Unique Formats That Are No Longer Around

[Retro]

Here are a couple of formats that were tried in Boston or around New England that are no longer here:

• WBNW - Business Talk
• WCRA - Show Tunes
• WSTG - The Stage @ 102.1 - sort of a broadway stage/performer type AC format - Seacoast New Hampshire (do not remember the call letters.
  

Just a couple that I could think of anyway.

 

[JIBGUY]

I think he means WRCA for the show-tunes. Even I think that was a boring format.
Isn't WBNW still business-talk??? If not, what ARE they?
Not around anymore:
"Folk/Americana" - WADN-1120
"Beautiful Music" al la WJIB-FM (except that WJIB-AM still does it 12 Mid to 5 AM).
"Country Oldies" - I guess it never WAS here.
Didn't WACQ-1150 do a different type of country at one time?
"True Oldies" - with some 50's; never was here unless you count WCRN a couple years ago.

what else?

 

[raccoonradio]

Smooth jazz (as a format; it does show up from time to time on WMWM though);
prog. talk is gone other than in Western MA and Brattleboro VT

 

[Retro]

I think he means WRCA for the show-tunes. Even I think that was a boring format.
Isn't WBNW still business-talk??? If not, what ARE they?
Not around anymore:
"Folk/Americana" - WADN-1120
"Beautiful Music" al la WJIB-FM (except that WJIB-AM still does it 12 Mid to 5 AM).
"Country Oldies" - I guess it never WAS here.
Didn't WACQ-1150 do a different type of country at one time?
"True Oldies" - with some 50's; never was here unless you count WCRN a couple years ago.

what else?

Yeah, I guess I meant WRCA instead.

Did WBNW resurface? I was referring to when they were on 590 before WEZE moved there instead. Speaking of which WPZE was fairly unique as was 1150 WNFT (Kid Star) also.

 

[rapking]

Urban A/C ( 1090 ) was doing fine until Radio One ( Sale to R.O.) F--- it up.

 

[vibe]

Becasue of their relative demise, I'd like to nominate pure album orientated rock. When growing up I enjoyed such diverse cuts as "Them Changes by Buddy Miles, "Innagadavita" by Iron Butterfly, "In Memory of Lizbeth Reed" by the Allman Bros, or "Gloria" by the Doors" or "That's the Way God Planned It" by Billy preston. Music knew no color ,not like all the segmented stuff of today.
Instead we are now relegated to a bunch of crap from Fleetwood Mac...

 

[NHRadio]

WDIS 1170 Norfolk MA runs a sort of business format but puts little if any signal over anywhere important.

Here are a couple of formats that were tried in Boston or around New England that are no longer here:

• WBNW - Business Talk
• WCRA - Show Tunes
• WSTG - The Stage @ 102.1 - sort of a broadway stage/performer type AC format - Seacoast New Hampshire (do not remember the call letters.
  

Just a couple that I could think of anyway.

 

[jlehmann]

WDIS 1170 Norfolk MA runs a sort of business format but puts little if any signal over anywhere important.

Here are a couple of formats that were tried in Boston or around New England that are no longer here:

• WBNW - Business Talk
• WCRA - Show Tunes
• WSTG - The Stage @ 102.1 - sort of a broadway stage/performer type AC format - Seacoast New Hampshire (do not remember the call letters.
  

Just a couple that I could think of anyway.

Isn't 1060 WBIX business talk, and also 1120 WBNW?

 

[Retro]

Yeah, that makes sense, but I haven't been able to pick up 1060 in ages. I am just due Northeast of Downtown. I guess it would have better been said Bloomberg Radio instead. I do remember 1120 being WBNW now. Did they retain the original automated format?

And speaking of AOR, remember when WBCN was freeform? OK, getting a little off topic now here. ;D

 

[DanStrassberg]

I think he means WRCA for the show-tunes. Even I think that was a boring format.
Isn't WBNW still business-talk??? If not, what ARE they?
Not around anymore:
"Folk/Americana" - WADN-1120
"Beautiful Music" al la WJIB-FM (except that WJIB-AM still does it 12 Mid to 5 AM).
"Country Oldies" - I guess it never WAS here.
Didn't WACQ-1150 do a different type of country at one time?
"True Oldies" - with some 50's; never was here unless you count WCRN a couple years ago.

what else?

No doubt he was thinking of the first WBNW--the one on 590 that is now WEZE. I don't think the WBNW calls moved immediately from 590 to 1120; I think they were unused for a while. 1120 is nominally business talk (they call it personal finance radio), as is 1060, but I think that 1120 has a better claim to the title. Whereas both 1060 and 1120 devote portions of the broadcast day to financial talk and fill the rest of the day with informercials for various health-related nostrums, I think 1120 spends a greater percentage of the time on financial shows than does 1060. 1060 also devotes some of its broadcast day to programs that are neither financial talk nor health-related infomercials. Such programs include the two-hour nightly NECN simulcast and at least six hours a day of lame feeds from the Cable Radio Network (CRN), in which station owner Alex Langer either has a stake or owns outright. Included in the CRN feeds is Langer's own program on fishing and other outdoor sports.

WBNW 1120 is now affiliated with Business Talk Network--the Greenwich CT-based outfit that currently owns WXBR 1460 in Brockton. One of the BTN feeds is Craig Crossman's computer show, which airs nightly for two hours. I suppose a computer show can be said to be only tangentially business related. If I'm not mistaken Crossman's show used to be on the late C-Net Radio, which 890 carried before it became WAMG.

As for the format that ran on 1330 when it first adopted the WRCA calls, it was not simply show tunes; it was called Radio Comedy and Arts, from which the WRCA calls were derived. Though the format flopped, I believe it absolutely deserved the adjective "unique," because I don't think there ever has been anything quite like it in Boston or elsewhere. (The usually misused word means one of a kind; something is either unique or it's not; something cannot be very unique or kind of unique; it can be very unusual or kind of unusual, however. /soapbox) Anyhow, WRCA assembled a rather incredible air staff, including the late and extraordinarily talented Marcia Masters.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Another format that, if not unique, was highly unusual, was WBOQ's excellent jazzy standards, which preceded the flip to the current oldies. Unlike most adult standards formats, which include a lot of schlock (Connie Francis, Al Martino, for example), WBOQ played REAL standards by the great composers of the big-band era and avoided artists who have never managed to sing on key even if their off-key renditions became big hits. (I never said that the blue-hairs' taste wasn't all in their mouths.)

 

[Retro]

I cannot remember who the original company who owned the original WBNW. I just remember American Radio Systems getting a real lot of flack for it.

Yes, now that you mention it, I do remember WRCA being comedy & arts too. I never really listened to it at all, but remembered an article in one of the Boston newspapers about the format though.

 

[jlehmann]

I cannot remember who the original company who owned the original WBNW. I just remember American Radio Systems getting a real lot of flack for it.

Yes, now that you mention it, I do remember WRCA being comedy & arts too. I never really listened to it at all, but remembered an article in one of the Boston newspapers about the format though.

I believe it was AAA Broadcasting, which also owned, a simulcast for 590, 550 WPNW in Pawtucket, RI. They also 106.3 WWKX, and several other stations down in the New London, CT area and on Long Island.

 

[Retro]

If I recall now, it was Back Bay Broadcasting who owned them, at least on paper anyway. AAA did indeed buy them later on, that is WPNW in Providence I think.

If I recall, Salem was already in line to buy WBNW, but the sale got expedited due to the owner of Back Bay Broadcasting's brother untimely dying.

 

[DanStrassberg]

If I recall now, it was Back Bay Broadcasting who owned them, at least on paper anyway. AAA did indeed buy them later on, that is WPNW in Providence I think.

If I recall, Salem was already in line to buy WBNW, but the sale got expedited due to the owner of Back Bay Broadcasting's brother untimely dying.

The first name of the principal owner of the old WBNW 590 was Peter. I can't recall his last name now but if somebody mentioned it, I think I would say "oh yeah." IIRC, the name began with the letter O. (Overmeyer? Don't think so, but the real name might have four syllables.)

A complicated deal between Salem and ARS brought 590 ino the Salem fold (so to speak). I believe that Salem held an option to buy an FM in Portland OR from ARS and somehow was able to trade that option for an option to buy WBNW. Salem then immediately exercised the option to buy WBNW and moved the WEZE calls and format there from 1260, which then became WPZE until it was sold to a company that was acquiring affiliates for Radio Disney and ultimately transferred all of those stations directly to Disney, which then renamed it WMKI.

 

[scooty430]

Becasue of their relative demise, I'd like to nominate pure album orientated rock. When growing up I enjoyed such diverse cuts as "Them Changes by Buddy Miles, "Innagadavita" by Iron Butterfly, "In Memory of Lizbeth Reed" by the Allman Bros, or "Gloria" by the Doors" or "That's the Way God Planned It" by Billy preston. Music knew no color ,not like all the segmented stuff of today.
Instead we are now relegated to a bunch of crap from Fleetwood Mac...

Amen.

WZLX is one of the worst stations in the country now. Sad for a region that once boasted WBCN (the old one.)

 

[WMC2006]

Here are a couple of formats that were tried in Boston or around New England that are no longer here:

• WSTG - The Stage @ 102.1 - sort of a broadway stage/performer type AC format - Seacoast New Hampshire (do not remember the call letters.

Back around 1995 or 1996, 102.1 out of Portsmouth was Seacoast 102, sort of a Top 40 pop station. That went away and became The Stage. Then that went away and they started simulcasting The Shark (WSHK?) out of a nearby town (Epping?) and I think they still do simulcast.

I loved Seacoast 102. I lived up there at that time and it was my fave station. I ended up turning to WERZ after that.

 

[jlehmann]

Back around 1995 or 1996, 102.1 out of Portsmouth was Seacoast 102, sort of a Top 40 pop station. That went away and became The Stage. Then that went away and they started simulcasting The Shark (WSHK?) out of a nearby town (Epping?) and I think they still do simulcast.

I loved Seacoast 102. I lived up there at that time and it was my fave station. I ended up turning to WERZ after that.

Actually when they first started simulcasting 105.3, it was "All Rock & Roll Oldies, The Arrow, 105.3, and 102.1 WXBB." That was back before the o word became almost a swear to use on the radio. The format was actually classic hits, which meant basically classic rock lite.

 

[WMC2006]

Actually when they first started simulcasting 105.3, it was "All Rock & Roll Oldies, The Arrow, 105.3, and 102.1 WXBB." That was back before the o word became almost a swear to use on the radio. The format was actually classic hits, which meant basically classic rock lite.

You're right, I forgot about that. :-[ I now recall trying to listen to Arrow 105.3 and, for some reason, never really got into it. THEN, (I'm quite sure of this ), I switched permanently to WERZ.

But I COULD be wrong. ;D

 

[Retro]

I remember Seacoast 102 (WZEA?), it was a good station!

A friend told me about Arrow up there too, and said that it was better than 'ZLX at the time.