WTKK

WTKK

City of license	Boston, Massachusetts
Broadcast area	Boston, Massachusetts
Branding	96.9 FM WTKK
Slogan	"96.9 Boston Talks"
Frequency	96.9 (MHz) (also on HD Radio) 96.9 HD-2 for All Irish Music
First air date	1948
Format	Talk
ERP	22,500 watts
HAAT	224 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	25050
Callsign meaning	TalK
Owner	Greater Media (Greater Boston Radio, Inc.)
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	969bostontalks.com

WTKK is a New England commercial talk radio station, first broadcast out of Boston on 96.9 FM beginning in 1999. It can be heard in eastern Massachusetts, the northernmost area of Rhode Island, southern New Hampshire, and southern Maine. Stations on 96.7 in Rochester, New Hampshire may limit WTKK's potential audience in the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire.^{[citation needed]}

History

The station originated in 1945 as W1XHR (later WXHR), owned by Harvey Radio Laboratories and programmed a classical music format. In 1966 WXHR was sold to a joint venture of Kaiser Broadcasting and the Boston Globe and in 1967 became the beautiful music station WJIB (whose AM successor operates out of the old Harvey Radio Labs building in Cambridge). After several further ownership changes — first to General Electric in 1972, then to NBC in 1983 (three years before the merger between NBC's parent company, RCA, and GE) and Emmis Communications in 1988 — it operated as smooth jazz station WCDJ from 1990 to 1993. After Greater Media bought the station, the station was converted to country as WBCS. The station became WKLB-FM in 1996 after the previous WKLB-FM was bought by Greater Media and consolidated with WBCS, with its frequency being converted to WROR-FM. Smooth jazz returned in 1997 as WSJZ after a format swap with what had been WOAZ (now WCRB); this was dropped in 1999 in favor of the current format.

The station is still owned and operated by Greater Media to this day, with studios in Dorchester along with other Greater Media properties.

WTKK's programming includes shows & personalities such as Michael Graham, Michael Smerconish, John Batchelor, Ron Insana (formerly hosted his own nationally syndicated show which WTKK aired, now provides daily business reports directly for the station), Mel Robbins, The Joe & Huggy Show, The Phantom Gourmet and Rick Shaffer's Money Show, and has previously featured talents such as Jay Severin, Michele McPhee, Monica Crowley, David Stein and Don Imus.

In April 2007, WTKK management attempted to add Boston Herald columnist and talk-show host Howie Carr to its lineup, after the station's syndicated morning show Imus in the Morning was cancelled after Don Imus' comments about the Rutgers University Women's Basketball team got him fired by CBS. But Carr's long-time radio-station employer, Entercom-owned WRKO-AM, blocked that move by exercising a clause in Mr. Carr's contract allowing it to make a matching counter-offer. Carr held out until November 16, 2007, after which point Carr returned to WRKO. On December 3, WTKK resumed broadcasting Imus in the Morning when it was picked up by WABC, but over time was locally limited in its broadcast time, ultimately only airing for 2 hours every weekday morning. In January 2011, WTKK dropped Imus from their lineup completely in favor of an extended edition of their late morning team of Jim Braude and Margery Eagan.

WTKK fired the controversial Jay Severin, a host since 1999, in April 2011 after he said he had slept with female interns at a company he had owned, and defended the practice. He was officially replaced in June 2011 by radio host Doug Meehan. Two months later, when rival station WXKS-AM hired Severin for afternoon drive, WTKK shuffled its lineup to place politics-heavy Michael Graham in the 3 p.m. slot. The current lineup is Eagan and Braude, followed by Meehan late mornings, then syndicated talker Michael Smerconish; Michael Graham, followed by "Daily Wrap", a business news show, then the syndicated John Batchelor and John & Jeff shows.

External links and Citations

• Official Website
• Station History
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WTKK
• Radio-Locator information on WTKK
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WTKK