WROR-FM
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WROR-FM | |
 |
|
| City of license | Framingham, MA |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Boston |
| Branding | 105.7 WROR |
| Slogan | Loren & Wally Playing Boston's Greatest Hits |
| Frequency | 105.7 MHz (Also on HD Radio) 105.7 HD-2 for 1970s music |
| First air date | 1960s |
| Format | Classic Hits |
| ERP | 23,000 watts |
| HAAT | 224 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 20438 |
| Callsign meaning | WROR = former call sign of WBMX, original (1996) format was modeled after it |
| Owner | Greater Media (Greater Boston Radio, Inc.) |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.wror.com |
WROR-FM is a radio station licensed to Framingham, Massachusetts. It broadcasts on 105.7 MHz and serves the Boston market. The station offers a classic hits format, with a timespan of the '60s, '70s and '80s.
Contents |
[edit] History
WROR's roots go back to WKOX-FM, the FM sister station of WKOX, then on 1190 AM. WKOX-FM aired classical music for the Boston's MetroWest suburbs until the late 1960s, when it began broadcasting a top-40 format. The two stations were acquired by Fairbanks Communications in 1970.
After the sale, WKOX-FM became WVBF, "The Electronic Mama", as a top 40/rock station. The call letters officially stood for Virginia Brown Fairbanks, the wife of station owner Richard M. Fairbanks (who himself had a station named after himself, WRMF in West Palm Beach, Florida), although some listeners thought they stood for "Voice of Boston from Framingham". WVBF also began to target the Greater Boston area.
During Fairbanks ownership in the 1970's WVBF was a top 40 station, evolving into more of a hot adult contemporary format (by today's standards adult contemporary) over the years. WVBF also had many different nicknames over the years, including "F-105" and "Boston 105". In the early 1990s, WVBF was the radio home of Delilah before she became syndicated across the country.
However, in 1993, citing the growing popularity of country music, WVBF became WCLB, for "The Country Club". The format change was made in an effort to throw off Greater Media from launching a country format on smooth jazz station 96.9 WCDJ, which had just been acquired from Emmis Communications. Nevertheness, Greater Media went ahead with their plans, launching 96.9 as WBCS and leaving the city with two country stations. Confusion with other FM stations and a TV station led to a call sign change to WKLB in 1995.
In 1995, WKLB was to be sold to Evergreen Media, and was widely expected to become a talk radio station. However, a series of subsequent trades in 1997 placed WKLB under the ownership of Greater Media, owner of WBCS.
On September 5, 1996, the intellectual property of WKLB merged with WBCS, with the newly merged country station utilizing the 96.9 frequency of WBCS and the WKLB call letters, with a combination of personalities from both stations. Some 105.7 personalities remained there for the new format. In 1997, WKLB-FM relocated to the weaker 99.5 frequency, but returned to full-market coverage in 2006 with the station's move to the 102.5 frequency.
The move enabled 105.7 to pick up a new format, and the station became a 1970s-based oldies station using the WROR call letters that had been in storage on 1150 AM (now WTTT). The station played 1970s pop and rock oldies, disco, some 1960s oldies, 1980s soft rock and top-40 crossovers, and some classic rock. The legendary WROR call letters, previously known for a popular oldies/AC hybrid format on 98.5 (now WBMX), were familiar to many listeners, and the station originally attempted to re-assemble the WROR identity, including hiring several personalities from the defunct WROR. Leading broadcasters who were involved with WROR in the 1970s and early 1980s included program director Gary Berkowitz and air personalities such as Joe Martelle, Phil Redo (now market manager of Greater Media/Boston) Larry Justice and Frank Kingston Smith. By 1999, the format had been modified to a classic rock format, similar to co-owned WMGK in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 2006, though, WROR gradually moved back to more of a pop-based classic hits format. While the format emphasises pop adult rock hits, the station also mixes in some R&B, disco, and harder rock songs. The station continues to emphasise the 1970s and 1980s but also plays some big 1960s hits. The station is similar to rival WODS, but plays more 1980s music and less 1960s music than its rival.
[edit] Loren and Wally
The station is most well known for its morning team, Loren Owens and Wally Brine, co-starring Tom Doyle (voices, parody songs, general comic relief), Sue Cope (news), and Hank Morse (traffic), and produced by Brian "Lung Boy" Bell. The show has several segments:
[edit] Men From Maine
Men from Maine is a one to two-minute comedy segment, opening with soap opera organ music and Loren stating something varying along the lines of, "And now for another thrilling episode of the exciting adventures of Men from Maine. As today's action packed drama begins-". Airing typically at 6:17 AM and 7:17 AM, episodes typically revolve around the two main characters Lem (played by Tom) and Ephus (played by Wally), and other residents of Bangor, Maine, such as Ephus' wife Effie and son Ephus Junior, Doc Cider (after Dock Sider shoes) and Pastor Fazool (after pasta e fagioli). The same characters have been used in songs about Maine on the segment "Tom's Townie Tunes" (see below). The humor of the segment is at its root generic "redneck humor", but set in very rural, backwoods Maine as opposed to the American South. Episode themes can run all the way from industrial accidents handled in incompetent ways (many residents, including Lem and Ephus work in the local sawmill), to bestiality. In all cases, the humor comes from the stupidity of the characters, and their obliviousness to it.
At least one listener has found the show offensive, as heard on the first Men from Maine CD (sold during the holiday season to raise money for charity). Offended by the humor poking fun at her home state, a woman called the station, threatening to continue protesting the show until it is taken off the air. As of September 2007, the segment is still played on the Loren and Wally show and some can be found as a "Loren & Wally Podcast of the Day" on iTunes, and 2 episodes are posted on YouTube.
[edit] Tom's Townie Tunes
Tom's Townie Tunes is a segment created by morning crew member Tom Doyle that spoofs classic rock hits, using humorous lyrics to poke fun at towns in Massachusetts (and an additional few songs about the surrounding region, such as Maine). Often the songs are about high crime rates, poverty, and the general misery of residents in low class areas, while other songs satirize Harvard graduates, Kerry Healey's failed run for Governor of Massachusetts (sung to the tune of "867-5309 (Jenny)" by Tommy Tutone) and another the "gay" side of Provincetown (sung to the tune of Funkytown). Doyle's sports-related songs have occasionally gained airplay on other stations during championship seasons.
Other Townie Tunes include:
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WROR
- Radio Locator information on WROR
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for WROR
|
|||||||||||
