The late WBZ-FM, "Stereo 106.7, All hits...all the time"

["Peter Q. George" <radiojunkie1@yahoo.com>]

      This New Year's Eve will mark 27 years since the late WBZ-FM
switched to the stereo mode and began programming commercial-free rock
and roll, with Clark Schmidt to sole voice of the station (except for
the news and Celtics games).  It was December 31, 1971 at 4:00 pm
(after 8 hours of silence, for technical upgrades) and WBZ-FM came on
with a sound never heard before in Boston.  In the beginning it was a
short playlist, but slowly they added gold cuts (Beach Boys, The
Parliaments-"I Just Wanna Testify" and more). I gave up on WRKO and
WMEX and switched over to WVBF ("Stereo 105") and WBZ-FM.
      WBZ-FM did not go 24 hours until 1974.  The night always ended
at 2:00 am with The Beatles' "Goodnight, Sleep Tight".  In 1973, the
station added a bevy of different voices to the mix including
"Captain" Ken Shelton and crew.  It was automated, for sure, but it
 was a fun station to listen to.  The first live show was on Election
Day, 1972 where WBZ-FM did an informal phone poll with local high
school students on who was going to "vote" on either Nixon or
McGovern.  McGovern won ! Hey, it was Massachusetts !
      WBZ-FM did "The Boston Top-30" nightly, from 1973 through 1975
with intros phoned-in by listeners to 254-8915.  It was a hit !!  It
was too good to be true. Remember, WBZ-FM was a tax write-off for
Westinghouse and was beginning to show some numbers, at the expense of
WBZ/1030! This all came crashing down in 1975 when everyone including
Clark were allegedly "canned" in some labor dispute.  Captain Ken
stuck around for a few months doing the teen-talk show "Talk to the
People"
on Saturday mornings.  He eventually followed Clark to the new WCOZ
(94.5) in August, 1975. The only voice on WBZ-FM was Dave Maynard.....
 "It's the most music ANYWHERE! Rockin' Stereo 106.7/WBZ-FM in Boston
(dah, dah !!)". 
      In 1979, WBZ-FM tried the moniker "Z-107" or "'BZ, FM-107" for a
minute or two with a more heavier mix of music than previously
programmed.  It lasted but a few months.  Then they went to a more
oldies based format with "Wendy" as the hostess. Finally, Westinghouse
sold WBZ-FM to Greater Media in 1981.  The call-letters were changed
to WMJX in the summer of '81, in preparation for the sale.  They
played continuous rock and roll, whenever their cranky old transmitter
let them. The phone-lines to 106.7 were horrendous, always out of
phase.  The station went silent for over 10 days in early December,
1981 when they blew a final tube in the transmitter.  Word has it that
nobody noticed for several days. They brought it back for a few days
until around Christmas and signed-off the station until New Year's Eve
when Greater Media took over.  A few pirate stations in the Boston
area fired up during that short interim.
 
 It was good while it lasted (1971-1975),
 
 -Pete  
 
 
 
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Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
33 Stetson Street, Apt. 2
Whitman, Massachusetts 02382
 
radiojunkie1@yahoo.com
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End of boston-radio-interest-digest V2 #261
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