WMJX (106.7 FM) – branded Magic 106.7 – is a commercial

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 ...

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 to Boston, Massachusetts. Owned by

Audacy, Inc. Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...

, the station serves

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern ar ...

and much of surrounding

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 ...

. The WMJX studios are located in Boston's

Allston–Brighton Allston–Brighton is a set of two interlocking neighborhoods, Allston and Brighton, both part of the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Geography Allston and Brighton's border runs along Everett Street in the north, south along Gordon Street, an ...

neighborhood, while the station transmitter resides on the

Prudential Tower The Prudential Tower, also known as the Prudential Building or, colloquially, The Pru,subscription required'The Pru' everyone calls it: a resigned shrug of a name, as flat and uninflected as the wan moue its pronunciation requires." is an Inter ...

Downtown Boston Downtown Boston is the central business district of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The city of Boston was founded in 1630. The largest of the city's commercial districts, Downtown is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters; ...

. Besides a standard

analog transmission Analog transmission is a transmission method of conveying information using a continuous signal which varies in amplitude, phase, or some other property in proportion to that information. It could be the transfer of an analog signal, using an ana ...

, WMJX broadcasts over two

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 ...

channels, and is available online via

Audacy Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio platform owned by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a music recommender system and is the national um ...

History

Previous FM installation

The first WBZ-FM had its origins in a

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

held by

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 ...

to operate at 42.6

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 facility signed on as W1XK on November 7, 1940, from the Hull transmitter site of sister station WBZ. Westinghouse soon sought a commercial FM license, and on February 19, 1941, was granted a construction permit for W67B on 46.7, W1XK left the air for good on December 28, 1941, and W67B signed on March 29, 1942. The call letters became WBZ-FM on November 2, 1943. Initially, W67B/WBZ-FM was largely separately-programmed, though in later years it became a simulcast of its AM sister station. After 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) moved the FM band to 88–106 MHz (later expanded to 108), WBZ-FM began to operate on 100.7 MHz on January 1, 1946 (while still operating on 46.7 as well). The frequency again changed to 92.9 MHz on August 10, 1947 (the 100.7 frequency was reoccupied by WCOP-FM, now WZLX, in 1948). WBZ-FM's transmitter moved to the

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 ...

(channel 4) tower at the stations' new studios in the Allston-Brighton portion of Boston in 1948, with 92.9 operations from Hull ceasing on July 23, 1948, and the 46.7 operation shutting down on November 21, 1948. After the WBZ-TV tower was destroyed by

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 ...

on August 31, 1954, WBZ-FM's operations were discontinued and the license surrendered to the FCC, which deleted it and a Springfield sister station, WBZA-FM (97.1), on November 22, 1954. (The 92.9 frequency has been occupied by

WBOS WBOS (92.9 MHz, "Rock 92-9") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Brookline, Massachusetts, and serving Greater Boston. WBOS is owned and operated by Beasley Broadcast Group. The studios and offices are in Waltham. WBOS airs a classic ...

since 1960.)

WBZ-FM (1957–1981)

After securing a new license for operation on 106.7 MHz, Westinghouse signed on a second WBZ-FM on December 15, 1957. The station initially operated only from 5:00 p.m. to midnight with a

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 ...

format branded "Westinghouse Fine Music in Boston"; in 1959, WBZ-FM expanded its operating hours by simulcasting the AM sister station during periods in which the station had signed off. After live programming was replaced with tapes of classical music in January 1960, WBZ-FM's separate programming was expanded, with the simulcast continuing in mornings. On December 31, 1971, WBZ-FM became a

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

station as "Rockin' Stereo 106.7" programming mostly

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 ...

with some album cuts. Although automated, it featured voice-tracked announcing from Clark Smidt (who also programmed the station) and Ken Shelton. For a time in the mid-1970s, WBZ-FM was Boston's second most popular top 40 station, only trailing

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 ...

. In 1975, both Smidt and Shelton left to join WCOZ, which was changing formats from

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...

album-oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. Album-oriente ...

. By 1979, WBZ-FM had drifted into an automated album-oriented rock format itself, which remained in place through 1981. As a rock station, WBZ-FM also simulcast the hourly newscasts from the AM side, the commercial spots on which were the only commercials heard on the FM side.

Switch to Magic

In June 1981,

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 ...

announced the sale of WBZ-FM 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 ...

for $5 million, becoming that company's first Boston station. The divestiture came as Group W sought to realign its FM station holdings, with a focus on new markets. Concurrently with the sale, Westinghouse applied to change the station to WMJX, a

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 ...

similar to existing Greater Media properties

WMGK WMGK (102.9 FM, "102.9 MGK") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Beasley Broadcast Group and broadcasts a classic rock radio format. The broadcast tower used by the station ...

in Philadelphia and

WMJC WMJC (91.9 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Christian format as an affiliate of the Strong Tower Radio. WMJC is licensed to Richland, Michigan, United States. WMJC is simulcast on a translator in Kalamazoo, 97.3 W247AM. History The stati ...

in Detroit; the new call sign took effect on August 17, while still under Westinghouse ownership. The sale was completed on January 1, 1982. Under the new ownership, WMJX signed off for a couple of weeks at the very end of 1981. During this silent period, Greater Media installed a new transmitter and increased the height of the antenna on the WBZ-TV tower. A few years later, the transmission equipment was relocated to the Prudential Tower, improving the station's signal in Downtown Boston. As late as the week of WMJX's relaunch, ''

Radio & Records ''Radio & Records'' (''R&R'') was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister ...

'' reported that Greater Media was considering two formats for the station:

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

, or bringing its "Magic"

format to Boston. Ultimately, on January 6, 1982, "Magic 106.7" signed on at 6p.m., with program director Jack Casey delivering the legal ID: "This is WMJX, Boston" followed by a short welcome message from general manager Bill Campbell. The station debuted a

soft 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, quiet sto ...

format pioneered by Greater Media at WMGK in Philadelphia, and also heard on

WMGQ WMGQ (98.3 MHz Magic 98.3) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to New Brunswick and serving Central Jersey (Middlesex, Union and Somerset Counties). It is owned by the Beasley Broadcast Group, along with sister station WCTC 1450 AM. ...

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Do You Believe in Magic" by

The Lovin' Spoonful The Lovin' Spoonful is an American rock band popular during the mid- to late-1960s. Founded in New York City in 1965 by lead singer/songwriter John Sebastian and guitarist Zal Yanovsky, the band is widely known for a number of hits, including ...

. The initial air staff consisted of (Bob) Cohen and (Lori) Kelman in the Morning; Doug Collins; Ed Brand; David Allan Boucher; and Nancy Quill. Due in part to the "get-acquainted-free offer" of commercial-free programming which "Magic" aired during its first six months of operation, the station quickly became the highest-rated adult contemporary station in Boston, reaching a 5.3 share of 12+ (according to Arbitron) listeners within its first year. Two of the personalities on "Magic", Nancy Quill and David Allan Boucher, had been on the station since its inception; for many years, Quill was heard on middays, while Boucher hosts the popular nighttime show ''Bedtime Magic'', voice-tracked on various stations around the country. (Nancy Quill's last show on WMJX was April 3, 2020; she was let go in light of the market downturn as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

.) Boucher announced his retirement on June 8, 2022. WMJX has had only four program directors during its entire run; Jack Casey was the original program director from 1981 to 1986, followed by Phil Redo. Don Kelley served as the program director from October 1989 to February 2012. Cadillac Jack was named program director in 2013. WMJX received a "Radio Active" Grammy Award in 1998 for programming excellence. In 2007, the station was nominated for the "Adult Contemporary Station of the Year" award for the top 25

radio market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

s by ''Radio & Records'' magazine; other nominees included

KOST KOST (103.5 FM) is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts an AC radio format, switching to Christmas music for much of November and December. Its studios are co-located with its sister stati ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

WALK-FM WALK-FM (97.5 FM) is a hot adult contemporary radio station licensed to Patchogue, New York, and serving Long Island. The station is owned by Connoisseur Media, with studios and offices located at Airport Plaza in Farmingdale, New York and its t ...

in Patchogue, New York,

WLTW WLTW (106.7 FM) is an adult contemporary radio station licensed to New York City and serving the New York metropolitan area. WLTW is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neighborhood of ...

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 ...

WBEB WBEB (101.1 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station broadcasts an adult contemporary format, switching to Christmas music for part of November and December. The broadca ...

in Philadelphia, and

KEZK-FM KEZK-FM (102.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to St. Louis, Missouri. It broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. From mid-November through the Christmas holiday, KEZK switches to an all-Christma ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. In 2010, the station received the Marconi Award from the National Association of Broadcasters in the AC Station category. In 2008, WMJX ran a contest titled ''Cool, Hot or Green''. The prize was advertised as a new car, a choice of a “cool” Mercedes-Benz C-series sedan, a “hot” Audi TT convertible or a “green”

Toyota Prius The is a car built by Toyota which has a Hybrid vehicle drivetrain, hybrid drivetrain, combining an internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Initially offered as a four-door Sedan (automobile), sedan, it has been produced only as ...

. A complaint was filed when it was learned that the prize was a two-year lease on one of the three cars, and would only be awarded if the winner qualified for the lease. In response the

(FCC) issued a $4,000 fine to Greater Media, the station's owners. WMJX frequently edited the songs they play to make them fit the "soft rock" format. The change in management in 2013, marked the end of the policy of "home grown" edits, and most (if not all) of these songs were replaced with the full versions that were supplied by the record companies.

Ownership changes

On July 19, 2016,

Beasley Media Group Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc., based in Naples, Florida, is an owner/operator of radio stations in the United States. , the company owned 63 stations under the Beasley Media Group name. History The company was founded in 1961 by George G. Beasl ...

announced it would acquire Greater Media and its 21 stations (including WMJX) for $240 million. The FCC approved the sale on October 6, 2016, and the sale closed on October 31, 2016. On November 1, 2017, Beasley announced that it would swap WMJX to

Entercom Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...

, in exchange for WBZ-FM, making it a sister station to longtime competitor WBMX (now

WWBX WWBX (104.1 FM, ''Mix 104.1'') is a radio station with a hot adult contemporary format in Boston, Massachusetts. The format started at 98.5 FM on February 9, 1991, and moved to 104.1 FM, replacing WBCN on August 12, 2009, to allow for the ...

), which broadcasts a

hot AC 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, quiet s ...

format. The move comes due to the merger of

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 ...

and Entercom, with both companies needing to divest stations to different owners to meet ownership limits and revenue concentration limits set by the

(FCC) and the

Department of Justice 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 ...

. The swap was completed on December 20, 2017.

Christmas music

For much of the early 2000s (except for 2005), WMJX was one of the very few AC stations not to broadcast wall-to-wall

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 ...

during the weeks leading up to Christmas. In

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, WMJX joined the bandwagon and broadcast an all-Christmas format from the day after Thanksgiving through December 25, 2005. It did not do so again until 2012 (choosing to change to Christmas music on December 5, 2012), although then-sister station

WROR-FM WROR-FM (105.7 FM) – branded as 105.7 WROR – is a commercial classic hits radio station licensed to Framingham, Massachusetts. Owned by the Beasley Broadcast Group, the station serves Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England, incl ...

broadcast an all-Christmas format during the holidays from 2007 to

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. However, during a 24-hour period from 6p.m. Christmas Eve to 6p.m. Christmas Day, WMJX presents a commercial free program called ''The Magic Of Christmas''. Since 2013, WMJX flips to Christmas music on the Friday before

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

. For the 2020 holiday season, WMJX flipped to Christmas music approximately two weeks before Thanksgiving, on November 13, most likely in light of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and many crises that have occurred in the year 2020.

WMJX-HD2

In early 2006, WMJX launched its digital HD2 subchannel with a

smooth jazz Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. History Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...

format, a mix of traditional and contemporary jazz, fusion and new adult contemporary music. In November 2014, WMJX-HD2 switched to all-

. During the period between mid-November and December 25 when the main channel is playing Christmas music, the HD2 channel carries the primary adult contemporary format.

References in popular culture

Experimental electronic artist

Oneohtrix Point Never Daniel Lopatin (born July 25, 1982), best known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is an American experimental electronic music producer, composer, singer and songwriter. His music has experimented with tropes from various music genres and eras, s ...

, who hails from Winthrop, takes his name from a play on the station's frequency number, 106.7. In 2020, Oneohtrix Point Never released "Magic Oneohtrix Point Never", paying more homage to the station's brand.

References

External links

* {{Entercom MJX Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1957 1957 establishments in Massachusetts Audacy, Inc. radio stations