WEZE

WEZE

City	Boston, Massachusetts
Branding	590 AM The Word
Slogan	Boston's Christian Talk
Frequency	590 kHz
First air date	September 29, 1924 (1924-09-29) (license, as WEEI)^[1]
Format	Religion
Power	5,000 watts
Class	B
Facility ID	73594
Transmitter coordinates	42°24′24.00″N 71°5′14.00″W / 42.4066667°N 71.0872222°W / 42.4066667; -71.0872222 (WEZE)
Callsign meaning	EZE = Easy
Former callsigns	WEEI (1924–1994) WBNW (1994–1997)
Former frequencies	990 kHz (1924–1925) 630 kHz (1925–1926) 800 kHz (1926–1927) 860 kHz (1927) 670 kHz (1927) 820 kHz (1927)^[1]
Affiliations	Salem Radio Network
Owner	Salem Communications (Pennsylvania Media Associates, Inc.)
Sister stations	WBIX, WROL, WWDJ
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	www.wezeradio.com

WEZE is an AM radio station in Boston, Massachusetts on 590 kHz. The station is owned by Salem Communications and airs religious programming.

History

The history of the 590 frequency dates back to 1924 as WEEI, owned by (and whose callsign meant) Edison Electric Illuminating. In its earliest days, the station was a public relations vehicle for Edison. In 1926, the station had become a charter member of NBC Radio, broadcasting NBC Red Network programming, before CBS leased them out in 1936 in response to WBZ being leased by NBC for its Blue Network in 1932. Soon after, CBS completely bought WEEI from Edison.

CBS was the last network to maintain a full schedule of radio comedy programs, dramatic series, variety shows, and soap operas in the traditional sense, so such programming took up much of WEEI's schedule until 1960. By the early 1960s, WEEI had a MOR format interspersed with talk programming, making the station a talk radio pioneer. By the mid-sixties, WEEI was all-talk, except in the overnight hours, where "Music 'Til Dawn" would continue for a few more years. Popular WEEI talk hosts ("talkmasters") of the period included Paul Benzaquin, Howard Nelson, and Len Lawrence.

However, in 1974, this format was scrapped in favor of CBS's standard all-news format, which continued after Helen Broadcasting bought WEEI in 1983. (Its FM sister station remained—and continues to be—owned by CBS.)

By 1991, the Boston Celtics had become the owners of the station, and had interspersed sports programming into WEEI's schedule, before the remaining news programs were finally cancelled on Labor Day of that year, taking the station all-sports. The station also took over operations of WVEI in Worcester to simulcast its programming in central Massachusetts.

In 1994, American Radio Systems purchased the WEEI intellectual property, but FCC regulations prohibited them from actually taking over 590 AM. As such, the station was spun off and became WBNW, while ARS merged the old WHDH radio into WRKO and installed WEEI's programming on the 850 frequency. (WVEI was given up and became WWTM, but was later purchased by WEEI and has returned to WVEI.)

WBNW's new business format (mostly supplied from Bloomberg) failed to catch fire, and so the station was sold to Salem Communications in December 1996. Salem moved the religious programming and call letters of WEZE 1260 onto WBNW (which remains on the station to this day) on December 15 of that year, while 1260 became WPZE and was later spun off (and became WMKI).

The void left by WBNW's replacement with WEZE would soon be filled when WADN (1120 AM) started adding financial programming in 1997, eventually changing its format to business news/talk entirely to become the new WBNW. Incidentally, a format similar to WBNW's was installed onto its recently reacquired sister station WBIX in September 2015 by Salem.

For more of the history of WEZE prior to its move to 590 kilohertz, see WBIX.

WEZE-FM

For a short period, Salem Communications operated WEZE-FM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, billed as "Easy 104.7". Though unusual, FCC rules allow co-owned stations in different cities to share call letters between themselves. Salem purchased the Pittsburgh station as part of a strategic move to compete against a Christian-formatted AM/FM competitor, but would have to run another format until the contracts with the client ministries could be obtained. Salem chose to run an easy-listening format until the contracts were obtained in October 1991, when WEZE-FM evolved into WORD-FM.

References

1 2 Halper, Donna; Wollman, Garrett. "The Eastern Massachusetts Radio Timeline: The First Fifteen Years". The Archives @ BostonRadio.org. Retrieved December 28, 2011.

External links

Query the FCC's AM station database for WEZE

Radio-Locator Information on WEZE

Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WEZE

Radio stations in Boston, including Eastern Massachusetts

By AM frequency	590 650 680 740 800 850 890 950 980² 1030¹ 1060² 1090 1120 1150 1200 1230² 1260 1300 1330 1360 1390² 1410 1430 1460² ³ 1470 1490² 1510 1550 1570² 1600

By FM frequency	88.1 88.9 89.7 90.3 90.9 91.5 91.5 91.5² 91.5 91.7 91.9 92.5² 92.9 93.7 94.5 95.3 95.9² 96.9 97.7 98.5 99.1² 99.5 99.9 100.1 100.7 101.7 102.5 103.3 104.1 104.5² 104.9² 104.9 105.7 106.7 107.3² 107.9

Via FM subcarrier	67 kHz Radio Maria Estados Unidos (Spanish) Talking Information Center (radio reading service) TNT Radio Boston (Vietnamese) 92 kHz Radio Voie du Salut (Haitian Creole/English religion)

By NOAA Weather Radio frequency	162.425 162.475

Digital radio by frequency & subchannel	1030 1430 88.9-1 89.7-1 89.7-2 89.7-3 90.9-1 92.9-1 92.9-2 94.5-1 94.5-2 96.9-1 96.9-2 97.7-1 97.7-2 97.7-3 98.5-1 98.5-2 98.5-3 100.7-1 100.7-2 100.7-3 102.5-1 103.3-1 104.1-1 104.1-2 104.1-3 104.1-4 105.7-1 106.7-1 106.7-2 107.3-1 107.3-2 107.3-3 107.9-1 107.9-2

By callsign	KHB35 WAAF² WAMG WATD² WATD-FM² WAZN WBIX WBMX WBNW² WBOQ² WBOS WBQT WBRS WBUR-FM WBWL WBZ WBZ-FM WCAP² WCEC² WCRB WEEI WEEI-FM WERS WESX² WEZE WGBH WHHB WHRB WILD WJDA WJIB WJMN WKAF WKLB-FM WKOX WLYN WMBR WMEX WMFO WMJX WMLN-FM WMVX² WMWM WNG574 WNTN WODS WPLM² WPLM-FM² WQOM WRBB WRCA WRKO WROL WROR-FM WSRO WUMB-FM WUML² WUNR WWDJ WXLO² WXKS WXKS-FM WXRV WZBC WZBR WZLX WZLY

Internet stations	WBCN RadioBDC

Defunct stations	WDIS WFNX WGI/WARC

Nearby Markets Providence Manchester Worcester Cape Cod Concord Newport Springfield Portsmouth ¹ = Clear-channel stations with extended nighttime coverage. ² = A station from a neighboring market that serves Boston and area, and is considered a "Boston station" by Nielsen Audio. ³ = Station is silent.

Salem Media Group

AM radio stations	KBJD KCBQ KCRO KDIZ KDMT KDOW KDZR KEXB KFAX KFIA KGNW KGU KHCM KHNR KKOL KKMS KKNT KLFE KLUP KNTH KNTS KNUS KOTK KPDQ KPRZ KPXQ KRDY KRKS KRLA KSKY KSLR KTEK KTIE KTKZ KTNO KTRB KXXT KYCR KZNT WAFS WAVA WBIX WBZW WDTK WDWD WDYZ WEZE WFIA WFIL WGKA WGTK WGUL WHIM WHK WHKW WHKZ WIND WKAT WLCC WLQV WLSS WLTA WMCA WNIV WNTP WNYM WOCN WORL WPGP WPIT WRCW WRFD WROL WSDZ WTBN WTLN WTWD WWDJ WWMI WWRC WWTC WYLL WZAB¹

FM radio stations	KAIM-FM KBIQ KDAR KDIS-FM KFIS KFSH-FM KGBI-FM KGFT KGU-FM KHCM-FM KHTE-FM* KKHT-FM KKFS KKLA-FM KKOL-FM KKSP KLTY KPDQ-FM KRKS-FM KRYP KSAC-FM KWRD-FM WAVA-FM WBOZ WFFH WFFI WFHM-FM WFIA-FM WFSH-FM WGTK-FM WLTE WORD-FM WRTH WTOH

Salem Radio Network	FamilyTalk Solid Gospel The Word In Praise Today's Christian Music

Salem Publishing	Eagle Financial Publications Eagle Wellness FaithTalk Homecoming Magazine Preaching Magazine Regnery Publishing Singing News Townhall Xulon Press YouthWorker Journal

Salem Web Network	CCMmagazine.com Christianity.com Crosswalk.com Godtube Hot Air Human Events Oneplace.com RedState Townhall.com Twitchy.com

¹ = Co-owned with Florida City Radio under LMA. * = Station owned by Crain Media Group and operated by Salem under LMA.

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