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WRKO
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WRKO
WRKO (680 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by iHeartMedia, WRKO is a Class B AM station that provides secondary coverage to portions of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine during the day, but is highly directional at night to protect a number of clear-channel stations on adjacent frequencies. WRKO serves as the Boston affiliate for ABC News Radio, Coast to Coast AM and This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal; syndicated personalities Joe Pags, John Batchelor and Bill Cunningham; the flagship station of The Howie Carr Show, and the home of radio personality Jeff Kuhner. The WRKO studios are located in the Boston suburb of Medford, while the station transmitter resides in nearby Burlington. Besides its main analog transmission, WRKO simulcasts over the HD2 subchannel of sister station WZLX, and streams online via iHeartRadio.
WRKO is one of three AM stations owned by iHeartMedia in the Boston market that features a spoken word format; WBZ is all news during the day and overnight, with local talk in the evening, while WXKS carries a nationally syndicated conservative talk line up.
The 680 kHz facility went on the air from Lawrence in 1937 as WLAW, the radio station of the Lawrence Daily Eagle and Evening Tribune. The station moved its transmitter from Andover to Burlington in 1947, and began turning its focus to Boston. WLAW was acquired by General Teleradio in 1953 to serve as an upgraded facility for WNAC, replacing 1260 AM; it formally moved from Lawrence to Boston in 1957. The station became WRKO in 1967, in connection to a format change to top 40; after an evolution to adult contemporary music, it would move to a talk format in 1981. Following regulatory issues involving parent company Gencorp, in 1988 RKO General sold WRKO to Steve Dodge's Atlantic Ventures, which became American Radio Systems (ARS) in 1993. After ARS was purchased by the parent company of CBS Radio in 1998, WRKO was spun off to Entercom; when Entercom acquired CBS Radio in 2017, the station was sold to iHeartMedia.
The station first went on the air as WLAW on December 19, 1937, at 680 on the AM dial. The station was licensed to Lawrence, Massachusetts, some 25 miles north of Boston; its transmitter was in nearby Andover. It was owned and operated by Hildreth and Rogers, publishers of the Lawrence Daily Eagle and Evening Tribune. Initially a 1,000-watt daytime-only station, WLAW would boost its power to 5,000 watts in 1940; the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also granted the station authority to operate at night, using a directional antenna to protect the signals of KPO in San Francisco, which had been the dominant station on the clear channel of 680 kHz, and WPTF in Raleigh, North Carolina, which had also been granted nighttime service on the channel.
In 1945, WLAW applied to boost its power to 50,000 watts, and relocate its transmitter to Burlington; the station would make this upgrade in 1947. In conjunction with the move, WLAW opened a Boston studio on Tremont Street in the Theater District; it also maintained a third studio in Lowell. The owners also acquired an FM station: WLAW-FM (93.7 FM) was officially dedicated on November 10, 1947. In mid-1951, WLAW and WLAW-FM moved to new studios at the Hotel Bradford in Boston.
In May 1953, General Teleradio, General Tire's broadcasting division and owner of WNAC (1260 AM), bought WLAW and WLAW-FM from Hildreth and Rogers for $475,000; and concurrently sold WNAC to Vic Diehm and Associates for $125,000. WLAW's availability was seen as a way to "upgrade" the signal for WNAC; in 1947, the FCC denied a request to allow WNAC (1260 AM) to move to 1200 kHz and boost its power, using a directional 50,000-watt transmitter. On June 17, 1953, General Teleradio changed WLAW's call letters to WNAC, moved the old 1260 AM format to 680 AM, and reassigned on- and off-air personnel. In effect, this new WNAC (680 AM) licensed to Lawrence became the successor to WNAC (1260 AM) licensed to Boston. For this reason, this transaction is seen as WNAC "moving" from 1260 AM to 680 AM.
Vic Diehm and Associates subsequently changed 1260 AM's calls to WVDA and launched a new format on that station using WLAW's former studios. WLAW-FM had its license surrendered, as WNAC-FM (98.5 FM) was retained by General Teleradio; a separate station on 93.7 FM also licensed to Lawrence signed on in 1960 as WGHJ; now known as WEEI-FM. While the new WNAC was, for all intents and purposes, a Boston station, its city of license remained in Lawrence until July 25, 1957; at least until 1962, the legal station identification was "WNAC Boston-Lawrence".
For a brief time in 1956 and 1957, WNAC was affiliated with both the Mutual Broadcasting System and the NBC Radio Network after WBZ dropped NBC programming. WNAC remained a Mutual affiliate until the network, of which General Tire (by then doing business as RKO Teleradio Pictures) was a part-owner, was sold in July 1957. WNAC also lost the NBC Radio affiliation to WEZE (1260 AM) (the former WVDA) in 1957. By December 1959, RKO Teleradio adopted the RKO General banner.
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WRKO
WRKO (680 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by iHeartMedia, WRKO is a Class B AM station that provides secondary coverage to portions of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine during the day, but is highly directional at night to protect a number of clear-channel stations on adjacent frequencies. WRKO serves as the Boston affiliate for ABC News Radio, Coast to Coast AM and This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal; syndicated personalities Joe Pags, John Batchelor and Bill Cunningham; the flagship station of The Howie Carr Show, and the home of radio personality Jeff Kuhner. The WRKO studios are located in the Boston suburb of Medford, while the station transmitter resides in nearby Burlington. Besides its main analog transmission, WRKO simulcasts over the HD2 subchannel of sister station WZLX, and streams online via iHeartRadio.
WRKO is one of three AM stations owned by iHeartMedia in the Boston market that features a spoken word format; WBZ is all news during the day and overnight, with local talk in the evening, while WXKS carries a nationally syndicated conservative talk line up.
The 680 kHz facility went on the air from Lawrence in 1937 as WLAW, the radio station of the Lawrence Daily Eagle and Evening Tribune. The station moved its transmitter from Andover to Burlington in 1947, and began turning its focus to Boston. WLAW was acquired by General Teleradio in 1953 to serve as an upgraded facility for WNAC, replacing 1260 AM; it formally moved from Lawrence to Boston in 1957. The station became WRKO in 1967, in connection to a format change to top 40; after an evolution to adult contemporary music, it would move to a talk format in 1981. Following regulatory issues involving parent company Gencorp, in 1988 RKO General sold WRKO to Steve Dodge's Atlantic Ventures, which became American Radio Systems (ARS) in 1993. After ARS was purchased by the parent company of CBS Radio in 1998, WRKO was spun off to Entercom; when Entercom acquired CBS Radio in 2017, the station was sold to iHeartMedia.
The station first went on the air as WLAW on December 19, 1937, at 680 on the AM dial. The station was licensed to Lawrence, Massachusetts, some 25 miles north of Boston; its transmitter was in nearby Andover. It was owned and operated by Hildreth and Rogers, publishers of the Lawrence Daily Eagle and Evening Tribune. Initially a 1,000-watt daytime-only station, WLAW would boost its power to 5,000 watts in 1940; the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also granted the station authority to operate at night, using a directional antenna to protect the signals of KPO in San Francisco, which had been the dominant station on the clear channel of 680 kHz, and WPTF in Raleigh, North Carolina, which had also been granted nighttime service on the channel.
In 1945, WLAW applied to boost its power to 50,000 watts, and relocate its transmitter to Burlington; the station would make this upgrade in 1947. In conjunction with the move, WLAW opened a Boston studio on Tremont Street in the Theater District; it also maintained a third studio in Lowell. The owners also acquired an FM station: WLAW-FM (93.7 FM) was officially dedicated on November 10, 1947. In mid-1951, WLAW and WLAW-FM moved to new studios at the Hotel Bradford in Boston.
In May 1953, General Teleradio, General Tire's broadcasting division and owner of WNAC (1260 AM), bought WLAW and WLAW-FM from Hildreth and Rogers for $475,000; and concurrently sold WNAC to Vic Diehm and Associates for $125,000. WLAW's availability was seen as a way to "upgrade" the signal for WNAC; in 1947, the FCC denied a request to allow WNAC (1260 AM) to move to 1200 kHz and boost its power, using a directional 50,000-watt transmitter. On June 17, 1953, General Teleradio changed WLAW's call letters to WNAC, moved the old 1260 AM format to 680 AM, and reassigned on- and off-air personnel. In effect, this new WNAC (680 AM) licensed to Lawrence became the successor to WNAC (1260 AM) licensed to Boston. For this reason, this transaction is seen as WNAC "moving" from 1260 AM to 680 AM.
Vic Diehm and Associates subsequently changed 1260 AM's calls to WVDA and launched a new format on that station using WLAW's former studios. WLAW-FM had its license surrendered, as WNAC-FM (98.5 FM) was retained by General Teleradio; a separate station on 93.7 FM also licensed to Lawrence signed on in 1960 as WGHJ; now known as WEEI-FM. While the new WNAC was, for all intents and purposes, a Boston station, its city of license remained in Lawrence until July 25, 1957; at least until 1962, the legal station identification was "WNAC Boston-Lawrence".
For a brief time in 1956 and 1957, WNAC was affiliated with both the Mutual Broadcasting System and the NBC Radio Network after WBZ dropped NBC programming. WNAC remained a Mutual affiliate until the network, of which General Tire (by then doing business as RKO Teleradio Pictures) was a part-owner, was sold in July 1957. WNAC also lost the NBC Radio affiliation to WEZE (1260 AM) (the former WVDA) in 1957. By December 1959, RKO Teleradio adopted the RKO General banner.
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