WEEI-FM
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| City of license | Lawrence, Massachusetts |
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| Broadcast area | Greater Boston |
| Branding | Sports Radio 93.7 WEEI |
| Frequency | 93.7 MHz (also on HD Radio) |
| First air date | April 1960 |
| Format | Sports |
| ERP | 34,000 watts |
| HAAT | 178 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 1919 |
| Former callsigns | WGHJ (1960-1963) WCCM-FM (1963-1974) WCGY (1974-1994) WEGQ (1994-1999) WQSX (1999-2005) WMKK (2005-2011) |
| Owner | Entercom (Entercom Boston License, LLC) |
| Sister stations | WKAF, WAAF, WRKO, WEEI |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.weei.com |
WEEI-FM (93.7 FM, "Sports Radio 93.7 WEEI") is a radio station licensed to serve Lawrence, Massachusetts. The station has a sports talk format, simulcast with WEEI (850 AM). Along with its AM sister, it carries Boston Red Sox baseball, Boston Celtics basketball, and the Boston College football and basketball teams. When local programming is not on WEEI, usually ESPN Radio will air. The call letters WEEI-FM, formerly on a station in Westerly, Rhode Island, were granted on September 21, 2011 as part of a call letter shuffle.
[edit] History
In the station's early days as WGHJ and WCCM-FM, 93.7 aired locally based programming that targeted Lawrence and the Merrimack Valley. In 1974 the station evolved into WCGY, an automated Stereo Top 40/oldies station that targeted the Greater Boston, Massachusetts area, due to the signal's strength. The call letters were chosen with the owner in mind as Curt Gowdy and his children owned and operated the station until the sale to American Radio Systems in 1994.
In 1983, WCGY flipped to an oldies format playing hits of the '50s and '60s. The station, however, did not perform well in the Boston ratings. Some early to mid '70s oldies were mixed in by 1984, and by 1985, the '50s music was gone. The station by then was called "Superhits WCGY". By 1986, the station leaned slightly toward classic rock still playing mostly music from 1964 to 1974. By 1987, WCGY evolved to more of a classic rock format and held on to this format until 1994. From 1992-1994, they were called "Rock 93, WCGY"
On September 30, 1994, after the station was sold to American Radio Systems, WCGY became '70s-formatted WEGQ "Eagle 93.7", which then underwent many changes over its five-year existence. Initially, they played music from 1970-79 ranging from classic rock to disco to pop to pop/rock to novelty to easy listening. As time went on they added late '60s and early '80s music. By 1995, they also leaned toward classic rock. The station's most notable air talent was likely its morning show team, Karlson and McKenzie, who are now on WZLX.
After American Radio Systems was acquired by CBS/Westinghouse, the combined company was required to sell two of their FM stations, along with three AM stations. WEGQ, along with WEEI, WRKO, and WAAF, was sold to Entercom Communications.
After the sale, Entercom changed WEGQ's format on April 1, 1999 to WQSX, "Star 93.7", which was a format that could be described as a combination of '70s and '80s-soul music, dance music and rhythmic hit music, better known as rhythmic adult contemporary. This format, however, didn't catch any fire in the Arbitron ratings, but did have a loyal audience and served a small niche in Boston. The format was also available as an internet-only station. During 2001, controversial "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch was a morning host briefly.
On April 14, 2005, WQSX became WMKK, with an adult hits format branded as "93.7 Mike FM". Inside Radio, a radio industry publication, released information that had this change not taken place, Infinity Broadcasting (interestingly, the group that was prohibited from owning 93.7 itself back in the late 1990s, and is now known as CBS Radio) reportedly would have transformed either WBMX, WZLX, or even WODS into Jack FM on April 15.
Following the Boston Red Sox victory in the 2007 World Series, the station re-branded itself as 93.7 Mike Lowell FM after the third baseman for one day. Similarly, MIKE FM paid tribute to Michael Jackson in July 2009 by re-branding themselves as "Michael FM" and playing Jackson's songs for the afternoon on the anniversary of his death.
On September 8, 2011, it was announced that WMKK would begin simulcasting WEEI's sports radio format on Monday, September 12. The switch took place at 6:00 am that day, after Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird". On September 21, 2011, WMKK changed their call letters to WEEI-FM.
[edit] External links
- WEEI official website
- Station history on bostonradio.org
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WEEI
- Radio-Locator information on WEEI
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for WEEI
- Boston Globe Article
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