WBZ (1030 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station, licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, and owned and operated by iHeartMedia."iHeart, Beasley, Bonneville Make Gains In Entercom-CBS Deal", November 1, 2017 (insideradio.com) Its studios and offices are located on Cabot Road in the Boston suburb of Medford.
WBZ's format features all-news programming most of the day and overnight, and talk radio programming in the evening. The station's programming is also carried on the second HD Radio channel of co-owned WXKS-FM. WBZ is the designated Primary Entry Point (PEP) for the Emergency Alert System (EAS) in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
WBZ is a clear-channel station (officially classified as Class A), with a transmitter power output of 50,000 watts, and employing a directional antenna that sends a majority of its signal westward. Its two-tower array and transmitter site are in Hull, Massachusetts. WBZ can be heard during daylight hours throughout much of New England. Its nighttime signal covers at least 38 American states and much of Eastern Canada.
WBZ was granted its first license by the United States Department of Commerce on September 15, 1921, and was originally located in Springfield, Massachusetts, before moving to Boston in 1931. It is the oldest broadcasting station in New England, and one of the oldest in the United States. It was founded, and owned for most of its existence, by Westinghouse Broadcasting and its successor CBS Radio.
Programming WBZ has long been one of the highest-rated stations in the Boston area. It is an affiliate of ABC News Radio, NBC News Radio, and AP Radio for national and international news as well as some features. 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, which it does along with TV station WBZ-TV.
WBZ runs an all-news format during the day and overnight. In the evening, it airs talk programming. Radio personality Dan Rea hosts an interview and call-in show on weeknights, with other hosts on weekend evenings. The station had been the home of talk host David Brudnoy for 18 years, until the day before his death in 2004. Other past personalities included talk show host Bob Kennedy, poet/radio host Dick Summer, and disc jockeys Bruce Bradley, Jeff Kaye, and Ron Landry. WBZ also featured shows from Larry Justice, jazz DJ-turned-talkmaster Norm Nathan, late-night talker and humorist Larry Glick, and morning hosts Carl DeSuze, Tom Bergeron, and Dave Maynard. For decades, WBZ was the radio home of Boston meteorologist Don Kent.
History In November 1920, the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company established its first broadcasting station, KDKA, located in its plant in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 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 (now WABC in New York City), and KYW, originally in Chicago, and now in Philadelphia.
1921–1931: Springfield Westinghouse's application included the request "Please assign call letters KDKS if possible". However, the requested call sign was assigned to a ship named Salvor,"New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, December 1, 1920, page 2. so the station's first license, issued September 15, 1921, was randomly assigned the call letters WBZ.First WBZ license (issued September 15, 1921) Limited Commercial license, serial #224, issued to the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in Springfield, Massachusetts for a three month period. A separate "Experimental" license with the call sign 1XAE was issued at the same time. WBZ initially transmitted on a wavelength of 375 meters (800 kHz),"Radio Phone Program", Fall River (Massachusetts) Evening News, November 22, 1921, page 7."With The Radiophone Folks", QST, January 1922, page 29. 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 originating from the Eastern States Exposition 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,"Which is America's Oldest Broadcasting Station?" by Robert D Heinl, Heinl Radio Business Letter, October 19, 1934, pages 6-8. and in 1923 the Department of Commerce, referring to WBZ, stated that "The first broadcasting license was issued in September, 1921"."Bureau of Navigation: Radio Communication", Report of the Secretary of Commerce, July 1, 1923, page 221. However, WBZ's priority is not widely recognized,"Sec. 122. Westinghouse Opens Station WBZ", History of Radio to 1926 by Gleason L. Archer, 1938, pages 215–216. when compared to other stations with earlier heritages, in particular KDKA, WWJ in Detroit, and KQW in San Jose, California (now KCBS in San Francisco).
By early 1922, WBZ's studios were set up at the luxurious Hotel Kimball 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 hockey, Boston Braves baseball, and Harvard Crimson football. 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."Hockey Contests to be Broadcast", Washington (DC) Evening Star, December 3, 1924, p. 35. Its broadcast of the Boston Braves' home opener on April 14, 1925, made WBZ the first Boston station to broadcast a local major league baseball game;"WBZ to Broadcast Baseball Opener," Boston Herald, April 14, 1925: 7. the announcer was comedian (and baseball fan) Joe E. Brown."Through the Static," New Britain (Connecticut) Daily Herald, April 15, 1925, p. 18.
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 (now the Boston Park Plaza) 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's (FRC) General Order 40, WBZ and WBZA were assigned exclusive national use of a "clear channel" frequency, 990 kHz.
Amidst the technical changes, WBZ began sharing its programs by network with other radio stations. By 1925, it often shared programs with WJZ in New York City (which was transferred from Westinghouse to the Radio Corporation of America in May 1923), and a WBZ program commemorating the 150th anniversary of Paul Revere's "Midnight Ride" was also fed to WRC in Washington, D.C., and WGY in Schenectady, New York. This paved the way for the station to become a charter affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) on November 15, 1926, carrying the WJZ-originated NBC Blue Network beginning on January 1, 1927. With this change the station 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 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,Walter Gordon. "Behind the Scenes with the WBZ Players." Springfield (MA) Republican, July 1, 1928, p. 6C. 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. The site was chosen to provide service not only to Boston but also to Worcester and Providence, Rhode Island. 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 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.