greater boston branding mix 104 1 slogan boston s best variety frequency 104.1 mhz also on hd radio first air date may 1958 1958 05 license as wbcn 1 february 8 1991 1991 02 08 format on 98.5 fm 2 format hot adult contemporary hd2 80s hits hd3 christian rock mercy rock hd4 talk new sky radio erp 21 000 watts haat 235 meters class b facility id 26897 transmitter coordinates 42 20 50.00 n 71 4 59.00 w 42.3472222 n 71.0830556 w 42.3472222 ; 71.0830556 wbmx callsign meaning boston s mix former callsigns wbcn 1958 2009 owner cbs radio infinity broadcasting corporation sister stations wbz wbz fm wbz tv wods wsbk tv wzlx webcast listen live hd2 listen live hd3 listen live website mix1041.cbslocal.com wbmx known on air as mix 104 1 is a radio station with a hot adult contemporary format in boston massachusetts . the format started at 98.5 fm on february 9 1991 and moved to 104.1 fm replacing wbcn on august 12 2009 to allow for the launch of wbz fm at 98.5 the next day . its studios are located in brighton and its transmitter is atop the prudential tower . the call letters wbmx standing for black music experience were originally assigned to 102.7 on the fm dial in oak park illinois serving chicago from 1973 to 1988 . that station frequency is now home to r & b station wvaz . the call letters were then assigned to 640 am in zeeland michigan until 1991 when they were transferred to 98.5 fm in boston to reflect the station s mix branding . contents 1 history 1.1 origins at 98.5 1.2 switch to 104.1 2 awards 3 hd radio subchannels 3.1 wbmx hd1 3.2 wbmx hd2 3.3 wbmx hd3 3.4 wbmx hd4 4 references 5 external links history edit wbmx has been based out of this studio building in brighton shared with cbs other boston fm stations since 2009 . origins at 98.5 edit for the history of 98.5 mhz in boston after august 2009 see wbz fm . the wbmx intellectual property originated on the 98.5 fm frequency 3 which signed on in october 1948 as wnac fm 4 under the ownership of the yankee network division of general tire and rubber which also owned wnac then at 1260 am now occupied by wbix ; moved to 680 am in 1953 and wnac tv channel 7 now occupied by whdh . 3 the station originally transmitted from wnac tv s tower in medford using a transmitter originally used for the yankee network s fm station on mount washington which was originally considered a boston station but was eventually refocused to portland maine which operated from december 18 1940 to september 1948 when it signed off due to increasing costs and a lack of listener interest . 4 as at most fm stations wnac fm initially served as a full time simulcast of wnac . 3 the station along with general tire s other broadcast holdings came under the general teleradio banner in 1952 ; the division became rko teleradio pictures in 1955 and rko general in 1959 . by december 1958 even though the station was still simulcasting wnac the call letters were changed to wrko fm 5 as rko teleradio sought to keep the wrko call letters out of the hands of its competitors . 3 while separate programming was inaugurated for half of the broadcast day in 1963 due to then upcoming federal communications commission fcc regulations prohibiting am and fm stations from simulcasting for more than half of the day this programming was initially a middle of the road format identical to that of wnac . 3 a year later wrko fm along with wnac tv moved to a new tower in newton . 3 on october 12 1966 wrko fm dropped its simulcast of wnac by then predominantly a talk station and introduced a top 40 format reliant on automation . 3 6 playing the top hits of the day including the number one song in boston every hour on the hour and using recorded announcing altered to sound like a robot since the station was positioned as r ko pronounced arko the shy but friendly robot wrko fm quickly became the most popular fm radio station in the boston area . 3 as a result of this success when wnac dropped its talk format in favor of a live top 40 format on march 13 1967 rko general changed its call letters to wrko . 3 7 its programming was then simulcast on wrko fm from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with the r ko programming continuing for the rest of the day . 3 wrko fm s top 40 programming came to an end in november 1968 when it joined sister stations khj fm in los angeles and kfrc fm in san francisco in airing an automated soft rock format from drake chenault enterprises hit parade 68 8 which incorporated both current music and oldies . 3 along with the new format came a new call sign wror as part an effort by rko general to give their fm stations a distinct identity from their am sister stations . 8 wror switched to another drake chenault format solid gold rock and roll on november 1 1970 evenly splitting the oldies and current music ; in early 1973 the station went to a full time oldies format still playing a new song per hour and a couple recent hits an hour eventually parting ways with drake chenault later that year 9 and adopting the name the golden great 98 drake chenault s services were later utilized by wcop fm now sister station wzlx which competed with wror in the oldies format from 1973 to 1974 . 3 starting in march 1977 wror gradually began to position the station as an ac station rather than oldies 10 and by september 1978 was more of a gold based adult contemporary station leading to its branding changing to the great 98 11 and then 98 and a half . 3 station management felt that there was a hole in the market for an fm ac station to compete against wbz and whdh now weei . 12 still the station was mostly oldies from the 1960s playing a couple currents and a couple recent hits an hour plus a couple of pre 1964 oldies as well . after rko general lost its license to operate wnac tv in 1982 wror was forced to move to another tower in newton as the new owners of channel 7 renamed wnev tv did not lease space on its tower . 3 however in the wake of the loss of the license the federal communications commission fcc announced in february 1983 that it would solicit competing applications for rko s remaining stations including wror . 13 in 1988 the station along with wrko was acquired by atlantic ventures for 27.7 million split between rko and the challengers for the licenses . 14 during the 1980s wror continued as a gold based ac station throughout the week . the station played one to two currents an hour that were huge hits . they played several 1980s songs an hour and several 1970s songs an hour . nearly half the songs played were from the 1960s along with a pre 1964 oldie an hour . on weekends the station played strictly oldies mostly from the 1960s with a couple of early 1970s songs an hour plus several pre 64 oldies as well . for a few months late in 1987 and early in 1988 wror ran a smooth jazz new age music show in the evening . in 1989 wror modified its oldies ac format to bright adult contemporary and changed its on air identity to ror fm . they stopped the oldies weekends began playing more currents eliminated nearly all pre 1964 oldies and focused on 1970s and 1980s music . for a while they continued their saturday night oldies show . however after finding that listeners continued to perceive wror as an oldies station atlantic ventures decided to relaunch the station under a new identity . 15 at noon on february 8 1991 after playing roy orbison s it s over the station became mix 98.5 2 and shifted closer to a hot adult contemporary format heavy on motown oldies and hot ac currents . 13 the first song on mix was i can t help myself by the four tops . a few weeks later the station took the wbmx call letters 2 from an am mor station in zeeland michigan which had been using them since signing on the previous year ; this am station received the wror calls in return but would drop them in 1993 . the wror fm call letters are now used on a classic hits station in boston at 105.7 fm owned by greater media . atlantic ventures merged with two other radio groups stoner broadcasting systems and multi market communications on june 5 1993 to form american radio systems . 16 in the following years like many hot ac stations wbmx began to emphasize more modern rock music to the exclusion of the remaining oldies and was considered one of the first modern adult contemporary stations in the country . 3 american radio systems announced a merger with cbs radio in 1997 ; wbmx was the company s only boston station to be acquired by cbs in the deal completed in june 1998 owing to cbs existing presence in the market ars other boston stations were required to be sold off by either the fcc or the department of justice . 3 cbs radio stations including wbmx were spun off into a new public company infinity broadcasting corporation in 1998 ; 17 viacom announced its acquisition of the publicly held stake in infinity on august 15 2000 shortly after it merged with cbs corporation 18 a transaction completed on february 21 2001 though viacom and cbs before the merger had always held a majority stake in infinity . 19 when viacom split into two companies on december 31 2005 infinity became part of the new cbs corporation and reverted to the cbs radio name . 20 in 2005 wbmx along with wzlx and what was then oldies 103.3 were rumored to flip to adult hits as jack fm ; had wqsx now weei fm not flipped to the format as 93.7 mike fm on april 14 wbmx might have flipped to the format the next day as 98.5 jack fm . switch to 104.1 edit for the history of 104.1 mhz in boston prior to august 2009 see wbcn fm . on july 14 2009 cbs radio announced that wbmx would move from 98.5 fm to 104.1 fm replacing wbcn 3 which signed on in 1958 as a classical music station but had been a rock station since 1968 1 ; these moves were made to launch a sports talk station wbz fm at the 98.5 frequency . 3 as a result the station added the fm suffix on july 29 allowing cbs to temporarily place the wbmx call letters on the former wfna 1660 am in charlotte north carolina ; additionally during mix s final week on 98.5 it used the wbz fm call letters intended for the new station . 3 wbcn s rock format moved to 98.5 s hd2 subcarrier . wbcn s programming on 104.1 ended after midnight on august 12 2009 ; wbmx then moved to 104.1 two hours later the wbcn call letters were then transferred to the charlotte station with wbz fm launching the next day . 3 the final song mix played on 98.5 was move along by the all american rejects 21 while the first song mix played on 104.1 was use somebody by kings of leon . 22 awards edit mix 104.1 and the previous mix 98.5