WMEX (AM)

WUFC

Boston, Massachusetts
Frequency	1510 kHz
Branding	Yahoo! Sports Radio 1510
Programming
Format	Brokered programming Sports talk
Affiliations	Yahoo! Sports Radio
Ownership
Owner	Blackstrap Broadcasting, LLC
History
First air date	October 18, 1934 (1934-10-18) (as WMEX at 1500)
Former call signs	2001-2012: WWZN 2001: WSZE (11 days only) 1995–2001: WNRB 1990–1995: WSSH 1989–1990: WKKU 1987–1989: WSSH 1983–1987: WMRE 1978–1983: WITS 1934–1978: WMEX
Former frequencies	1940–1941: 1470 kHz 1934–1940: 1500 kHz
Technical information
Facility ID	12789
Class	B
Power	50,000 watts day 50,000 watts night 50,000 watts critical hours
Transmitter coordinates	42°23′10.00″N 71°12′10.00″W
Links
Webcast	Listen live
Website	1510nbcsportsradio.com

WUFC (1510 AM) is a radio station licensed to serve the Boston media market. Its programming is a mixture of sports talk (as "Yahoo Sports Radio") and religious programming in the overnight hours (as "1510 Victory Radio"). WUFC is also the radio station for the Boston University hockey team as well as Boston University men's basketball, Boston College High School football, and Harvard football. The station gained its current call letters on October 4, 2012.

On October 18, 2011, it was reported on All Access that the station had been sold to Media Americas Corporation. On April 29, 2014 it was announced Wallis Communications will do a Limited Marketing Agreement pending purchase of WUFC, with a format of "libertarian and personality talk" that will begin on June 9, 2014. Host will include Kevin "Dr K" Wallis, Glenn Beck, Jay Mohr, Stacey Prussman, and Alex Jones.

History

WMEX: Influential jazz and Top 40 station

Founded in 1934 as WMEX by Bill and Al Pote, the station was originally on 1500 kHz, with 500 watts day, 100 watts night from a transmitter site on Powder Horn Hill in Chelsea, and later (1940-1981) from a site off West Squantum Road in Quincy, near the then-WNAC/WAAB (now WMKI) site in the Neponset River valley. After several unsuccessful attempts to move to 1470 with a power upgrade to 5,000 watts, WMEX finally made the move (with power increase) in 1941, just in time for NARBA to move that channel to its current frequency, 1510 kHz. Throughout this period, WMEX operated as an independent (non-network) station with a program schedule filled with everything from live music remotes to ethnic programming. In the early 1950s, the station featured some notable jazz programming, and the recording of a WMEX originated Billie Holiday remote broadcast from a Boston club survives.

In 1957, the Pote family sold WMEX to the Richmond Brothers. Max Richmond, one of the brothers, changed the format of WMEX to a rock and roll dominant pop music format (one of the first in the nation) and hired Arnie Ginsburg, whose nightly rock and roll broadcasts on WBOS (now WUNR) were very popular. The format lasted from 1957 until March, 1975. Max Richmond was reportedly a challenge to work for, with his alleged micro-managing and abrasive personality, yet there is no denying his uncanny ability to spot deejay talent, and to keep his station—despite a poor nighttime signal in many suburban locations—a major player and innovator for many years.

Among Max Richmond's innovations was the hiring of Jerry Williams to conduct a nighttime telephone talk show, with the caller heard on the air, a revolutionary concept in the late 1950s. With the weekday-only Williams show beginning at 10 PM (after many of the young rock and roll audience was in bed), Richmond shrewdly was able to expand the appeal of his station to the adult community in the late night hours. Malcolm X was a favorite guest of Williams, and many WMEX broadcasts featuring Williams and Malcolm X survive. When the Beatles broke in the USA, WMEX was at the forefront, playing virtually every Beatles song available and fueling the already rabid Boston fans. In the early 1960s, main personality Arnie (WooWoo) Ginsburg began his Saturday night Oldies Show, one of the first in the nation to feature early pioneer rock and rhythm and blues recordings in a specialty show.

In the late 1960s, WMEX received a power upgrade to 50,000 watts daytime, still with 5,000 watts at night. Station engineers had to constantly adjust the phasing network as tides in the Neponset River would play havoc with the station's directional pattern. However, the salt-water marsh area provided the station with an excellent coastal signal. While the night signal could not be heard clearly inland to many Boston suburban locations (especially in the growing and affluent western and southwestern suburbs), the station's nighttime transmissions were heard very clearly across the salt water to the Boston city neighborhoods and the working class North Shore areas, which gave the station's programming a more gritty, earthy sound. The salt-water path nighttime transmissions kept going right up to Nova Scotia and Labrador, gaining the station an audience in those areas as well.

WITS: Information, talk and sports

By the late 1960s, WMEX was facing tough competition in the top-40 format from WRKO, which featured a tight playlist, a more "suburban oriented" polish, and a 50,000 watt day and night signal which was heard clearly in all suburbs. However, under the programming of John Garabedian, WMEX countered with an expanded playlist featuring some "progressive rock" album cuts. WMEX shot back up in the ratings and actually beat WRKO in a few demographics and time periods, but it was a temporary—and final—victory for the venerable station. Shortly thereafter, Max Richmond died, and FM radios became more common, especially in cars where WMEX was getting the FM audience who didn't have an FM car radio yet. WMEX decided to abandon top-40 in 1975. Although briefly a MOR station with some talk programming, WMEX captured the broadcast rights to the Boston Red Sox beginning with the 1975 playoffs and became an all-talk station in 1976. In 1978, to better promote its talk format and sports coverage, the station changed call letters to WITS ("We're Information, Talk and Sports")

Adding the Boston Bruins hockey team in the 1978-79 season boosted WITS' sports profile, but the station came in for considerable criticism after the 1978 baseball season when it fired the popular Red Sox commentary duo of Ned Martin and Jim Woods. Although Martin was able to continue broadcasting the Red Sox on TV, Woods never again broadcast the team's games on a regular basis.

Long a 5,000-watt station, WMEX/WITS in the 1970s had a daytime power output of 50,000 watts and a nighttime power of 5,000 watts, which led to a less-than-perfect signal in parts of the Boston area, especially at night. WKBW, with 50,000 watts, right next door to WMEX on the dial, at 1520 from Buffalo, New York, and directional straight at Massachusetts, all but buried the weaker 5,000-watt WMEX after dark in the western Boston suburbs (like Wellesley). On the other side of WMEX, was an equally strong signal from a Washington, DC station (then WTOP), which, together with WKBW, would really put the squeeze on WMEX's signal at night. One would really have to "eke out" the 1510 signal, in the face of these 50 kW blowtorches. In 1981, the station moved its transmitter to Waltham and was able to boost power to 50,000 watts day and night. But while some areas did get an improved signal, especially at night, other areas did not.

Not long afterwards, WITS' owner at the time, Mariner Communications, suffered financial problems. The station lost the Red Sox and Bruins, and had to abandon its talk format.

Since 1983: Multiple call signs — and formats

WWZN's logo as "1510 the Zone", used from the fall of 2002 until December 2008.

WITS flipped to an adult standards format under the call sign WMRE "The Memory Station", but was not successful. Other formats quickly followed, one after the other. Among them were a return to talk (featuring Morgan White Jr. and Bob Katzen), soft adult contemporary (as WSSH), country (as WKKU), a return to soft adult contemporary (again as WSSH), and (as WNRB) first, brokered religious programming and then Spanish-language programming, before settling on sports under the call letters of WWZN. Most WWZN programming came from the One-On-One Sports Network, and from One-On-One's successor, Sporting News Radio. For a time, there were local sports talk hosts on WWZN such as Sean McDonough, Ryen Russillo and Boston sports-talk legend Eddie Andelman.

During this time, Paul Allen's Rose City Broadcasting held the license. Allen also owned Sporting News Radio and The Sporting News magazine. For a few years, WWZN had the local radio broadcasts of the Boston Celtics basketball team, but the station did not renew the deal when it expired at the end of the 2004–2005 NBA season.

Prior to the station's sale, WWZN started to rely on time-brokered programming in addition to its coverage of Sporting News Radio. On May 31, 2007, Blackstrap Broadcasting completed its purchase of this station and WSNR in the New York City area (licensed to Newark, New Jersey). In the fall of 2007, WWZN moved from Burlington, MA to brand new studios overlooking the ocean at Marina Bay in Quincy, MA.

From 2008 until 2012, the station aired progressive talk shows as brokered time including a local show hosted by Jeff Santos. For now a one-hour version of the Santos show appears weekdays at 6 am on WRCA. WUFC aired NBC Sports Radio from 6 AM to 10 AM and 7 PM to 1 AM weekdays, with a local show, "The Bawstin Diehards", from 10 AM to noon. Yahoo! Sports Radio airs at other times. The NBC Sports Radio affiliation lasted until late 2013, when Yahoo! took over during NBC's hours. In addition to sports programming, WUFC airs the "Overcomer Radio Ministry" with Brother Stair during the overnight hours. On March 11, 2013, WUFC began airing the local show Sports Stamp from 6 to 8 am followed by Danny Picard at 8 am, a new local show at 10 am, and Bawstin Diehards at noon. Former WEEI personality Pete Sheppard hosted an afternoon show on the station from April through September 2013.

The highly directional, 50,000 watt signal of WUFC protects directional Class A, 50,000 watt, WLAC in Nashville (which also protects WUFC since the original WMEX pre-dated WLAC on the frequency).

Previous Logo

(WUFC's logo under previous NBC Sports Radio affiliation)

External links

• Facility details for Facility ID WUFC ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
• Google Maps Satellite and Street view of WUFC AM broadcasting towers

Preceded by 850 WHDH 1947–1975

Radio Home of the Boston Red Sox 1976–1982 (as WMEX/WITS)

Succeeded by 99.1 WPLM-FM/680 WRKO 1983–1994