hotel Kimball, which now belonged to WBZA. The station offered its first Boston Marathon
coverage on April 19, 1931. The following year, Westinghouse leased WBZ and WBZA to NBC itself, but maintained ownership of the broadcast licenses. During the late 1930s, WBZ began to offer more local news coverage; previously, only major events were regularly covered.
NBC's management of WBZ and WBZA came to an end on July 1, 1940, and Westinghouse resumed full control over the station. Shortly afterward, on July 27, WBZ moved its transmitter once more, to the current location in Hull. The move was twofold: the Millis site, 25 miles southwest of Boston, did not provide as strong a signal to the market as was intended, even after power increases to 25,000 watts in 1931 and 50,000 watts in 1933; this was due to the signal predominantly traveling through land, whereas the Hull site provides a salt water path to Boston. Additionally, the Hull site allowed ample space for WBZ's shortwave station, which had been founded at Springfield as W1XAZ in November 1929 and later operated from Millis as W1XK, ultimately becoming WBOS. WPIT, the shortwave station operated by KDKA in Pittsburgh, also moved its transmitters to Hull at the same time, and in 1941 its operations were folded into WBOS, which soon afterward began carrying government-provided programming (a service that ultimately evolved into the Voice of America
) that would remain the shortwave station's primary function until leaving the air permanently in 1953. The Hull site also served as the first home for WBZ's FM
station, which operated from there as W1XK, W67B, and then WBZ-FM
on several frequencies off and on from November 7, 1940 to November 21, 1948. WBZ moved to its present dial location, 1030 kHz, on March 29, 1941.
WBZ switched from the Blue Network to the NBC Red Network
on June 15, 1942; this allowed the station to retain a link with NBC after the Justice Department ordered it to divest of one its two radio networks (as NBC opted to sell the Blue Network). Like other major-market network-affiliated radio stations of the time, WBZ also broadcast a few hours of local programming, including Vaudeville
-like musical performances from Max Zides, Tom Currier, and others, during those hours when NBC wasn't feeding programs to affiliates.
The station expanded into television on June 9, 1948, when WBZ-TV
(channel 4) signed on as an NBC television affiliate. Westinghouse built new studios at 1170 Soldiers Field Road in the Allston
section of Boston to house both the radio and television stations, with the new facility opening on June 17 of that year (parts of the new facility containing the master control and TV transmitter had already been in use). The transmission tower built at the studios for WBZ-TV would also replace the Hull site as WBZ-FM's transmitter, where it remained until Hurricane Carol
destroyed the tower on August 31, 1954; a power outage caused by the storm would disrupt WBZ's programming for three minutes. Don Kent
started as a meteorologist at the station in 1951, for a tenure that would endure for over three decades. The following year, WBZ expanded its broadcasting schedule to 24-hour-a-day programming.
stations (KEX
in Portland, Oregon
was affiliated with ABC), ended their affiliations with NBC Radio on August 26, 1956 following a dispute over the network's daytime programming, and the station then decided to program popular music around-the-clock. The best known host in WBZ's history, Dave Maynard, joined the station in 1958. Another beloved WBZ host was Carl DeSuze, whose joined WBZ in April 1942 and remained at the station until 1985. DeSuze was the station's morning man for over three decades. Another popular WBZ voice was longtime news anchor Gary LaPierre
, who began at the station in September 1964.
At the outset, WBZ's full service
music format leaned toward middle of the road music, but also featuring an increasing amount of rock and roll
. Within a few years, WBZ was a top 40 rock and roll station, and with its combination of hit music, popular hosts, powerful signal, and top-notch news coverage, WBZ was the dominant radio station in the market.
WBZ re-established an FM station on December 15, 1957, transmitting from the brand new WBZ-TV tower in Needham, operating at 106.7 MHz; this incarnation of WBZ-FM only provided limited simulcasts of the AM station and largely had its own programming, including classical music
and Ed Beech's Just Jazz program from WRVR
in New York City. The station remained in mono through this period, but beginning on December 31, 1971, an automated top 40 format was launched in stereo, apparently in an attempt to blunt the popularity of WRKO
(680 AM). WBZ-FM would be sold by Group W (which Westinghouse had rebranded its broadcasting division in 1963) to Greater Media
in 1981, ultimately becoming WMJX
.
WBZA continued to serve Springfield with a simulcast of WBZ's programming until July 1962, when it was shut down to allow Westinghouse to purchase WINS
in New York City, as the company already owned seven AM radio stations — the maximum allowed by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) at that time. The closure of WBZA ended over 40 years of transmission from East Springfield. The towers continued to stand atop the former Westinghouse plant in East Springfield for five more decades, until their removal on November 5, 2011 to accommodate redevelopment at the site of the factory; by then, they were among the oldest broadcast facilities still standing.
Increased competition in the top 40 format — first from WMEX (1510 AM, now WWZN
), which had programmed a top 40 format since 1957, then from WRKO, which adopted the format in 1967 — led WBZ to shift its music programming to adult contemporary in 1969, playing several songs an hour between 6 and 9 a.m. (though it was not unheard of for Carl DeSuze to play only one, if any, song an hour during his show), 10 to 12 songs an hour between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and 4 to 6 songs an hour between 4 and 7 p.m.. At night, WBZ programmed talk shows
, with such hosts as Guy Mainella, a pioneer in sports talk
; Jerry Williams
in the evenings; and Larry Glick
's overnight show (the latter two held the same popular shifts at WMEX years earlier). Music was also programmed during the day on weekends. This format was similar to sister station KDKA in Pittsburgh. By 1978, Mainella, who had been the host of Calling All Sports since its inception on July 15, 1969, had been replaced with Bob Lobel
and Upton Bell
.
Beginning in the late 1960s, WBZ made a major push into live play-by-play sports. From 1966 through 1979, and again from 1991 through 1994, WBZ was home to radio broadcasts of New England Patriots
football; this brought Gil Santos
to the station. In the fall of 1969, WBZ regained the radio rights to the Boston Bruins (which it had lost in 1951), and also began carrying Boston Celtics
basketball. The Bruins stayed through the 1977-78 season; the Celtics left WBZ after the team's 1980-81 NBA
Championship season. During the years when the Bruins and Celtics were both on WBZ and both playing at the same time, one of them (usually the Celtics) would be heard on WBZ-FM. WBZ also broadcast the United States Football League
's Boston Breakers
during the 1983 season (its lone season in Boston), as well as Boston College Eagles football
from 1987 through 1991. Starting in 1972, WBZ's football broadcasts featured the play-by-play team of Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti
.
During the 1970s, WBZ was one of a number of clear channel AM stations that petitioned to be allowed to increase their power; WBZ would have used 500,000 watts transmitting from Provincetown, Massachusetts
to reach all of New England during the day. A backlash from smaller stations led to the petition being denied and station protections limited to a 750-mile radius, in effect canceling the entire clear channel service.
WBZ became an affiliate of ABC Radio on January 1, 1980; ABC was the descendant of the Blue Network, which WBZ had dropped 38 years earlier. The ABC affiliation allowed the station to begin airing Paul Harvey
's daily broadcasts, which were previously heard in Boston on WEZE
(then at 1260 AM, now occupied by WMKI
; now at 590 AM) and, later, WECB, the carrier current
station at Emerson College
. Later in the year, a schedule shuffle ended Carl DeSuze's run on the morning show (which was taken over by Dave Maynard), and he was moved to middays; the overnight show was then taken over by Bob Raleigh, who had been WBZ's midday host since June 1976. Calling All Sports was also dropped in favor of an early evening talk show, hosted at various points by David Finnegan
, Lou Marcel, and Peter Meade. Former overnight host Larry Glick was moved first into late evenings and then into afternoons, and ultimately left the station in May 1987.
began to host the station's late evening talk show; WBZ replaced his program with Tom Snyder
's ABC Radio talk show after the July 13, 1990 broadcast, but listener complaints led the station to return Brudnoy to the air by the end of September.
WBZ continued its full service AC format until January 1991, when Gulf War
coverage led the station to stop playing music on a regular basis and adopt a full-time news/talk format. (WBZ has, from time to time, played music on special occasions even after the change to news/talk; the station still offered 24 hours of Christmas music
beginning on Christmas Eve
through 1995, and it has carried the audio of the Boston Pops
' Fourth of July concert and fireworks display since 2003; additionally, WBZ, along with sister stations WODS
and WZLX
, carried the Beatles
Let It Be... Naked album premiere on November 13, 2003.) When WEEI
(then at 590 AM, now occupied by WEZE; now at 850 AM) dropped its all-news
format for all-sports programming in September 1991, WBZ began a marketing campaign to convince former WEEI listeners to switch to WBZ; this was followed on January 13, 1992 with a shift to all-news programming during drive time
(5 to 10 a.m. in the morning and 3 to 7 p.m. in the afternoon). On September 28 the station became an all-news station from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. following the end of the two midday talk shows hosted by Tom Bergeron
, the morning host prior to the launch of the morning news block (the noon hour, which separated the Bergeron shifts, was already occupied by a news program); the station's nighttime programming continued to be filled by David Brudnoy and Bob Raleigh's talk shows.
Initially, the new format was not carried over to WBZ's weekend schedule; while a weekend morning news block was launched, the weekend afternoon schedule remained devoted to specialty talk shows until September 3, 1994, when the station introduced information-oriented sports shows, branded as WBZ Sports Saturday and WBZ Sports Sunday. WBZ's sports commitment also included the return of the Boston Bruins Radio Network
to the station in 1995; however, the station lost the New England Patriots to WBCN (104.1 FM, now occupied by WBMX) starting with the 1995 season, and for several seasons afterward WBZ was an affiliate of the New York Giants
Radio Network
. NFL regulations only allowed WBZ to carry Giants' games not played at the same time as Patriots' games. As with the weekday lineup, talk continued to be programmed at night, including three of the specialty shows (Kid Company on Saturday evenings and a revived Calling All Sports and Looking at the Law on Sunday evenings), a Saturday night talk show hosted by Lovell Dyett, and an overnight show with former WHDH (850 AM, now occupied by WEEI) host Norm Nathan.
WBZ added an affiliation with the CBS Radio Network
on March 6, 1995, making it one of a handful of stations to carry both CBS Radio and ABC Radio (however, the station ceased an affiliation with CNN Radio). Five months later, on August 1, Westinghouse announced that it was purchasing CBS
, a transaction that was completed on November 24; as a result, WBZ came under the CBS Radio
banner. 76 years of Westinghouse ownership would come to an end on December 1, 1997, when the Westinghouse Electric Corporation changed its name to CBS Corporation. CBS' radio stations, including WBZ, were spun off into a new public company, Infinity Broadcasting Corporation
, in 1998 (a move that removed the Group W name from the station's license); Viacom
announced its acquisition of the publicly-held stake in Infinity on August 15, 2000 (shortly after it merged with CBS Corporation), a transaction completed on February 21, 2001 (though Viacom, and CBS before the merger, had always held a majority stake in Infinity). Even after coming under common ownership with the CBS Radio Network, it would not be until 2000 before CBS' hourly newscast replaced ABC's during WBZ's overnight programming.
As its ownership shifted, WBZ also continued to modify its program schedule. After Norm Nathan's death on October 29, 1996, his Friday night/Saturday morning show was taken over by Steve LeVeille, and his Saturday night/Sunday morning show went to former WSSH-FM (99.5 FM, now WCRB
) morning host Jordan Rich
. Bob Lobel (by now WBZ-TV's sports director) and Upton Bell returned to the station on May 17, 1997 for a Sunday night sports show (with Calling All Sports moving to Saturdays). Another sports show, The McDonoughs on Sports with Sean McDonough
and Will McDonough
aired during the 1997 NFL season
as a lead-in to CBS Radio Sports' broadcast of
Monday Night Football
, preempting David Brudnoy's program; the first two hours of his Friday show were also preempted in favor of a cooking show, Olives' Table with Todd English
, from August 1997 through August 1998. The Sports Saturday and Sports Sunday blocks were discontinued in April 1998 in favor of an expansion of the all-news format to weekend afternoons; Calling All Sports and The Bob Lobel Show were not affected, though Lobel's show was replaced with Sunday Sports Page with Dan Roche
and Steve DeOssie
that July after a management-ordered cut-off of a call on the July 12 broadcast drove Lobel to resign from his show on July 13. Bob Raleigh began to cut back his on-air presence during the late 1990s, with Kevin Sowyrda taking over the Sunday night/Monday morning slot for a time; he eventually retired on June 9, 1999, with Steve LeVeille taking his place in the overnight hours and Jordan Rich taking over the Friday night/Saturday morning show. Shortly afterward, David Brudnoy gave up the 10 p.m.-12 a.m. portion of his show; this timeslot was given to Lowell Sun columnist and former WLLH
(1400 AM) host Paul Sullivan
. For a time starting in the fall of 2001, the station relaunched the 1 p.m. hour of the Midday News as the WBZ Business Hour, with an increased focus on business news; this program was similar to one on Los Angeles
sister station KNX
(WBZ has since returned to regular news in the 1 p.m. hour). Later that year, weekend sports talk was abandoned completely, with Calling All Sports, which had been a leased-time
program owned and produced by Norm Resha since its revival in 1991, moving to WTKK
(96.9 FM) on December 2. WBZ then launched a Saturday evening talk show hosted by Pat Desmarais, while a simulcast of the CBS television program 60 Minutes
was added on Sunday evenings on January 13, 2002.
(he had also been fighting AIDS
since 1994); a farewell broadcast aired on December 8, 2004, and he died the next day, with tribute shows airing over the following two nights. Per Brudnoy's wish, Paul Sullivan took over the 8 p.m.–midnight time slot in January 2005, with the 7 p.m. hour given to an expansion of the WBZ Afternoon News. That March, WBZ began streaming its programming on the web, along with Infinity's other news and talk stations.
When Viacom split into two companies on December 31, 2005, Infinity became part of the new CBS Corporation
and reverted to the CBS Radio name. That same day, WBZ dropped Paul Harvey after the station's contract to carry his broadcasts expired (however, despite coming under the CBS Radio banner once more, the station still maintains an affiliation with ABC News Radio
); in addition, the station dropped Looking at the Law, a legal advice show hosted by Neil Chayet
, after its January 8, 2006 broadcast in favor of brokered financial programs. Longtime morning news anchor Gary LaPierre, who anchored WBZ's morning newscasts for nearly 40 years, retired from WBZ at the end of 2006. Governor Mitt Romney
declared the day of his final broadcast, December 29, 2006, "Gary LaPierre Day". Romney, Senator Ted Kennedy
, Mayor Tom Menino, former Mayor Ray Flynn, former Governor Michael Dukakis
, and other notables called in during his final broadcast. LaPierre was replaced on the WBZ Morning News with Ed Walsh, a former morning host at WOR
in New York City who had been anchoring at WCBS
, starting with the 9:30 a.m. half hour of the December 29 Morning News. LaPierre continues to be heard on the station on occasion through voiceover work.
Meanwhile, evening host Paul Sullivan was fighting a brain tumor
, which was discovered on November 22, 2004—shortly before Brudnoy's death. After undergoing several surgeries over the next two and a half years, Sullivan announced on June 21, 2007 that he would step down from the evening talk show, with his final show, lead by Jordan Rich, airing on June 28; he would die on September 9. Rich and WBZ-TV reporter Dan Rea
served as substitute hosts in the interim; on October 1, Rea, who in the 1970s served as a weekend host for the station before moving to television in 1976, became the new host of the show, renamed NightSide with Dan Rea.
On December 31, 2008, WBZ let go overnight talk show host Steve LeVeille, sports anchor Tom Cuddy and Saturday night talk show hosts Lovell Dyett and Pat Desmarais. LeVeille was replaced by Jon Grayson (whose show originates from St. Louis
sister station KMOX), while Dyett and Desmarais were replaced by the syndicated Kim Komando Show
. After listener efforts were made to restore LeVeille and Dyett to the station, WBZ announced on January 27, 2009 that LeVeille would reassume his shift on February 2, while Dyett would host a half-hour early morning public affairs program on Sundays. Cuddy would subsequently return to the station as well that May. While Jordan Rich retained his weekend overnight show, the 2–5 a.m. portion of the program began to be simulcast on sister station WCCO in Minneapolis–Saint Paul. Long-time sports director Gil Santos retired after 38 years with the station on January 30, 2006; after a week-long fill-in by Bob Lobel, Walt Perkins took over as morning sports anchor on February 7. The Bruins once again left WBZ following the 2008-09 season, after CBS Radio launched a third incarnation of WBZ-FM
at 98.5 FM as an all-sports station, which also took the Patriots from the former WBCN. (The station simulcast WBZ-FM's broadcast of Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals
between the Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks
, allowing fans in areas of New England not served by a Bruins radio network affiliate to hear the game; additionally, WBZ carries Bruins games that conflict with WBZ-FM's Patriots broadcasts.) Ed Walsh retired after four years as morning news anchor on November 30, 2010; Rod Fritz then took over as interim anchor (with Gary LaPierre guest anchoring for a week in early December), with Joe Mathieu, formerly of Sirius XM Radio's P.O.T.U.S. channel, taking over on May 16, 2011.
(except from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, when it is provided by WBZ-TV; the segments during this time nonetheless still carry the WBZ AccuWeather branding), likewise provides a weather forecast at :10, :20, :40, and :50 past the hour. Financial news from MarketWatch
is aired at :08 and :38; the station also does its own business report, New England Business, at :25 during drive time. Sports is carried at :15 and :45. Several features are also broadcast throughout the broadcast day, including both locally-produced segments and syndicated features (largely provided by CBS through Westwood One
, though it also carries ABC's Cybershake). WBZ also simulcasts the first 10 minutes of the CBS Evening News
at 6:30 p.m. on weeknights. The lone break in the all-news format during the daytime comes on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., when WBZ airs Ric Edelman
's financial talk show.
hosts the main evening talk show, NightSide, from 8 p.m. to midnight. The weekday overnight program, The Steve LeVeille Broadcast, airs from midnight to 5 a.m. Monday through Friday mornings; on Saturday and Sunday mornings, Jordan Rich
hosts a talk show during this time (though the Sunday morning show ends at 3:30 a.m.), which is simulcast on sister station WCCO in Minneapolis–Saint Paul starting at 2 a.m. ET
(1 a.m. CT
).
Saturday evening programming includes the brokered financial program Family Financial Focus, produced by 93 Financial Group, from 6–8 p.m., the syndicated Kim Komando Show
from 8–10 p.m., and infomercial
s from 10 p.m. to midnight. Infomercials are also carried from 3:30–4:30 a.m., followed by a half-hour Catholic
program. Sunday evening programming includes a simulcast of 60 Minutes
at 7 p.m., the brokered financial program Protecting Your Wealth, produced by Rubino & Liang, at 8 p.m., infomercials from 9–10 p.m., and Jay Talking, hosted by former WBCN DJ Bradley Jay.
Since 1999, the station has aired a production of the Charles Dickens
classic A Christmas Carol
, presented by WBZ producer Michael Coleman and performed by the WBZ staff (as "The WBZ Radio Holiday Players"). Between 2001 and 2004, WBZ also offered a dramatic reading of Richard Paul Evans
' The Christmas Box
.
.
Mid-Morning
Afternoon Drive
Reporters
Weekend News
Talk Show Hosts
Contributors
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
for an AM
Amplitude modulation
Amplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent...
radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
in Boston, Massachusetts owned by CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
, itself owned by the CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
. Originally based in and broadcast from Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
, WBZ was the first commercial radio station in the United States. WBZ moved to Boston in 1931 in a swap with a now-defunct synchronous repeater, WBZA.
WBZ radio, which broadcasts at 1030 kHz, is the oldest surviving commercial radio station in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, as it began broadcasting from Springfield in 1921. WBZ currently runs an all-news
All-news radio
All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcast of news.All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried in some form on both major US satellite radio networks...
format during the day and a talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
format at night, with hosts including Dan Rea
Dan Rea
Dan Rea is the host of "NightSide with Dan Rea" WBZ radio, following the death of Paul Sullivan.-Education and background:A graduate of Boston Latin School, Boston State College and Boston University School of Law, Rea is a native Bostonian who now lives in Sherborn, Massachusetts.-Career:Prior to...
, Steve LeVeille, and Jordan Rich
Jordan Rich
Jordan Rich is the host of The Jordan Rich Show, on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday evenings on WBZ-AM 1030 in Boston, Massachusetts. His show is an eclectic mix of history, arts, pop culture, and everything in between. Parts of the shows are carried by WCCO in Minneapolis,...
. The station has long been one of the highest-rated stations in the Boston area, and covers much of the eastern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
at night with its 50,000-watt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
clear-channel signal from its transmitter
Transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating...
location in Hull, Massachusetts
Hull, Massachusetts
Hull is a peninsula town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,293 at the 2010 census. Hull is the smallest town by land area in Plymouth County and the fourth smallest in the state...
, which has been used by the station since 1940. The transmitter is a two tower directional array where each tower is 160 metres (524.9 ft) tall.
WBZ is an affiliate of the co-owned CBS Radio Network
CBS Radio Network
The CBS Radio Network provides news, sports and other programming to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by CBS Corporation, and operated by CBS Radio ....
, as well as ABC News Radio
ABC News Radio
ABC News Radio is the radio service of ABC News, a division of the ABC Television Network. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Cumulus Media Networks, newscasts on the hour to its more than 2,000 affiliates...
and AP Radio
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
for national and international news as well as some features (from 1980 to 2005, the station carried noted radio raconteur Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey Aurandt , better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated, at...
's broadcasts from ABC Radio), but the bulk of the station's schedule, except some weekend programming, is produced in-house. WBZ has also been heavily involved in charitable work, with its annual Christmastime fund drive for Boston's Children's Hospital (which it does along with sister TV station WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV, virtual channel 4, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station, located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WBZ-TV's studios and office facilities, shared with sister station WSBK-TV , are located in the Allston-Brighton section of Boston, and its transmitter is located in Needham,...
) being the most high-profile.
It was the home of talkmaster David Brudnoy
David Brudnoy
David Brudnoy was an American talk radio host in Boston from 1976 to 2004. His radio talk show aired on WBZ radio. He was known for espousing his libertarian views on a wide range of political issues, in a manner that was courteous. Thanks to WBZ's wide signal reach, he gained a following from...
for 18 years, until the day before his death in 2004. Other notable hosts included talk show host Bob Kennedy, poet/radio host Dick Summer, disc jockeys Bruce Bradley, Jeff Kaye, Ron Landry and later, Larry Justice, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
DJ turned talkmaster Norm Nathan, late-night talker and humorist Larry Glick
Larry Glick
Larry Glick was an American talk radio host, based in Boston, Massachusetts, whose long-running show on WBZ and later WHDH became a New England institution in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s....
, and morning hosts Carl DeSuze, Tom Bergeron
Tom Bergeron
Tom Bergeron is an American television personality and game show host, best known as the host of the ABC reality series Dancing with the Stars and host of America's Funniest Home Videos . He was also host of Hollywood Squares and a fill-in host for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire...
and Dave Maynard.
From 1929 to 1953, WBZ operated a shortwave station that eventually became known as WBOS
WBOS
WBOS is a commercial radio station located in Brookline, Massachusetts, broadcasting to the Greater Boston area on 92.9 FM. The station airs a mainstream rock format branded as "Radio 92.9"...
; the call sign has since been reassigned to what is now a mainstream rock
Mainstream rock
Mainstream rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada.-Format background:...
station. Additionally, from 1940 until 1981, the station made half-hearted attempts to launch FM service, at various points operating FM service on 100.7 (now occupied by WZLX
WZLX
WZLX is a prominent classic rock radio station in the Boston, Massachusetts market. WZLX was one of the first classic rock FM stations in America...
, a current sister to WBZ), 92.9 (now occupied by the aforementioned WBOS, owned by Greater Media
Greater Media
Greater Media, Inc., known as Greater Media, is an American media company that specializes in radio stations. The markets where they own radio stations include Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Charlotte, and the state of New Jersey...
) and 106.7 (now WMJX
WMJX
WMJX is a radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts. It has an Adult Contemporary format. The station's transmitter is located atop the Prudential Tower in Downtown Boston...
, also owned by Greater Media); these stations were either closed down or sold to other chains, with the WBZ-FM
WBZ-FM
WBZ-FM is a sports radio station known as "98.5 The Sports Hub" and broadcasting on 98.5 MHz in Boston, Massachusetts. Owned by CBS Radio, the current WBZ-FM began on August 13, 2009 and competes with AM sports talk stations WEEI and competed with the ESPN Radio pair of WAMG and WLLH before their...
call letters eventually being reused in 2009 on a co-owned sports radio
Sports radio
Sports radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A popular format with an almost exclusively male demographic in most areas, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and extensive debate and analysis by both hosts and...
station at 98.5.
1921–1931: Origins in Springfield
WBZ's initial license, for operation in Springfield, was issued by the Department of Commerce to the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing CompanyWestinghouse Electric (1886)
Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...
on September 15, 1921; it was the first license to specify broadcasts on 360 meters (833 kilohertz), and was subsequently deemed to be the first license for a commercial broadcast station (although other stations, such as 1XE/WGI
WGI (AM)
WGI was a pioneering United States radio station based in Medford Hillside, Massachusetts, originally using the experimental callsign 1XE.-Early history:...
in Medford Hillside and sister station KDKA
KDKA (AM)
KDKA is a radio station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Created by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation on November 2, 1920, it is one of the world's first modern radio stations , a distinction that has also been challenged by other stations, although it has claimed to be the first in...
in Pittsburgh, were already broadcasting under different license classifications). The station's original transmitter and studios were located at the Westinghouse factory on Page Boulevard in East Springfield
East Springfield, Springfield, Massachusetts
East Springfield is located in the northern tier of Springfield, Massachusetts, beginning about two and a half miles east of Metro Center. It contains 1,504 Acres, plus rights-of-way and is the third largest of Springfield's seventeen neighborhoods. Its principal boundaries are Chicopee,...
; however, WBZ's inaugural program, on September 19, 1921, was a remote broadcast
Remote broadcast
In broadcast engineering, a remote broadcast is broadcasting done from a location away from a formal television studio and is considered an electronic field production . A remote pickup unit is usually used to transmit the audio and/or video back to the television station, where it joins the...
from the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield
West Springfield, Massachusetts
The Town of West Springfield is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 28,391 at the 2010 census...
. The studios were moved to the luxurious Hotel Kimball
Hotel Kimball
The Kimball Towers Condominiums are located in Springfield, Massachusetts, at 140 Chestnut Street, in Metro Center's Apremont Triangle Historic District...
in Metro Center
Metro Center, Springfield, Massachusetts
Metro Center is the original colonial settlement of Springfield, Massachusetts, located beside a bend in the Connecticut River. As of 2011, Metro Center features a majority of Western Massachusetts' most important cultural, business, and civic venues...
Springfield by early 1922. The original format was general entertainment and information, which included live music (often classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
), sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
s, farm reports, special events, and public affairs programming. Despite WBZ being housed in Springfield's top hotel, its location in a mid-sized market rendered it somewhat difficult to attract top-flight artists to the station, leading Westinghouse to open a studio at the Hotel Brunswick in Boston on February 24, 1924. WBZ also expanded its news programming via a partnership with the Boston Herald and Traveler
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
. It also carried a considerable amount of sports broadcasts, including Boston Bruins
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The team has been in existence since 1924, and is the league's third-oldest team and its oldest in the...
hockey, Boston Braves baseball, and Harvard Crimson football
Harvard Crimson football
The Harvard Crimson football program represents Harvard University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision . Harvard's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun competing in the sport in 1873...
.
Because of its comparatively wide reach, the station often referred to itself as "WBZ, New England" as opposed to associating itself solely with Springfield or Boston. However, even after several power boosts (the station broadcast at a power of 100 watts in 1921, but was using 2,000 watts in April 1925), the station still had some trouble reaching Boston, leading Westinghouse to sign on WBZA, a 250-watt station at 1240 kHz, on August 20, 1925. Efforts were soon made to operate WBZA as a synchronous repeater of WBZ, by then at 900 kHz; this process was difficult, as the two transmitters often interfered with each other even in Boston, and WBZA went back and forth between the two frequencies for nearly a year before finally going to full-time synchronous operation in June 1926. WBZ also continued to boost the power of its primary East Springfield transmitter; it was granted permission to operate with 5,000 watts on March 31, 1926, and by 1927 it was operating with 15,000 watts. Meanwhile, a combination of WBZ's growth and continued difficulties with the WBZA signal led the station to move its Boston studio to the Statler Hotel (now the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers
Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers
For the Park Plaza Hotel, Leeds, UK see Park Plaza Hotel LeedsThe Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers is a former Statler Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts built in 1927 by hotelier E.M. Statler. A prototype of the grand American hotel, it was called a "city within a city"...
) on June 1, 1927 and activate a new WBZA transmitter on June 9. The Federal Radio Commission
Federal Radio Commission
The Federal Radio Commission was a government body that regulated radio use in the United States from its creation in 1926 until its replacement by the Federal Communications Commission in 1934...
(FRC) moved WBZ and WBZA to 990 kHz on November 11, 1928.
Amidst the technical changes, WBZ also began engaging in network activities; by 1925 it often shared programs with WJZ
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
(which Westinghouse had also started in 1921, but sold to the Radio Corporation of America two years later), and a WBZ special commemorating the 150th anniversary of Paul Revere
Paul Revere
Paul Revere was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride...
's "Midnight Ride" was also fed to WRC
WTEM
WTEM — branded ESPN 980 — is a sports radio station licensed to Washington, D.C. and serving the Washington metro area. It is the flagship of a sports talk trimulcast with WWXT in Prince Frederick, Maryland and WWXX in Buckland, Virginia, all affiliated with ESPN Radio and owned by Red Zebra...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and WGY in Schenectady, New York
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
. This paved the way for the station to become a charter affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
(NBC) on November 15, 1926, carrying the WJZ-originated NBC Blue Network
Blue Network
The Blue Network, and its immediate predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, were the on-air names of an American radio production and distribution service from 1927 to 1945...
beginning on January 1, 1927.
1931–1956: NBC affiliation
By 1931, Westinghouse had concluded that Boston was WBZ's primary market, and on February 21 the station moved to a new transmitter site in MillisMillis, Massachusetts
Millis is a town in Norfolk County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is a small town with a population of 7,891 according to the 2010 census. The town is approximately southwest of downtown Boston and is bordered by Norfolk, Sherborn, Holliston, Medfield, and Medway...
, a location chosen to also provide service to Worcester
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
and Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
. WBZA was then moved to the East Springfield transmitter, which now operated with 1,000 watts and served more to bolster WBZ's signal in an area not adequately served from Millis. The Boston studios (which now also served as WBZ's main studios) would move as well, relocating to the Hotel Bradford on July 1, 1931; some programs continued to originate from the Springfield studios at the Hotel Kimball, which now belonged to WBZA. The station offered its first Boston Marathon
Boston Marathon
The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon hosted by the U.S. city of Boston, Massachusetts, on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897 and inspired by the success of the first modern-day marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world's oldest...
coverage on April 19, 1931. The following year, Westinghouse leased WBZ and WBZA to NBC itself, but maintained ownership of the broadcast licenses. During the late 1930s, WBZ began to offer more local news coverage; previously, only major events were regularly covered.
NBC's management of WBZ and WBZA came to an end on July 1, 1940, and Westinghouse resumed full control over the station. Shortly afterward, on July 27, WBZ moved its transmitter once more, to the current location in Hull. The move was twofold: the Millis site, 25 miles southwest of Boston, did not provide as strong a signal to the market as was intended, even after power increases to 25,000 watts in 1931 and 50,000 watts in 1933; this was due to the signal predominantly traveling through land, whereas the Hull site provides a salt water path to Boston. Additionally, the Hull site allowed ample space for WBZ's shortwave station, which had been founded at Springfield as W1XAZ in November 1929 and later operated from Millis as W1XK, ultimately becoming WBOS. WPIT, the shortwave station operated by KDKA in Pittsburgh, also moved its transmitters to Hull at the same time, and in 1941 its operations were folded into WBOS, which soon afterward began carrying government-provided programming (a service that ultimately evolved into the Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
) that would remain the shortwave station's primary function until leaving the air permanently in 1953. The Hull site also served as the first home for WBZ's FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
station, which operated from there as W1XK, W67B, and then WBZ-FM
WBZ-FM
WBZ-FM is a sports radio station known as "98.5 The Sports Hub" and broadcasting on 98.5 MHz in Boston, Massachusetts. Owned by CBS Radio, the current WBZ-FM began on August 13, 2009 and competes with AM sports talk stations WEEI and competed with the ESPN Radio pair of WAMG and WLLH before their...
on several frequencies off and on from November 7, 1940 to November 21, 1948. WBZ moved to its present dial location, 1030 kHz, on March 29, 1941.
WBZ switched from the Blue Network to the NBC Red Network
NBC Red Network
The NBC Red Network was one of the two original radio networks of the National Broadcasting Company. After NBC was required to divest itself of its Blue Network , the Red Network continued as the NBC Radio Network.It, along with the Blue Network, were the first two commercial radio networks in the...
on June 15, 1942; this allowed the station to retain a link with NBC after the Justice Department ordered it to divest of one its two radio networks (as NBC opted to sell the Blue Network). Like other major-market network-affiliated radio stations of the time, WBZ also broadcast a few hours of local programming, including Vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
-like musical performances from Max Zides, Tom Currier, and others, during those hours when NBC wasn't feeding programs to affiliates.
The station expanded into television on June 9, 1948, when WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV, virtual channel 4, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station, located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WBZ-TV's studios and office facilities, shared with sister station WSBK-TV , are located in the Allston-Brighton section of Boston, and its transmitter is located in Needham,...
(channel 4) signed on as an NBC television affiliate. Westinghouse built new studios at 1170 Soldiers Field Road in the Allston
Allston
-People:* Aaron Allston , an American novelist* Johanna Allston , an Australian orienteer* Robert Francis Withers Allston , a Governor of South Carolina...
section of Boston to house both the radio and television stations, with the new facility opening on June 17 of that year (parts of the new facility containing the master control and TV transmitter had already been in use). The transmission tower built at the studios for WBZ-TV would also replace the Hull site as WBZ-FM's transmitter, where it remained until Hurricane Carol
Hurricane Carol
Hurricane Carol was among the worst tropical cyclones to affect the New England region of the United States. It developed from a tropical wave near the Bahamas on August 25, 1954, and gradually strengthened as it moved northwestward. On August 27, Carol intensified to reach winds of , but weakened...
destroyed the tower on August 31, 1954; a power outage caused by the storm would disrupt WBZ's programming for three minutes. Don Kent
Don Kent (meteorologist)
Donald Edward Kent was an American radio and television weather forecaster for several decades in the Boston, Massachusetts area. He was known as "Boston's first TV Weatherman."-Early life:...
started as a meteorologist at the station in 1951, for a tenure that would endure for over three decades. The following year, WBZ expanded its broadcasting schedule to 24-hour-a-day programming.
1956–1985: Becoming a full-service powerhouse
During the 1950s, entertainment shows began moving to television, with the amount of music programming increased as a result. After three decades, WBZ, along with all but one of the other Westinghouse BroadcastingWestinghouse Broadcasting
The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndication....
stations (KEX
KEX (AM)
KEX is a class A clear channel AM radio station broadcasting from Portland, Oregon. As of 2005 it is owned by Clear Channel Communications and runs news/talk programming. Because KEX is a Class A station, KEX reaches most of the densely populated areas of Oregon, providing grade B coverage as far...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
was affiliated with ABC), ended their affiliations with NBC Radio on August 26, 1956 following a dispute over the network's daytime programming, and the station then decided to program popular music around-the-clock. The best known host in WBZ's history, Dave Maynard, joined the station in 1958. Another beloved WBZ host was Carl DeSuze, whose joined WBZ in April 1942 and remained at the station until 1985. DeSuze was the station's morning man for over three decades. Another popular WBZ voice was longtime news anchor Gary LaPierre
Gary LaPierre
Gary LaPierre was the morning news anchor on WBZ and retired in 2006 after 40 years at the anchor desk. He started at BZ in 1964 as a general news reporter. Born in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, he graduated from Grahm Junior College and attended the University of New Hampshire and Boston...
, who began at the station in September 1964.
At the outset, WBZ's full service
Full service (radio format)
The full service radio format consists of a wide range of programming. Mostly found on the AM band, the format can be found on a handful of FM stations...
music format leaned toward middle of the road music, but also featuring an increasing amount of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. Within a few years, WBZ was a top 40 rock and roll station, and with its combination of hit music, popular hosts, powerful signal, and top-notch news coverage, WBZ was the dominant radio station in the market.
WBZ re-established an FM station on December 15, 1957, transmitting from the brand new WBZ-TV tower in Needham, operating at 106.7 MHz; this incarnation of WBZ-FM only provided limited simulcasts of the AM station and largely had its own programming, including classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
and Ed Beech's Just Jazz program from WRVR
WLTW
WLTW is a radio station with an Adult Contemporary format in New York City.The station is often number one or close to it in Arbitron ratings for New York City. From 2002 to 2004, the station generated more revenue than any other radio station in the New York market...
in New York City. The station remained in mono through this period, but beginning on December 31, 1971, an automated top 40 format was launched in stereo, apparently in an attempt to blunt the popularity of WRKO
WRKO
WRKO is a radio station based in Boston, Massachusetts, currently owned by Entercom. Its transmitter is located in Burlington, Massachusetts, next to the Burlington Mall.-1920-1940:...
(680 AM). WBZ-FM would be sold by Group W (which Westinghouse had rebranded its broadcasting division in 1963) to Greater Media
Greater Media
Greater Media, Inc., known as Greater Media, is an American media company that specializes in radio stations. The markets where they own radio stations include Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Charlotte, and the state of New Jersey...
in 1981, ultimately becoming WMJX
WMJX
WMJX is a radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts. It has an Adult Contemporary format. The station's transmitter is located atop the Prudential Tower in Downtown Boston...
.
WBZA continued to serve Springfield with a simulcast of WBZ's programming until July 1962, when it was shut down to allow Westinghouse to purchase WINS
WINS (AM)
WINS , known on-air as "Ten-Ten Wins", is a radio station in New York City, owned by CBS Radio. WINS's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan, and transmitting towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.WINS is one of the nation's oldest...
in New York City, as the company already owned seven AM radio stations — the maximum allowed by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) at that time. The closure of WBZA ended over 40 years of transmission from East Springfield. The towers continued to stand atop the former Westinghouse plant in East Springfield for five more decades, until their removal on November 5, 2011 to accommodate redevelopment at the site of the factory; by then, they were among the oldest broadcast facilities still standing.
Increased competition in the top 40 format — first from WMEX (1510 AM, now WWZN
WWZN
WWZN is an AM radio station licensed to serve the Boston media market. Its programming is a time-brokered mix between progressive talk radio during the daytime , sports talk and religious programming in the overnight hours...
), which had programmed a top 40 format since 1957, then from WRKO, which adopted the format in 1967 — led WBZ to shift its music programming to adult contemporary in 1969, playing several songs an hour between 6 and 9 a.m. (though it was not unheard of for Carl DeSuze to play only one, if any, song an hour during his show), 10 to 12 songs an hour between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and 4 to 6 songs an hour between 4 and 7 p.m.. At night, WBZ programmed talk shows
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
, with such hosts as Guy Mainella, a pioneer in sports talk
Sports radio
Sports radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A popular format with an almost exclusively male demographic in most areas, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and extensive debate and analysis by both hosts and...
; Jerry Williams
Jerry Williams (radio)
Jerry Williams was an American radio host, one of the originators of the talk radio format.His radio career spanned more than 50 years, beginning in 1946 at WCYB near the Tennessee/Virginia border,...
in the evenings; and Larry Glick
Larry Glick
Larry Glick was an American talk radio host, based in Boston, Massachusetts, whose long-running show on WBZ and later WHDH became a New England institution in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s....
's overnight show (the latter two held the same popular shifts at WMEX years earlier). Music was also programmed during the day on weekends. This format was similar to sister station KDKA in Pittsburgh. By 1978, Mainella, who had been the host of Calling All Sports since its inception on July 15, 1969, had been replaced with Bob Lobel
Bob Lobel
Robert "Bob" Lobel is a former sportscaster for WBZ-TV in Boston, Massachusetts. He anchored the sports segments on the evening newscasts between Sunday and Thursday, and hosted the weekly programs Sports Final and Patriots 5th Quarter...
and Upton Bell
Upton Bell
Upton Bell is a former American football executive. Upton is currently a talk show host and commentator at WCRN Talk AM 830 in Worcester, Massachusetts...
.
Beginning in the late 1960s, WBZ made a major push into live play-by-play sports. From 1966 through 1979, and again from 1991 through 1994, WBZ was home to radio broadcasts of New England Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
football; this brought Gil Santos
Gil Santos
Gil Santos is the longtime radio play-by-play announcer for the New England Patriots of the National Football League, and morning sports reporter for WBZ radio in Boston. He retired from WBZ on January 30, 2009. Santos was inducted into the WBZ Radio Hall of Fame on July 9, 2009...
to the station. In the fall of 1969, WBZ regained the radio rights to the Boston Bruins (which it had lost in 1951), and also began carrying Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners LLC. The Celtics play their home games at the TD Garden, which...
basketball. The Bruins stayed through the 1977-78 season; the Celtics left WBZ after the team's 1980-81 NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
Championship season. During the years when the Bruins and Celtics were both on WBZ and both playing at the same time, one of them (usually the Celtics) would be heard on WBZ-FM. WBZ also broadcast the United States Football League
United States Football League
The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...
's Boston Breakers
Portland Breakers
The Portland Breakers were a professional American Football team that played in the United States Football League in the mid 1980s. Before moving to Portland, Oregon, the franchise was previously in Boston, Massachusetts as the Boston Breakers and New Orleans, Louisiana as the New Orleans...
during the 1983 season (its lone season in Boston), as well as Boston College Eagles football
Boston College Eagles football
The Boston College Eagles football team is the collegiate football program of Boston College. The team is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, a Division I Bowl Subdivision league governed by the NCAA. Within the ACC, the Eagles are one of six teams in the Atlantic Division...
from 1987 through 1991. Starting in 1972, WBZ's football broadcasts featured the play-by-play team of Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti
Gino Cappelletti
Gino Cappelletti is a former American collegiate and Professional Football player. He played at the University of Minnesota, and was a star in the American Football League for the Boston Patriots...
.
During the 1970s, WBZ was one of a number of clear channel AM stations that petitioned to be allowed to increase their power; WBZ would have used 500,000 watts transmitting from Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,431 at the 2000 census, with an estimated 2007 population of 3,174...
to reach all of New England during the day. A backlash from smaller stations led to the petition being denied and station protections limited to a 750-mile radius, in effect canceling the entire clear channel service.
WBZ became an affiliate of ABC Radio on January 1, 1980; ABC was the descendant of the Blue Network, which WBZ had dropped 38 years earlier. The ABC affiliation allowed the station to begin airing Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey Aurandt , better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated, at...
's daily broadcasts, which were previously heard in Boston on WEZE
WEZE
WEZE is an AM radio station in Boston, Massachusetts on 590 kHz. The station is owned by Salem Communications and airs Religious programming.- History :...
(then at 1260 AM, now occupied by WMKI
WMKI
WMKI is a children's radio station in the Boston market. It is owned by The Walt Disney Company, and runs their Radio Disney programming.- History :...
; now at 590 AM) and, later, WECB, the carrier current
Carrier current
Carrier current is a method of low power AM radio transmission that uses the AC electrical system of a building to propagate a medium frequency, AM signal to a relatively small area, such as a building or a group of buildings...
station at Emerson College
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private coeducational university located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of oratory," Emerson is "the only comprehensive college or university in America dedicated exclusively to communication and the arts in a liberal arts...
. Later in the year, a schedule shuffle ended Carl DeSuze's run on the morning show (which was taken over by Dave Maynard), and he was moved to middays; the overnight show was then taken over by Bob Raleigh, who had been WBZ's midday host since June 1976. Calling All Sports was also dropped in favor of an early evening talk show, hosted at various points by David Finnegan
David Finnegan
David I. Finnegan is an American attorney, talk show host, and politician. He is currently a partner at Finnegan, Underwood, Ryan & Tierney.-Political career:...
, Lou Marcel, and Peter Meade. Former overnight host Larry Glick was moved first into late evenings and then into afternoons, and ultimately left the station in May 1987.
1985–2003: Becoming a news/talk station
In the 1980s, WBZ began to cut back on its music programming; for instance, an expanded afternoon news block was launched on December 2, 1985. The following year, David BrudnoyDavid Brudnoy
David Brudnoy was an American talk radio host in Boston from 1976 to 2004. His radio talk show aired on WBZ radio. He was known for espousing his libertarian views on a wide range of political issues, in a manner that was courteous. Thanks to WBZ's wide signal reach, he gained a following from...
began to host the station's late evening talk show; WBZ replaced his program with Tom Snyder
Tom Snyder
Thomas James "Tom" Snyder was an American television personality, news anchor and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows The Tomorrow Show, on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and The Late Late Show, on the CBS Television Network in the 1990s...
's ABC Radio talk show after the July 13, 1990 broadcast, but listener complaints led the station to return Brudnoy to the air by the end of September.
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
coverage led the station to stop playing music on a regular basis and adopt a full-time news/talk format. (WBZ has, from time to time, played music on special occasions even after the change to news/talk; the station still offered 24 hours of Christmas music
Christmas music
Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music normally performed or heard around the Christmas season, which tends to begin in the months leading up the actual holiday and end in the weeks shortly thereafter.-Early:...
beginning on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
through 1995, and it has carried the audio of the Boston Pops
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music....
' Fourth of July concert and fireworks display since 2003; additionally, WBZ, along with sister stations WODS
WODS
- External links :****...
and WZLX
WZLX
WZLX is a prominent classic rock radio station in the Boston, Massachusetts market. WZLX was one of the first classic rock FM stations in America...
, carried the Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
Let It Be... Naked album premiere on November 13, 2003.) When WEEI
WEEI
WEEI is a sports radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, that broadcasts on 850 kHz from a transmitter in Needham, Massachusetts, and is owned by Entercom Communications. The station is one of the top-rated sports talk radio stations in the nation. Studios are located in Brighton, Massachusetts...
(then at 590 AM, now occupied by WEZE; now at 850 AM) dropped its all-news
All-news radio
All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcast of news.All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried in some form on both major US satellite radio networks...
format for all-sports programming in September 1991, WBZ began a marketing campaign to convince former WEEI listeners to switch to WBZ; this was followed on January 13, 1992 with a shift to all-news programming during drive time
Drive time
Drive time is the daypart analog to prime time for radio broadcasting. It consists of the morning hours when listeners wake up, get ready, and/or head to work or school, and the afternoon hours when they are heading home and before their evening meal. These are the periods where the number of...
(5 to 10 a.m. in the morning and 3 to 7 p.m. in the afternoon). On September 28 the station became an all-news station from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. following the end of the two midday talk shows hosted by Tom Bergeron
Tom Bergeron
Tom Bergeron is an American television personality and game show host, best known as the host of the ABC reality series Dancing with the Stars and host of America's Funniest Home Videos . He was also host of Hollywood Squares and a fill-in host for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire...
, the morning host prior to the launch of the morning news block (the noon hour, which separated the Bergeron shifts, was already occupied by a news program); the station's nighttime programming continued to be filled by David Brudnoy and Bob Raleigh's talk shows.
Initially, the new format was not carried over to WBZ's weekend schedule; while a weekend morning news block was launched, the weekend afternoon schedule remained devoted to specialty talk shows until September 3, 1994, when the station introduced information-oriented sports shows, branded as WBZ Sports Saturday and WBZ Sports Sunday. WBZ's sports commitment also included the return of the Boston Bruins Radio Network
Boston Bruins Radio Network
The Boston Bruins Radio Network is a 16-station 11 A.M., 5 F.M.) CBS Radio network which carries live game broadcasts of the Boston Bruins. The network's flagship station is WBZ-FM/98.5-Boston, Massachusetts. Dave Goucher announces play-by-play...
to the station in 1995; however, the station lost the New England Patriots to WBCN (104.1 FM, now occupied by WBMX) starting with the 1995 season, and for several seasons afterward WBZ was an affiliate of the New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
Radio Network
New York Giants Radio Network
The New York Giants Radio Network is a broadcast radio network based in New York City, the official radio broadcaster of the New York Giants. The network's radio broadcasts are currently flagshipped at WFAN, a station owned by CBS Radio....
. NFL regulations only allowed WBZ to carry Giants' games not played at the same time as Patriots' games. As with the weekday lineup, talk continued to be programmed at night, including three of the specialty shows (Kid Company on Saturday evenings and a revived Calling All Sports and Looking at the Law on Sunday evenings), a Saturday night talk show hosted by Lovell Dyett, and an overnight show with former WHDH (850 AM, now occupied by WEEI) host Norm Nathan.
WBZ added an affiliation with the CBS Radio Network
CBS Radio Network
The CBS Radio Network provides news, sports and other programming to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by CBS Corporation, and operated by CBS Radio ....
on March 6, 1995, making it one of a handful of stations to carry both CBS Radio and ABC Radio (however, the station ceased an affiliation with CNN Radio). Five months later, on August 1, Westinghouse announced that it was purchasing CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, a transaction that was completed on November 24; as a result, WBZ came under the CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
banner. 76 years of Westinghouse ownership would come to an end on December 1, 1997, when the Westinghouse Electric Corporation changed its name to CBS Corporation. CBS' radio stations, including WBZ, were spun off into a new public company, Infinity Broadcasting Corporation
Infinity Broadcasting Corporation
Infinity Broadcasting Corporation was a radio company that existed from 1972 until 2005. It was founded by Michael A. Wiener and Gerald Carrus. It became associated with popular radio personalities like Howard Stern, Don Imus and Mike Francesa. Infinity merged with CBS Corporation in 1997 and later...
, in 1998 (a move that removed the Group W name from the station's license); Viacom
Viacom (1971–2005)
Viacom , stylized as VIACOM in its current logo, was an American media conglomerate. It was the owner of CBS, Nickelodeon & MTV, among others. Effective December 31, 2005, this corporate entity changed its name to CBS Corporation...
announced its acquisition of the publicly-held stake in Infinity on August 15, 2000 (shortly after it merged with CBS Corporation), a transaction completed on February 21, 2001 (though Viacom, and CBS before the merger, had always held a majority stake in Infinity). Even after coming under common ownership with the CBS Radio Network, it would not be until 2000 before CBS' hourly newscast replaced ABC's during WBZ's overnight programming.
As its ownership shifted, WBZ also continued to modify its program schedule. After Norm Nathan's death on October 29, 1996, his Friday night/Saturday morning show was taken over by Steve LeVeille, and his Saturday night/Sunday morning show went to former WSSH-FM (99.5 FM, now WCRB
WCRB
WCRB is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Lowell, Massachusetts and based in the Brighton area of Boston, which serves the Greater Boston area. It broadcasts a classical music format; it existed as a commercial station from the early 1950s until December 2009, and as a listener-supported...
) morning host Jordan Rich
Jordan Rich
Jordan Rich is the host of The Jordan Rich Show, on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday evenings on WBZ-AM 1030 in Boston, Massachusetts. His show is an eclectic mix of history, arts, pop culture, and everything in between. Parts of the shows are carried by WCCO in Minneapolis,...
. Bob Lobel (by now WBZ-TV's sports director) and Upton Bell returned to the station on May 17, 1997 for a Sunday night sports show (with Calling All Sports moving to Saturdays). Another sports show, The McDonoughs on Sports with Sean McDonough
Sean McDonough
Sean McDonough is an American sportscaster, currently employed by ESPN.-Early life and career:The son of Boston Globe sportswriter Will McDonough, Sean graduated from Syracuse University in 1984. It was in Syracuse where McDonough began his broadcasting career in 1982 as the play-by-play announcer...
and Will McDonough
Will McDonough
William "Will" McDonough was an American sportswriter for the Boston Globe.-Biography:McDonough attended the English High School of Boston, where he starred in baseball as a pitcher and in football as a quarterback...
aired during the 1997 NFL season
1997 NFL season
The 1997 NFL season was the 78th regular season of the National Football League. The Oilers relocated from Houston, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee...
as a lead-in to CBS Radio Sports' broadcast of
NFL on Westwood One
The NFL on Westwood One is the brand name given to weekly National Football League games carried on the radio over the Dial Global Radio Network...
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
, preempting David Brudnoy's program; the first two hours of his Friday show were also preempted in favor of a cooking show, Olives' Table with Todd English
Todd English
William Todd English is a celebrity chef, restaurateur, author, entrepreneur, and television personality based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States...
, from August 1997 through August 1998. The Sports Saturday and Sports Sunday blocks were discontinued in April 1998 in favor of an expansion of the all-news format to weekend afternoons; Calling All Sports and The Bob Lobel Show were not affected, though Lobel's show was replaced with Sunday Sports Page with Dan Roche
Dan Roche
Dan Roche is a sports anchor and reporter for WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV in Boston.-Career:Roche joined WBZ-TV in October 2000 as a weekend sports anchor and reporter. Since 2003, he has hosted "Red Sox This Week" on sister station WSBK. Roche also served as WSBK's field reporter during Red Sox games from...
and Steve DeOssie
Steve DeOssie
Steven Leonard DeOssie is a former American football linebacker and long snapper. DeOssie played college football at Boston College, and went on to play in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants, and the New England Patriots...
that July after a management-ordered cut-off of a call on the July 12 broadcast drove Lobel to resign from his show on July 13. Bob Raleigh began to cut back his on-air presence during the late 1990s, with Kevin Sowyrda taking over the Sunday night/Monday morning slot for a time; he eventually retired on June 9, 1999, with Steve LeVeille taking his place in the overnight hours and Jordan Rich taking over the Friday night/Saturday morning show. Shortly afterward, David Brudnoy gave up the 10 p.m.-12 a.m. portion of his show; this timeslot was given to Lowell Sun columnist and former WLLH
WLLH
WLLH is a radio station in the Merrimack Valley region of Massachusetts, licensed to Lowell, Massachusetts. The station is owned by Gois Broadcasting, LLC, and airs a tropical music format. In addition to a transmitter in Lowell, there is a synchronous transmitter in Lawrence, together forming...
(1400 AM) host Paul Sullivan
Paul Sullivan (radio)
Paul Sullivan was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. Paul Harold "Sully" Sullivan was an accomplished radio talk-show host of "The Paul Sullivan Show" on WBZ radio...
. For a time starting in the fall of 2001, the station relaunched the 1 p.m. hour of the Midday News as the WBZ Business Hour, with an increased focus on business news; this program was similar to one on Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
sister station KNX
KNX (AM)
KNX is an all-news radio station in Los Angeles, California, USA. The station operates on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio. KNX broadcasts from facilities shared with sister stations KFWB, KCBS-FM, KTWV, and KAMP on Los Angeles' Miracle Mile...
(WBZ has since returned to regular news in the 1 p.m. hour). Later that year, weekend sports talk was abandoned completely, with Calling All Sports, which had been a leased-time
Brokered programming
Brokered programming is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot commercials...
program owned and produced by Norm Resha since its revival in 1991, moving to WTKK
WTKK
WTKK is a New England commercial talk radio station, first broadcast out of Boston on 96.9 FM beginning in 1999. It can be heard in eastern Massachusetts, the northernmost area of Rhode Island, southern New Hampshire, and southern Maine...
(96.9 FM) on December 2. WBZ then launched a Saturday evening talk show hosted by Pat Desmarais, while a simulcast of the CBS television program 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
was added on Sunday evenings on January 13, 2002.
2003–present: Transition
David Brudnoy announced on September 23, 2003 that he had skin cancerSkin cancer
Skin neoplasms are skin growths with differing causes and varying degrees of malignancy. The three most common malignant skin cancers are basal cell cancer, squamous cell cancer, and melanoma, each of which is named after the type of skin cell from which it arises...
(he had also been fighting AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
since 1994); a farewell broadcast aired on December 8, 2004, and he died the next day, with tribute shows airing over the following two nights. Per Brudnoy's wish, Paul Sullivan took over the 8 p.m.–midnight time slot in January 2005, with the 7 p.m. hour given to an expansion of the WBZ Afternoon News. That March, WBZ began streaming its programming on the web, along with Infinity's other news and talk stations.
When Viacom split into two companies on December 31, 2005, Infinity became part of the new CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
and reverted to the CBS Radio name. That same day, WBZ dropped Paul Harvey after the station's contract to carry his broadcasts expired (however, despite coming under the CBS Radio banner once more, the station still maintains an affiliation with ABC News Radio
ABC News Radio
ABC News Radio is the radio service of ABC News, a division of the ABC Television Network. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Cumulus Media Networks, newscasts on the hour to its more than 2,000 affiliates...
); in addition, the station dropped Looking at the Law, a legal advice show hosted by Neil Chayet
Neil Chayet
Neil Lewis Chayet is an American lawyer.He is widely known for his weekday feature program Looking at the Law ....
, after its January 8, 2006 broadcast in favor of brokered financial programs. Longtime morning news anchor Gary LaPierre, who anchored WBZ's morning newscasts for nearly 40 years, retired from WBZ at the end of 2006. Governor Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...
declared the day of his final broadcast, December 29, 2006, "Gary LaPierre Day". Romney, Senator Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
, Mayor Tom Menino, former Mayor Ray Flynn, former Governor Michael Dukakis
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...
, and other notables called in during his final broadcast. LaPierre was replaced on the WBZ Morning News with Ed Walsh, a former morning host at WOR
WOR (AM)
WOR is a class A , AM radio station located in New York, New York, U.S., operating on 710 kHz. The station has a talk format and has been owned by Buckley Broadcasting since 1987, after the station was sold by RKO. The station has conservative, or right-of-center hosts.Its call letters have no...
in New York City who had been anchoring at WCBS
WCBS (AM)
WCBS , often referred to as "WCBS Newsradio 880" , is a radio station in New York City. Owned by CBS Radio, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of the CBS Radio Network...
, starting with the 9:30 a.m. half hour of the December 29 Morning News. LaPierre continues to be heard on the station on occasion through voiceover work.
Meanwhile, evening host Paul Sullivan was fighting a brain tumor
Brain tumor
A brain tumor is an intracranial solid neoplasm, a tumor within the brain or the central spinal canal.Brain tumors include all tumors inside the cranium or in the central spinal canal...
, which was discovered on November 22, 2004—shortly before Brudnoy's death. After undergoing several surgeries over the next two and a half years, Sullivan announced on June 21, 2007 that he would step down from the evening talk show, with his final show, lead by Jordan Rich, airing on June 28; he would die on September 9. Rich and WBZ-TV reporter Dan Rea
Dan Rea
Dan Rea is the host of "NightSide with Dan Rea" WBZ radio, following the death of Paul Sullivan.-Education and background:A graduate of Boston Latin School, Boston State College and Boston University School of Law, Rea is a native Bostonian who now lives in Sherborn, Massachusetts.-Career:Prior to...
served as substitute hosts in the interim; on October 1, Rea, who in the 1970s served as a weekend host for the station before moving to television in 1976, became the new host of the show, renamed NightSide with Dan Rea.
On December 31, 2008, WBZ let go overnight talk show host Steve LeVeille, sports anchor Tom Cuddy and Saturday night talk show hosts Lovell Dyett and Pat Desmarais. LeVeille was replaced by Jon Grayson (whose show originates from St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
sister station KMOX), while Dyett and Desmarais were replaced by the syndicated Kim Komando Show
The Kim Komando Show
The Kim Komando Show is a commercial talk radio program focusing on personal computers, the use of the Internet, and the complexities of consumer electronics....
. After listener efforts were made to restore LeVeille and Dyett to the station, WBZ announced on January 27, 2009 that LeVeille would reassume his shift on February 2, while Dyett would host a half-hour early morning public affairs program on Sundays. Cuddy would subsequently return to the station as well that May. While Jordan Rich retained his weekend overnight show, the 2–5 a.m. portion of the program began to be simulcast on sister station WCCO in Minneapolis–Saint Paul. Long-time sports director Gil Santos retired after 38 years with the station on January 30, 2006; after a week-long fill-in by Bob Lobel, Walt Perkins took over as morning sports anchor on February 7. The Bruins once again left WBZ following the 2008-09 season, after CBS Radio launched a third incarnation of WBZ-FM
WBZ-FM
WBZ-FM is a sports radio station known as "98.5 The Sports Hub" and broadcasting on 98.5 MHz in Boston, Massachusetts. Owned by CBS Radio, the current WBZ-FM began on August 13, 2009 and competes with AM sports talk stations WEEI and competed with the ESPN Radio pair of WAMG and WLLH before their...
at 98.5 FM as an all-sports station, which also took the Patriots from the former WBCN. (The station simulcast WBZ-FM's broadcast of Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals
2011 Stanley Cup Finals
The 2011 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League , and the culmination of the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was the 118th year of the Stanley Cup's presentation. The Eastern Conference Champion Boston Bruins defeated the Western Conference Champion Vancouver...
between the Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver, :British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The Canucks play their home games at Rogers Arena, formerly known as General Motors Place,...
, allowing fans in areas of New England not served by a Bruins radio network affiliate to hear the game; additionally, WBZ carries Bruins games that conflict with WBZ-FM's Patriots broadcasts.) Ed Walsh retired after four years as morning news anchor on November 30, 2010; Rod Fritz then took over as interim anchor (with Gary LaPierre guest anchoring for a week in early December), with Joe Mathieu, formerly of Sirius XM Radio's P.O.T.U.S. channel, taking over on May 16, 2011.
Hall of Fame
In February 2007, the station created the WBZ Radio Hall of Fame. Gary LaPierre was the first inductee, on February 16; Gil Santos was the second when he was inducted on July 9, 2009, and Dave Maynard was the third with his induction on September 15, 2009. Carl DeSuze became the fourth inductee (and the first to be inducted posthumously) on September 19, 2011, coinciding with WBZ's 90th anniversary.Daytime
From 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, and 5–10 a.m. and 12–7 p.m. on Sundays, WBZ offers an all-news format. News headlines are provided at the top and bottom of each hour, as well as at :18 and :48. Local news is provided by both the station's own reporters and sister station WBZ-TV; national and international news is provided by CBS Radio News, ABC News Radio, and AP Radio. "Traffic on the 3s" provides a summary of traffic conditions in the area every ten minutes (e.g., 03, 13, 23); "Weather on the 10s", provided by AccuWeatherAccuWeather
AccuWeather is an American media company that provides for-profit weather forecasting services worldwide.AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Penn State graduate student working on degrees in meteorology. His first customer was a gas company in Pennsylvania. While running the...
(except from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, when it is provided by WBZ-TV; the segments during this time nonetheless still carry the WBZ AccuWeather branding), likewise provides a weather forecast at :10, :20, :40, and :50 past the hour. Financial news from MarketWatch
MarketWatch
MarketWatch operates a financial information website that provides business news, analysis and stock market data to some 6 million people. MarketWatch offers personal finance news and advice, tools for investors and access to industry research. Along with its flagship website, the company operates...
is aired at :08 and :38; the station also does its own business report, New England Business, at :25 during drive time. Sports is carried at :15 and :45. Several features are also broadcast throughout the broadcast day, including both locally-produced segments and syndicated features (largely provided by CBS through Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
, though it also carries ABC's Cybershake). WBZ also simulcasts the first 10 minutes of the CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
at 6:30 p.m. on weeknights. The lone break in the all-news format during the daytime comes on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., when WBZ airs Ric Edelman
Ric Edelman
Ric Edelman is the chairman and CEO of Edelman Financial Services, LLC., the author of several personal finance books and the host of a syndicated weekly personal finance talk radio show called The Ric Edelman Show...
's financial talk show.
Nighttime
In hours in which WBZ is not providing news programming, the station is formatted as a talk radio station. Dan ReaDan Rea
Dan Rea is the host of "NightSide with Dan Rea" WBZ radio, following the death of Paul Sullivan.-Education and background:A graduate of Boston Latin School, Boston State College and Boston University School of Law, Rea is a native Bostonian who now lives in Sherborn, Massachusetts.-Career:Prior to...
hosts the main evening talk show, NightSide, from 8 p.m. to midnight. The weekday overnight program, The Steve LeVeille Broadcast, airs from midnight to 5 a.m. Monday through Friday mornings; on Saturday and Sunday mornings, Jordan Rich
Jordan Rich
Jordan Rich is the host of The Jordan Rich Show, on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday evenings on WBZ-AM 1030 in Boston, Massachusetts. His show is an eclectic mix of history, arts, pop culture, and everything in between. Parts of the shows are carried by WCCO in Minneapolis,...
hosts a talk show during this time (though the Sunday morning show ends at 3:30 a.m.), which is simulcast on sister station WCCO in Minneapolis–Saint Paul starting at 2 a.m. ET
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
(1 a.m. CT
Central Time zone
In North America, the Central Time Zone refers to national time zones which observe standard time by subtracting six hours from UTC , and daylight saving, or summer time by subtracting five hours...
).
Saturday evening programming includes the brokered financial program Family Financial Focus, produced by 93 Financial Group, from 6–8 p.m., the syndicated Kim Komando Show
The Kim Komando Show
The Kim Komando Show is a commercial talk radio program focusing on personal computers, the use of the Internet, and the complexities of consumer electronics....
from 8–10 p.m., and infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
s from 10 p.m. to midnight. Infomercials are also carried from 3:30–4:30 a.m., followed by a half-hour Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
program. Sunday evening programming includes a simulcast of 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
at 7 p.m., the brokered financial program Protecting Your Wealth, produced by Rubino & Liang, at 8 p.m., infomercials from 9–10 p.m., and Jay Talking, hosted by former WBCN DJ Bradley Jay.
Since 1999, the station has aired a production of the Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
classic A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
, presented by WBZ producer Michael Coleman and performed by the WBZ staff (as "The WBZ Radio Holiday Players"). Between 2001 and 2004, WBZ also offered a dramatic reading of Richard Paul Evans
Richard Paul Evans
Richard Paul Evans is an American author.-Biography:Evans graduated from Cottonwood High School in Salt Lake City. He graduated with a B.A. degree from the University of Utah in 1984. While working as an advertising executive he wrote a Christmas story for his children...
' The Christmas Box
The Christmas Box
The Christmas Box is an American novel written by Richard Paul Evans and self-published in 1993. A Christmas story purportedly written for his children, the book was advertised locally by Evans, who was working at the time as an advertising executive. He placed the book in Utah stores and it...
.
Awards
WBZ received the 2010 Marconi award in the legendary stations category from the National Association of BroadcastersNational Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association, workers union, and lobby group representing the interests of for-profit, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States...
.
On-air staff
Morning Drive- Joe Mathieu - Anchor
- Deb Lawler - Anchor
- Elliott Abrams - Weather
- Walt Perkins - Sports
- Rick Simonson - Traffic
- Ron Amadon - MarketWatch
Mid-Morning
- Laurie Kirby - Anchor
- Rod Fritz - Anchor
- Tracy Johnke - MarketWatch
Afternoon Drive
- Diane Stern - Anchor
- Anthony Silva - Anchor
- Tom Cuddy - Sports
- Bob Larson - Weather
- Scott Eck - Traffic
- John Wordock - MarketWatch
Reporters
- Carl Stevens
- Lana Jones
- Mark Katic
- Karen Twomey
- Kim Tunnicliffe
- Doug Cope
- Jim Smith
- Ben Parker
Weekend News
- Kendall Buhl
- Mary Blake
- Mina Greene
- Mike Macklin
- Art Cohen
Talk Show Hosts
- Dan ReaDan ReaDan Rea is the host of "NightSide with Dan Rea" WBZ radio, following the death of Paul Sullivan.-Education and background:A graduate of Boston Latin School, Boston State College and Boston University School of Law, Rea is a native Bostonian who now lives in Sherborn, Massachusetts.-Career:Prior to...
- Steve LeVeille
- Jordan RichJordan RichJordan Rich is the host of The Jordan Rich Show, on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday evenings on WBZ-AM 1030 in Boston, Massachusetts. His show is an eclectic mix of history, arts, pop culture, and everything in between. Parts of the shows are carried by WCCO in Minneapolis,...
- Morgan White
Contributors
- Jon Keller - Keller at Large
- Dee Lee - Money Matters
- Dr. Murray Feingold - Medical Minute
- Mike Carruthers - Something you Should Know
- Dave Caruso - Before the Bell
- Neil ChayetNeil ChayetNeil Lewis Chayet is an American lawyer.He is widely known for his weekday feature program Looking at the Law ....
- Looking at the Law - Charles OsgoodCharles OsgoodCharles Osgood is a radio and television commentator in the United States. His daily program, The Osgood File, has been broadcast on the CBS Radio Network since 1971. He is also known for being the voice of the narrator of Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film released in 2008, based on the book...
- The Osgood File