Previous Format: Variety Hits “93.7 Mike-FM” WMKK
New Format: Sports WEEI-FM
Date & Time Of Change: September 12, 2011 at 6:00am
More Info: RadioInsight, Wikipedia

Aircheck Contributed by Jeff Lehmann

Previous Format: Country “Country 99.5″
New Format: Classical “99.5 WCRB”
Date & Time Of Change: December 1, 2006 at 12pm
More Info: Northeast Radio Watch, Wikipedia

Related Changes: 102.5 WCRB Becomes Country WKLB

Previous Format: Classical “102.5 WCRB”
New Format: Country “Country 102.5″
Date & Time Of Change:
More Info: Northeast Radio Watch, Wikipedia

Related Changes: 99.5 WKLB Becomes Classical WCRB

Sometimes the biggest moves come out of nowhere. Unexpectedly on August 21, 2006, Radio-One announced the sale of Urban AC “97.7 WILD-FM” to Entercom. By the next day, Entercom had already taken over the operations of the station via an LMA. The signal, which rimshots Boston and it’s southern suburbs was a perfect compliment to the western based signal of 107.3 WAAF. The former Worcester station had recently upgraded its signal and moved eastward with a change in city of license to Westborough, but still had a hard time covering the urban center of Boston putting it at a competitive disadvantage. With the 97.7 and 107.3 signals combined, WAAF could promote the fact that it covered more area than any Boston FM signal.

As the ticking clock stunt hit zero, you could make out engineers plugging in the simulcast of 107.3 and tweaking the volume levels during the first two songs. By the time the WAAF airstaff convened to introduce the new signal to the audience the audio was properly tweaked.

Thanks to Bob Nelson for the aircheck.

The Air America radio network launched in March 2004, and after a slow start, began to pick up many new affiliates by the late summer. Yet Boston, despite being one of the most liberal markets in the country, did not yet have an affiliate. From the launch of the network, much of Air America’s growth was attributed to Clear Channel, which brought the format to failed AM stations in many markets. As it happened, Clear Channel just happened to have two stations in Boston that together would make a perfect home for the new format.

WXKS 1430 was a longtime adult standards station, the forgotten sister station of CHR station WXKS-FM. In 2001, WXKS was expected to change format to CNET Radio-provided technology talk, but the format ended up on Mega Communications’ WBPS 890, and the standards lived on.

Meanwhile, WKOX 1200 had a long history as a full service station for the western MetroWest suburbs, although recent years had led the station to brokered ethnic programming for the area’s Brazilian and Hispanic population. Longtime owner Richard Fairbanks had attempted to sell the station twice during the 1990′s, but neither sale was finalized. In 2001, Clear Channel acquired the station from the late Fairbanks’ estate, and followed through with his plans to move-in the station to Boston, with a city of license change to Newton and a power upgrade to 50,000 watts. Once the station was completed, Clear Channel initially planned to program either Fox Sports Radio or conservative talk from Premiere; but as RFI concerns and appeals were negotiated, the brokered programming on WKOX continued.

On October 1st, 2004, following the local “Bill Wightman Show” on WXKS, at 9:02AM, both stations ended their independent programming and began simulcasting a loop of Al Franken sound bites along with rock music, while including real commercial breaks. Finally, on October 4, 2004, at 6:00AM, following a rendition of Kate Smith’s “God Bless America”, WKOX and WXKS became “Boston’s New Progressive Talk, AM 1200 and 1430.”

Airchecks & Summary contributed by Justin Tardiff.

WROR was the FM station to WRKO until RKO General was forced to sell off all it’s radio properties. Before WROR they were first WRKO-FM – ARKO-Matic, the automated top forty station in the 60s. Later, it was Boston’s first Oldies station as WROR. In 1980, they went live AC, with some of Boston’s most melodic and historic jingles (JAM’s ‘I’d Rather Be In Boston’ series #1). In 1983 they experimented with CHR using a version of the WLS-FM jingles but later reverted back to AC, which they stayed until February 1991 when Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” triggered the end of WROR and the beginning of Hot AC Mix 98.5. WBMX. Mix 98.5 would soon become the forerunner of what was known as Modern AC, a current based variation of the format heavy on Alternative Rock crossovers.

WBMX remains to this day on 98.5. The WROR calls were brought back to the market when the Country format and calls on 105.7 WKLB moved to 96.9 (and later to 99.5). Confused? There is more information to be learned about this at the Boston Radio Archives.

Special Thanks To Peter Q George and Steve West at Airchexx.com.

Previous Format: CHR “Power 103″ WHTT
New Format: Adult Rock “Q103″ WMRQ
Date & Time Of Change: July 7, 1986
More Info: BostonRadio.org, Wikipedia

CBS’ 103.3 WEEI-FM in Boston was in the process of a drawn out evolution from Soft Rock to Top 40 in the early 1980′s. The station had already been using the name “Hit Radio 103″ when CBS sold AM sister 590 WEEI. As part of the sale, per FCC rules at the time, 103.3 had to change it call letters. In order to play up the new “Hit Radio” format, WHTT was born.

This aircheck features a WEEI-FM legal ID from 5:00pm on March 8 and the birth of WHTT at midnight on March 9.