The forgotten history, 98.5

[Garrett]

With everybody focused on the loss of WBCN, everyone is forgetting the end of something else: 20 or more years of Adult Contemporary on 98.5! Remember, Mix 98.5 was orignally a modern update to the format on the old WROR. I guess with WROR now on 105.7, nobody realizes that 98.5 is losing a heritage format. Am I wrong about this?

 

[ThatGuyOnTheRadio]

True, it's moving. But the format and call letters are still very much alive. WBCN is gone.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

True, it's moving. But the format and call letters are still very much alive. WBCN is gone.

And it may even get better weekday ratings with the downtown workforce, transmitting from Boston instead of Newton. At least I'd guess CBS is hoping so.

 

[AcmeBuggywhipInc]

98.5 (WROR) went A/C around 1980. RKO General switched it from oldies. Remember "The Golden Great 98?"

 

[dhoule]

Remember, 981/2 FM. "I'd rather be in Boston with WROR". "From Quincy to Revere, we're glad to be here! I'd rather be in Boston with WROR". Frank Kingston Smith (mornings), Jimmy Roberts (middays), The Halls of Justice (afternoons), Joe Martelle (early evenings), Lou Josephs (late night), and Phil Redo (overnights). And, let's not forget Roy Reese on Sports during the week and some guy named (lol) Ted Sarantes on weekend mornings. Before all of that it was, the Golden Great 98 and before that "R-Ko" automation. Briefly, in 1983, WROR went high powered Top 40 to compete with Kiss 108 and WHTT. That seemed to disappear when 94.5 the Zoo came on board in 84. Also, in the very late 80s, WROR tried jazz at night. Short lived!

 

[pqgeorge]

Remember, 981/2 FM. "I'd rather be in Boston with WROR". "From Quincy to Revere, we're glad to be here! I'd rather be in Boston with WROR". Frank Kingston Smith (mornings), Jimmy Roberts (middays), The Halls of Justice (afternoons), Joe Martelle (early evenings), Lou Josephs (late night), and Phil Redo (overnights). And, let's not forget Roy Reese on Sports during the week and some guy named (lol) Ted Sarantes on weekend mornings. Before all of that it was, the Golden Great 98 and before that "R-Ko" automation. Briefly, in 1983, WROR went high powered Top 40 to compete with Kiss 108 and WHTT. That seemed to disappear when 94.5 the Zoo came on board in 84. Also, in the very late 80s, WROR tried jazz at night. Short lived!

And don't forget "ARKO-matic!", WRKO-FM 98.5..... Boston first rock and roll FM station (Started 10/12/1966)!

 

[Garrett]

True, it's moving. But the format and call letters are still very much alive. WBCN is gone.

You're missing the point.
The current WROR is not the same station.
The switch to 104.1 will and 2 decades of some kind of contemporary music on 98.5. It would seem to me, that most of the changes with in that period amounted to little more than tweaks.

The WROR on 105.7 seems more rock oldies based, not really the same station.

 

[HHH]

"And don't forget "ARKO-matic!", WRKO-FM 98.5..... Boston first rock and roll FM station (Started 10/12/1966)!"


Yes! (sonovox): "the is Arko, your automated all-music station in Boston".

In glorious mono, as I recall. Arko, the "shy but friendly robot".

Featuring hits from the "Certified 35" (their top 35 list).

 

[Channel Surf]

Remember, 981/2 FM. "I'd rather be in Boston with WROR". "From Quincy to Revere, we're glad to be here! I'd rather be in Boston with WROR". Frank Kingston Smith (mornings), Jimmy Roberts (middays), The Halls of Justice (afternoons), Joe Martelle (early evenings), Lou Josephs (late night), and Phil Redo (overnights). And, let's not forget Roy Reese on Sports during the week and some guy named (lol) Ted Sarantes on weekend mornings. Before all of that it was, the Golden Great 98 and before that "R-Ko" automation. Briefly, in 1983, WROR went high powered Top 40 to compete with Kiss 108 and WHTT. That seemed to disappear when 94.5 the Zoo came on board in 84. Also, in the very late 80s, WROR tried jazz at night. Short lived!

And don't forget "ARKO-matic!", WRKO-FM 98.5..... Boston first rock and roll FM station (Started 10/12/1966)!

I could never forget ARKO-matic...The station that inspired me to buy my first FM radio...Which I still have to this day.

 

[pqgeorge]

It was all I listened to at the time! "Ninety-eight point FIVE! WRKO- F-M!". Who could ever forget the "Certified 35" with listeners calling the "35 Line" at 338-3535 to make the list of what's hot and what's not? I had a feeling that there were more of us AR-KO fans out there than meets the eye. I believe Shel Swartz on his http://wrko.org has all of the WRKO-FM surveys from October 1966 through March 1967, until WRKO-FM began a 50/50 simulcast with the new WRKO/680 (formerly WNAC). Eventhough ARKO-matic was short lived, it still was a monumental task to bring FM into the Rock and Roll age! I was only 7 years old when ARKO premiered on 10/12/1966. But I was so impressed on how "ARKO sounds good like a radio station should!", my folks gave me an FM radio for Christmas of that year. Even when the simulcast period was on both AM and FM, I stayed with 98.5!!


"ARKOMATIC!!!!!"

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Snapshot of my first radio listening in late 1966 (besides classical on WCRB with my parents previously):

I was ten years old when "Arko" appeared on 98.5, and I loved it. My parents had also just gotten me my first AM/FM transistor radio, a Radio Shack "Realistic", with switchable FM "AFC" (remember that?). It was great to hear the hits of the day (which were amazing in late 1966) in FM fidelity with very few interruptions besides the humorous "Shy But Friendly Robot" sonovox liners. It fit right in with all the pop culture space and robot fantasies in the media around that time; "Lost In Space", "Star Trek", "The Jetsons", etc...

I loved live personality radio too, such as Arnie "Woo-Woo" Ginsburg on WMEX, but their directional signal was very weak in the west suburbs where I grew up. It was practically buried by their two adjacent skywaves at night. WBZ was also playing Top 40, but with a dryer, more full-service adult approach, and much of the news/information in their format was lost on a ten year old. I preferred the wacky jingles, more music, and manic presentation of WMEX, and the FM fidelity and goofy "robot" on 98.5. However, I did somehow appreciate what Dick Summer was doing in the evenings on 'BZ even at that age, though.

 

[Channel Surf]

Wasn't 98.5 also WNAC-FM at some point? What was the format(s) of that? Were there any previous call letters?

 

[pqgeorge]

Wasn't 98.5 also WNAC-FM at some point? What was the format(s) of that? Were there any previous call letters?

That is true. From 1948 until 1963, WNAC and WNAC-FM were a total simulcast. The WRKO-FM call-letters were assigned in 1960, however it was strictly for warehousing the "WRKO" call-letters. WNAC experimented with Top-40 in 1960 and was planning to use the WRKO call-letters on 680. However, the Top-40 format died before the WRKO call-letters were to be assigned. SO, to insure the "WRKO" call-letters were to stay with RKO General, they simply put it on the FM and only ID'ed it on the hour and half hour. In 1963, they started some separated (non-duplicated) programming on WRKO-FM 98.5. Basically it was middle-of-the-road/oldies music. Of course at midnight on October 12, 1966, WRKO-FM fired up "ARKO" for a few hours to test the Top-40/oldies format on the air. It went full-time the following morning after 9:00 AM after the daily 3 hours of simulcasting of WNAC, which was continued for a while (for the FCC required news and information obligations). Otherwise from 9:00 AM until midnight, it was "ARKO, the shy but friendly robot". I really enjoyed that short year and a half of "ARKO". WRKO-FM went 24 hours a day once WRKO/680 went rock. WRKO-FM went 50/50 with WRKO/680 after March 13, 1967.

 

[Channel Surf]

Wasn't 98.5 also WNAC-FM at some point? What was the format(s) of that? Were there any previous call letters?

That is true. From 1948 until 1963, WNAC and WNAC-FM were a total simulcast. The WRKO-FM call-letters were assigned in 1960, however it was strictly for warehousing the "WRKO" call-letters. WNAC experimented with Top-40 in 1960 and was planning to use the WRKO call-letters on 680. However, the Top-40 format died before the WRKO call-letters were to be assigned. SO, to insure the "WRKO" call-letters were to stay with RKO General, they simply put it on the FM and only ID'ed it on the hour and half hour. In 1963, they started some separated (non-duplicated) programming on WRKO-FM 98.5. Basically it was middle-of-the-road/oldies music. Of course at midnight on October 12, 1966, WRKO-FM fired up "ARKO" for a few hours to test the Top-40/oldies format on the air. It went full-time the following morning after 9:00 AM after the daily 3 hours of simulcasting of WNAC, which was continued for a while (for the FCC required news and information obligations). Otherwise from 9:00 AM until midnight, it was "ARKO, the shy but friendly robot". I really enjoyed that short year and a half of "ARKO". WRKO-FM went 24 hours a day once WRKO/680 went rock. WRKO-FM went 50/50 with WRKO/680 after March 13, 1967.

Thanks...That is really interesting. So 68-WRKO was originally scheduled to appear seven years before it actually did. That would have completely changed the land scape of Boston AM Top 40 radio of the 60s,
which was dominated by WBZ and WMEX until 1967...

 

[Eli Polonsky]

From 1948 until 1963, WNAC and WNAC-FM were a total simulcast. The WRKO-FM call-letters were assigned in 1960, however it was strictly for warehousing the "WRKO" call-letters. WNAC experimented with Top-40 in 1960 and was planning to use the WRKO call-letters on 680. However, the Top-40 format died before the WRKO call-letters were to be assigned.

I wonder why the 1960 attempt at Top 40 on 680 didn't work? (I wasn't listening that far back at four years old). It had the same killer signal within the Route 128 area as it had in 1967. The 1960 format must have been poorly executed... because when 680 became Top 40 in March 1967 as WRKO with the Drake format, it blew away competition WBZ and WMEX in the teenage/young adult ratings.