WBZ (1030 AM) is a Class A clear channel

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to Boston, Massachusetts. Originally started by, and formerly owned for most of its existence by,

Westinghouse 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 syndicat ...

and its successor

CBS Radio CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...

, WBZ is owned and operated by

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

. WBZ transmits using the

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

digital format, and its programming is carried on the HD2

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

WXKS-FM WXKS-FM (107.9 FM), branded as ''Kiss 108'', is a commercial top 40/CHR radio station licensed to serve Medford, Massachusetts, and covering Greater Boston. Owned by iHeartMedia, the WXKS-FM studios are in Medford and the transmitter sits atop ...

. WBZ's studios and offices are located on Cabot Road in the Boston suburb of Medford, and its

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

site is in

Hull, Massachusetts Hull is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, located on a peninsula at the southern edge of Boston Harbor. Its population was 10,072 at the 2020 census. Hull is the smallest town by land area in Plymouth County and the fou ...

. WBZ is the designated Primary Entry Point (PEP) for the

Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and both ...

(EAS) in New England (except in Maine and Connecticut). WBZ features an

all-news All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news stations can run the ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

for most of the day, with some

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

programming at night and on weekends. Operating with a transmitter power output of 50,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s, and employing a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performance ...

that sends a majority of its signal westward, the station can be heard during daylight hours throughout much of

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. Under the right conditions, it can be heard as far east as

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

and

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Canada; as far south as Eastern

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

and

Monmouth County, New Jersey Monmouth County () is a county located on the coast of central New Jersey. The county is part of the New York metropolitan area and is situated along the northern half of the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population w ...

; and as far west as the outer suburbs of

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, and

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

. Its nighttime signal covers at least 38 American states and much of eastern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. WBZ was granted its first license by the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...

on September 15, 1921, and was originally located in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...

, before moving to Boston in 1931. It is the oldest broadcasting station in New England, and one of the oldest in the United States.

Programming

WBZ runs an

format during the day and a

format at night, and is the current home of radio personality

Dan Rea Dan Rea is the conservative-leaning host of "NightSide with Dan Rea" WBZ radio, following the death of Paul Sullivan. Education and background A graduate of Boston Latin School (Class of 1966), Boston State College (English major) and Boston Un ...

. The station was the home of talk host

David Brudnoy David Barry Brudnoy (June 5, 1940 – December 9, 2004) 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 ...

for 18 years, until the day before his death in 2004. Other notable personalities 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 is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

DJ-turned-talkmaster Norm Nathan, late-night talker and humorist Larry Glick, and morning hosts Carl DeSuze,

Tom Bergeron Thomas Raymond Bergeron (born May 6, 1955) is an American television personality, game show host, comedian and actor, best known for hosting ''Hollywood Squares'' from 1998 to 2004, ''America's Funniest Home Videos'' from 2001 to 2015, and ''Danci ...

and Dave Maynard. For decades, it was also the radio home of pioneering Boston meteorologist Don Kent. WBZ has long been one of the highest-rated stations in the Boston area. It is an affiliate of the

CBS News Radio CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

Network, as well as

NBC News Radio NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

ABC News Radio ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five minute newscasts on the hour and news briefs at half-pas ...

, and

AP Radio The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

for national and international news as well as some features. But the bulk of the station's schedule, except some weekend programming, is produced in-house. WBZ is heavily involved in charitable work, including its annual Christmastime fund drive for the

Boston Children's Hospital Boston Children's Hospital formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2012 is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children's hospital located in Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical Scho ...

, which it does along with TV station

WBZ-TV WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WSBK-TV (channe ...

History

In November 1920, the

Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...

established its first broadcasting station, KDKA, located in its plant in

East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania East Pittsburgh is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, about southeast of the confluence of the Monongahela and the Allegheny rivers at Pittsburgh. The population in 1900 stood at 2,883, and in 1910, at 5,615. As of the 2020 census, t ...

. The station was set up to promote the sale of Westinghouse radio receivers. This initial station proved successful, so in 1921 the company expanded its activities by building three additional stations, beginning with WBZ, and followed by WJZ in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.KYW, originally in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and now in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

1921–1931: Springfield

On September 15, 1921, Westinghouse was issued a Limited Commercial license with the randomly assigned

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

WBZ. The new station initially transmitted on a

wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tro ...

of 375 meters (800 kHz), before moving to 360 meters (833 kHz) with a power of 100 watts. It was located at the company's East Springfield facility on Page Boulevard. WBZ's inaugural program on September 19 was a

remote broadcast In broadcast engineering, a remote broadcast (usually just called a remote or a live remote, or in news parlance, a live shot) is broadcasting done from a location away from a formal television studio and is considered an electronic field productio ...

originating from the

Eastern States Exposition The Big E, formally known as The Eastern States Exposition, and billed as "New England's Great State fair", is the largest agricultural event on the eastern seaboard and the fifth-largest fair in the nation. The Big E is inclusive of all six o ...

in West Springfield. When WBZ began operations, there were no specific government standards for what constituted a broadcasting station. A small number of stations were already providing regularly scheduled entertainment broadcasts, most of which operated under Amateur or Experimental licenses. (A prime example was the American Radio & Research Corporation's experimental station, 1XE in Medford Hillside, Massachusetts, near Boston, which was relicensed in early 1922 as WGI.) Effective December 1, 1921, the U.S. government formally established regulations to define a broadcasting station, by setting aside two wavelengths — 360 meters for entertainment, and 485 meters (619 kHz) for official weather and other government reports — and requiring the stations to hold a Limited Commercial license. "Miscellaneous: Amendments to Regulations"
''Radio Service Bulletin'', January 3, 1922, page 10. Limited Commercial licenses had been issued since the government had begun licensing stations in 1912. "Broadcasting" was added as one of the available service categories, and not all Limited Commercial stations were authorized to make broadcasts intended for the general public. WBZ was one of a handful of stations which already met the new standard, and its initial license was the first Limited Commercial license that had specified broadcasting on the 360-meter wavelength that would be formally designated by the December 1 regulations. By some interpretations, this made WBZ America's first broadcasting station, and in 1923 the Department of Commerce, referring to WBZ, stated that "The first broadcasting license was issued in September, 1921". However, WBZ's priority is not widely recognized, when compared to other stations with earlier heritages, in particular KDKA, WWJ in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, and KQW in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

(now KCBS in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

By early 1922, WBZ's studios were set up at the luxurious

Hotel Kimball The Kimball Towers Condominiums (originally known as The Hotel Kimball and later The Sheraton-Kimball Hotel) is a historic former hotel, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, at 140 Chestnut Street, in Metro Center's Apremont Triangle Historic D ...

in Metro Center Springfield. Programs consisted of general entertainment and information, including live music (often classical and opera), sports, farm reports, special events, and public affairs programming. Despite being housed in Springfield's top hotel, the station's location in a mid-sized city rendered it somewhat difficult to attract top-flight artists. That prompted Westinghouse to open a remote studio on February 24, 1924, at the Hotel Brunswick in Boston. Because of its wide reach, the station often referred to itself as "WBZ New England", as opposed to associating itself solely with Springfield or Boston. Following the opening of the Boston studio, WBZ expanded its news programming via a partnership with the ''Boston Herald'' and ''Traveler'' newspapers, and carried pro and college sports broadcasts, including

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

hockey, Boston Braves baseball, and

Harvard Crimson football The Harvard Crimson football program represents Harvard University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). Harvard's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun ...

. WBZ's Bruins broadcasts, which began in early December 1924, made it the first Boston station to broadcast a professional hockey game; the first play-by-play announcer for the hockey broadcasts was local sportswriter Frank Ryan. 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; the announcer was comedian (and baseball fan)

Joe E. Brown Joseph Evans Brown (July 28, 1891 – July 6, 1973) was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his friendly screen persona, comic timing, and enormous elastic-mouth smile. He was one of the most popular American comedians in the 19 ...

. WBZ increased its transmitter power to 2,000 watts by April 1925. But the station still had difficulty reaching Boston listeners. This led Westinghouse to inaugurate, on August 20, 1925, a 250-watt relay station, WBZA, located in Boston and transmitting on 1240 kHz. Efforts were soon made to change WBZA to a synchronous repeater, transmitting on the same frequency as WBZ, 900 kHz, but the process proved difficult, as the two transmitters often interfered with each other, even in Boston. For nearly a year, while the technology was being perfected, WBZA shifted between the two transmitting frequencies, before finally going to full-time synchronous operation in June 1926. The power of the WBZ transmitter in East Springfield continued to be boosted. On March 31, 1926, it was granted permission to operate with 5,000 watts. 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 The Statler Hotel company was one of the United States' early chains of hotels catering to traveling businessmen and tourists. It was founded by Ellsworth Milton (E. M.) Statler in Buffalo, New York. Early ventures In 1901, Buffalo hosted the ...

(now the

Boston Park Plaza The Boston Park Plaza is a historic hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, opened on March 10, 1927. It was built by hotelier E.M. Statler as part of his Statler Hotels chain. A prototype of the grand American hotel, it was called a "c ...

) on June 1, 1927, and activate a new WBZA transmitter on June 9. On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of the

Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by t ...

's (FRC)

General Order 40 The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, dated August 30, 1928, described the standards for a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting in the United States. This order grouped the AM radio band transmitting frequencies into thre ...

, WBZ and WBZA were assigned exclusive national use of a "clear channel" frequency, 990 kHz. Amidst the technical changes, WBZ also began sharing its programs by network with other radio stations. By 1925, it often shared programs with WJZ in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

(which was transferred from Westinghouse to the

Radio Corporation of America The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

in May 1923), and a WBZ program commemorating the 150th anniversary of

Paul Revere Paul Revere (; December 21, 1734 O.S. (January 1, 1735 N.S.)May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith, engraver, early industrialist, Sons of Liberty member, and Patriot and Founding Father. He is best known for his midnight ride to ale ...

's "Midnight Ride" was also fed to

WRC WRC may refer to: Broadcasting stations * WRC-TV, a television station (virtual channel 4, digital channel 34) licensed to Washington, D.C., United States * Several radio stations in the Washington, D.C. area: ** WTEM, a radio station (980 AM) l ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and WGY in

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

. This paved the way for the station to become a charter affiliate of the

National Broadcasting Company The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

(NBC) on November 15, 1926, carrying the WJZ-originated

NBC Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the National Broadcasting Comp ...

beginning on January 1, 1927. With this change the station also began running commercials for the first time. Previously Westinghouse had financed its stations through the profits from radio receiver sales. 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, and continued into the 1930s.

1931–1956: NBC affiliation

By 1931, Westinghouse had concluded that WBZ's primary market was Boston, so on February 21 the station began using a new transmitter site located at

Millis, Massachusetts Millis is a town in Norfolk County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It had a population of 8,460 at the time of the 2020 census. The town is approximately southwest of downtown Boston and is bordered by Norfolk, Sherborn, Holliston, Medf ...

. The site was chosen to provide service not only to Boston but also to

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

and

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. At the same time WBZA was transferred from Boston to using the East Springfield transmitter, which now operated with 1,000 watts and relayed WBZ's programming to an area that was inadequately served by the Millis transmitter. The Boston studios (which now served as WBZ's main studios) moved as well, relocating on July 1, 1931, to the Hotel Bradford. (Some programs continued to originate from the WBZA Springfield studios at the Hotel Kimball.) WBZ offered its first

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was i ...

coverage on April 19, 1931. The following year, Westinghouse leased WBZ and WBZA to NBC, while maintaining ownership of the broadcast licenses. During the late 1930s, WBZ began to offer more local news coverage. Previously, only major events were regularly covered. WBZ 1030 transmitter and World's End, February 2012

WBZ 1030 transmitter and World's End, February 2012

NBC's management of WBZ and WBZA ended on July 1, 1940, and Westinghouse resumed full control over the stations. Shortly afterward, on July 27, WBZ relocated its transmitter site once more, to its current location in Hull. A directional antenna array was constructed, consisting of two 520-foot- (160-meter) tall towers. The move was twofold: the Millis site, 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Boston, had not provided 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. A key disadvantage of the Millis site was that the signal had to travel over land to Boston. In contrast the Hull site featured a highly conductive salt water path to the city. The Hull site also provided ample space for WBZ's shortwave station, which had been founded at Springfield as W1XAZ in November 1929. It 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 this time, and in 1941 its operations were folded into WBOS. The shortwave transmitters soon began carrying government-provided programming (a service that ultimately evolved into the

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

) that would remain the shortwave station's primary function until leaving the air permanently in 1953. The Hull site would also serve as the home for WBZ's first FM

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

, which operated from there as W1XK, W67B, and then WBZ-FM on several frequencies off and on from November 7, 1940, until November 21, 1948. Under the provisions of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, on March 29, 1941, WBZ's "clear channel" assignment was shifted to its present frequency, 1030 kHz. WBZ transferred from the Blue Network to the

NBC Red Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...

on June 15, 1942. This allowed the station to retain a link with NBC after the

Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

ordered NBC to divest of one its two radio networks. (It opted to sell the Blue Network, which became ABC, the

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...

.) Like other major-market network-affiliated radio stations of the time, WBZ also broadcast a few hours of local programming, including

Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

-like musical performances from Max Zides, Tom Currier, and others, during those hours when NBC was not feeding programs to affiliates. The station expanded into television on June 9, 1948, when

(channel 4) first

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

as an NBC television affiliate. Westinghouse built new studios at 1170

Soldiers Field Road Soldiers Field Road is a major crosstown parkway in Boston, Massachusetts, running west to east from U.S. Route 20 in the northwest corner of Brighton to the Boston University Bridge.Office of Geographic and Environmental Information (MassGIS) ...

in the

Allston Allston is an officially recognized neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most part ...

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. It remained there until

Hurricane Carol Hurricane Carol was among the worst tropical cyclones on record to affect the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island in the United States. It developed from a tropical wave near the Bahamas on August 25, 1954, and slowly strengthened as it ...

destroyed the tower on August 31, 1954. A power outage caused by the storm disrupted WBZ's programming for three minutes. Don Kent started as a

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

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 on radio increasing as a result. After three decades, WBZ, along with all but one of the other

stations ( KEX in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, was affiliated with

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

), ended their affiliations with NBC Radio on August 26, 1956, following a dispute over the network's daytime programming. That prompted the station to program

middle of the road music Middle of the road (also known by its acronym MOR) is a commercial radio format and popular music genre. Music associated with this term is strongly melodic and uses techniques of vocal harmony and light orchestral arrangements. The format was even ...

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, who joined WBZ in April 1942. He 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 radio format leaned toward middle of the road music, but also featuring an increasing amount of

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

. Within a few years, after the demise of

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

on WCOP (1150 AM, now

WWDJ WWDJ (1150 AM) is a Catholic radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts. Owned by Relevant Radio, Inc., the station serves Greater Boston. WWDJ does not broadcast any local programming, functioning as a repeater for the Relevant Radio net ...

) in 1962 and with WMEX (1510 AM) as the lone top 40 in Boston, WBZ switched to a full-time top 40 format. The combination of hit music, popular hosts, powerful signal, and top-notch news coverage, made WBZ the dominant radio station in the market. It continued to run public affairs programming including "Shape-up Boston," "Stomp Smoking" and the 1969 "T-Group 15," a project produced by public affairs director Jerry Wishnow in which nine black and white school-decentralization activists in a room for 22 hours with microphones and cameras until compromises were reached. The edited broadcast included four hours of audience reaction with the participants and was aired on WBZ for 15 hours without commercials. 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 The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

. This incarnation of WBZ-FM provided limited

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

s of the AM station and largely had its own programming, including

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

and Ed Beech's ''Just Jazz'' program from

WRVR WRVR (104.5 FM, branded "The River 104.5") is an adult contemporary radio station broadcasting in Memphis, Tennessee. It has broadcast this format for at least 34 years as of 2021. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station's studios are located in Sou ...

in New York City. The station remained in mono through this period, but beginning on December 31, 1971, an

automated Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

top 40 format was launched in stereo, apparently in an attempt to blunt the popularity of

WRKO WRKO (680 AM) is a commercial news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly ho ...

(680 AM). WBZ-FM was sold by Group W (which Westinghouse had rebranded its broadcasting division in 1963) to

Greater Media Greater Media, Inc., known as Greater Media, was an American media company that specialized in radio stations. The markets where they owned radio stations included Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Charlotte, and the state of New Jersey. The compa ...

in 1981, ultimately becoming

WMJX WMJX (106.7 FM) – branded Magic 106.7 – is a commercial adult contemporary radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. The WMJX studios are ...

. WBZA continued to serve Springfield with a simulcast of WBZ's programming until July 1962, when the East Springfield transmitter 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 Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(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, 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 Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

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 A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sho ...

, with such hosts as Guy Mainella, a pioneer in

sports talk Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...

. (subscription content preview) Also heard were 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 Robert "Bob" Lobel (born December 24, 1943) 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 ' ...

and

Upton Bell Upton P. Bell (born 1937) is an American former National Football League (NFL) executive, talk show host, and sports commentator. He is the son of former NFL commissioner Bert Bell and Broadway theatre actress Frances Upton. Football executive B ...

. For much of its time as a full-service AC, WBZ used the slogan "The Spirit of New England" (made famous by a 1988

JAM Creative Productions JAM Creative Productions, Inc., is an American company that produces radio jingles, promo music for television, and commercial jingles for advertisers. It has made more radio jingles than any other jingle company and has become part of American ...

jingle package of the same name). 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 The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. This brought

Gil Santos Gilbert A. Santos (April 19, 1938 – April 19, 2018) was an American radio play-by-play announcer based in the Boston area. He called games for the New England Patriots of the National Football League and the Boston Celtics of the National Baske ...

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 The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

basketball. The Bruins stayed through the 1977-78 season. The Celtics left WBZ after the team's 1980-81

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

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 The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defunct Women's ...

during the 1983 season (its lone season in Boston). Also heard were

Boston College Eagles football The Boston College Eagles football team represents Boston College in the sport of American football. The Eagles compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a member of ...

from 1987 (subscription content preview) through 1991. (subscription content preview) 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 Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...

, 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. 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 Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous ''The Rest o ...

's daily broadcasts, which were previously heard in Boston on WEZE (1260 AM, now

WBIX WBIX (1260 AM) – branded Nossa Rádio USA – is a commercial Brazilian Portuguese radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston. Owned by the International Church of the Grace of God, the WBIX studios are ...

) and, later,

WECB WECB may refer to: * WECB (FM), a radio station (105.3 FM) licensed to Headland, Alabama, United States * WECB (Emerson College), a campus radio station at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. *WFZZ WFZZ (104.3 FM broadcasting ...

, the carrier current station at

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...

. 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.

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,

began to host the station's late-evening talk show. In June 1990, WBZ announced that it would replace Brudnoy with

Tom Snyder Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows '' Tomorrow'', on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and ' ...

's ABC Radio talk show, (subscription content preview) with his last show airing July 13; (subscription content preview) listener complaints (subscription content preview) led the station to return Brudnoy to the air by the end of September. (subscription content preview) It was also late in 1985 that ''

American Top 40 ''American Top 40'' (previously abbreviated to ''AT40'') is an internationally syndicated, independent song countdown radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds, and Ron Jacobs. The program is currently hosted by Ryan Seacr ...

'' moved to WBZ from WROR (98.5 FM, now

WBZ-FM WBZ-FM (98.5 FM) is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by the Beasley Broadcast Group, WBZ-FM is the Boston affiliate for Fox Sports Radio; t ...

), remaining on WBZ until the program moved to WZOU (94.5 FM, now WJMN) in 1988. WBZ continued its full-service AC format—by this point featuring four songs an hour—until January 1991, when

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

coverage led the station to stop playing music on a regular basis and pivot to news and talk full-time, (subscription content preview) joining WRKO and WHDH (850 AM, now WEEI) in the format. Program director David Bernstein, upon hearing the news of the war's start, ordered the on-duty engineer to remove the music carousel from the studio, vowing that "This station will never play music again;" even before the war, Bernstein had been considering dropping music from WBZ, theorizing that the station's listeners were listening for the personalities and not the songs. Separately, morning show producer Bill Flaherty and morning host Tom Bergeron also concluded that it was not appropriate for WBZ to play music in the midst of the war. The format change became permanent on March 4, 1991; concurrently, WBZ began promoting itself as "Boston's News Station", positioning the station as the primary competitor for

station WEEI (590 AM, now

WEZE WEZE (590 AM) – branded 590 AM The Word – is a commercial Christian radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by Salem Communications, WEZE is the Boston affiliate fo ...

). 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 comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

beginning on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...

through 1995, and it carried the audio of the

Boston Pops The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...

Fourth of July Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...

concert and fireworks display from 2003 (subscription content preview) through 2016; additionally, WBZ, along with sister stations WODS (103.3 FM, now WBGB (FM), WBGB) and WZLX (100.7 FM), carried the The Beatles, Beatles ''Let It Be... Naked'' album premiere on November 13, 2003. When WEEI 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; (subscription content preview) this was followed on January 13, 1992, with a shift to all-news programming during drive time (5 to 10 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m.). (subscription content preview) On September 28 the station became an all-news station from 5 a.m.–7 p.m. (subscription content preview) following the end of the two midday talk shows hosted by Tom Bergeron, who had moved to middays following the launch of the morning news block (subscription content preview) (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''. (subscription content preview) 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 WWBX) starting with the 1995 season, (subscription content preview) 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 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

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 (1971–2005), 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, 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 NFL on Westwood One, 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; (subscription content preview) ''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. (subscription content preview) 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 The Sun (Lowell), Lowell ''Sun'' columnist and former WLLH (1400 AM) host Paul Sullivan (radio), 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; (subscription content preview) this program was similar to one on Los Angeles sister station KNX (AM), 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 Brokered programming, leased-time program owned and produced by Norm Resha since its revival in 1991, (subscription content preview) moving to WBQT (FM), 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.

2003–2017

David Brudnoy announced on September 23, 2003, that he had skin cancer (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

); 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 (AM), WOR in New York City who had been anchoring at WCBS (AM), WCBS, starting with the 9:30 a.m. half-hour of the December 29 ''Morning News''. LaPierre continued 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, led by Jordan Rich, airing on June 28; he died on September 9. Rich and WBZ-TV reporter

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, Missouri, St. Louis sister station KMOX), while Dyett and Desmarais were replaced by the syndicated ''The Kim Komando Show, 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 (AM), WCCO in Minneapolis – Saint Paul, Minneapolis–Saint Paul. 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, 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 on 98.5 MHz 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 briefly carried Bruins games that conflict with WBZ-FM's Patriots broadcasts, a function that subsequently moved to WZLX. WBZ also carried a Boston Celtics broadcast on January 11, 2014, due to conflicts with both a Patriots game on current Celtics flagship station WBZ-FM and a Bruins game on WZLX.) WBZ1030new

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. (Sirius XM), P.O.T.U.S. channel, taking over on May 16, 2011. The station added a monthly one-hour interview show hosted by Mathieu, ''WBZ Newswatch'', on January 26, 2012. Overnight host Steve LeVeille retired from WBZ on June 8, 2012; after a year of rotating guest hosts that included Jennifer Brien, Morgan White Jr., Bradley Jay, and Dean Johnson, Brien was named the new host on June 25, 2013. On October 3, 2013, the station announced it was canceling the ''Jen Brien Show'' with immediate effect. Bradley Jay then took over the overnight show, renamed ''Jay Talking''. WBZ, along with fellow CBS Radio all-news stations WINS in New York City, KYW in Philadelphia, and WDCH-FM, WNEW-FM in Washington, D.C., added an affiliation with Westwood One News in 2014. Jordan Rich ended his weekend talk show on July 3, 2016, but continues to do feature segments for the station. Joe Mathieu left WBZ on April 28, 2017; that August, the station announced Josh Binswanger, who hosted ''Kid Company'' on the station in the early 1990s and has also worked for WBZ-TV, as its new morning news anchor, while Mathieu joined WGBH (FM), WGBH (89.7 FM) as its morning anchor. 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.

2017–present; end of Westinghouse heritage and sale to iHeartMedia

On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom (which locally owned WEEI, WEEI-FM, WZRM, WKAF, WRKO and WKVB (FM), WAAF); the sale would be conducted using a Reverse Morris Trust so that it would be tax-free. While CBS shareholders retained a 72% ownership stake in the combined company, Entercom was the surviving entity, separating WBZ radio (both 1030 and FM 98.5) from WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV; for the first time since WBZ-TV's inception in 1948, WBZ radio and television would be under separate ownership. 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 (WWBX, 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). On November 1,

announced that they would acquire WBZ (AM), WZLX, WRKO and WKAF. To meet ownership limits set by the FCC, WKOX (AM), WKOX would be divested to the Ocean Stations Trust in preparation for a permanent buyer. The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17. iHeart then began operating WBZ, WKAF, and WZLX under a local marketing agreement. The sale of WBZ, WRKO, WZLX, and WKAF to iHeart was completed on December 19, 2017, ending WBZ's 96 years of lineage under the same ownership. As part of the sale, CBS Corporation entered into a long-term Brand licensing, license agreement with iHeartMedia and Beasley Broadcast Group for continued usage of the call sign on both WBZ and WBZ-FM; corporate successor Paramount Global currently holds the trademark for "WBZ" as a brand. On March 30, 2018, iHeartMedia announced that anchor Rod Fritz was let go. On August 25, 2018, after 70 years, WBZ left the Soldiers Field Road studios (which continue to house WBZ-TV) and moved to facilities on Cabot Road in Medford, putting it in the same building as iHeartMedia's other Boston stations. On January 15, 2020, as part of an iHeartMedia restructuring, WBZ laid off political commentator Jon Keller (who remains with WBZ-TV), morning news anchor Deb Lawler, overnight host Bradley Jay, and sports anchor Tom Cuddy.

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.

Awards

WBZ received the 2010 Marconi award in the legendary stations category from the National Association of Broadcasters. In 2014, WBZ, along with sister station at the time, WBZ-TV, received a Peabody Award for its coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. The station has won numerous Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in journalism. In 2017, awards included Overall Excellence, Best Newscast, Excellence in Social Media, and Excellence in Writing. In 2016, WBZ went on to win the National Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast.

Notable on-air staff

* Neil Chayet—''Looking at the Law'' * Larry Glick * Gary LaPierre *

* Jordan Rich * Charles Osgood—''The Osgood File'' * Jerry Williams

Notes and references

External links

*
FCC History Cards for WBZ
{{Authority control All-news radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1921 Radio stations in Boston, BZ (AM) Westinghouse Broadcasting IHeartMedia radio stations 1921 establishments in Massachusetts Clear-channel radio stations Radio stations licensed before 1923 and still broadcasting