branding classical radio boston 99.5 wcrb frequency 99.5 mhz also on hd radio repeater s wgbh 89.7 hd 2 boston wjmf 88.7 smithfield rhode island wcai 90.1 hd2 woods hole w242aa 96.3 beacon hill w295bl 106.9 manchester nh first air date 1954 on fm operated on am since 1948 format classical erp 27 000 watts haat 199 meters class b facility id 23441 transmitter coordinates 42 39 14 n 71 13 00 w 42.65389 n 71.21667 w 42.65389 ; 71.21667 wcrb callsign meaning charles river broadcasting previous owner owner wgbh educational foundation sister stations wgbh wgbh tv wgbx tv webcast listen live website www.classicalwcrb.org wcrb 99.5 fm is a non commercial radio station licensed to lowell massachusetts and based in the brighton area of boston which serves the greater boston area . it broadcasts a classical music format ; it existed as a commercial station from the early 1950s until december 2009 and as a listener supported station since then having then been acquired by the wgbh educational foundation . programming is also simulcast on the second hd radio channel of wgbh 89.7 fm allowing wcrb to reach some portions of the boston area that can not receive 99.5 as well as wjmf 88.7 fm in smithfield rhode island serving nearby providence the second hd radio channel of wcai 90.1 fm in woods hole w242aa 96.3 fm in kendall square cambridge designed to serve beacon hill boston and w295bl 106.9 fm in manchester new hampshire . contents 1 history of wcrb intellectual property 2 history of the 99.5 fm broadcast license 3 audience 4 community and innovation 4.1 wcrb and the 1965 blackout 5 former logos 6 references 7 external links history of wcrb intellectual property edit wcrb began broadcasting on 1330 khz out of waltham on january 30 1948 . in 1950 the station was sold entirely to theodore jones who would own the station under the name of charles river broadcasting until his death in 1991 . prior to that time ted jones set up the charles river broadcast trust to guarantee that his establishment would continue in perpetuity . around the time jones first acquired the station wbms a daytime am radio station that had programmed classical music changed format . jones decided to change wcrb s format from that of a typical suburban am station of the era to full time classical music . fm service at 102.5 megacycles as megahertz was then known was added by 1954 upon the purchase of the whav fm transmitter . fm brought wcrb s classical music format to parts of the boston area that did not get good reception of wcrb s directional am signal and made improved audio quality available . in 1961 wcrb fm became the first boston area station to broadcast in multiplex stereo ; for a few years prior to that wcrb had broadcast some of its programming in stereo by carrying one channel on am the other on fm . wcrb was directly involved with the development of fm multiplex stereo . 1 station wcrb and h.h. scott then of maynard massachusetts developed prototype stereophonic equipment that was used to prove the general electric multiplex method being evaluated by the federal communications commission fcc . h.h. scott was an early stereophonic receiver manufacturer that developed and manufactured high quality home stereo equipment . once the fcc approved stereophonic broadcasting wcrb created a special stereo studio in downtown boston the first in the world . there was no dual channel stereo studio equipment at the time . much of the equipment was handmade by the engineering staff . many can remember the call letter announcements made on the half hour as required by the fcc ; you are tuned to wcrb waltham thirteen thirty am one oh two point five fm with downtown studios in the elegant hotel sheraton plaza featuring more than seventy hours weekly of fm stereo programming . wcrb is noted for many other innovations . it was the first radio station to obtain a permanent waiver of the fcc rules requiring average modulation in excess of eighty five percent . this was necessary to preserve the dynamic range of the concert music broadcasts . the station also obtained a permanent waiver of the fcc rule that required a station identification announcement every thirty minutes . this meant that a live concert performance no longer had to be interrupted for station identification . the wcrb engineering staff worked with the national association of broadcasters nab to codify the riaa lp record frequency response curve and create the nab standard . other technical innovations followed . before the early days of fm stereo broadcasting nobody had encountered the necessity of amplitude and phase matching two 15 khz stereo leased lines . the telephone company called such a channel type ; program channel a. to them as long as the frequency response and noise level matched their specifications stereo simply meant that there would be two lines . it was just a matter of labeling them not so . wcrb engineering worked with at & t to generate a specification involving matching both the phase and frequency response . this became the standard of the industry . eventually as stereo caught on across the country these methods and specifications were used to install stereophonic leased lines to transmitters across the country until they were made obsolete by the development of composite signal studio transmitter links . in the early days of radio stations had full time engineers on duty . therefore the wcrb engineering staff also recorded live performances for the boston symphony orchestra transcription trust . although charles river broadcasting had acquired other radio stations wcrb remained as the company s flagship station . in 1975 wcrb ended simulcasting of wcrb fm changing call letters to whet and its format to big band adult standards . in 1978 charles river broadcasting sold off whet later renamed wrca but retained wcrb which became increasingly successful over the years as a 24 7 classical music station . wcrb was under a long term commitment by charles river broadcasting trust established by theodore jones to continue to air classical music in perpetuity and it carried no non classical music programs . however the decision to interpret the commitment as a request rather than a demand resulted in the announced sale of the station to greater media on december 19 2005 . the trustees of the charles river broadcast trust had already sold off portions of the trust s property so that there was little physical property and real estate left . the am transmitter site in waltham was sold to a developer who built the watermill complex . this and the sales of stations such as wcrq in providence rhode island marked the beginning of the gradual dissolution of the theodore jones trust . it was upon the death of richard l. kaye 2 an early manager minority stockholder and trusted associate of jones that the charles river trust would no longer maintain the commitments made by its founder . 3 greater media already owned five fm stations in the boston market the maximum allowed by the fcc and one of greater media s boston stations would have to be sold before the company could acquire wcrb . speculation arose that greater media would sell off 99.5 wklb fm as its andover transmitter location provided poor overall coverage of the boston market in contrast to the company s other stations . these thoughts were confirmed on july 31 2006 when greater media announced that it would sell the physical property of wklb fm and the intellectual property of wcrb to nassau broadcasting thus saving the commercial classical format for the boston area albeit on a station with poorer coverage of boston . at the same time greater media announced that the country format and intellectual property of wklb would relocate to the prime signal of 102.5 mhz . wcrb s transition from 102.5 to 99.5 was completed on friday december 1 2006 at noon local time . the first selection broadcast on the new frequency was the hallelujah chorus from handel s messiah . it was announced on september 21 2009 that the wgbh educational foundation would acquire wcrb from nassau and convert the station to non commercial operation complementing sister station wgbh 89.7 fm . 4 the sale was completed on december 1 . since assuming control of wcrb wgbh has sought to expand the reach of the station particularly to areas that had been served by the station prior to the frequency shift in 2006 ; wcrb s programming was added to wnck which formerly simulcast wgbh concurrent with the sale s completion and april 8 2010 w242aa also switched from carrying wgbh to wcrb via the 89.7 hd 2 simulcast . 5 wjmf began carrying wcrb programming in september 2011 ; since the frequency change in 2006 providence had been one of the largest markets without access to a full time classical music station . 6 because of this expanded reach the station rebranded from 99.5 all classical the branding used since the sale to wgbh to classical new england on october 3 2011 . 7 as of 2015 the station is branded as classical radio boston 99.5 wcrb . history of the 99.5 fm broadcast license edit the 99.5 fm broadcast license began broadcasting october 6 1948 as wllh fm 8 the fm counterpart to wllh 1400 am programming a full service format to the merrimack valley . during the 1970s 99.5 became wssh for wish 99.5 which programmed a format of chiefly soft instrumental renditions of pop tunes with a few vocalists an hour consisting of soft ac adult contemporary and standards cuts . in 1982 wssh evolved to a soft ac format gradually eliminating the instrumental renditions and became home to popular nighttime radio personality delilah rene before she became nationally syndicated . ratings were very high through the 1980s and wssh often led other ac stations . by then the station was separated from wllh but later gained a sister station on 1510 now wmex . wssh had high ratings and was often the top rated adult contemporary radio station in the market throughout the 1980s . however in the early 1990s ratings went from excellent to mediocre ; part of the reason was the perception that wssh was still an elevator music station . by 1991 the station modified its format to mainstream ac by adding current product and some up tempo ac tunes . wssh became the third place radio station following wmjx and wvbf now known as wror which subsequently became a sister station to 99.5 . on december 13 1995 the owner of wssh granum communications changed the format to smooth jazz under the branding of woaz 99.5 the oasis mirroring granum s koai in dallas . 9 10 then in 1997 granum sold woaz and wbos to greater media which already owned wmjx 96.9 wbcs the incarnation of wklb at that time and 105.7 wror the former wvbf and wclb . on august 22 of that year greater media swapped the frequencies of woaz and wklb in a move where the format and personalities of woaz moved to 96.9 adopting the call sign wsjz while wklb moved to 99.5 and became country 99.5 wklb where it stayed until december 1 2006 . greater media noted that the move was made because the 99.5 signal is stronger than that of 96.9 in essex county home to many country music listeners . the 99.5 frequency was spun off to nassau broadcasting partners as a consequence of a deal where greater media acquired wcrb s current dial position with 102.5 adopting the wklb format and call sign . nassau also acquired wcrb s call letters and programming . nassau already owned four classical formatted stations in maine affiliated with the world classical network . the two stations