, shared with CBS's other Boston FM stations (and built for former sister station
WSBK-TV in an
antebellum style favored by that stations' then-owner,
Storer Broadcasting) since 2009. The building also housed WBCN's studios starting in 2005.
WBCN In May 1958, 104.1 FM officially signed on as WBCN, airing
classical music. The
call sign stood for the
Boston Concert Network (along with Hartford's
WHCN, New York City's
WNCN, and Providence's
WXCN). One of the on-air personalities at that time was
Ron Della Chiesa, who also served as the music host and program director. Della Chiesa is still active in classical music broadcasting on
WCRB. In 1965, Nathaniel Johnson was appointed Music Director of WBCN by station program director Don Otto. Johnson remained with the station until 1967, just prior to the changeover from classical to
easy-listening, and then to rock. Johnson then left WBCN to assume a new position at
WGBH. The station slowly began to change to an "underground"
progressive rock format on the night of March 15, 1968. BCN's first rock announcer, "Mississippi Harold Wilson" (Joe Rogers), used the station's first slogan, "The American Revolution" and played the first song "
I Feel Free" by the rock group
Cream. At first, the new "American Revolution" format was only heard during the late-evening and overnight hours, but in mid-May, the station expanded the rock programming to 24 hours a day. By June 1968, the station's air staff included Mississippi,
Peter Wolf (who was just starting with the
J. Geils Band), Tommy Hadges, Jim Parry, Al Perry, and Sam Kopper was joined by Steven "The Seagull" Segal. Segal's arrival was critical to the station's early development since he came in from Los Angeles and San Francisco, where he had been mentored by the legendary West Coast DJ
Tom Donahue, who was credited with starting the first underground rock FM station at
KMPX the year before. Segal's West Coast radical radio consciousness infused the early 'BCN. In the summer of 1968, Kopper was made the station's first program director. That fall, Segal and Kopper hired
J. J. Jackson as a disc jockey. Twelve years later, JJ would become one of MTV's first VJs. In December 1968, Peter Wolf left to take the J. Geils Band full-time and, introduced to the station by Jim Parry,
Charles Laquidara was hired to take over the 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. air shift. Between late 1968 and early 1971, as program director, Kopper sought out and hired Norm Winer, recently graduated from Brandeis; Andy Beaubien, recently graduated from URI; and Maxanne Sartori, who came in from her DJ position at
KOL-FM in Seattle. WBCN began supporting non-mainstream investigative reporting and alternative news coverage, including reports from demonstrations and highly produced montage news reports. The news department was initially headed by Norm Winer, who later became program director. For a brief period during that transition, Charles Laquidara, who was acting program director hired Robert "Bo" Burlingham as news director. Bo resigned shortly thereafter when his name appeared on a UPI news wire as one of several people being indicted by then-Attorney General John Mitchell—a charge which was later dropped.
Danny Schechter replaced Bo Burlingham and immediately billed himself as "the News Dissector". Along with
Andrew Kopkind, John Scagliotti,
Bill Lichtenstein, and Marsha Steinberg, the news department evolved radically, introducing such novel concepts as a show oriented toward prison inmates, health warnings about the hazards of street drugs, a lost pet-finding service called the
Cat and Dog Report, a travelers' aid service called the ''Travelers' Friend'', live updates on the traffic problems at
Woodstock, and by 1970, live-to-air concert broadcasts. WBCN's programming in 1971-72 bore little relationship to the
Billboard Hot 100 or any other conventional programming. Classical music, jazz, or anything else might be played, as long as the skillful DJs could make it work. For the first time, the owners of the station began to make a profit. However, there was always tension between the artistic expression of the DJs, and management's need to run a business, resulting in the unionization of the station with the
United Electrical Workers in 1971. Popular legend holds that WBCN was sent a promotional copy of
The Beatles' unreleased
Get Back album and played it on the air before the release of the album was cancelled. The "album" had been compiled out of material the Beatles recorded in London in January 1969, the same sessions that would be used to create the Beatles'
Let It Be album which was released in May 1970. While the existence of the promotional album is apocryphal, the truth behind the broadcast, though less dramatic, is equally as fascinating. In late summer of 1969, WBCN somehow obtained a reel-to-reel tape of a reference acetate of a potential album song lineup prepared by Beatles' engineer Glyn Johns on March 10, 1969. WBCN aired the tape on September 22, 1969. Although WBCN was not the only radio station, or even the first station, to air material from the
Get Back sessions —
WKBW in
Buffalo was the first, and the tapes also aired on
WEBN in
Cincinnati,
WBAI in New York City, and
KCOK in
St. Louis — WBCN's broadcast of the tapes has been immortalized because it was preserved on a high-quality reel, which spawned several widely circulated Beatles bootlegs. By 1975, WBCN had gradually evolved from the underground/progressive format of the 1960s to the more mainstream
album oriented rock format popular in the 1970s. Unlike most rock stations of the era, WBCN still allowed a degree of individual DJ control of the music. Their playlist in general was more varied than many of their competitors, there was some focus on local music (also see the
WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble), and the station was known nationwide for breaking acts (
The Cars,
'Til Tuesday,
U2) and setting trends.
Oedipus (who had the first punk rock show in the country while at MIT's college station,
WTBS) was hired first as a DJ in 1977, and then installed as program director in 1981, and helped to break
The Ramones,
The Clash,
The Police, and countless punk and new wave bands out of Boston. In the period around 1975,
John Garabedian, now recognized for the nationally syndicated
Open House Party (which was once heard locally on
WXKS-FM), was an afternoon DJ on WBCN. In 1979, the station was purchased by Hemisphere Broadcasting, who let go several longtime employees who they determined "non-essential". This set off a local controversy in Boston that resulted in the entire airstaff walking off the air striking in protest. During the walkout, WBCN stayed on the air with substitute DJs imported from several out-of-town Hemisphere sister stations. The protest got local media coverage and the attention of several well-known Boston-based music acts, including The Cars,
Aerosmith, and
Boston, who got behind the protest. When several large advertisers pulled spots, and the union filed a challenge to Hemisphere's license (pointing out that by forcing the staff out on strike, Hemisphere had created a situation where it could not provide the public service it was required to), Hemisphere relented, the fired staffers were rehired and the DJs went back on the air. (It was also rumored that Hemisphere's FCC lawyers had vetoed the course of action advised by Hemisphere's labor lawyers). Charles Laquidara played
Superman by
The Kinks back to back for an entire show in celebration. By the mid-1980s, WBCN had successfully fended off a number of challengers (the hard rocking but tightly formatted
WCOZ,
Top 40 Hitradio WHTT, classic rock WZLX, among others) to become/remain the region's top rock station. Many of the DJs, particularly morning "Big Mattress" host
Charles Laquidara, were now local quasi-celebrities. Laquidara had
Billy West on the show on a daily basis, as well as Karlos, the first computer-generated (using
Digital Equipment's
DECtalk) on-air personality in radio history. Legendary Boston stripper
Princess Cheyenne hosted a Sunday night sex advice show that eventually led to one of her appearances in
Playboy Magazine in April 1986. The station was more commercial and "programmed" by this point, but still retained some of its progressive energy and edge. By the 1990s, WBCN was at a crossroads. With its audience aging, it risked becoming a classic rock-focused station and losing its currency as an outlet for new music. For a long time, WBCN successfully balanced new and old music (featuring the slogan "Classic to Cutting Edge"). In the early 1990s, the station began airing the nationally syndicated
Howard Stern Show, but aired it in the evenings on tape delay instead of during morning drive. This allowed them to retain their "Big Mattress" morning show along with its large and loyal audience.
Active rock era In early 1994, WBCN made its first major format adjustment since 1968. The old DJs, station IDs, and classic rock were gutted, replaced by an
alternative music format featuring new, younger jocks. On April 1, 1996, the Stern show was moved to mornings. The station lost some of its longtime listeners (who migrated to the now co-owned WZLX, where former WBCN DJs Laquidara and Carter Alan had gone), but quickly gained credibility among many younger people. Starting in 1997, WBCN started following and participating in the "Monday Night Wars" between
WWF (WWE) and
WCW. This was helmed by WBCN personalities ChaChi Loprete and Cali. The two helped bring
WrestleMania to the
TD Garden, the "DX Workout" to Boston's
City Hall Plaza, and
Stone Cold Steve Austin and
Vince McMahon to
CambridgeSide Galleria which saw McMahon being thrown into the
Charles River. Following the success of those events, WBCN and Cali began combining rock music and sports entertainment. In the summer of 1999, WBCN moved its format away from strictly alternative music and more towards an
active rock-leaning
modern rock format. The station by this time was playing some hard rock and
Nu metal acts such as
Godsmack,
Korn,
Limp Bizkit, and
Linkin Park. By the fall of 2002, certain classic artists, such as
Aerosmith,
Led Zeppelin, and
Ozzy Osbourne, were added back in the station's playlist rotation. Much of the station's programming focused on syndicated talk shows (former WAAF personalities
Opie & Anthony replacing
David Lee Roth, who had previously replaced
Howard Stern in morning
drive time). During the autumn months, WBCN became more focused on sports as the station broadcast the games of the
NFL's New England Patriots beginning in 1995. In early 2006, with the Howard Stern morning drive time show gone due to Stern moving to
Sirius Satellite Radio, WBCN experienced a plummet in
Arbitron ratings that the station had not observed since the late 1970s and early 1980s, when it fell behind then rock format competitor WCOZ. The station started to air the syndicated
Opie & Anthony during the morning drive. WBCN also launched
The Toucher and Rich Show, a new locally produced comedy-based afternoon drive time show starring Fred Toettcher and Rich Shertenlieb. The duo formerly worked together at
Atlanta alternative station
WNNX. In 2007, the station was nominated for the Top 25 Markets Alternative Station of the Year Award by
Radio & Records magazine. Other nominees included
KROQ-FM in Los Angeles,
KTBZ-FM in Houston,
KITS, in San Francisco,
KNDD in Seattle, and
WWDC in Washington, D.C. In December 2008, the station ceased airing
Opie & Anthony in morning drive and moved
Toucher and Rich from afternoons. During the following months, industry insiders, local media, and even WBCN's on air staff speculated that, in a matter of time, WBCN could see a format change, especially after the
Boston Herald ran an article in the March 30, 2009, issue about WBCN's future, and the station airing a
Top 40 format for a few hours the following day (April Fool's Day). From 1995 to 2008, WBCN was the flagship station of the
Patriots Rock Radio Network, which broadcast games of the New England Patriots.
Gil Santos, former
WBZ sports reporter, did
play-by-play, while
Gino Cappelletti, former Patriots star, provided
color commentary. With WBCN's dissolution as an analog station, the Patriots flagship station became WBCN's sister station
WBZ-FM on August 13, 2009.
Digital only On July 14, 2009,
CBS Radio announced that WBCN would sign off the 104.1 MHz frequency the following month. WBCN's last four days on analog radio were celebration and retrospective shows highlighting WBCN's history. Bradley Jay (later, he became host of the weekday overnight talk show, "
Jay Talking", on AM sister station
WBZ) was the last DJ. The final songs on WBCN were
Cream's "
I Feel Free", the first rock song played on WBCN in 1968, and
Pink Floyd's "
Shine On You Crazy Diamond", followed by a much-used collage of songs with the line "They're really Rockin' in Boston..." and station bits and ID spots used over the years, which then slowed to a halt before the final words were delivered, borrowing the tagline of the late
Darrell Martinie, the Cosmic Muffin: "Over and out." At 12:05 a.m. on August 12, 2009, the station went into a static-like sound, and after a few moments, a voice read the new station identification: "WBMX, WBMX-HD1, Boston" over the "static". The static was broadcast on 104.1 until 2:00 a.m. At that time, "Mix 98.5" officially moved to 104.1, playing "
Use Somebody" by
Kings of Leon as their first song after the move. That song was in heavy rotation on WBCN during the months leading up to CBS Radio's announcement of the station's demise, and continued until the four-day farewell began.
HD Radio substations on the FM frequencies changed as well: • WBCN's 104.1 analog and HD1 moved to 98.5 (WBZ-FM) HD-2. • "WBCN's Free Form 104", moved from 104.1 HD2 to 100.7 (WZLX) HD3 and was renamed "Free Form BCN". It was programmed by
Sam Kopper, WBCN's first rock program director, and also featured past events from the WBCN archives. • "Indie 104.1" on 104.1 HD3 ceased operations. • WBMX moved all of its subchannels with it from 98.5 to 104.1: "Mix" on analog and HD1, "The '80s Channel" on HD2, and "The Sky" on HD3. This was done to make room for an all-
sports talk format at the 98.5 FM frequency, known as "98.5 The Sports Hub" WBZ-FM. WBCN's
Toucher and Rich morning show began broadcasting on WBZ-FM on August 14, 2009. WBCN's afternoon DJ Rob Poole, known on air as "Hardy", announced on his final WBCN show that he would co-host a sports-themed show on WBZ-FM on Saturday mornings. To keep the intellectual property of WBCN intact, without another station in Boston making claim to it, CBS Radio parked the WBCN call letters on
WFNA, a station located at 1660 AM in
Charlotte, North Carolina. The Charlotte station was a semi-satellite of
WFNZ 610 AM, known then as "The Franchise", an all sports talk station. The FCC approved the transfer in the spring of 2009. As part of the switch, the WBMX call letters were parked on 1660 AM in Charlotte from July 29, 2009, until WBCN signed off for the last time at 104.1 in Boston on August 12, 2009. On September 14, 2009, WBCN split from WFNZ and became "America's Talk", a conservative-leaning talk station. It returned to sports programming in 2013 as a full-time satellite of
CBS Sports Radio.
WBCN Free Form Rock "WBCN Free Form Rock" (originally "WBCN Free Form 104", then "Free Form BCN") was a digital-only radio station broadcasting on the Internet and in the Boston radio market on WZLX 100.7 HD3. The station, programmed by BCN's original 1969 program director, Sam Kopper, began airing in February 2009 as "WBCN Free Form 104", airing, until the demise of the original WBCN, on 104.1 HD2. Since WBCN's change to digital-only, the station was known as "Free Form BCN" and then "WBCN Free Form Rock" by late September 2009. WBCN Free Form Rock was formatted essentially the same as WBCN's 104.1 FM's 1968-88 incarnation (a great deal of rock, rock's related genres, and new music), different from the modern rock format that was carried on 98.5-HD2. "WBCN Free Form Rock" was formatted to play multiple music genres (including rock, jazz, the blues, and country). WBCN Free Form Rock was advertised to be a replica of the original WBCN format circa 1968 to the early 1990s, playing any song it wants, including rock and relative genres. In late 2009, the station begun to increase its DJ'd programming. While it was automated most of the time, it was increasing its live weekdays, and hinting about the potential for more programming as listenership increased. However, on January 29, 2016, "WBCN Free Form Rock" was dropped from WZLX-HD3 and flipped to
adult standards as "The Lounge". On December 19, 2017, the HD3 channel was removed.
End of WBCN On February 2, 2017, CBS announced that they would be selling their radio division to
Entercom, whose existing properties in the Boston area included WBCN's long-time rival,
WAAF. However, the combined company would have to shed some of its Boston stations to satisfy
Federal Communications Commission and
Department of Justice requirements. On October 10, 2017, CBS disclosed that as part of the process of obtaining regulatory approval of the merger, WBZ-FM would be one of sixteen stations that would be divested by Entercom, along with sister stations
WBZ and WZLX, and Entercom stations
WRKO and
WKAF, with Entercom retaining WEEI AM and FM, WBMX,
WODS and WAAF. On November 1, 2017,
Beasley Media Group announced that it would trade
WMJX to Entercom, in exchange for WBZ-FM (WBZ, WZLX, WRKO, and WKAF were acquired by
iHeartMedia). The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17. Beasley took complete ownership of the station on December 20, 2017. Shortly after the transfer to Beasley was completed, WBCN was replaced with "Hubcast", a replay of segments and podcasts from air personalities from "The Sports Hub".
Mix 104.1 On July 14, 2009, CBS Radio announced that WBMX would move from 98.5 FM to 104.1 FM, replacing WBCN; these moves were made to launch a
sports talk station,
WBZ-FM, at the 98.5 frequency. while the first song "Mix" played on 104.1 was "
Use Somebody" by
Kings of Leon. On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with
Entercom (which locally owned
WEEI,
WEEI-FM,
WRKO,
WKAF, and
WAAF). WBMX,
WODS, and WAAF were retained by Entercom, while sister stations
WBZ and
WZLX, as well as WKAF and WRKO, were spun off to
iHeartMedia (WBZ-FM would be traded to
Beasley Broadcast Group in exchange for
WMJX, making WBMX and WMJX sister stations.) 104.1 picked up the new callsign WWBX on December 4, 2017. On Sundays, from 5 a.m. until noon, the station airs "Acoustic Sunrise", featuring acoustic versions of songs from the station's playlist. WBMX is the flagship station of the show, which is aired on several Audacy stations nationwide.
On-Air Talent • Morning Show: Karson & Kennedy with Producer Dan • Midday: Kira Lew • Afternoon Drive: Gregg, Freddy, and Andrea ==Alumni==