WMKI

WMKI

City of license	Boston, Massachusetts
Broadcast area	Greater Boston
Branding	Radio Disney AM 1260
Slogan	Your Music, Your Way
Frequency	1260 kHz
First air date	July 31, 1922 (license, as WNAC)[1] June 17, 1953 (1953-06-17) (as WVDA)[2]
Format	Children's music
Power	5,000 watts
Class	B
Facility ID	48403
Transmitter coordinates	42°16′28.00″N 71°2′32.00″W / 42.2744444°N 71.0422222°W / 42.2744444; -71.0422222 (WMKI)
Callsign meaning	MKI = Mickey Mouse
Former callsigns	WNAC (1922–1953) WVDA (1953–1957) WEZE (1957–1997) WPZE (1997–1999)
Affiliations	Radio Disney (1997-present)
Owner	The Walt Disney Company (Sale pending) (Radio Disney Group, LLC)
Website	www.radiodisney.com

WMKI is a children's radio station in the Boston market. It is owned by The Walt Disney Company, and runs their Radio Disney programming.

History

WMKI began broadcasting in June 1953 as WVDA, after WNAC purchased the 680 kilohertz frequency of WLAW, moved its programming there, and sold the 1260 frequency to Vic Diehm and Associates, Inc.

Most of WVDA's programming was from the ABC Radio Network, with some local programming. Among them were a few DJ shows, and for a brief time in the mid-1950s, a 3-hour morning news block. After just 4 years, the station was sold in 1957 to Great Trails Broadcasting Corp., owned by former Truman administration Commerce Secretary George Sawyer, for $252,000 and became WEZE, becoming an NBC Radio Network affiliate. The station carried most NBC Radio programs, and some local DJ shows featuring softer music.

On October 19, 1959, WEZE began a beautiful music format, branded as "The Wonderful World Of Music",^[3] that targeted older listeners. The station programmed music in uninterrupted quarter-hour blocks during the daytime hours (half-hour blocks at night), and continued to serve as Boston's NBC Radio affiliate until 1966, carrying hourly newscasts, some feature programs, special news events, but very little of the network's "Monitor" weekend service.

In his autobiography, comedian George Carlin describes his experiences as a D.J. at the station, until he was fired after taking the station's news station wagon to New York to buy marijuana (leaving the station unable to cover a prison riot). Carlin wrote that another future comedian, Jack Burns, also worked there as an announcer and newscaster at the station during this time. Although only 5,000 watts, WEZE was one of Boston's top-rated radio stations for most of the 1960s, until the beautiful music format made a big splash on the FM dial late in the decade.

For many years, WEZE's studios were located on the ground floor of the Statler Office Building near Boston's Park Square, with a picture window on the corner of St. James and Columbus Avenues, allowing passers-by to see the announcer at work in the studio.

During the "Wonderful World Of Music" days, there were live announcers, but they spoke only every fifteen minutes, to run down what had been played during the previous quarter-hour, do live commercials, and weather updates.

In the Fall of 1972, WEZE changed formats to a rock 'n roll oldies sound with live personality D.J.s, which was tweaked by mid 1973 by Program Director Steve Hunter and Consultant Kent Burkhardt to include current pop/rock hits as well. Now known as Z-1260, WEZE was now in direct competition with established Top 40 AM stations WRKO, WMEX, and WVBF-FM. Perhaps the best-known announcer during this period was Alan Colmes, who replaced Chuck Kelly in the morning drive slot and who later co-hosted a talk show with Sean Hannity on cable's Fox News Channel. In March 1974, the format was modified again to a more MOR/personality approach.

From August 1975 until early 1977, WEZE tried "The Wonderful World Of Music" again (which was often branded "The Easiest Sound In Town" in newspaper ads, billboards, and television commercials).^[4] Since FM radios still weren't widespread in automobiles, station management hoped that people who would listen to easy-listening FM stations like WJIB-FM at home or work would listen to WEZE on their AM-only car radios while driving to and from their jobs (or other errands). The revival met with very little success given that beautiful music listenership had pretty much migrated to the FM dial.

In early 1977, WEZE became one of the first stations to program what might now be called Adult Album Alternative (or at least what would pass for such a format at that time). This format, promoted as "AlbuM 1260" (spelled as you see it, to denote its frequency as "AM 1260"),^[5] continued until the 1978 sale of the station to New England Continental Media (an ancestor company of Salem Communications), which instituted a Religious format.

Initially the religious format consisted of Contemporary Christian Music, Christian features, teaching, and preaching. Music aired about half the day. The station also was and still is a commercial station. By the mid 1980s local Christian talk shows replaced some of the hours of weekday music programming. More teaching programs were added to replace other music hours eliminating weekday music totally. From 1984 WEZE only played inspirational music on weekends for a few hours.

Salem exercised an option to acquire WBNW 590 in the Fall of 1996, and began a simulcast that resulted in WEZE's entire intellectual property move to 590 and 1260 become WPZE "Praise 1260" in February 1997.

See WEZE for a history of that station since 1997.

The Praise 1260 format took programs that Salem lacked the time to air on 590 WEZE along with about 6 hours a day of Rhythmic Christian Music. The music consisted of Upbeat praise and worship church music, gospel, and soft AC Christian cuts. However, in July Salem decided to sell the station, and it was sold to Hibernia Broadcasting, who switched the station to Radio Disney on November 21. (The Praise 1260 format was closed earlier in that fall in preparation for the sale, and reverted to the WEZE simulcast). The station switched to the current WMKI late in December 1999, and was sold in a group deal to ABC, the owner of Radio Disney, in 2000.^[6]

On August 13, 2014, Disney put WMKI and twenty-two other Radio Disney stations up for sale, in order to focus more on digital distribution of the Radio Disney network.^[7][8] At this time, there is no word on who might purchase the station. Radio Disney had planned to end its over-the-air broadcasts on WMKI (and most of its other stations) on September 26, 2014, but has instead decided to keep the stations on the air until they are sold.

References

External links

• Radio Disney's website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WMKI
• Radio-Locator Information on WMKI
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WMKI