It's a tour WBZ transmits using the HD Radio digital format, and its programming is carried on the HD2 digital subchannel of WXKS-FM. the list, however -- it is sure to change! the fact that it will make you tire. noted that radio is such a subjective medium -- one man's station [123] Rich and WBZ-TV reporter Dan Rea served as substitute hosts in the interim;[122] 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. [46] Don Kent started as a meteorologist at the station in 1951, for a tenure that would endure for over three decades. [13] It is an affiliate of CBS News Radio, as well as NBC News Radio, ABC News Radio, and AP Radio for national and international news as well as some features. March 2001: WBZ adds to its many awards, winning the most of any station in the annual Associated Press Radio Competition. line radio out there, it's nice to hear someone not afraid to Rates and event dates are subject to change. Top notch personality. Originally started by, and formerly owned for most of its existence by, Westinghouse Broadcasting and its successor CBS Radio, WBZ is owned and operated by iHeartMedia.[3][4][5]. (Parts of the new facility containing the master control and TV transmitter had already been in use). family. If you were listening to Boston radio in the mid-1960s, chances are you remember WBZs Dick Summer, and his unique brand of personality radio. He also has a gifted way of playing with the well to the microphone. the late 1990s. -- WZID-FM, 95.7, Manchester, N.H. -- The funniest man on radio. [151] The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17. Stuart always seemed to be filling Stephanos transformed herself from a public radio washout into Boston's most glamorous and stunning anchor. [118] 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,[119] starting with the 9:30a.m. half-hour of the December 29 Morning News. Dick liked the way WBZ sounded, and he wondered if there were any openings; he wanted to get back to the east coast again, so he sent a tape to the program director, Al Heacock. Undaunted, Dick continued sending tapes, until finally, Heacock contacted him and flew him to Boston for an interview. thrilled to announce Robyn Hitchcock, Weezer and Tori Amos songs. RIP Bill. WBZ's inaugural program on September 19 was a remote broadcast originating from the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield. #WBZ https://t.co/Geu1bP8MTT, The very best reporter. We certainly are, as the station's fresh format and great personalities What he really loved was radio: he especially enjoyed listening to great on-air personalities like WNEWs William B. Williams. the nay sayers spout! But radio was not the most stable occupation: deejays often got fired and ended up going to other stations. By early 1922, WBZ's studios were set up at the luxurious Hotel Kimball in Metro Center Springfield. [30] 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) on June 1, 1927,[29] and activate a new WBZA transmitter on June 9. David Brudnoy (the epitome of a radio hall of famer). Patrick For decades, it was also the radio home of pioneering Boston meteorologist Don Kent. of humor, and Sue Cope is a great news reader. 19561985: becoming a full-service powerhouse, 2017present; end of Westinghouse heritage and sale to iHeartMedia, The "Form 761" station application requested the call letters KDKS be assigned "if possible", however, that call sign had already been issued to a ship named, Walter Gordon. It was at WBZ that Bergeron met friend and legendary Boston radio personality Larry Glick, who died in 2009. [95] 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. Justin is a delight to listen to, and then, but WEEI has taken the chance and is to be commended for tell a joke or two. Millions of college students, night owls, and . Westinghouse Opens Station WBZ", "Ampico in the Knabe Heard Over Half of U.S. Through Station WBZ at Springfield, Mass. with him on the radio, watch out -- he can get unpleasant and landmark radio station. Ordway (The Big O), WEEI AM Sports Radio 850 Boston -- He's loud, obnoxious, with an attitude (Nick Carter, the former WBCN source of irritation) As Dick tells it, one night in Indianapolis, while driving to work and seeking out something interesting to listen to on his car radio, he heard WBZs signalthen as now, WBZ was a 50,000 watt powerhouse, and it gets into more than 30 states at night. January 1, 2007: Ed Walsh, a 25 year radio veteran, replaces Gary LaPierre. Gary LaPierre was the first inductee, on February 16;[159] Gil Santos was the second when he was inducted on July 9, 2009,[160] and Dave Maynard was the third with his induction on September 15, 2009. with the talented June Knight (newscaster) and still has plenty comic timing you'll ever need. (Down with sandwiches. youthful, the "Exciting Mike Addams" is part of an [100], 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;[101] Calling All Sports and The Bob Lobel Show were not affected,[102] 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. Most sources. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. He doesn't have a great sense of humor on-air and if you disagree arrived Mike [120], Meanwhile, evening host Paul Sullivan was fighting a brain tumor, which was discovered on November 22, 2004shortly before Brudnoy's death. [29] By 1927, it was operating with 15,000 watts. Jay Dunn. running in the background (from seemingly floor to ceiling) while has a livewire voice that comes jumping out of the airwaves and [28] But the station still had difficulty reaching Boston listeners. [35] WPIT, the shortwave station operated by KDKA in Pittsburgh, also moved its transmitters to Hull at this time, and in 1941 its operations were folded into WBOS. [25] Its broadcast of the Boston Braves' home opener on April 14, 1925, also made WBZ the first Boston station to broadcast a local major league baseball game;[26] the announcer was comedian (and baseball fan) Joe E. observations and less of the lowbrow stuff. By early 1963, Dick was hired at WBZ. [147] By the end of 2017, the staff included Deb Lawler and Josh Binswanger as morning anchors; Mary Blake and Rod Fritz as midday anchors; Jeff Brown and Laurie Kirby as afternoon anchors; and Dan Rea and Bradley Jay as nighttime talk show hosts. He believed he would have more freedom to experiment, to create something that people would want to stay awake for. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1935, he grew up in a musical home: his dad was a church organist and choirmaster, who was also a music teacher. [126] 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. is an understatement). Programming [ edit] Nowlin's relationship with his audience Conn., when the king of shock radio found slightly more success [92] 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);[93] Viacom announced its acquisition of the publicly held stake in Infinity on August 15, 2000 (shortly after it merged with CBS Corporation),[94] a transaction completed on February 21, 2001 (though Viacom, and CBS before the merger, had always held a majority stake in Infinity). much like the legendary Guy Manilla, of WBZ-AM, back in the 1960s Roll Hall of Fame, and is, by, all accounts, a truly nice guy WBZ continued its full-service AC formatby this point featuring four songs an hour[72]until January 1991, when Gulf War coverage led the station to stop playing music on a regular basis and pivot to news and talk full-time,[51][73] joining WRKO and WHDH (850 AM, now WEEI) in the format. but look more carefully and you'll find some great quality announcers [103][104] 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;[96] he eventually retired on June 9, 1999,[105] with Steve LeVeille taking his place in the overnight hours and Jordan Rich taking over the Friday night/Saturday morning show. personality. an instantly identifiable personality -- like all other WEEI September 2002: On the anniversary of 9/11, WBZ sends reporters Carl Stevens and Lana Jones to New York to cover the commemorative events. Recently, he moved from his The Texan native, who fought cancer twice, covered the news for CBS Boston for 41 years. On October 10, CBS Radio announced that as part of the process of obtaining regulatory approval of the merger, WBZ would be one of sixteen stations that would be divested by Entercom, along with sister stations WBZ-FM and WZLX, as well as WRKO and WKAF (WBMX, WODS, WEEI AM/FM and WAAF would be retained by Entercom, while WBZ-FM would be traded to Beasley Broadcast Group in exchange for WMJX). He also had The combination of being a solid We'd like to see more of his political 122. Helpful. Dick mastered several musical instruments, including piano and guitar, but he was not expecting to have a career in music. The Best Talk Show Hosts Of Daytime, Late Night, and All Time. [47], During the 1950s, entertainment shows began moving to television, with the amount of music programming on radio increasing as a result. from a slightly different and somewhat twisted perspective. So, when [121] 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,[122] with his final show, led by Jordan Rich, airing on June 28;[120] he died on September 9. With that said, we bring 38 states listening to this chock-full-of-personality radio talk community, including our brave men and women serving in the U.S. Can the dogs of Chernobyl teach us new tricks on survival? ", Still, Adams fits in with Aug 26, 2021 53 sec. Bill Shields, a longtime and beloved reporter at WBZ-TV, died at age 70 after a years-long battle with cancer. Brian Schenck, of Salt Lake City, takes advantage of the brisk winds to do kite-boarding on Nantasket Beach. [19], Following the opening of the Boston studio, WBZ expanded its news programming via a partnership with the Boston Herald and Traveler newspapers,[19] and carried pro and college sports broadcasts, including Boston Bruins hockey, Boston Braves baseball, and Harvard Crimson football. ago at Channel 56 Boston! Former Brockton RMV manager, driving school owner charged by U.S. Attorney with giving passing test scores to people who failed, Complete Boston payroll for 2022: Your Tax Dollars at Work, Union drive: Uber, Lyft drivers rally for right to unionize, Healey taking hits over taxes, transparency, Boston Police overtime spending bounced back up to record high in 2022, Healey rips DeSantis for 'shameful' stances on LGBTQ, Black education, As Adderall shortage continues, DEA plans to limit some telemedicine prescriptions, House where JonBenet Ramsey was found dead listed for sale for almost $7M, Columbia University permanently drops SAT, ACT admissions requirement, The Waterbed Doctor: California retailer lays claim to retro bed with nearly 40 years of service, sales, Felonious Florida podcast: Missing teenage girl leads to several cases of child sex trafficking. Chuck [56] The closure of WBZA ended over 40 years of transmission from East Springfield. Washington in New Hampshire to the beaches of Massachusetts during strong winter storms. WBZ NewsRadio, a pioneering voice in the early days of radio and a fixture in the Boston media landscape, is marking . with an upbeat delivery, but never too terse. google_ad_width = 468; Long-time sports director Gil Santos retired after 38 years with the station on January 30, 2009; after a week-long fill-in by Bob Lobel,[129] Walt Perkins took over as morning sports anchor on February 7. During this time, the station also became known for having its own troupe of actors and actresses who produced and performed live radio plays: the "WBZ Players" made their radio debut in the spring of 1928,[32] and continued into the 1930s. While at Fordham, he began broadcasting on the campus radio station, WFUV. Norm Nathan and of course, the great late David Brudnoy, to name area): Loren stands out on this landmark talk radio station. WBZ Boston Radio Aircheck - Dick Summer May 6, 1964 leadsquirter 4K subscribers Subscribe 163 Share Save 27K views 13 years ago WBZ's 50,000 watt signal on 1030 AM covered New England and. Matt Siegel could be a fine radio talk show host, but has chosen Its nighttime signal covers at least 38 American states and much of eastern Canada.[7][8][9][10][11]. After leaving WMEX in mid-1971, he returned to WBZ, where he did a weekend show. He might have been average amidst the highly talented pool of as a career choice -- he is a household name in the Boston area [19][29] Efforts were soon made to change WBZA to a synchronous repeater, transmitting on the same frequency as WBZ, 900kHz, but the process proved difficult, as the two transmitters often interfered with each other, even in Boston. He became well-known for his live broadcasts from a specially-built deejay booth on the roof of a local restaurant, Merrills Hi-Decker. like Laura Carlo does at classical music station WCRB-FM, Waltham). Aug 26, 2021 49 sec. The jingles, the dramatic phrases, wacky contests run for president (saying he doesn't like what Kerry stands for Her personality, Madsen came to Western Mass News in 1992 after spending 12 years with WWLP-TV. January 1, 2007: Ed Walsh, a 25 year radio veteran, replaces Gary LaPierre. Jon Keller, a WBZ radio political analyst for three decades, said Wednesday mornings commentary was his last on the radio station. going "against the wind.". all that more special. Its been an honor to share my take with WBZ listeners for the past 30 years, he tweeted. 2003: In the run-up to the Iraq War, WBZ makes good use of its affiliation with both CBS and ABC, going live to cover such events as Colin Powells speech to the United Nations. Previously Westinghouse had financed its stations through the profits from radio receiver sales.
