WRKO (680 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by iHeartMedia, WRKO is a Class B AM station that provides secondary coverage to portions of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine during the day, but is highly directional at night to protect a number of clear-channel stations on adjacent frequencies. WRKO serves as the Boston affiliate for 24/7 News, Coast to Coast AM and This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal; syndicated personalities Joe Pags, John Batchelor and Bill Cunningham; the flagship station of The Howie Carr Show, and the home of radio personality Jeff Kuhner. The WRKO studios are located in the Boston suburb of Medford, while the station transmitter resides in nearby Burlington. Besides its main analog transmission, WRKO simulcasts over the HD2 subchannel of sister station WZLX, and streams online via iHeartRadio.
WRKO is one of three AM stations owned by iHeartMedia in the Boston market that features a spoken word format; WBZ is all news during the day and overnight, with local talk in the evening, while WXKS carries a nationally syndicated conservative talk line up.
The 680 kHz facility went on the air from Lawrence in 1937 as WLAW, the radio station of the Lawrence Daily Eagle and Evening Tribune. The station moved its transmitter from Andover to Burlington in 1947, and began turning its focus to Boston. WLAW was acquired by General Teleradio in 1953 to serve as an upgraded facility for WNAC, replacing 1260 AM; it formally moved from Lawrence to Boston in 1957. The station became WRKO in 1967, in connection to a format change to top 40; after an evolution to adult contemporary music, it would move to a talk format in 1981. Following regulatory issues involving parent company Gencorp, in 1988 RKO General sold WRKO to Steve Dodge's Atlantic Ventures, which became American Radio Systems (ARS) in 1993. After ARS was purchased by the parent company of CBS Radio in 1998, WRKO was spun off to Entercom; when Entercom acquired CBS Radio in 2017, the station was sold to iHeartMedia.
History WLAW (1937–1953)
The station first went on the air as WLAW on December 19, 1937, at 680 on the AM dial. The station was licensed to Lawrence, Massachusetts, some north of Boston; its transmitter was in nearby Andover. It was owned and operated by Hildreth and Rogers, publishers of the Lawrence Daily Eagle and Evening Tribune."1000 New Watts." Broadcasting Magazine, December 15, 1937, p. 76. Initially a 1,000-watt daytime-only station, WLAW would boost its power to 5,000 watts in 1940; the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also granted the station authority to operate at night, using a directional antenna to protect the signals of KPO in San Francisco, which had been the dominant station on the clear channel of 680kHz, and WPTF in Raleigh, North Carolina, which had also been granted nighttime service on the channel.
In 1945, WLAW applied to boost its power to 50,000 watts, and relocate its transmitter to Burlington; the station would make this upgrade in 1947. In conjunction with the move, WLAW opened a Boston studio on Tremont Street in the Theater District;"WLAW Studios." Broadcasting Magazine, June 11, 1951, p. 39. it also maintained a third studio in Lowell. The owners also acquired an FM station: WLAW-FM 93.7 was officially dedicated on November 10, 1947. In mid-1951, WLAW and WLAW-FM moved to new studios at the Hotel Bradford in Boston."Modification of License." Broadcasting Magazine, July 2, 1951, p. 81.
WNAC (1953–1967)
In May 1953, General Teleradio, General Tire's broadcasting division and owner of WNAC (1260 AM), bought WLAW and WLAW-FM from Hildreth and Rogers for $475,000; and concurrently sold WNAC to Vic Diehm and Associates for $125,000. WLAW's availability was seen as a way to "upgrade" the signal for WNAC; in 1947, the FCC denied a request to allow WNAC (1260 AM) to move to 1200 kHz and boost its power, using a directional 50,000-watt transmitter. On June 17, 1953, General Teleradio changed WLAW's call letters to WNAC, moved the old 1260 AM format to 680 AM, and reassigned on- and off-air personnel. In effect, this new WNAC (680 AM) licensed to Lawrence became the successor to WNAC (1260 AM) licensed to Boston. For this reason, this transaction is seen as WNAC "moving" from 1260 AM to 680 AM.
Vic Diehm and Associates subsequently changed 1260 AM's calls to WVDA and launched a new format on that station using WLAW's former studios. WLAW-FM had its license surrendered, as WNAC-FM 98.5 was retained by General Teleradio; a separate station on 93.7 FM also licensed to Lawrence signed on in 1960 as WGHJ; now known as WEEI-FM. While the new WNAC was, for all intents and purposes, a Boston station, its city of license remained in Lawrence until July 25, 1957; at least until 1962, the legal station identification was "WNAC Boston-Lawrence".
For a brief time in 1956 and 1957, WNAC was affiliated with both the Mutual Broadcasting System and the NBC Radio Network after WBZ dropped NBC programming. WNAC remained a Mutual affiliate until the network, of which General Tire (by then doing business as RKO Teleradio Pictures) was a part-owner, was sold in July 1957."Sale of Mutual Expected Today; Radio Network Is Going to Group From West Coast," The New York Times, July 17, 1957. WNAC also lost the NBC Radio affiliation to WEZE (1260 AM) (the former WVDA) in 1957. By December 1959, RKO Teleradio adopted the RKO General banner.
WNAC-FM changed call letters to WRKO-FM on May 10, 1957, but retained its simulcast of WNAC's programming until 1963, when separate programming was inaugurated for half of the broadcast day.
WNAC, along with WRKO-FM and WNAC-TV (channel 7), were nearly sold by RKO General to NBC as part of a multi-city transaction and station trade between the two companies announced in March 1960."NBC swap with RKO taking shape." Broadcasting, January 25, 1960, pg. 52."NBC–RKO General trades." Broadcasting, March 21, 1960, pg. 52. This arrangement wound up under review at both the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice due to issues involving NBC's previous exchange of assets with Westinghouse Broadcasting in Cleveland and Philadelphia. Ultimately, the RKO-NBC transaction never materialized."Philadelphia circle is complete," and "Nine-year history of that trade in Philadelphia." Broadcasting, August 3, 1964, pp. 23-25.
Top 40 era On October 12, 1966, WRKO-FM dropped its simulcast of WNAC outside of overnights and morning drive, and introduced an automated top 40 format. Owing to WRKO-FM's relative success with that format, RKO General changed WNAC's call sign to WRKO on March 3, 1967, and the format also switched to Top 40;Anthony LaCamera. "Big Shake-Up Due on WNAC." Boston Record-American, February 6, 1967, p. 26. both stations would still simulcast each other for 11 hours a day. With this move, the Yankee Network, of which WNAC and predecessor WNAC (1260 AM) had been the flagship station of since 1929, ceased operations.Joseph T. Sullivan. "Yankee Network Soon to be Dissolved." Boston Herald, January 31, 1967, p. 35.
The move to a Top 40 format in March 1967 was an enormous success. For the next decade, WRKO was one of Boston's top-rated radio stations, and absolutely dominant among its target audience of listeners in the 18-34 demographic. Known to its listeners as "The Big 68", WRKO was home to such well-known personalities as longtime morning man Dale Dorman, Chuck Knapp, Joel Cash, Johnny Dark, J. J. Wright, J. J. Jeffrey, Harry Nelson (afternoon drive and later PD of WRKO in 1978), Shadoe Stevens, Frank Kingston Smith (who was known as "Bobby Mitchell"), Steve Anthony and many others. Mel Phillips, who replaced Bob Henabery as program director, served in that position from 1967 to 1972 before being replaced by Scotty Brink.
WRKO in 1967 even took a dig at market leader WBZ, a Westinghouse Broadcasting station that played popular music. In advance of WRKO's format change to Top 40, WBZ tried to get in front of WRKO by adopting the slogan "Boss Radio" (used on famous RKO General top 40 station KHJ in Los Angeles). WRKO, in response, was rumored to have had their DJs reading a liner that said "WRKO, putting the Boss in the Restinghouse." WRKO did ultimately drive WBZ out of the top 40 format.
WRKO's other main competitor was WMEX, which was Boston's original Top 40 station, starting the format in 1957. Even though WMEX's city ratings were good, it had a highly directional signal and did not effectively reach many of the suburbs, especially at night. WRKO (and the growing popularity of FM rock stations) eventually drove WMEX to a format change in 1975, with WRKO remaining Boston's sole AM Top 40 station. In May 1975, WRKO's airborne traffic reporter, "The Red Baron" (Rick Blumberg), joined the morning team with Dale Dorman and Bill Rossi. The Red Baron was both the pilot and traffic reporter, flying at 1000 feet over Boston, in a fixed wing aircraft. 1975 and 1976 were the only years that WRKO had an aircraft in the sky.
WRKO was propelled in its success by the introduction of the so-called Drake format originated by radio programmer Bill Drake. In contrast to other Top 40 formats at the time, it featured a limited playlist of only the top hits, with strict minimal talk and a more music approach presented in a straightforward manner. This format was adopted by other stations across the country, including RKO General stations KHJ in Los Angeles, WHBQ in Memphis and WOR-FM in New York. Virtually any station using the Drake sound rose to the top of its market.
By the end of the 1970s, however, rock and Top 40 radio had begun to migrate from AM to FM. In a three-year period from 1978 to 1981, WRKO lost a chunk of its audience. The station tried to compete with the surge in FM listening, first with a short-lived focus on album cuts and later by switching to more of an adult contemporary music format, featuring a morning program with market legend Norm Nathan. A switch to a country music format was also reportedly briefly considered. In 1980, WRKO began running talk programming during evening hours. On September 27, 1981, the station switched to an all-talk format; at 6:00 p.m. on that date, Justin Clark played the last song, "American Pie" by Don McLean.
Talk era
After switching to the talk radio format, Norm Nathan was retained as morning host; the initial lineup also included Dick Syatt in late mornings, Dr. Harry Sobel in middays, Jerry Williams in afternoon drive, and Guy Mainella and David Brudnoy in evenings. As it moved to more issue-oriented talk, some of the most prominent talk radio hosts in the country broadcast on WRKO, such as Gene Burns, the aforementioned Williams, Ted O'Brien, and Paul Parent.
But throughout the 1980s, WRKO's parent company, General Tire and Rubber, later renamed Gencorp, was under multiple federal investigations and ultimately under an FCC investigation due to its "lack of candor" for failing to disclose unlawful operations by General Tire. In the midst of the investigation into its parent company's problems, RKO General found itself under investigation for reciprocal trade practices involving several of its properties, and later for double billing by a radio network it organized, the RKO Radio Network. The FCC license hearings culminated in the loss of the company's license to operate WNAC-TV; RKO General sold the station assets to New England Television Corporation, who was awarded a license for a replacement station. WNAC-TV signed off permanently on May 21, 1982, with WNEV-TV (now WHDH-TV) taking its place the next morning.