WBIX (1260
kHz) branded ''Nossa Rádio USA'' is a commercial
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...
AM radio station licensed to
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, and serving
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas, home to 4,941,632. The most s ...
. Owned by the
International Church of the Grace of God, the WBIX studios are located in the Boston suburb of
Somerville, while the station transmitter is located in
Quincy.
History
WNAC (1260 AM)
The station gave
its first broadcast on July 31, 1922, as WNAC, founded by Boston businessman
John Shepard III.
His father, John Shepard Jr., had a chain of
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...
s throughout New England and saw the potential of radio to publicize himself and his stores enough to finance his son's venture; Shepard had also established
WEAN
Weaning is the process of gradually introducing an infant human or other mammal to what will be its adult diet while withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk. In the UK, weaning primarily refers to the introduction of solid foods at 6 mont ...
in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...
, a month earlier, on June 2, 1922. The station was initially promoted after signing on as the "Shepard Radio Station"; it was not until September that the call letters "WNAC" came into use.
WNAC moved around the dial in its early days and settled on 1230 kilocycles a few years later. On January 4, 1923, using a 100-foot antenna connected by a clothesline to the building's roof, WNAC arranged the first network broadcast in radio history with station
WEAF in New York City.
Shepard launched a
sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement.
Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
to WNAC, WNAB, on May 13, 1925. WNAB became WASN (Air Shopping News) on February 1, 1927, an early experiment with
home shopping
Home shopping is the electronic retailing and home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as Shop LC, HSN, Gemporia, TJC, QVC, eBay, ShopHQ, Rakuten.com and Amazon.com, ...
by radio, in which updates from 15 department stores in
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas, home to 4,941,632. The most s ...
aired in regular intervals alongside pre-recorded and live orchestra music. WASN was also notable in that all of the staff announcers and the program director were females;
while the experiment was short-lived due to technical issues, the majority of the station's female staff enjoyed continued employment at WNAC. By July 5, the station became WBIS (Boston Information Service), maintaining some of the shopping programming but mixed with "helpful information and advice" in addition to pre-recorded music; the station operated with limited hours, from 8-10 a.m. and 2-4 p.m. on weekdays. WBIS merged operations fully into WNAC in April 1928, and the station was known in FCC records as "WNAC-WBIS" until 1933.
In 1927, WNAC became one of the sixteen charter members of the
CBS Radio Network, it remained a CBS
network affiliate
In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...
for the next decade. In 1929, WNAC moved to new studios inside the
Hotel Buckminster, with the entrance on the Brookline Avenue side (21 Brookline Avenue), that location served as the station's home for the next four decades.
Between February 1929 and July 1930, Shepard also launched The
Yankee Network
The Yankee Network was an American radio network, based in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, with affiliate radio stations throughout New England. At the height of its influence, the Yankee Network had as many as twenty-four affiliated radio stati ...
, with WNAC as its
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...
; it was a regional network serving radio stations throughout New England and was a pioneer in radio news coverage. For many years, the Yankee Network was considered one of the best local/regional radio news operations in the country, WNAC and successor station WNAC (680 AM) would serve as the network flagship until its closure in 1967.
In 1931, Shepard purchased a second Boston station,
WAAB, which became an affiliate of the
Mutual Radio Network in 1935, a year after MBS was formed. He also launched a second regional network, "The Colonial Network", with WAAB as its flagship station. Outside of Boston, Yankee and Colonial programming were usually heard on the same station. Additionally, Colonial carried Mutual programming to its affiliates. Between them, Yankee and Colonial carried home games of the
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...
and
Boston Braves
The Boston Braves were a Major League Baseball club that originated in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, and played from 1871 to 1952. Afterwards they moved to History of the Atlanta Braves#Milwaukee, Milwaukee (and became the Milwaukee Braves). ...
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
teams as well as the
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...
hockey
''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...
team.
The year 1935, also saw the hiring of Fred B. Cole, a young announcer who would spend more than 50 years on the air, most of them in Boston at various stations. Cole left WNAC for network radio, and returned to Boston at
WHDH (850 AM) in 1946.
In 1937, WNAC became an
NBC Red Network
The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...
affiliate after losing CBS to
WEEI (590 AM). Four years later, WNAC's frequency changed to 1260 kilocycles. In 1942, to comply with anti-duopoly regulations established by the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
, WAAB was moved to
Worcester, about 40 miles west of Boston. At the same time, WNAC lost NBC Red Network affiliation to
WBZ. With WAAB having been moved out of Boston, WNAC took over the Mutual affiliation. The Colonial Network was also shut down, with Yankee picking up many of its programs; in other parts of New England, however, the only change for some former Colonial programming was in the time periods of these shows.
In December 1942, the
Winter Street Corp., the holding company for Shepard family interests—including WNAC and the Yankee Network—announced it would be sold to
The General Tire & Rubber Company for $1.24 million.
["Yankee Network is Sold to General Tire Company." Christian Science Monitor, December 16, 1942, p. 3.] Winter Street was controlled by trusts set up for two of the children of founder John Shepard Jr.: John Shepard III (general manager of WNAC and Yankee); and Robert Shepard, who managed the family's remaining department store in Providence; the transactions, and the closing of the Shepard Stores location in Boston in 1937, were viewed as a strategy to convert the elder Shepard's assets to cash.
John Shepard III remained with the station as general manager under a five-year contract. The son of General Tire president William F. O'Neil, William M. O'Neil, Jr., had already owned and operated
WJW (850 AM) in Akron/Cleveland since 1940, but did so independently of his father and the manufacturer.
Later that same month, the FCC approved the transaction after securing an affidavit from General Tire's president that "no better deal" would be offered the tire company to buy "time, facilities and services" on Yankee Network stations, and that General Tire would "never" use its ownership to gain an unfair advertising advantage over competitors. Some 40 years later, the company was forced to exit broadcasting for reasons including illegal reciprocal trade agreements. In addition to WNAC and the two networks, the sale included WEAN, WAAB,
WICC in
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the List of cities in New England by population, fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Loc ...
; and experimental FM stations in
Paxton, Massachusetts, and
Mount Washington, New Hampshire.
In 1947, the FCC denied a request to allow WNAC to move to 1200 kHz and boost its power, using a directional 50,000-watt transmitter.
WVDA
In May 1953, General Teleradio – then the name for
General Tire's
broadcasting division – sold WNAC to Vic Diehm and Associates, Inc., for $125,000. At the same time, it bought
WLAW (AM 680) and WLAW-FM (FM 93.7), both licensed to
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, on the Merrimack River. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 89,143. Surrounding communities include Methuen, Massachusetts, Methuen ...
, from Hildreth and Rogers for $475,000.
General Teleradio then surrendered the 93.7 license, as it retained its existing FM property,
WNAC-FM (98.5). On June 17, 1953, General Teleradio changed WLAW's call sign to WNAC and moved 1260 AM's old format there. On- and off-air personnel were reassigned at the same time. In effect, the new WNAC (680 AM) licensed to Lawrence became the successor to the old WNAC (1260 AM) licensed to Boston. For this reason, this transaction is often reckoned as a "move" of WNAC from 1260 to 680. Vic Diehm and Associates subsequently changed 1260 AM's calls to WVDA and launched a new format on the station, using WLAW's former studios in the Hotel Bradford in Boston.
Most of WVDA's programming was from the
ABC Radio Network, with some local programming. Among them were a few DJ shows, and for a brief time in the mid-1950s, a 3-hour morning news block.
WEZE
The station was sold in 1957, to Great Trails Broadcasting Corp., owned by former Truman administration Commerce Secretary
Charles Sawyer, for $252,000. It became WEZE, an
NBC Radio Network
The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...
affiliate. The station carried most NBC Radio programs, and some local DJ shows featuring softer music.
On October 19, 1959, WEZE began a
beautiful music format, branded as "The Wonderful World Of Music", that targeted older listeners. The station programmed music in uninterrupted quarter-hour blocks during the daytime hours (half-hour blocks at night), and continued to serve as Boston's NBC Radio affiliate until 1966. It carried hourly newscasts, some feature programs, special news events, but very little of the network's ''
Monitor
Monitor or monitor may refer to:
Places
* Monitor, Alberta
* Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States
* Monitor, Kentucky
* Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States
* Monitor, Washington
* Monitor, Logan County, Wes ...
'' weekend service. During the "Wonderful World Of Music" days, live announcers spoke only every fifteen minutes, to run down what had been played during the previous quarter-hour, read commercials, and give weather updates.
In his autobiography, comedian
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential comedians of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of countercultur ...
describes his experiences as a disc jockey at the station. He was fired after he took the station's news station wagon to New York to buy
marijuana
Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
, leaving the station unable to cover a prison riot. Carlin wrote that another future comedian,
Jack Burns, also worked there as an announcer and newscaster at the station during this time. Although only 5,000 watts, WEZE was one of Boston's top-rated radio stations for most of the 1960s. Then, the beautiful music format made a big splash on FM, diverting listeners from WEZE's AM signal.
For many years, WEZE's studios were located on the ground floor of the
Statler Office Building near Boston's Park Square, with a picture window on the corner of St. James and Columbus Avenues, allowing passers-by to see the announcer at work in the studio.
In the fall of 1972, WEZE changed formats to a rock 'n roll
oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music.
Since 2 ...
sound with live personality DJs. This was tweaked by mid-1973 by program director Steve Hunter and consultant Kent Burkhardt to include current pop/rock hits as well. Known as "Z 1260", WEZE was then in direct competition with established Top 40 AM stations
WRKO
WRKO (680 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by iHeartMedia, WRKO is a Class B AM station that provides secondary coverage to portio ...
(680 AM),
WMEX (1510 AM), and WVBF (105.7 FM, now
WROR-FM). Perhaps the best-known announcer during this period was
Alan Colmes, who replaced Chuck Kelly in the morning drive slot and who later co-hosted a talk show with
Sean Hannity
Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American conservative television presenter, broadcaster and writer. He hosts ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a radio syndication, nationally syndicated talk radio show, has hosted a Hannity, sel ...
on cable TV's
Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...
. In March 1974, WEZE's format was modified again to a more
MOR/personality approach.
From August 1975 until early 1977, WEZE tried "The Wonderful World Of Music" again (which was often branded "The Easiest Sound In Town" in newspaper ads, billboards, and television commercials). Since FM radios still weren't widespread in automobiles, station management hoped that people who would listen to easy-listening FM stations like WJIB (96.9 FM, now
WBQT) at home or work would listen to WEZE on their AM-only car radios while driving. The revival met with very little success, as the audience for "beautiful music" had largely moved to FM.
In early 1977, WEZE became one of the first stations to program what might now be called
adult album alternative
Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, ...
. This format, promoted as "AlbuM 1260" (stylized to denote its frequency as "AM 1260"), continued until the 1978 sale of the station to New England Continental Media.
New England Continental Media, which shortly became the
Salem Media Group
Salem Media Group, Inc. (formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher based in Irving, Texas, targeting audiences interested in Christian values and wh ...
, instituted a
religious
Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...
format. Initially, WEZE's religious programming consisted of
contemporary Christian music
Contemporary Christian music (CCM), also known as Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music, is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christianity, Chri ...
, Christian features, teaching, and preaching; half of the station's schedule was devoted to music. While a religious station, the station continued to operate commercially. By the mid 1980s, local Christian talk shows replaced some of the hours of weekday music programming. In later years, more teaching programs were added to replace the remaining weekday music hours; after 1984, WEZE only played inspirational music on weekends for a few hours.
Later years
Salem exercised an option to acquire WBNW (590 AM) in the fall of 1996, and that December, began a simulcast that resulted in
WEZE
WEZE (590 AM) – branded 590 AM The Word – is a commercial Christian radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by Salem Communications, WEZE is the Boston affiliate f ...
's call sign and programming moving to 590 kHz. Following a simulcast on both frequencies, 1260 become WPZE "Praise 1260" on March 3, 1997. The Praise 1260 format included programs that Salem lacked the time to air on WEZE, along with about 6 hours a day of rhythmic Christian music. This consisted of upbeat praise and worship church music, gospel, and soft AC Christian cuts.

However, in July, Salem sold the station to Hibernia Broadcasting,
[Site of the Week EXTRA: WMKI 1260 Boston (and friends) - Fybush Media]
/ref> which switched it to Radio Disney
Radio Disney was an American radio network operated by the Disney Radio Networks unit of Disney Branded Television within Disney General Entertainment Content, headquartered in Burbank, California.
The network broadcast music programming ...
on November 21. (The Praise 1260 format was dropped earlier in that fall in preparation for the sale, and in the interim, WPZE returned to simulcasting WEZE). The station changed its call sign to WMKI on December 10, 1999, and was sold in a group deal to ABC Radio, the owner of Radio Disney, in 2000.
On August 13, 2014, Disney put WMKI and 22 other Radio Disney stations up for sale, to focus on digital distribution of the Radio Disney network. On June 5, 2015, Disney filed to sell WMKI back to Salem Media Group. Salem bought the station for $500,000. Upon retaking control, Salem changed WMKI to WBIX, call letters that had previously been used on 1060 AM (now WQOM) from 2001 to 2010. The FCC approved the sale on August 4. As a result, the station discontinued its affiliation with Radio Disney. It went silent from August 12 to 15. The sale was completed on September 10, 2015 and the station went silent again in anticipation at midnight on September 4 until September 14. WBIX then changed to a conservative talk radio format, a format Salem had programmed in the market on WTTT (1150 AM, now WWDJ) from 2003 to 2008.
WBIX was branded as "The Buzz", although many of Salem's other conservative talk stations are branded as "The Answer". It carried syndicated talk shows from the Salem Radio Network, including Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt (born February 22, 1956) is an American conservative political commentator, radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, attorney, academic, and author. He writes about law, society, politics, and media bias in the United States ...
, Mike Gallagher, Michael Medved, Larry Elder, Eric Metaxas, and Dennis Prager, and business programs, including Ray Lucia from the Business Talk Radio Network. Weekends included repeats of weekday shows, as well as "Money Talk" with Bob Brinker and a travel show with Rudy Maxa. News at the beginning of each hour came from Townhall and Salem Radio News (SRN).
On January 3, 2018, Salem agreed to sell WBIX to the International Church of the Grace of God for $685,000; the new owners began programming the station under a local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...
on January 8. At that time, the station changed to a Portuguese language
Portuguese ( or ) is a Western Romance language of the Indo-European language family originating from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is the official language of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tom� ...
format, branded "Nossa Rádio USA". Nossa Rádio's programming had been heard on WMVX (1570 AM, now WUBG) prior to 2017. The sale was completed on June 20, 2018.
References
External links
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*
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{{Other Radio Stations in Massachusetts
1922 establishments in Massachusetts
Brazilian-American culture
BIX
Portuguese-American culture in Massachusetts
Portuguese-language radio stations in the United States
Radio stations established in 1922
BIX
RKO General