WRCA
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the current radio station, for the NBCNBCThe 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...
station in New York please see WNBC (AM)WNBC (AM)WNBC was a radio station that operated in New York City from 1922 to 1988. For most of its history, it was the flagship station of the NBC Radio Network...
.
WRCA is a 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...
serving the Boston, Massachusetts metro area. It broadcasts on 1330 kHz on the AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
radio dial, and broadcasts an ethnic format. The station is licensed to WAEC License Limited Partnership which is owned by Beasley FM Acquisition Corporation, part of the Beasley Broadcast Group
Beasley Broadcast Group
Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc. , based in Naples, Florida, is an owner/operator of radio stations in the United States. As of January 2011, the company owned 17 AM stations and 28 FM stations. -History:...
.
History
The station began operating as WCRB in 1948, owned by Theodore Jones's Charles River BroadcastingCharles River Broadcasting
Charles River Broadcasting was the owner of three classical music stations, one classic rock station, one CNN Headline News relay in Rhode Island, and a syndicated classical satellite delivery program service.- History :...
. WCRB was originally a community radio station for Waltham before switching to a classical format a few years later. An FM simulcast was added in 1954, which gradually became more prominent than 1330, to the point that the AM station ceased simulcasting WCRB-FM
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...
in 1975 (the FM retained the classical format) and became WHET, programming a big-band/adult standards format from 1975 until 1978, and then a short-run as a beautiful music
Beautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
format. Sales led to formats such as country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
WDLW for most of the 1980s, and then "Showbiz Radio" WRCA before the station began leasing time to ethnic operators in 1991 (the WRCA callsign was retained), which has remained to this day the operation of the station. The current owners, the Beasley Broadcast Group
Beasley Broadcast Group
Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc. , based in Naples, Florida, is an owner/operator of radio stations in the United States. As of January 2011, the company owned 17 AM stations and 28 FM stations. -History:...
, took over in 2000 from the ADD Radio Group.
The station's long time transmitter site in Waltham was discontinued in 2007 when WRCA became one of three AM stations to share a rebuilt transmitter facility at the original site of WBOS AM 1600 on Sawmill Brook Parkway in Newton. This site is now used by stations on 1330, 1600 and 1200 KHz.
WRCA's city of licence changed from Waltham to Watertown in 2007 in now broadcasts 20,000 watts.