WBMX
 | This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: The merger of WBCN content into this article in 2021 was seemingly more "as-is" than it could have been, with some duplication regarding the move of the "Mix" programming and the sale to Entercom. (December 2022) |
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Broadcast area | Greater Boston |
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| Frequency | 104.1 MHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | Mix 104.1 |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Hot adult contemporary |
| Subchannels | HD2: "WAAF" (active rock) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | May 1958[1] |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | "Boston's Mix" |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| 26897 | |
| Class | B |
| ERP | 21,000Â watts |
| HAAT | 235 meters (771Â ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°20′50.3″N 71°4′57.1″W / 42.347306°N 71.082528°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast |
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| Website | |
WBMX (104.1 FM) is a radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, serving Greater Boston with a hot adult contemporary format. The format started at 98.5 FM on February 9, 1991, and moved to 104.1 FM, replacing WBCN on August 12, 2009, to allow for the launch of WBZ-FM at 98.5 the next day. Its studios are located in Brighton, and its transmitter is on the upper FM mast of the Prudential Tower in Downtown Boston.
The 104.1 MHz facility went on the air in 1958 as WBCN. A classical music station for its first ten years, beginning in 1968 WBCN featured a rock format for 41 years. Known as "The Rock of Boston", WBCN became a legend in the rock music industry for breaking many bands, including U2.[3] WBCN was a modern rock/active rock station that mixed music that has been popular in the modern rock, alternative rock and classic rock genres. WBCN switched to digital-only on August 12, 2009, with two digital-only automated streams: one on the HD2 channel of WBZ-FM continuing the modern rock format and the other known as Free Form BCN, airing an eclectic mix of rock, related genres, and new music - essentially the WBCN of 1968 to 1988, brought into the 21st century. Free Form BCN continued on the air until January 2016. The station's battle of the bands' competition, the Rock 'n' Roll Rumble, survived the station's demise. WBCN's local music specialty show, Boston Emissions—along with The Rumble—moved to then-sister station WZLX, now owned by iHeartMedia, in 2009. Boston DJ Anngelle Wood[4] remains the host and music director of both the radio show and The Rumble—these are the last remaining ties to the original 104.1 WBCN programming.[5]
WBCN was replaced on the 104.1Â MHz facility by the Mix brand, hot adult contemporary format, and WBMX call sign that had debuted at 98.5 MHz in 1991. From 2017[6] to 2026, the station operated under the call sign WWBX, allowing its sister station in Chicago to use WBMX.
History
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WBCN
[edit] | This section needs more citations. (April 2026) |
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.[7]
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 10:00Â p.m. to 2:00Â 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
[edit]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