WBOS
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| Broadcast area | Brookline/Boston, MA |
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| Branding | 92.9 WBOS |
| Slogan | "Powered By Music" |
| First air date | 1958 |
| Frequency | 92.9 (MHz) |
| Format | Adult Album Alternative |
| ERP | 18,500 watts |
| Class | B |
| Callsign meaning | BOSton |
| Owner | Greater Media |
| Website | www.wbos.com |
WBOS is an adult album alternative station in the Boston market owned by Greater Media. It is based in Dorchester, broadcasts from the top of the Prudential Tower in Back Bay, and is licensed to the town of Brookline. It broadcasts on the 92.9MHz frequency, closely clustered with fellow AAA stations WMVY (92.7, Martha's Vineyard) and WXRV (92.5, Haverhill). Compared to its competitors, WBOS is considered to lean a bit further towards the pop charts, and in fact its format during the 1990s is said to have completely defied categorization.
WBOS is actively broadcasting using the iBiquity HD Radio digital broadcasting system, but has yet to field a secondary channel, which was announced in January 2006 under the tentative name "Coffee House" and is to feature primarily acoustic and live music.
WBOS was also the name of a shortwave station operated by Westinghouse's WBZ affiliate during the 1940s. (Ironically, the 92.9 frequency now occupied by WBOS was one of the early frequencies used by WBZ's FM station in the 1950s.)
[edit] History
WBOS-FM first signed-on in the late 1950's, simulcasting most of the programming of WBOS-AM. Most of the AM station's programming was beautiful music, but when the AM broadacst ethnic programming, the FM side continued to broadcast beautiful-music, which was branded on both AM and FM as "Boston's Music Theatre".
WBOS was originally owned by Boston businessman Herbert Hoffman. In the 1980's, he sold it to Sconnix, which later sold it to Ackerly Media in 1988. Granum owned the station from 1992 until 1997, current owner Greater Media has had the station ever since.
In 1975, WBOS changed to a hodgepodge format which did not gain much of an audience. In 1978, Boston radio personality Ron Robin, disgusted at the fact that the airtime for his weekly disco music show on WVBF had been cut back, left WVBF and began doing a four-hour Sunday-night disco show for WBOS.
WRKO midday legend J.J. Wright was one of the original rock DJ's for WBOS.
The success of that show led to rapid expansion of the disco programming, first to seven nights a week from 8 P.M. to 12 Midnight (April, 1978), and then to 24/7 in September of 1978. For a brief time in late 1978 and early 1979, WBOS was one of Boston's most popular radio stations. But when WXKS-FM came on the scene with a highly-promoted disco format, including big promotions and hiring away some WBOS jocks, WBOS' ratings suffered.
In January of 1980, the station flipped to an adult contemporary format which was a little less "adult" and a little more "contemporary", but that format would only run for two years. This was followed by a short-lived (January, 1982-July, 1983) attempt at a rock format, programmed for some of that time by legendary Boston rock personality Maxanne Satori.
But the rock format didn't make any inroads against established rockers WBCN and WAAF, not to mention the fast-rising WLYN-FM. On July 14th, 1983, WBOS' format was abruptly changed to country, and was moderately successful for several years.
In 1989, WBOS dropped country and adopted a "triple-A" format, which in one form or another, has been the station's format ever since. Although not near the top of the Boston ratings, WBOS' audience is very desirable to some advertisers and Greater Media is quite content with keeping the station the way it is.
In April 2005, WBOS made changes to play more music and decrease the amount of talk. For example, the mornings no longer feature live DJs. "It's putting the station somewhat back to where it started in terms of its ideals. Listener perception is that radio plays too many commercials and that DJs can be boring and irrelevant," says Buzz Knight, operations manager for WBOS. WBOS usually plays a softer-rock style of music, a unique and diverse mix that also includes older listener favorites. The WBOS audience is perceived as being more sophisticated and mature than the audiences of competing Boston radio stations. Knight says that WBOS will be "the cool station for people over 30".
According to Greater Media, the majority of 'BOS listeners are ages 21-40, either currently attending college or have a degree, and earn more money than the average citizen in Massachusetts.
[edit] External links
| FM radio stations in the Boston, Massachusetts region (Arbitron #11) | |
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(Arbitron #11) |
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¹-Simulcasts as of August 2006. |
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