WVEI videos and info

WVEI, is an AM radio station in Worcester, Massachusetts. It operates at 1440 kHz with 5,000 watts. It simulcasts WEEI sports radio in Boston.

History

The station came on the air in October 1926 as WAGS with 5 Watts on 1200 kHz. and was licensed to Somerville outside of Boston. Its call letters stood for "Willow Avenue Garage Station." During 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 ^[2] ^[3] ^[4] On November 11, 1928 WLEX moved to 1420 kHz. with 100 watts time-sharing with WSSH. On March 20, 1930 the station moved to 1410 kHz and was still time-share ^[3].

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 ^[5]

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 kHz on March 29, 1941. ^[6] ^[2] ^[3] In late 1942 Shephard officially moved WAAB to Worcester, Massachusetts to avoid anti-duopoly rules ^[3] ^[4]. Despite this, ownership of the two stations was broken-apart in 1943. ^[7] On June 15, 1961 it started an FM sister station, WAAB-FM, which later became WAAF.^[6] As early as 1948, the station was broadcasting with 5,000 watts. ^[8]

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 ^[9] ^[10] Morning man Steven Capen recalls the station then and how Atlantic Records purchased it and changed things around in 1967:

In the early 1970s, WAAB began to shift to a talk format. A local sports talk show, "Sportsbeat", was added in the evening with former Boston Bruins TV voice, Don Earle. Bob Merman, who later died of lung cancer and did many anti-smoking ads, was the political talk show host following Don Earle's Sportsbeat. In the fall of 1971, WAAB replaced the Don Earle show with an ambitious nightly news block to 7:00 pm, anchored by Ron Parshley and Mike Cabral (who later went on to become news director at WGNG in Providence-Pawtucket). A news correspondent for this program was Paul Del Colle, a senior at Holy Cross, who assumed news anchor duties for the Bob Merman's talk show, which ended at 11:00 pm. Bob Merman was later replaced by the Wizard of WAAB, the above-mentioned Ron Parshley, a former male witch who did many of his shows on the occult. Ron passed away in 2001. Both Paul Del Colle and Mike Cabral left WAAB and went on to do other things.

About 1972 or 73, WAAB switched to a full-time news/talk format with the All News Morning Journal and the All-News Afternoon Journal during drive times. Talk show hosts included WSB's Bob Coxe, Kurt Oden (who was an aide to Buddy Ciani), Paul Stanford (now running a gift shop in Naples), Bob Morgan on Sports, Ron Parshley, Alan Michael Rowey, Skip Quillia with Tests and Trivia, Dick Steven's Feminine Forum, Jeff Katz, John Gallager (formerly of Westwood Family Dental and East/West mortgage), Steve Booth (daytime talk show producer), Dave Houle (evening talk show producer and later WFTQ p/t announcer), and Mike Moore (sales guru at WAAF). In the newsroom were Forest Sawyer (later to work for CBS, ABC, and CNBC), Bob Parlante (later to work for WHDH and WSB), Aviva Diamond (later to work for ABC), John Sterns, Dave Brown, and Geoff Metcalfe.

In 1976, WAAB became WNCR (Worcester's News Center). The emphasis went to news with all staff being news staff. Beautiful music was automated during non-drive times. The staff included Bob McMahon (now WBZ), Tom Hughes (later working for several Atlanta stations), Larry Cohen, Sarah McGaw, Bob Maxon (who hosted the one talk show), Steve D'agostino (who continued at WFTQ and then the Boston Business Journal), Norm MacDonald (formerly of Channel 4) on Weather, and Greg Gilmartin (later at WTIC) on Sports.

The station owner about this time was Bob Williams.^[12] By December 1977, WNCR changed call letters to WFTQ and was known as "Fourteen Q" (14Q).^[6] ^[2] ^[13]^[14]. Worcester's 14Q was a full-service adult-contemporary format station playing a mix of music from the 60's, 70's and 80's and weather reports every 20 minutes [49].

In March 1981 the Katz Agency purchased WFTQ and WAAF from Park City Communications. ^[15] In 1986 the Katz Agency sold all its radio stations ^[16] 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.^[17]

During the eighties WFTQ was known as "Worcester's Weather Station".^[18] As early as 1985, WFTQ was broadcasting in stereo using the 40 kHz Kahn system ^[19]

During the summer of 1989 NewCity Communications, Inc. sold WFTQ and WAAF to Zapis Communications in exchange for Atlanta station WEKS-FM.^[20] ^[21] WFTQ then underwent restructuring.^[20] By 1990, WFTQ called itself "The Sports Channel" and was known for broadcasting live Celtic games.^[22]

WFTQ's notable personalities included: J.Bruce, Mark Laurence, Lorraine LeDuc, Mike Finneigan, Dave Taylor, Steve LeVeille, Don Kelley, Dave Houle, Chuck Perks, Gary Nolin, Bill Robert, Karen Williams, Mike Shaun, Mike Warshaw, Cliff Blake, Dave Windsor, Donna Halper, Steve D'Agostino, David Gablaskis, Steven Brown, Paul Stevens, Steve York, David Bernstein, Harry Jacobs, Roger La Plante, Jeff Taylor, Chris Tracy, John Barber, Tim Fontaine, Earl Finkle, Mark Veau, Melanie Moore, Kevin Mannix And Featured Shows Like The 14 Minute Flashback At Noon, 6p And 9p, Solid Gold Saturday Night With Dick Bartley, American Top 40 With Casey Kasem. Memorable Station Events: The 14Q Sock Hop, The Bed Race For MDA, Chili Challenge, Neighborhood Block Parties^[23]^{[not in citation given]}.

WFTQ had massive lay-offs, however, and began simulcasting WAAF-FM on January 15, 1991. ^[24] Over the summer of 1991, General Manager John Sutherland cited 18 months of "substantial losses" due to poor advertising sales.^[25] On September 3, 1991 WFTQ changed its call letters to WVEI and began simulcasting WEEI (590 Boston), a sports-talk station.^[6] ^[25].

In 1994 WVEI changed calls to WWTM^[7] and was known as "Worcester's Team." It briefly had a local sports format.^[6] At the time, station Chief Engineer Eric Fitch wrote, "We have just recently changed our call sign from WVEI to WWTM, effective October 1, 1994. Prior to that we simulcast WEEI from Boston. With their move to the old WHDH frequency of 850 kHz, we found we would be better off programming the station ourselves with IMUS in the Morning, The Fabulous Sports Babe Mid days, Kiley and the Couch 2P to 6P, Dan Miller 6P to 10P and Ron Barr with sports By-Line USA overnight. We also feature Holy Cross Football and Basketball, Giants Football, Bruins Hockey (when they actually play a game), and selected games from the Mutual network." ^[14]

On July 31, 1996, Zapis Communications announced it was selling both WWTM and WAAF-FM to American Radio Systems (ARS) for $24.8 million.^[26]

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.^[27]

In late 2000, Entercom closed down local operations at partial Worcester simulcast WWTM, returning that station to a full WEEI simulcast and the WVEI calls it had used while simulcasting the old WEEI 590 kHz.^[28]

WEEI's network of relay stations grew again in 2006, when the former WBEC-FM (105.5 MHz Pittsfield) was relicensed to Easthampton, in the Springfield market, and was sold to Entercom to become WVEI-FM.

WAAB Personnel Highlights

Steven Capen A.K.A. Stephen Kane, Mornings, Music Director 1966 - 67 ^[30] ^[31]

WFTQ Personnel Highlights

Steve LeVeille, Mid-Day Newscaster 1986, News Director 1987, Operations Manager (Program Director) 1989, Morning Show 1990–1991 ^[6] ^[36] ^[37]

David Gablaskis, host of "First Amendment" Sunday morning community affairs program, 1987 ^[45]

WWTM Personnel Highlights

Network and sports game broadcasts history

External links

References

^ "Worcester Market Ratings", Radio & Records.
^ ^a ^b ^c FYBush
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Boston Radio
^ ^a ^b ^c Old Radio, Shepard.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f OldRadio, Bos1.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Boston Radio Gallery.
^ ^a ^b Boston Radio
^ Jeff.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Mark. July 12, 1965 Chart Survey image.
^ Worcester Magazine.
^ ^a ^b Kane.
^ AccessMyLibrary.
^ Worcester Magazine, Lead.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Ernie Cooper's QSL Verie Collection; WNCR, WWTM", National Radio Club. Retrieved on 20 June 2008.
^ New York Times.
^ Funding Universe.
^ Cox.
^ Boston Radio, Weather.
^ Totse.
^ ^a ^b ^c Newsbank 131. If Newsbank search expired, go to telegram archives and search WFTQ article September 2, 1989.
^ Newsbank 141. If Newsbank search expired, go to telegram archives and search WFTQ article 1989-03-11.
^ Newsbank 41. If Newsbank search expired, go to telegram archives and search WFTQ article 1990-11-10.
^ "WFTQ Tribute Page", MySpace. Retrieved on 20 June 2008.
^ Newsbank 31. If Newsbank search expired, go to telegram archives and search WFTQ articles for January 4, 1991 and January 10, 1991.
^ ^a ^b ^c Newsbank 11. If Newsbank search expired, go to telegram archives and search WFTQ articles dated 1991-08-08 and 1991-08-31.
^ Find articles.
^ Boston Radio.
^ "The Boston Radio Dial". Retrieved on 20 June 2008.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k 440int.
^ Bay Area Radio.
^ Jive95.
^ Reel Radio.
^ Man From Mars.
^ Cox Radio People.
^ The CSS Team.
^ Radio Steve.
^ Radio Steve, Tripod.
^ InterRep
^ Worcester Union
^ My Oldies.
^ City Desk.
^ Boston Talent.
^ NHRT.
^ ^a ^b Chuck Perks. Also see WWTM.
^ Tobacco Documents
^ Boston Radio Nerw
^ Old Radio Archives.
^ Jeff.
^ ^a ^b WRKO.

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