A look back to 1991

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Mon, 12 Jul 2004 22:32:34 -0500, Kevin Vahey <kvahey@tmail.com> said:

> Well WBZ only has 3 letters <g>
> I m trying to remember now. Did the Celtics sell to Entercom or Atlantic 
> first. (And then Salem buying 590)

You've got your names and numbers mixed up a bit.

By the time I moved here, WEEI 590 was in the hands of Peter Ottmar's
Back Bay Broadcasting.  He sold the programming to American Radio,
which had already purchased WHDH, and kept 590 as business-talk WBNW.
That survived for a few years before Salem bought 590, moved the WEZE
calls there, and flipped 1260 to CCM "Praise" under the callsign WPZE,
which the latter kept for some time under Hibernia ownership before
becoming WMKI and selling to the Mouse.  Meanwhile, ARS flushed WHDH
in favor of WEEI's programming.  ARS also picked up 93.7 Lawrence from
Curt Gowdy, and 1440 and 107.3 in Worcester, reuniting an original
Boston duopoly from the 1930s; ARS also ended up with 1150 for a brief
moment after the failure of KidStar.  Meanwhile, Infinity (104.1) had
swallowed Cook Inlet (100.7) and Granum (which got 92.9 from Ackerley
and 99.5 from Arnie Lerner).  Pyramid (1430/107.9) bought 94.5 from
Ardman, then was bought by Evergreen, which became Chancellor, which
became AMFM, which became Clear Channel.  Westinghouse (1030)
swallowed CBS (103.3), and then went after Infinity, but could not fit
most of the Infinity properties under the ownership cap, so they spun
92.9 and 99.5 to Greater in exchange for KRLA (which is why WBOS
is/was licensed to Greater Los Angeles Radio, Inc.).  Mel's appetite
for acquisition being unsated, CBWesfinity then bought ARS, but to
avoid protracted anti-trust scrutiny agreed to spin off all of the ARS
Boston properties except Mix, which they ultimately did (after nearly
a year in trust) to Entercom.  That was Entercom's first entry in the
market, and I think still their only property in New England.  Greater
picked 105.7 up from Fairbanks as the family tried to wind up their
radio business.  1510 went through a series of owners and formats
without showing up in the ratings.  Ken Carberry tried to sell out to
Catholic Radio but ended up in the arms of Salem instead.  Finally,
Bernadette Nash sold out to Radio One.  Oh, and Sumner bought
CBWesfinity and ultimately pushed Mel out.

Throughout all of this, ownership of the following commercial stations
remained stable, although the names have changed):

WATD (Ed Perry)
WCRB (Charles River Broadcasting)
WESX/WJDA (Asher family)
WFNX/W267AI (Mindich Communications)
WHRB (Harvard Radio Broadcasting, Inc.)
WJIB (Bob Bittner)
WMJX (Greater Media)
WXRV (Steven A. Silberberg, Esq.)

-GAWollman