. for later history of 590 khz see weze . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2007 learn how and when to remove this template message weei city boston massachusetts broadcast area greater boston branding espn on weei frequency 850 khz first air date june 20 1929 1929 06 20 license as whdh 1 format sports radio power 50 000 watts class b facility id 1912 transmitter coordinates 42 16 41.4 n 71 16 0.2 w 42.278167 n 71.266722 w 42.278167 ; 71.266722 nad83 callsign meaning we re edison electric illuminating former callsigns whdh 1929 1994 former frequencies 830 khz 1929 1941 affiliations espn radio owner entercom operated via lma by the walt disney company entercom license llc sister stations waaf weei fm wkaf wrko website espn weei 850 weei is a sports radio station in boston massachusetts that broadcasts on 850 khz from a transmitter in needham massachusetts and is owned by entercom communications and operated by the walt disney company espn radio s majority owner under a local marketing agreement . studios are located in brighton massachusetts . the station currently broadcasts programming from espn radio ; until october 4 2012 the station aired a highly rated locally produced sports talk format which is now heard on weei fm 93.7 fm . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 weei s seven decades at 590 khz 1.2 whdh at 850 khz 1.2.1 1929 1946 early years 1.2.2 after 1946 home of bob and ray then jess cain 1.2.3 the voice of sports 1.2.4 impact from loss of television license 1.2.5 david mugar era 1.3 sportsradio 850 weei 2 programming 3 references 4 external links history edit weei s seven decades at 590 khz edit weei traces its roots to its original owner edison electric illuminating hence the call letters . edison placed the station on the air september 29 1924 . 1 3 the station broadcast on various frequencies over the next several years settling on 590 khz in 1927 . 1 in 1926 weei became a charter member of the nbc red network 1 and remained an nbc red affiliate until 1936 when the station was leased by cbs and became an affiliate of that network . 4 cbs bought weei outright from boston edison on august 31 1942 . 5 an fm sister station weei fm 103.3 fm now wods went on the air in 1948 . 6 until 1960 weei through cbs radio was the last boston radio station to devote a large amount of its program schedule to traditional network radio programming of daytime soap operas comedy shows variety shows and similar fare . for the remainder of the 1960s weei was new england s first talk radio station 6 and home of such hosts as howard nelson jim westover and of paul benzaquin one of the most popular radio talk show hosts in boston history . in the 1960s the daily weeidea feature presented cleaning and cooking tips from housewives . actor pat o brien was a guest on the weei program hollywood snapshots in 1942 . by may 1972 weei had six full days of call in talk programming . on weekdays morning drive time from 6 am to 10 am was hosted by newsman len lawrence leonard libman followed by ellen kimball from 10 am to 2 pm . kimball was hired from wiod in miami where she had replaced broadcaster larry king after he was arrested on december 20 1971 . ellen is believed to be one of the first women to host a daily four hour call in talk show six days a week . citation needed originally called boston forum with ellen kimball the name was eventually changed to the ellen kimball show . later newsman ben farnsworth took over the saturday call in segment from 10 am to 2 pm . paul benzaquin handled 2 pm to 6 pm weekdays . although its talk radio format was popular the station went all news in 1974 following the lead of several other cbs owned stations . 6 at first weei was not 24 7 all news ; the station s late night schedule featured the cbs radio mystery theater an attempt to revive radio drama as well as a local overnight talk show with bruce lee no relation to the martial arts actor a holdover from the previous format . but by the end of the 1970s weei was all news around the clock . on december 27 1977 while engaged in traffic reporting a hughes 269b helicopter operated by weei lost power and crashed into an apartment building in quincy while attempting an emergency landing killing pilot richard banks and reporter chip whitmore . a fire developed in the building following the crash . 7 weei was put up for sale in april 1983 after cbs reached a deal to acquire krld in dallas fort worth from metromedia ; 8 that september a deal was reached to sell the station to helen broadcasting ; the company was owned by the valerio family who also owned papa gino s. 9 although metromedia canceled the sale of krld after it was granted permission to own both the radio station and knbn tv in dallas fort worth the sale of weei still went forward . 10 helen broadcasting continued the all news format . 6 the station was acquired by boston celtics communications a group that shared ownership with the boston celtics basketball team on may 10 1990 ; the celtics also simultaneously purchased wfxt channel 25 from fox television stations . 11 12 the celtics initially pledged to continue the all news format hiring a new morning anchor 13 and shifting the station to a 30 minute clock it previously followed a one hour clock ; 14 however the cbs radio network s decision to shift its boston affiliation to wrko effective september 3 1990 ending a 54 year link with weei for reasons that included wrko having a stronger news commitment 15 which compelled weei to join the abc direction network 16 led to speculation that the station was shifting to an all sports format . 13 though this was played down by station officials 13 weei which had already carried celtics broadcasts since 1987 17 expanded its sports programming after the sale ; weei became the flagship station of the boston bruins replacing wplm fm in 1990 18 however celtics broadcasts were given priority resulting in some bruins broadcasts moving to wvbf or wmex 19 and a nightly sports talk show with craig mustard was launched on august 20 1990 . 20 weei also carried sports byline usa and cbs radio sports broadcasts not cleared by wrko . 11 the all news format continued in other dayparts until september 3 1991 when weei became an all sports station . 11 21 22 upon the change to all sports weei featured the andy moes show and glenn ordway and janet prensky a short lived experiment in bringing a bickersons type format to sports radio . also part of the roster was boston sports talk pioneer eddie andelman . 23 weei also began to carry boston college eagles football in 1992 replacing wbz . 24 however the change was followed by a dramatic drop in its ratings ; 25 additionally the station struggled financially at one point losing 80 000 a week leading to rumors of a sale of weei . 25 still weei improved its morning ratings after it became one of the earliest affiliates of imus in the morning from wfan in new york city on july 12 1993 . 26 27 on march 16 1994 the boston celtics reached a deal to sell weei to back bay broadcasting ; 28 shortly afterward the rights to celtics broadcasts passed to american radio systems ars owner of wrko and whdh effective with the 1994 95 season while the bruins signed a deal with wbz to carry its broadcasts starting in 1995 . 29 sister station wfxt was sold back to fox television stations soon afterward . whdh at 850 khz edit the original occupant of 850 khz and until 1941 830 kilohertz whdh had a long history . 1929 1946 early years edit whdh was founded june 20 1929 in gloucester massachusetts by ralph matheson . 1 it was a daytime only station broadcasting at 830 kilocycles leaving the air at local sunset in denver about two hours after sunset in boston to protect the signal of koa in the colorado capital city . whdh was matheson s second station ; he had started weps on november 26 1926 . 1 much of weps programming consisted of broadcasts to for or about fisherman given gloucester s status as a major port for the fishing industry . the whdh license was issued in december 1928 a month after weps was forced to share time with wkbe in webster on 1200 kilocycles ; 1 weps was sold to alfred kleindienst owner of its share time partner which became worc in auburn near worcester a year earlier in february 1930 with weps being moved to auburn and consolidated with worc on may 5 . 4 matheson kept whdh which moved its studios to boston on november 6 1930 though some programming had originated from boston for some time beforehand and the transmitter remained in gloucester until a 1932 move to saugus . 4 with the move whdh broadened its programming but still included some reports for fishermen . in subsequent decades whdh would claim weps history as its own . 30 the 1941 north american regional broadcasting agreement moved whdh to 850 kilocycles and allowed the station to broadcast on a full time basis . whdh was able to increase power to 5 000 watts and go full time but not without protests from koa one of the dominant class a clear channel stations on 850 am . for two years from 1943 until 1945 whdh was the local affiliate of the blue network the former nbc blue replacing wbz as blue affiliate ; whdh ceded the affiliation to wcop after the blue network also chose to affiliate with lawrence s wlaw the facilities of which were subsequently sold to wnac . 5 after 1946 home of bob and ray then jess cain edit in 1946 shortly after world war ii the boston herald traveler newspaper purchased whdh by this time again an independent station . 30 in 1948 the station moved its transmitter site from saugus to needham west of boston where the station would be able to increase power to 50 000 watts with a directional signal aimed east to protect koa and other stations on 850 . the station also expanded into fm broadcasting on march 31 1948 with the sign on of whdh fm 94.5 fm now wjmn . 30 while not first in boston to adopt a popular music and disc jockey format with hourly newscasts worl was the first a combination of a powerful signal top notch personalities like ray dorey fred b. cole 31 bob clayton norm nathan news anchor john day and a mid morning women s show hosted by christine evans also billing herself as chris ; along with live coverage of boston red sox baseball boston bruins hockey and boston celtics basketball made whdh one of the most popular stations in the region in the post world war ii era . in the late 1950s jess cain joined the station first co hosting the morning show with dorey then as solo host when dorey moved over to television . cain would remain at whdh for 34 years . by the early 1960s hank forbes and alan dary had joined cain clayton and nathan on the whdh staff . in the 1950s and 1960s whdh along with wbz had the strongest