WFTQ

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WVEI is an AM radio station in Worcester, Massachusetts. It operates at 1440 AM with 5,000 watts. Its antenna tower is located at Latitude 42.29028 and Longitude -71.84639 [32].

The station came on the air in October 1926 as WAGS with 5 Watts at 1200 AM and was licensed to Somerville outside of Boston. Its call letters stood for "Willow Avenue Garage Station." In September - October 1927, the station moved to Lexington, Massachusetts and it returned to the air on October 27, 1927 as WLEX at 1390 kHz with 50 watts. It was located in the home of part-owner Carl Wheeler. The other owner was Jesse Smith Dodge. The station time-shared with WMAF [22] [23] [24]. On November 11, 1928 WLEX moved to 1420 AM with 100 watts time-sharing with WSSH. On March 20, 1930 the station moved to 1410 AM and was still time-share [23].

On April 20, 1931 the station was sold to John Shephard III of Shephard Stores and the station was changed to WAAB in Boston. WAAB moved into the same studios as WNAC. These were new studios at the Hotel Buckminster at Kenmore Square. By 1938 WAAB studios were located at 21 Brookline Avenue [26].

On January 26, 1937 the ownership of WAAB and WNAC (now WRKO) was consolidated under the Yankee Network, Inc. As a result of the NARBA frequency shift, WAAB moved to 1440 Kilohertz on March 29, 1941(1) [22] [23]. In late 1942 Shephard officially moved WAAB to Worcester, Massachusetts to avoid anti-duopoly rules [23] [24]. Despite this, ownership of the two stations was broken-apart in 1943 [2]. After several decades as WAAB, it began a FM sister station WAAB-FM which later became WAAF [1]. As early as 1948, the station was broadcasting with 5,000 watts [28].

In the 1950s and 1960s "14-40 WAAB" was a Top-40 radio station. In 1965, the "Fun-in-the-Sun Guys" were Bill Garcia, Chuck Spencer, Don Stevens and Bob Carrigan [41] [42]. Morning man Steven Capen recalls the station then and how Atlantic Records purchased it and changed things around in 1967:

"I was doing the morning show at WAAB in Worcester, my very first stint in rock & roll radio and in a metropolitan market. My first air name, in fact, Stephen Kane. A lot of firsts. Best of all I was given plenty of latitude. At this point I was so engrossed in my new work I was completely oblivious to the upheaval going on across the country and indeed in radio. A progressive music show -- Cream, The Doors, The Mothers of Invention -- premiered at night hosted by Jeff Starr while we continued our Ron Landryesque comedy in the A.M. It seems that just like almost all of my gigs the good times weren't to last. Atlantic Records bought the station, and you'd think that would be a good thing, but in came the consultants from New York and Washington, the air sound was tightened beyond belief, catchy new jingles added, and it wasn't long before their newly-installed PD, Sebastian Tripp, gave me my walking papers [46]."

In the mid-seventies, WAAB became WNCR and briefly had an all-news format [22]. The station owner about this time was Bob Williams (15). Then, also in the seventies, WNCR changed call letters to WFTQ and was known as "Fourteen Q" (14Q) [1] [13] [22].

In March 1981 the Katz Agency purchased WFTQ and WAAF from Park City Communications [3]. In 1986 the Katz Agency sold all its radio stations [10] to NewCity Communications. This new company was organized at the time by members of Katz management to purchase all of Katz radio holdings, under its subsidiary Katz Broadcasting Co [11].

During the eighties WFTQ was known as "The Weather Station"[12]. As early as 1985, WFTQ was broadcasting in stereo using the 40 kHz Kahn system [14].

During the summer of 1989 NewCity Communications, Inc. sold WFTQ and WAAF to Zapis Communications in exchange for Atlanta station WEKS-FM [6] [7]. WFTQ then underwent restructuring [6]. By 1990, WFTQ called itself "The Sports Channel" and was known for broadcasting live Celtic games [5].

WFTQ's notable personalities included Donna Halper, Don Kelley, and Steve Leveille (1). However, WFTQ had massive lay-offs and began simulcasting WAAF-FM on January 15, 1991 (4).

Over the summer of 1991, General Manager John Sutherland cited 18 months of "substantial losses" due to poor advertising sales [17]. On September 3, 1991 WFTQ changed its call letters to WVEI and began simulcasting WEEI (590 Boston), a sports-talk station [1][17]. WVEI continued to simulcast WEEI's programming when WEEI moved to 850 AM [1]. WEEI is also owned by Zapis Communications [8].

In September 1994 WVEI changed calls to WWTM (2) and was known as "Worcester's Team." It briefly had a local sports format [1].

On July 31, 1996, Zapis Communications announced it was selling both WWTM and WAAF-FM to American Radio Systems (ARS) for $24.8 million [8].

On August 13, 1998 David Field's Entercom purchased both stations for $65 million from CBS as part of an anti-trust settlement of its purchase of ARS [9]. WWTM resumed mostly sumulcasting WEEI programming [1] under the similar call letters WVEI. Visit its external link below.