Boston's 98.5 FM (was Re: WROR/WBMX)

[Peter Q. George]

98.5 in Boston has had it's share of call-letters and
formats over the years.  WNAC-FM signed-on the air in
1948 as a full-time repeater of WNAC/1260 as well as
WNAC/680 (after the AM's frequency change).  The
WRKO-FM call-letters were installed in 1958 by RKO
General basically as a placeholder (for obvious
reasons).  The station stayed a 100% simulcast until
1963 when the FM added several hours of MOR
(middle-of-the-road) music a day in preparation for
the eventual 1966 FCC ruling which mandated that no
more than 50% simulcasting (AM/FM) will be allowed in
the 20 largest markets in America.  Eventually, later
on, this rule was to be extended to include all cities
with more than 100,000 persons.  This was to give FM a
chance to grow and prosper. And boy did it ever! 

Quick timeline for 98.5.

10/12/1966- At midnight, WRKO-FM debuts "ARK-O-matic"
(in mono).  It was an automated Top 40/oldies hybrid,
hosted by "ARKO, the shy but friendly robot".  Very
popular with the college crowd and yours' truly!

10/1/1968- WROR call-letters are assigned, but the
station was playing continuous music and only
identifying as WROR at the top of the hour.  Stereo
pilot is on, but audio is mono.

11/1968- WROR debuts "Hit Parade '68", Bill Drake's
contemporary no-clutter format in Stereo.

11/1/1970- WROR tweaks the format to Bill Drake's
"Solid Gold Rock and Roll" (a 50/50 blend of Top
40/oldies and recurrents).  

5/1973- WROR breaks with Drake and changes the format
to all-oldies as "Nostalgia 98.5".  This was only
meant to be a stop gap measure as the station was to
be sold to Summit Broadcasting (Cecil Heftel, et.al.)
who wanted to go with beautiful music.  With
RKO/General's license problems looming, the deal was
scrapped in late October, 1973.  

12/1973- John Long (ace program director, nice guy
too) took the job with RKO/General and transformed
98.5 to the new "Golden Great 98!" and added in
Wolfman Jack and lots of other special features.  It
became a fan favorite, especially with "American
Graffiti" igniting the 50's craze all around the
country in 1973.

1/1979- WROR dumped the oldies (with significant
protest from listeners) with a Top 40/AC format that
went nowhere.  "98 and half FM, WROR, Where the music
went!".  Most listeners "went" AWAY! 

11/1979- WROR retooled the format to an oldies/Top
40/AC hybrid.  This was the famous "I'd Rather Be In
Boston" format with some great jingles, live jocks and
"Saturday Night At The Oldies" with Joe Martelle. It
was a very popular format that was pleasing to many
different age groups.  It all lasted in some way or
another until February, 1991.  Of course, Roy
Orbison's "It's Over" was the last song on WROR/98.5
on Friday afternoon February 9, 1991 at 1:00 PM.  In
came Mix/98.5.  The WBMX call-letters were delayed a
couple of weeks due to FCC paperwork.  

So, there you go.  The Reader's Digest version of
Boston's 98.5.

What a long strange trip it's been.........  


-Pete
   
        


--- Paul Connors <paulconnors@earthlink.net> wrote:

> As far as I recall...
> 
> Some time after Hit Parade, in the mid 70's, "The
> Golden Great 98" was
> automated Oldies with a few current songs tossed in.
>  After going live some
> time in the late 70's the format transitioned to
> Adult Contemporary.  In
> 1983-84 when HitradioWHTT was on top, WROR went
> straight-ahead Top 40 to
> compete against them and the other CHR's at the
> time, including Kiss-108
> and WCOZ.  WROR was an also-ran during this period. 
> Then, from the
> mid-80's onward it was back to AC.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > [Original Message]
> > From: Roger Kirk <rogerkirk@ttlc.net>
> > To: <paulconnors@earthlink.net>
> > Cc: Boston Radio Group
> <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>
> > Date: 8/6/2007 6:29:21 PM
> > Subject: Re: WROR/WBMX
> >
> > Paul Connors wrote:
> > > The formats ranged from Oldies to CHR to Adult
> Contemporary.  I'd call
> > > those changes a bit more than "clock tweaking".
> > >   
> >
> > Can you give us some years during which they
> executed these formats?
> >
> > IIRC, They were pretty much HitParade YY from 1969
> thru Jan 1973
> > and that was Top 40 (varied from A/C to Soft Rock)
> plus oldies.
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
                           "Scanning the bands since 1967"
radiojunkie1@yahoo.com
radiojunkie3@yahoo.com
***********************************************************


       
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