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[48] http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/1912 The Boston Radio Dial
[48] http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/1912 The Boston Radio Dial

[49] MySpace WFTQ tribute page
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=213096822

Revision as of 18:54, 24 March 2008

WFTQ, currently WVEI, is an AM radio station in Worcester, Massachusetts. It operates at 1440 kHz with 5,000 watts. Its antenna tower is located at Latitude 42.29028 and Longitude -71.84639 [1]

History

The station came on the air in October 1926 as WAGS with 5 Watts on 1200 kHz. and was licensed to Somerville outside of Boston. Its call letters stood for "Willow Avenue Garage Station." During September-October 1927, the station moved to Lexington, Massachusetts and it returned to the air on October 27th 1927 as WLEX at 1390 kHz with 50 watts. It was located in the home of part-owner Carl Wheeler. The other owner was Jesse Smith Dodge. The station time-shared with WMAF [2] [3] [4] On November 11th 1928 WLEX moved to 1420 kHz. with 100 watts time-sharing with WSSH. On March 20th 1930 the station moved to 1410 kHz and was still time-share [3].

On April 20th 1931 the station was sold to John Shephard III of Shephard Stores and the station was changed to WAAB in Boston. WAAB moved into the same studios as WNAC. These were new studios at the Hotel Buckminster at Kenmore Square. By 1938 WAAB studios were located at 21 Brookline Avenue [5]

On January 26th 1937 the ownership of WAAB and WNAC (now WRKO) was consolidated under the Yankee Network, Inc. As a result of the NARBA frequency shift, WAAB moved to 1440 kHz on March 29th 1941. [6] [2] [3] In late 1942 Shephard officially moved WAAB to Worcester, Massachusetts to avoid anti-duopoly rules [3] [4]. Despite this, ownership of the two stations was broken-apart in 1943. [7] After several decades as WAAB, it began an FM sister station WAAB-FM which later became WAAF.[6] As early as 1948, the station was broadcasting with 5,000 watts. [8]

In the 1950s and 1960s "14-40 WAAB" was a Top-40 radio station. In 1965, the "Fun-in-the-Sun Guys" were Bill Garcia, Chuck Spencer, Don Stevens and Bob Carrigan [9] [10] Morning man Steven Capen recalls the station then and how Atlantic Records purchased it and changed things around in 1967:

I was doing the morning show at WAAB in Worcester, my very first stint in rock & roll radio and in a metropolitan market. My first air name, in fact, Stephen Kane. A lot of firsts. Best of all I was given plenty of latitude. At this point I was so engrossed in my new work I was completely oblivious to the upheaval going on across the country and indeed in radio. A progressive music show — Cream, The Doors, The Mothers of Invention — premiered at night hosted by Jeff Starr while we continued our Ron Landryesque comedy in the A.M. It seems that just like almost all of my gigs the good times weren't to last. Atlantic Records bought the station, and you'd think that would be a good thing, but in came the consultants from New York and Washington, the air sound was tightened beyond belief, catchy new jingles added, and it wasn't long before their newly-installed PD, Sebastian Tripp, gave me my walking papers. [11]

In the early 1970s, WAAB began to shift to a talk format. A local sports talk show, "Sportsbeat", was added in the evening with former Boston Bruins TV voice, Don Earle. Bob Merman, who later died of lung cancer and did many anti-smoking ads, was the political talk show host following Don Earle's Sportsbeat. Bob Merman was later replaced by the Wizard of Waab, "Ron Parshley", a former male witch who did many of his shows on the occult. Ron past away just a few years ago.

About 1972 or 73, WAAB switched to a full-time news/talk format with the All News Morning Journal and the All-News Afternoon Journal during drive times. Talk show hosts included WSB's Bob Coxe, Kurt Oden (who was an aide to Buddy Ciani), Paul Stanford (now running a gift shop in Naples), Bob Morgan on Sports, Ron Parshley, Alan Michael Rowey, Skip Quillia with Tests and Trivia, Dick Steven's Feminine Forum, Jeff Katz, John Gallager (formerly of Westwood Family Dental and East/West mortgage), Steve Booth (daytime talk show producer), Dave Houle (evening talk show producer, and Mike Moore. In the newsroom were Forest Sawyer (later to work for CBS, ABC, and CNBC), Bob Parlante (later to work for WHDH and WSB), Aviva Diamond (later to work for ABC), John Sterns, Dave Brown, and Geoff Metcalfe.

In 1976, WAAB became WNCR (Worcester's News Center). The emphasis went to news with all staff being news staff and beautiful music was automated during non-drive times. The staff included Bob McMahon (now WBZ), Tom Hughes (later working for several Atlanta stations), Larry Cohen, Sarah McGaw, Bob Maxon, Steve D'agostino (who continued at WAAB and then the Boston Business Journal), Norm MacDonald (formerly of Channel 4) on Weather, and Greg Gilmartin (later at WTIC) on Sports.

The station owner about this time was Bob Williams.[12] By December 1977, WNCR changed call letters to WFTQ and was known as "Fourteen Q" (14Q).[6] [2] [13] [47] Worcester's 14Q Was A Full-Service A/C Station Playing A Mix Of Music From The 60's, 70's And 80's And Weather Every 20 Minutes [49].

In March 1981 the Katz Agency purchased WFTQ and WAAF from Park City Communications. [14] In 1986 the Katz Agency sold all its radio stations [15] to NewCity Communications. This new company was organized at the time by members of Katz management to purchase all of Katz radio holdings, under its subsidiary Katz Broadcasting.[16]

During the eighties WFTQ was known as "Worcester's Weather Station".[17] As early as 1985, WFTQ was broadcasting in stereo using the 40 kHz Kahn system [18]

During the summer of 1989 NewCity Communications, Inc. sold WFTQ and WAAF to Zapis Communications in exchange for Atlanta station WEKS-FM.[19] [20] WFTQ then underwent restructuring Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

WFTQ's notable personalities included J. Bruce, Harry Jacobs, Lorraine Leduc, Marc Laurence, Dave Houle, Karen Williams, Cliff Blake, David Bernstein, Donna Halper, Don Kelley, and Steve Leveille.[6] WFTQ had massive lay-offs, however, and began simulcasting WAAF-FM on January 15th 1991. [21]

Over the summer of 1991, General Manager John Sutherland cited 18 months of "substantial losses" due to poor advertising sales.[22] On September 3rd 1991 WFTQ changed its call letters to WVEI and began simulcasting WEEI (590 Boston), a sports-talk station.[6] [22].

In 1994 WVEI changed calls to WWTM[7] and was known as "Worcester's Team." It briefly had a local sports format.[6] At the time, station Chief Engineer Eric Fitch wrote, "We have just recently changed our call sign from WVEI to WWTM, effective October 1, 1994. Prior to that we simulcast WEEI from Boston. With their move to the old WHDH frequency of 850 kHz, we found we would be better off programming the station ourselves with IMUS in the Morning, The Fabulous Sports Babe Mid days, Kiley and the Couch 2P to 6P, Dan Miller 6P to 10P and Ron Barr with sports By-Line USA overnight. We also feature Holy Cross Football and Basketball, Giants Football, Bruins Hockey (when they actually play a game), and selected games from the Mutual network." [47]

On July 31st 1996, Zapis Communications announced it was selling both WWTM and WAAF-FM to American Radio Systems (ARS) for $24.8 million.[23]

On August 13th 1998 David Field's Entercom purchased both stations for $65 million from CBS as part of an anti-trust settlement of its purchase of ARS.[24]

In late 2000, Entercom closed down local operations at partial Worcester simulcast WWTM, returning that station to a full WEEI simulcast and the WVEI calls it had used while simulcasting the old WEEI 590 kHz.

WEEI's network of relay stations grew again in 2006, when the former WBEC-FM (105.5 MHz Pittsfield) was relicensed to Easthampton, in the Springfield market, and was sold to Entercom to become WVEI-FM.

WAAB Personnel Highlights

Roy Harlow, Program Director 1937 [5]

Gerry Harrison, Publicity Director 1937 [5]

Irving B. Robinson, Chief Engineer 1937 [5]

Dick Partridge 1950s – 1960s (exact dates unknown) [25]

Neil Scott 1964 [25]

Steve Booth, producer 1972-1975

Dave Houle, producer 1973-1975

Bill Garcia, DJ 1965 - 1968 [25] [9]

Chuck Spencer, DJ 1965 [9]

Don Stevens, DJ 1965 [9]

Bob Carrigan, DJ 1965 [9]

Steven Capen A.K.A. Stephen Kane, Mornings, Music Director 1966 - 67 [26] [27]

Jeffrey Starr, DJ 1967 [28]

Sebastian Tripp, Program Director 1967 [11]

Sean Michael Devlin 1968 [25]

Rod Ewing, DJ 1969 (from WFEA) [29]

John Gallagher 1972 [25]

Geoff Metcalf 1974 [25]

Bill Shupert 1974 [25]

Kurt Oden 1976 [25]

WFTQ Personnel Highlights

Richard A. Reis, General Manager 1981, 1983 - 1989 [30]

John A. Sutherland, General Manager, Summer 1989 [19]

Steve A. Marx, Vice-President & General Manager "for seven years" [31]

Don Kelley, Program Director 1984 [6] [25]

Ron Valeri, Program Director 1991 [22]

Steve LeVeille, Mid-Day Newscaster 1986, News Director 1987, Operations Manager (Program Director) 1989, Morning Show 1990 - 1991 [6] [32] [33]

Bruce Feniger, Account Executive 1984 [34]

Donna Halper, DJ 1981 [6] [25].

Chris Tracy, DJ 1981. [25]

Mark Laurence, DJ, Music Director 1981-1991

J.Bruce, DJ - 1983-1990

Dave Houle, p/t & swing shift DJ - 1979-1987

Lorraine LeDuc, DJ - 1983 - 1990

Harry Jacobs, DJ 1985-1987

Erica Fairbanks, DJ 1980s [35]

Mark Veau, DJ 1986 [36]

Steve D'Agostino, News Reporter - Democratic National Convention 1980 [37]

Bill Downs, on-air personality [38]

Joe Biedrzycki, on-air personality [39]

Chuck Perks, on-air personality [40]

Gary Nolin, DJ, Late 70's-Early 80's

Mike Finneigan, DJ, 1983 - 1987

Dave Taylor, DJ, 1983 - 1986, Program Director 1988

David Gablaskis, host of "First Amendment" Sunday morning community affairs program, 1987 [41]

Neil Sullivan [42]

Steven Craig [43]

Bill Robert, DJ, Producer, Public Service Director, 1989-1991 [44]

WWTM Personnel Highlights

Chuck Perks, Director Programming & Production [40]

Network and sports game broadcasts history

John Shephard's Yankee Network January 20th 1931 WLEX [4]

Mutual's Boston affiliate 1936 [5]

Shephard's Yankee and Colonial Networks 1937 [5]

Father Charles Coughlin's broadcasts carried on WAAB in 1938 [45]

Red Sox games 1939-42 WAAB AM [46]

Red Sox games 1995-2006 WEEI AM (WVEI simulcast) [46]

WVEI 1440 Worcester

1980 aircheck of WFTQ and studios on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r6IW4fD8Bs

MySpace WFTQ tribute page http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=213096822

References

  1. ^ SatelliteViews
  2. ^ a b c FYBush
  3. ^ a b c d Boston Radio
  4. ^ a b c Old Radio, Shepard.
  5. ^ a b c d e f OldRadio, Bos1.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Boston Radio Gallery.
  7. ^ a b Boston Radio
  8. ^ Jeff.
  9. ^ a b c d e Mark. July 12th 1965 Chart Survey image.
  10. ^ Worcester Magazine.
  11. ^ a b Kane.
  12. ^ AccessMyLibrary.
  13. ^ Worcester Magazine, Lead.
  14. ^ New York Times.
  15. ^ Funding Universe.
  16. ^ Cox.
  17. ^ Boston Radio, Weather.
  18. ^ Totse.
  19. ^ a b Newsbank 131. If Newsbank search expired, go to telegram archives and search WFTQ article September 2nd 1989.
  20. ^ Newsbank 141. If Newsbank search expired, go to telegram archives and search WFTQ article 1989-03-11.
  21. ^ Newsbank 31. If Newsbank search expired, go to telegram archives and search WFTQ articles for January 4th 1991 and January 10th 1991.
  22. ^ a b c Newsbank 11. If Newsbank search expired, go to telegram archives and search WFTQ articles dated 1991-08-08 and 1991-08-31.
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference note08 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Boston Radio.
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 440int.
  26. ^ Bay Area Radio.
  27. ^ Jive95.
  28. ^ Reel Radio.
  29. ^ Man From Mars.
  30. ^ Cox Radio People.
  31. ^ The CSS Team.
  32. ^ Radio Steve.
  33. ^ Radio Steve, Tripod.
  34. ^ InterRep
  35. ^ Worcester Union
  36. ^ My Oldies.
  37. ^ City Desk.
  38. ^ Boston Talent.
  39. ^ NHRT.
  40. ^ a b Chuck Perks. Also see WWTM.
  41. ^ Tobacco Documents
  42. ^ Boston Radio Nerw
  43. ^ Old Radio Archives.
  44. ^ [1].
  45. ^ Jeff.
  46. ^ a b WRKO.

[47] http://www.nrcdxas.org/ National Radio Club; Ernie Cooper's QSL Verie Collection; WNCR, WWTM

[48] http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/1912 The Boston Radio Dial

[49] MySpace WFTQ tribute page http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=213096822

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