WROR-FM
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| WROR-FM | |
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| Broadcast area | Framingham/Boston, Massachusetts |
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| Branding | 105.7 WROR |
| Slogan | Loren & Wally and the Songs You Grew Up With |
| First air date | 1960s |
| Frequency | 105.7 (MHz)  105.7 HD-2 for 1970s music |
| Format | Classic hits |
| Callsign meaning | WROR = former call sign of WBMX, original (1996) format was modeled after it |
| Owner | Greater Media |
WROR-FM is a radio station licensed to Framingham, Massachusetts. It broadcasts on 105.7 MHz and serves the Boston market. The station offers a classic hits format, with a timespan of the '60s, '70s and '80s.
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[edit] History
WROR's roots go back to WKOX-FM, the FM sister station of WKOX. WKOX-FM aired chiefly classical music for the Boston's MetroWest suburbs until the late 1960's, when it began broadcasting a top-40 format. The two stations were acquired by Fairbanks Communications in 1970.
After the sale, WKOX-FM became WVBF, "The Electronic Mama", as a top 40/rock station. The call letters officially stood for Virginia Brown Fairbanks, the wife of station owner Richard M. Fairbanks (who himself had a station named after himself, WRMF in West Palm Beach, Florida), although some listeners thought they stood for "Voice of Boston from Framingham". WVBF also began to target the Greater Boston area.
During Fairbanks ownership in the 1970's WVBF was a top 40 station, evolving through several other formats over the years. WVBF also had many different nicknames over the years, including "F-105" and "Boston 105". In the early 1990s, WVBF was the radio home of Delilah before she became syndicated across the country.
However, in 1993, citing the growing popularity of country music, WVBF became WCLB, for "The Country Club". Confusion with other FM stations and a TV station led to a call sign change to WKLB in 1995. The move was made with the knowledge that Greater Media was buying smooth jazz station 96.9 WCDJ, which was owned by Emmis Communications, and changing it to country music very soon after. Soon enough, 96.9 became WBCS, leaving Boston with two country radio stations.
In 1995, WKLB was to be sold to Evergreen Media. However, a series of subsequent trades in 1997 placed WKLB under the ownership of Greater Media, owner of WBCS.
On September 5, 1996, the call letters and intellectual property of WKLB merged with WBCS' 96.9 frequency, with a combination of personalities from both stations. Some 105.7 personalities remained there for the new format. In 1997, WKLB would relocate again to the current 99.5, while 96.9 is now WTKK.
The move enabled 105.7 to pick up a new format, and the station became a 70's based oldies station, WROR. The station played 1950s, 60s, and 70s pop and rock oldies, disco, 1980s AC and CHR crossovers, and some classic rock. The legendary WROR call letters, previously known for a popular oldies/AC hybrid format on 98.5 (now WBMX), were familiar to many listeners, and the station originally attempted to re-assemble the WROR identity, including hiring on numerous personalities from the older WROR. More recently, the format has been modified to a classic hits format, similar to WMGK in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[edit] Loren and Wally
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The station is most well known for its morning team, Loren Owens and Wally Brine, costarring Tom Doyle (voices, parody songs, general comic relief), Sue Cope (news), and Hank Morse (traffic), and produced by Brian "Lung Boy" Bell, who also hosts an evening edition of the show recapping the highlights of that day's morning show. The show has several segments:
[edit] Men From Maine
Men from Maine is a one to two-minute comedy segment, opening with soap opera organ music and Loren stating something varying along the lines of, "And now for another thrilling episode of the exciting adventures of Men from Maine. As today's action packed drama begins-". Airing typically at 6:15 AM and 7:15 AM, episodes typically revolve around the two main characters Lem (played by Tom) and Ephus (played by Wally), and other residents of Bangor, Maine, such as Ephus' wife Effie and son Ephus Junior, Doc Cider (after Dock Sider shoes) and Pastor Fazool (after pasta e fagioli). The same characters have been used in songs about Maine on the segment "Tom's Townie Tunes" (see below). The humor of the segment is at its root generic "redneck humor", but set in very rural, backwoods Maine as opposed to the American South. Episode themes can run all the way from industrial accidents handled in incompetent ways (many residents, including Lem and Ephus work in the local sawmill), to bestiality. In all cases, the humor comes from the stupidity of the characters, and their obliviousness to it.
At least one listener has found the show offensive, as heard on the first Men from Maine CD (sold during the holiday season to raise money for charity). Offended by the humor poking fun at her home state, a woman called the station, threatening to continue protesting the show until it is taken off the air. As of March 2007, the segment is still played on the Loren and Wally show and some can be found as a "Loren & Wally Podcast of the Day" on itunesbt.
[edit] Tom's Townie Tunes
Tom's Townie Tunes is a segment created by morning crew member Tom Doyle that spoofs classic rock hits, using humorous lyrics to poke fun at towns in Massachusetts (and an additional few songs about the surrounding region, such as Maine). Often the songs are about high crime rates, poverty, and the general misery of residents in low class areas, while other songs satirize Harvard graduates, Kerry Healey's failed run for Governor (sung to the tune of "867-5309 (Jenny)" by Tommy Tutone) and another the "gay" side of Provincetown (sung to the tune of Funkytown). Doyle's sports-related songs have occasionally gained airplay on other stations during championship seasons.
Other Townie Tunes include:
| Townie Tune | Song Parodied |
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| "Stuck With A Kid At B.U." | "Stuck With In The Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel |
| "Fung Wah Bus" | "Magic Bus" by The Who |
| "F-You Babe" | "I've Got You, Babe" by Sonny & Cher |
| "Buying A Sheep Tonight" (Men From Maine song) | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" |
| "Brady Shuffle" | "Curly Shuffle" |
| "I Heard You Came From Brookline" | "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" |
| "You Ain't Seen Newton Yet" | "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" by Bachman Turner Overdrive |
| "The Rectum of Edmund Fitzgerald" | "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot |
| "Come To Medford" | "Come Together" by The Beatles |
| "Haverhill" | "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett |
| "Naked Bare In Ipswich" | "Takin' Care Of Business" by Bachman Turner Overdrive |
| "Weymouth"
(done as a joke for Weymouth residents) |
"Tequila" by The Champs |
| "Curt's So Good" | "Hurts So Good" by John Cougar Mellencamp |
| "Don't Worry, Big Papí" | "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin |
| "Fifty Ways To Kill A Plover" | "Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover" |
| "In Maine" (Men From Maine song) | "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton |
| "The Most Miserable Time Of The Year" | "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" (Christmas song) |
| "Golden Banana" (a strip club on U.S. Route 1 in Saugus) | "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow |
| "Alone Again, Natalie" | "Alone Again, Naturally" |
| "Turkey for Thanksgiving" | "Workin' for a Livin'" by Huey Lewis and the News |
| "Free Turkey Weekend"
(used as a promotion to win a free Butterball turkey for Thanksgiving) |
"Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd |
| "Escape To The Cape" | "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes |
| "Leased Cadillac" (in honor of Gov. Patrick's official car) | "Pink Cadillac" by Bruce Springsteen |
| "Red, Red Tide" | "Red, Red Wine" by UB40 |
[edit] Schedule
[edit] Daily
- 5:30-10am The Loren & Wally Morning Show
- 10am-3pm Julie Devereux
- 3-7pm The Paul Perry Show
- 7-midnight Kim Collins
[edit] Weekends/Overnights
- Kevin Redding
- Kristen Lessard
- Karen Young
- Victor K (recently deceased)
[edit] External links
| FM radio stations in the Boston, Massachusetts region (Arbitron #11) | |
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(Arbitron #11) |
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Satellite Radio Local Traffic/Weather: XM Channel 210 | Sirius Channel 149 ¹-Simulcasts as of August 2006. |
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