WKLB Frequency Change?

[Kevin Vahey]

Common misconception

WBZ had more listeners but many were outside the area used in ratings at
the time.

WEZE was in a good spot circa 1965 as 'The Wonderful World of Music' was
consistent and their major competitor was WHDH that tried to juggle music,
news and sports. NBC even dropped WEZE in favor of WCOP to get Monitor
cleared in Boston.

WBZ and WMEX fought for the younger audience with 1030 doing well in the
burbs and 1510 well in the city and the North Shore.

WEEI and WNAC fought over news and talk.

2 years later WRKO changed everything and it was WBZ that blinked dropping
Top 40 for more MOR and going after WHDH. But WJIB 96.9 became an instant
success and took most of WEZE's audience. A big part of WJIB's rise
were the huge number of free ads in the Globe who was part owner of the
station.

Donna - Have you ever looked into Kaiser/Globe's odd decision to have 3
separate offices and studios for TV, FM and AM?

​


On Mon, Jul 9, 2018 at 11:19 PM A Joseph Ross <joe@attorneyross.com> wrote:

> I thought WBZ was always #1 in those days.
>
> On 7/9/2018 2:00 AM, Kevin Vahey wrote:
> > 105.7 has had an interesting history going back to its WKOX-FM days.
> >
> > In the mid 60's a very unlikely station was #1 in Boston overall with a
> > limited signal on 1260 AM (WEZE) and WKOX-FM adopted the format and
> > developed a strong following with affluent listeners.This in turn
> prompted
> > Kaiser//Globe to launch WJIB. WKOX-FM waved the white flag and went to
> Top
> > 40 in 1969 and 2 years later were sold to Fairbanks and became WVBF.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Jul 9, 2018 at 12:34 AM Ron Bello <rbello@belloassoc.com> wrote:
> >
> >> and didn’t Fairbanks move the WCLB calls to another of their stations ?
> >>
> >> Don’t know if it is still
> >> ​ there but for many years after the call letter change and studios had
> >> moved to the Pru,
> >>
> >> there was a sign at the top of the Edgell Rd / Main Street ramp from
> route
> >> 9 in Framingham to the studios​
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sunday, July 8, 2018, Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> On 7/8/2018 8:37 AM, Scott Fybush wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> That FB post (from John Kosian) was showing off a shirt from 20+ years
> >>>> ago!
> >>>>
> >>>> WBCS was one of two competing country stations in the 90s, replacing
> >>>> smooth
> >>>> jazz WCDJ. It was up against Fairbanks' WCLB 105.7 (ex-WVBF). WCLB
> >> became
> >>>> WKLB fairly quickly,
> >>>>
> >>> I was there, consulting WCLB when some of this occurred-- if my memory
> >>> serves me well, the call letter change reflected the old Arbitron diary
> >>> process of listeners being asked to remember and then write down the
> call
> >>> letters; research showed lots of folks were getting the call letters
> >> wrong
> >>> and writing down stations other than WCLB, even if that's what they
> were
> >>> listening to.  So the management decided a K would be easier to
> >> distinguish
> >>> than a C.
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Donna L. Halper, PhD
> >>> Associate Professor of Communication & Media Studies
> >>> Lesley University, Cambridge MA
> >>>
> >>>
>
> --
> A. Joseph Ross, J.D. · 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 · Newton, MA 02459
> 617.367.0468 · Fax:617.507.7856 · http://www.attorneyross.com
>