WVEI (1440 kHz) is an AM sports station in Worcester, Massachusetts, operating with 5,000 watts. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc. Most programming is provided by Boston sister station WEEI-FM.
History
Origins in Boston
WBET and the second WLEX
The station that now operates as WVEI originated in Boston as WBET, the radio station of the Boston Evening Transcript, which was granted a license on December 18, 1926. The station was originally authorized with 100 watts on 780 kHz; however, when the station signed on February 27, 1927, it was operating with 500 watts on 1130 kHz. The inaugural broadcast was plagued by severe technical problems, leading to a front-page apology on the next day's paper, and the station went off-the-air until April 20, when WBET moved to 760 kHz and began operating from studios originally used by WGI.
After moving to 1240 kHz and then back to 1130 kHz in June 1927, the station moved to 1040 kHz on August 15, sharing time with religious station WSSH; on November 11, 1928, the station moved to 1360 kHz, where it shared time with South Dartmouth station WMAF as well as WSSH. The city of license was changed to Medford in February 1928. However, WBET was plagued by continued technical issues and increasing expenses, leading the Transcript to sell the station; on February 15, 1929, it was purchased by the Lexington Air Stations, owner of Lexington radio station WLEX (now WLLH in Lawrence) and experimental television station W1XAY. The new owners moved the station to Lexington and transferred the WLEX call letters from its new sister station (which became WLEY). On March 20, 1930, the station moved to 1410 kHz and was still time-share.
The Yankee and Colonial Network
WLEX became an affiliate of the Yankee Network on January 20, 1931, and soon thereafter the station moved back to Boston, changing its call letters to WAAB and sharing studios with WNAC (now WBIX) at the Hotel Buckminster at Kenmore Square; by April 20, John Shepard III of Shepard Stores, owner of WNAC and the Yankee Network, had acquired WAAB outright. Shepard had shown interest in the WLEX license as early as the fall of 1929, when he attempted to lease the station and relocate it to Worcester; this plan was rejected by the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) following objections from WTAG. By 1938, WAAB's studios were located at 21 Brookline Avenue.
On January 26, 1937, the ownership of WAAB and WNAC was consolidated under the Yankee Network, Inc. As a result of the NARBA frequency shift, WAAB moved to 1440 kHz on March 29, 1941.
Move to Worcester
In late 1942, Shepard moved WAAB to Worcester to avoid anti-duopoly rules. Though this gave Shepard his long-desired Worcester station, the move was soon followed by the sale of the Yankee Network to General Tire & Rubber. As early as 1948, the station was broadcasting with 5,000 watts.
The Yankee Network leased WAAB, along with WMTW in Portland, Maine, to Radio Enterprises, Inc. in 1949. A year later, Bruff W. Olin, Jr., who previously owned WQUA in Moline, Illinois, bought WAAB for $100,000, with $85,000 being paid to the Yankee Network and Radio Enterprises receiving $15,000. Olin then sold the station to George F. and Kathleen Wilson for $160,000 in 1952, marking Wilson Enterprises' return to station ownership after having sold WCNT in Centralia, Illinois, earlier in the year. Waterman Broadcasting, controlled by Bernard and Edith Waterman, acquired WAAB for $163,000 in 1956. On June 15, 1961, WAAB started an FM sister station, WAAB-FM, which later became WAAF and is now WKVB.
In the 1950s and 1960s, "14-40 WAAB" was a top-40 radio station. In 1965, the "Fun-in-the-Sun Guys" were Bill Garcia, Chuck Spencer, Don Stevens and Bob Carrigan Morning man Steven Capen recalls the station then and how Atlantic Records purchased it and changed things around in 1967: