Previous Format: AC 98.5 WROR
New Format: Hot AC “Mix 98.5” WBMX
Date & Time Of Change: February 9, 1991 at 12:00pm
More Info: Wikipedia
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 moved to 104.1 in 2009 and changed call letters to WWBX in 2017. 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.
