WRKO
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| WRKO | |
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| Broadcast area | Boston, Massachusetts |
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| Branding | "AM 680 WRKO" |
| Slogan | "Boston's Talk Station" |
| First air date | 1922 |
| Frequency | 680 (kHz) |
| Format | Talk radio |
| ERP | 50,000 watts |
| Callsign meaning | RKO General (former owner) |
| Affiliations | Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, New England Revolution |
| Owner | Entercom |
| Website | www.wrko.com |
WRKO is an AM radio station based in Boston, Massachusetts, currently owned by Entercom and broadcasting on 680 kHz.
(A complete station history in detail may be found here.)
Contents |
[edit] 1920-1940
Settling on 1230 kilocycles (kilohertz) in the late 1920s, WNAC was founded by John Shepard, a Boston businessman who had a department-store empire throughout New England. In 1927, WNAC became one of the sixteen charter members of the CBS Radio Network, and remained a CBS affiliate for the next decade.
Shepard also launched a regional network to serve radio stations throughout New England; called "The Yankee Network", it was also a pioneer in radio news coverage. For many years, the Yankee Network was one of the best local/regional radio news operations in the country.
Shepard also purchased a second Boston station, WAAB, which became an affiliate of the Mutual Radio Network in 1935. He also launched a second regional network, "The Colonial Network", with WAAB as its flagship station. Outside of Boston, Yankee and Colonial programming were usually heard on the same station; additionally, Colonial carried Mutual programming to its affiliates.
In 1937, WNAC became an NBC Red affiliate after losing CBS to WEEI. Four years later, WNAC's frequency changed to 1260 kilocycles (kilohertz). In 1942, to comply with FCC anti-duopoly regulations, WAAB was moved to Worcester. At the same time, WNAC lost NBC "Red" to WBZ and with WAAB having been moved, took over the Mutual affiliation.
[edit] 1940-1981
By 1943, WNAC was sold to General Tire and Rubber. For a brief time in 1956 and 1957, WNAC - which moved to 680 kHz when General Tire bought 50,000 watt WLAW (based 25 miles north of Boston in Lawrence, Massachusetts) in the early 1950s - was affiliated with both Mutual and NBC. The station would remain a Mutual affiliate until the network, of which General Tire was a part-owner, was sold in the late 1950s. WNAC lost NBC to WEZE in 1957, and would lose Mutual as well.
After MOR music, a brief attempt at top-40, and a format featuring a variety of chat programs, major changes came to WNAC in early 1967. The station's call letters would be changed to WRKO, the format to rock and roll, and the Yankee Network would cease to exist.
The complete history of WRKO, complete with airchecks and official reproductions, may be found at http://wrko.org.
The move to a rock format in March of 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 under the age of 35. Known to its listeners as "The Big 68" and a Top 40 station of considerable influence, WRKO was home to such well-known personalities as longtime morning man Dale Dorman, Joel Cash, J.J. Wright, J.J. Jeffrey, Shadoe Stevens, Frank Kingston Smith (who was known as "Bobby Mitchell"), Steve Anthony and many others.
By the end of the 1970s, however, rock and top-40 radio began to migrate from AM to FM. In a three-year period from 1978 to 1981, WRKO lost much 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 Adult Contemporary music, featuring a morning program with market legend Norm Nathan. A switch to a country music format was also reportedly briefly considered. Finally, the decision was made in September of 1981 to drop music and switch to an all-talk format.
[edit] 1981-Present
After switching to the talk radio format, the station ran a number of service oriented and general chat programs during the day. Moving to more issue-oriented talk, the station enjoyed a resurgence of popularity with some of the most prominent talk-program hosts in the country such as Gene Burns, Jerry Williams and Ted O'Brien. The station was often the highest rated station in Boston during the 1980s and early 1990s. But while WRKO was growing and changing formats, its 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 trace practices involving several of its properties, and later for double billing by a radio network it organized, the RKO Network. The FCC license hearings culminated in the loss of the company's license to operate WNAC-TV, Channel 7 in Boston before the commission.
Several years later, the FCC denied renewal of all RKO General's broadcast licenses (with the exception of WOR-TV in Secaucus, N.J. which gained a permanent license by agreeing to relocate to New Jersey from New York City) and the assignment of the licenses to designated competing applicants. Gencorp appealed, but rather than be stripped of the valuable licenses without compensation, the company's broadcasting subsidiary, RKO General, entered settlement agreements with the competing applicants that allowed the sale of its stations to third parties by making settlement payments to the applicants that had been awarded the licenses. At the time, Gencorp was strapped for cash as the result of a hostile takeover bid in which management decided to buy back the company's own stock to fend off the takeover. As part of the settlements worked out in Boston, New York, Memphis, Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles and San Francisco; WRKO and its FM sister station, WROR, were sold to a neophyte broadcaster, Atlantic Ventures Corp., which was operated by a former cable television executive.
After several mergers, Atlantic Ventures (renamed American Radio Systems) decided that owning broadcast and cellular telephone towers was its preferred business and merged with CBS, Inc. WRKO was spun off to Entercom since the merger brought CBS over FCC ownership limits.
In recent years, WRKO has featured such local talk hosts as Scott Allen Miller, John DePetro, and Howie Carr, as well as nationally-syndicated hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage.
It is also the flagship radio station of the 16-time National Basketball Association champion Boston Celtics. WRKO assumed the broadcast rights in 2005.
WRKO was, from 1986 to 1994, the flagship station for the Boston Red Sox. On May 8, 2006, Entercom Communications in Boston (parent company for WRKO and its sister station, Sports Radio WEEI), inked a 10-year deal to be the flagship station for the Red Sox Radio Network beginning in 2007. WRKO and WEEI, however, will share airing Red Sox games with Friday night and some weekday games to be aired on WEEI, while the majority of the games will air on WRKO. On August 18, 2006, WRKO broadcast game one of the day-night doubleheader between the Red Sox and the New York Yankees at Fenway Park during the 5th annual "WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon". This was to allow WEEI to carry live coverage of the radio-telethon during the Red Sox game.
On November 3, 2006, the station fired host John DePetro for calling gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross a "fat lesbian" across the airwaves.[1]
On January 11, 2007, former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Tom Finneran, was announced as the morning drive-time host on WRKO, replacing Scott Allen Miller.[1]
[edit] Programming schedule
All times are EST.
[edit] Monday to Friday
- 12am-1am: Matt Drudge (continued from Sunday night) (syndicated)
- 1am-5am: Coast to Coast with George Noory (syndicated)
- 5am-6am: Doug Stephan
- 6am-10am: Tom Finneran
- 10am-12pm: Todd Feinburg [2]
- 12pm-3pm: Rush Limbaugh [3] (syndicated)
- 3pm-7pm: Howie Carr [4]
- 7pm-10pm: Michael Savage [5] [6] (syndicated)
- 10pm-1am: Jerry Doyle (syndicated)
If there is an early Red Sox or Celtics game, Savage's show follows it. Otherwise it is Savage followed by Doyle.
[edit] Saturday
- 1am-3am: Coast to Coast with George Noory (syndicated)
- 3am-5am: TBA
- 5am-6am: Doug Stephan
- 6am-10am: Moe Lauzier
- 10am-1pm: The Ted and Ellen Show
- 1pm-4pm: Todd Feinburg (syndicated)
- 4pm-7pm: MoneyTalk with Bob Brinker [7] (syndicated)
- 7pm-10pm: Glenn Beck
- 11pm-1am: Jerry Doyle (syndicated)
[edit] Sunday
- 1am-4am: Coast to Coast with Art Bell (syndicated)
- 4am-5am: TBA
- 5am-6am: Talking Religion
- 6am-8am: The Jim Zoppo Garden Show
- 8am-9am: Unconventional Wisdom (syndicated)
- 9am-10am: Senior Financial Focus
- 10am-1pm: The Pat Whitley Restaurant Show
- 1pm-4pm: Todd Feinburg (syndicated)
- 4pm-5pm: Recovery Road (syndicated)
- 5pm-8pm: MoneyTalk with Bob Brinker (syndicated)
- 8pm-10pm: Pundit Review Radio with Kevin and Gregg
- 10pm-12am: Matt Drudge (continues into Monday morning) (syndicated)
[edit] News
As of November 16, 2006, all of the on-air news anchors have been fired by station management. [8] WGBH's Beat the Press reported that the news staff was aware of the situation, one by one, and they got their severance checks. As of November 2006, the hourly news updates are provided by Fox News Radio and traffic and weather updates from Metro Networks. When former news director, Rod Fritz told on WGBH's Beat the Press on November 17, he stated that he was going to look for an opening position with incoming Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick [9]. Former Skyway Patrol reporter Scott Pike is now the lead anchor.
[edit] Sports
WRKO is the home of all Boston Celtics broadcasts. It is the new home of the Boston Red Sox in 2007. Red Sox games that conflict with Celtics games will be on WEEI. New England Revolution games that conflict with Red Sox games on WEEI will air on WRKO.
Former news anchors
- Rod Fritz (News Director)
- Paul Tuthill (News Anchor/Reporter)
- Listo Fisher (News Anchor)
- Mary Blake (News Anchor)
- Marga Bessette (News Anchor)
- Sharon Smith (News Anchor)
[edit] Skyway Patrol
The title "Skyway Patrol" was first used by the old WHDH radio in 1961 for their aerial traffic reports. After Entercom moved WEEI's call letters and programming to the old home of WHDH radio, WRKO inherited the rights to the name "Skyway Patrol". In November 2006, along with the layoffs of the news department, the "Skyway Patrol" was replaced with "WRKO News" as their signoff every 20 minutes. Traffic reports come from Metro Networks traffic desk.
[edit] Weekdays
- Malcolm Alter
- Chris Adams
- Joe Stapleton
[edit] Weekends
- Matt Hillis
- Jessica Lane
- Steve Hartman
- Lisa Jackson
[edit] External links
- WRKO's home page
- The Big 68 Remembered - A retrospective of WRKO's history as the most popular Top 40 music station in Boston
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WRKO
| AM radio stations in the Boston, Massachusetts region (Arbitron #11) | |
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(Arbitron #11) |
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(Arbitron #38) |
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Satellite Radio Local Traffic/Weather: XM Channel 210 | Sirius Channel 149 |
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