MORE HISTORY-RADIO ON THE NORTH SHORE

[WFNERBSHX]

It was great to see the response to my query about the end of the Full Service/AC format on WBZ. Continuing on my history kick, I'm interested in any thoughts, information, trivia, history anyone has to offer about the radio stations on the North Shore: the commercial stations WESX (1230), WLYN (1360), WNBP (1450), WNSH (1570), WFNX (101.7), and WBOQ (104.9) and the non-comms WMWM (91.7) and WBMT (88.3).

I remember that local radio on the North Shore was pretty vibrant when I was growing up. The AMs (particularly 'ESX and, at one time, 'NSH pre-bird talk) had solid local content and coverage, Simon Geller ruled at "One hundred and four point nine megahertz in Glawstah, Massachusetts", and WMWM excited me about the possibility of doing radio in college.

Its sad to see it (mostly) gone now. I look forward to the responses.

 

[raccoonradio]

I have been with WMWM since 3/12/81 (joined in fall of '80 though my debut was delayed after a storm
knocked down the antenna and fried the board and transmitter). FCC deadline to get back on: 3/12/81.
We made it back on the night before, 3/11...

1968: WSSC started, broadcasting to dorms at 640 carrier current.
April 1976: WMWM-FM at 91.7 with 10 watts
1978: boost to 130 watts
1984: move from Sullivan Bldg to Campus Center

These days when there's no live DJ we have automation. Right now while the school is on break we
are doing automated jazz/smooth jazz, etc. (voice tracked by Brian Vita and others). Some shows we
had in the past:

--Scott Merrill (Sat & Sunday mornings 9-noon, 1979-88 approx)--oldies and adult contemporary.
Succeeded by Country Express (Gayla Willis, Jan Berry). These days local music is in that slot
(Doug Mascott, Tracks of the Town). I started Juke Joint (blues) in May of 1988. Mood Swings
(Sun 3-6 pm) has been a long running jazz show, and we cater to the hippies and Deadheads
with Alternative Granola 6-9 pm. Uncle Henry's Basement (doo wop, Sat 6-9 pm) began in 1989.

--Suburban Beat--offbeat new wave/punk/hardcore used to run weekdays 3-6 pm

--In the 80s, local music on Sunday nights with Paula Flynn on a show called "the neighborhoods". We also did
some sports talk ("Time out for Sports"). Two WMWM DJs who became cartoonists: Keith Knight
(the K Chronicles) did rap on Sundays while Mark Parisi (Off The Mark) did rock on Friday nights.

 

[raccoonradio]

WNSH 1570 Beverly had been WMLO. Was country at one point, IIRC. Studios have been in:

--studios nr the movie theater complex in Danvers
--Pickering Wharf, Salem
--above a hardware warehouse in Hamilton
--two different buildings at Endicott in Beverly
--now at owner Keating Willcox's house in Hamilton, IIRC.

Former call letters before it became WNSH: WBVD. They had T-shirts, "BVD--The First Thing You
Put On In The Morning".

 

[LA_Guy]

Does anyone remember Lynn's second FM station-WUPI?

Lynn used to have a second (or was it Lynn's first FM) WUPI 105.3 FM. I believe it went off in the mid 1960's. It's tower still stands-a self supporter almost directly across Rte. 1 from 93.7's tower.

Anyone remember it? Anyone ever listen to it?

 

[pqgeorge]

Re: Does anyone remember Lynn's second FM station-WUPI?

Lynn used to have a second (or was it Lynn's first FM) WUPI 105.3 FM. I believe it went off in the mid 1960's. It's tower still stands-a self supporter almost directly across Rte. 1 from 93.7's tower.

Anyone remember it? Anyone ever listen to it?

If this were 1961, you'd have to practically blink to remember this long lost soul of the FM airwaves.
WUPY (105.3 MC/s, Lynn, MA) hit the air on August 1, 1961, when Harvey Sheldon put the station on the air, playing jazz music.

WUPY ran 1.4 kW from a transmitter site off Route 1 in Peabody with studios at 23 Central Avenue in Lynn. It's tower, minus the FM bays, is still standing, practically across the street from the WMKK (93.7/Lawrence) tower . WUPY was one of the first Boston-area FM stations to broadcast in Stereo. After a brief silent period in late 1962-early 1963, Sheldon changed the station's calls to WUPI, but that, too, was short-lived, and 105.3 was silent by the time the next North Shore FM (WLYN-FM 101.7 MC/s) made its debut in 1963.

 

[NO DAG]

WLYN-FM as "Y-102", sort of a hit music station in the early 80's.. Before that they had some sort of adult music format.. I remember them doing some remote at the old Swampscott Mall before they became "Y-102", and the DJ was telling my friends and I that the station was totally for grown ups and we wouldn't like it.. They set up the remote crap on a 8 foot table with wires of spaghetti everywhere..

WNBP in Newburyport had a boatload of call signs going to and from WNBP, there was WCEA, and who can ever forget "Your Coastal Home Companion, WNCG" with then owner Mr. Ted Larson doing mornings..

 

[Eli Polonsky]

WLYN-FM as "Y-102", sort of a hit music station in the early 80's..

"Y-102" became an alternative rocker around 1982, in the tail end of the era considered to be the "punk/new wave heyday", which set it up for the WFNX alternative format when the Phoenix took over in 1983. There were jocks from WMBR, WERS, WZBC and other community/college stations there working for peanuts and for their dedication to the music. Most of them didn't continue on to WFNX, though some ended up on other commercial stations.

 

[NO DAG]

Even dug up an old "Y102" bumber sticker, log looked very "Top 40" ish.. How about 1570 AM, some serious call signs there.. wasn't the WMLO call sign there as well.. How about before the River, you turned on the LYT.. WLYT.. They had billboards all over the North Shore.. Didn;t WLYT get into some sort of a slogan war with WMJX at the time ? WESX used to be great for local high school sports..

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Even dug up an old "Y102" bumber sticker, log looked very "Top 40" ish.. How about 1570 AM, some serious call signs there.. wasn't the WMLO call sign there as well..

I think "Y-102" was a rock hit station around 1980, but some of the DJ's really wanted to do alternative and started sneaking it in at first around 1981, especially at night, and eventually it became an alternative format by 1982.

WMLO were the call letters the first time I heard 1570, which was in 1967. I lived in the west suburbs where it could not be heard at all, but we had relatives on the North Shore, and I first heard it on a visit. It was a full-service local community oriented adult Top 40 daytimer, and it sounded good. Professional sounding DJ's, jingles, good production on the spots. I was a little kid and I didn't understand why it just seemed to appear out of nowhere on the radio when we got on the North Shore, or why WCOP 1150, which bombed into the west suburbs (within 128) where I lived, disappeared up there. WCRB 1330, my parents station, could still be heard on the North Shore, but faded a bit as we drove around.

 

[NO DAG]

My comment on WLYN-FM was before the Y-102 switch, they were some kind of big band or easy listening format.. Y 102 was onto something and was good to listen to.. (I was in High School at the time).. Of course WFNX in it's early years was just a treat for ears looking to explore the knowledge of good new wave / alternative / new rock music.. My only 1330 story would when I was taking Driver's Ed in the very early 80's, the Drivers' Ed teacher tortured us and made us listen to AM 1330 in our Bob Brest Buick donated 4 Door Century Sedan with back windows that did not roll down.. Eeooowwwww !! I also dug up a WBVD sticker in my crap collection..

 

[Eli Polonsky]

My only 1330 story would when I was taking Driver's Ed in the very early 80's, the Drivers' Ed teacher tortured us and made us listen to AM 1330 in our Bob Brest Buick donated 4 Door Century Sedan with back windows that did not roll down..

My parents listened to 1330 back when it was the original classical WCRB (AM), which lasted until the mid-70s when it became WHET, which was a big band/standards and easy listening format. That's probably what you heard in the very early '80s.

In 1982, 1330 became WDLW, a country station, for the rest of the '80s.

 

[NO DAG]

Wasn't sure if it was WHET or WDLW.. now that I think more it was WHET.. You're right ! Hated the music then, but my early interest in radio kept me curious about the station.. The guys in the back wanted their Zeppelin on WCOZ and the Drivers' Ed teacher gave a big negative on that one... : How about the "Rock Garden" on WCGY ?

 

[FPB]

>In 1982, 1330 became WDLW, a country station, for the rest of the '80s.
>
1330 picked up it's current calls around 1991 or 2. WRCA stood for "Radio Comedy and the Arts" with a pretty unique format of old-time radio and show tunes. They were betting on the concept of "narrow-casting", where you build a loyal audience by playing to a niche market. A nice idea, but they were only around for maybe three years before Beasley bought them and brought the current barter format. At the time they had some pretty showy digs in Kendall Square. Could be they tried to fly too high too soon.

 

[NO DAG]

Not to get way off topic, but wasn;t WDLW somehwat of a success in the 80's ? Wasn;t the owner at the time someone with a hyphonated last name who used to do his own TV commercials promoting the station ?? WRCA was a novel idea, wasn;t that simultcast on 102.1 in Hampton NH before it got eaten by a "Shark" ??

 

[chrish]

Regarding WUPY (which I actually heard only a few times) Bob Hallenbeck the Gates/Harris sales rep through the 80's and an old friend once told me that WUPY-FM was one of the very rare occasions RCA financed the equipment package and had to repossess the studio equipment, transmitter, modulation monitor and peak limiters to recoup what money they could but abandoned the tower, antenna and line which remained in place until the late 60's when it started to be used as a two way radio site

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Not to get way off topic, but wasn;t WDLW somehwat of a success in the 80's ?

WDLW was only moderately successful as a country station because it was Boston's only country station for a brief period. Once a full-power FM station (WBOS) went country around 1983, WDLW was toast for ratings, but they hung on with it for another few years anyway. WBOS wasn't very successful with country either though, and went to more-or-less their present AAA format in 1989.

1330 picked up it's current calls around 1991 or 2. WRCA stood for "Radio Comedy and the Arts" with a pretty unique format of old-time radio and show tunes. They were betting on the concept of "narrow-casting", where you build a loyal audience by playing to a niche market. A nice idea, but they were only around for maybe three years before Beasley bought them and brought the current barter format. At the time they had some pretty showy digs in Kendall Square. Could be they tried to fly too high too soon.

The WRCA format you're describing was called "Show-Biz Radio". It also played Broadway musicals, soundtracks and stand-up comedy recordings. They went AM stereo for it, and hired personality hosts such as longtime Boston radio veteran Jim Sands and the late Marcia Masters. I don't think it was able to bring the ratings and sponsorships necessary to support the format in the long run.

 

[JIBGUY]

1330 ownerships and formats:

Owner: Anthony Robert-Martin Trigona, a lwayer from Chicago, IIRC. as WHET in the 70's and early 80's. Calls changed to WDLW during his ownership.

Sold to The Acton Corporation (in Acton, MA) around 1982-1983 or so when it was riding (relatively) high with the country format. Acton Corp was made up of several area people, one of which was named Heath, I believe. Also owned by Acton, was the publication "The Robb Report".

Acton inherited a lot of good talent, doing country. In those days, there was no VT'ing, and station was country 24/7 except for some brokered Sunday morning shows. Ratings were somewhat impressive for an AM that doesn't cover all the market. A high of around 1.5. Great talent like Jim Murphy and Duncan Stewart were on air there.. Those fellas gave the station a real good country image and momentum to the station.

Acton ,getting tired of losing money, prepped it for a sale, so a new GM was brought in by Acton to mercilessly cut cut cut, which he did. (But that was his job, to make the station profitable; as it was previously losing money all the time just about, even during its country hey-day). Brokered time shows were gradually added on weekends, and then weekday evenings, then more and more.

Sold to someone from NYC named LaMarca when billing was looking good (few listeners, but lots of billing) LaMarca is the one who initiated the "Show-Biz Radio" format, which was interestingly unique. He cleared away a lot of the brokered time, and did the format during the most important hours. As it became apparent that that format was not going to work, more brokered time shows started appearing. Show-Biz Radio went after the same listeners as WXKS-AM-1430 was. WXKS was the un-killable king of standards music. Adding in too much obscure Broadway music caused 1330's Show-Biz death.

Station sold to Peter Arpin in the 90's. Arpin: also full or part-owner of WLKW-900-Providence; WARA-1320-Attleboro, WXCT-990-SouthingtonCT. Arpin turned 1330 into a full-time brokered station and then sold it in the early 2000's to Beasley who was happy to keep the high billing and brokered-time format. I would predict that there would be no ownership/format changes to 1330 for quite awhile.

Just realized what I wrote here.... in the case of 1330, and many other smaller big market stations: When there's a lot of listeners, it's a financial loss. When the station has fewer listeners, station is quite profitable.......

 

[DanStrassberg]

1330 ownerships and formats:

Owner: Anthony Robert-Martin Trigona, a lwayer from Chicago, IIRC. as WHET in the 70's and early 80's. Calls changed to WDLW during his ownership.

Wasn't the hyphen between Martin and Trigona? I think so. Was he really a lawyer? Not that lawyers don't get into trouble with the law themselves; they do fairly often. But if Martin-Trigona was a lawyer, wouldn't you think he would have stayed out of trouble with the law? He didn't. And at one point, I remember that he described himself as somebody's attorney-in-fact. Isn't the term "attorney-in-fact" reserved for people who, despite not being attorneys (no law degree, never admitted to the Bar), are serving in a capacity similar to that of an attorney because some provision of the law allows them to do so? If I've got the correct take on the term, would he have had any cause to call himself "attorney-in fact?" Couldn't he have just called himself "attorney?" I guess that even if he WAS an attorney, he easily could, as an out-of-stater, not have been admitted to the practice of law in Massachusetts.

The hyphenated surname (well before such surnames became popular in the US) and the given name of Anthony suggest that he was a Brit. Was he?

And weren't his girlfriend's initials DLW? I don't have a clue about whom she might have been, but the story is that Martin-Trigona took the the WDLW call letters from her initials.

 

[NO DAG]

I recall seeing him on TV commercials for the station at the time when the calls went to WDLW and the format went to country.. say channels 38 and 56..... Awesome topic by the way !!

 

[pqgeorge]

WLYN (and WLYN-FM) were pretty much full-service radio for the North Shore, well into the early 70's. About one of the 'LYN alumni: I recall Chris Claussen did mornings in the late 1960's at 'LYN. Chris, as you're probably aware, is one of the best voice-over talents in the business. While working at 'LYN, he was also doing hosting chores on the "Captain Boston Show" on WKBG-TV (Channel 56). Later he would move on to host many shows (and do voice-over work) on WSBK-TV (Channel 38), the old WXNE-TV (Channel 25) and WNEV/WHDH-TV (Channel 7). I've also heard his voice on many commercials around the country. I believe I heard him do the tag for the SoCal Chevy Dealers, while in the "Southland" of California. Talk about a very busy person. He's still got "the voice".