WUNR is a radio station serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, licensed to nearby Brookline. It broadcasts on 1600 kHz on the AM radio dial with an ethnic format.

WUNR
Broadcast areaBoston, Massachusetts
Frequency1600 kHz
BrandingWUNR 1600 AM
Programming
FormatEthnic
Ownership
OwnerChampion Broadcasting System, Inc.
History
First air date
June 12, 1948[1]
Former call signs
  • WVOM (1948–1956)
  • WBOS (1956–1969)
Call sign meaning
"United Nations of Radio" (reflecting its ethnic format)
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID10118
ClassB
Power20,000 watts
Transmitter coordinates
42°17′20.35″N 71°11′19.2″W / 42.2889861°N 71.188667°W / 42.2889861; -71.188667 (WUNR)
Links
Public license information
WebcastListen live
Websitewww.wunr.com

History

edit

The station first signed on in 1948 as WVOM, a local station. WVOM was one of the earliest stations in the Boston area to adopt 24-hour broadcasting on a regular basis. The station was sold to Herbert Hoffman in 1955, who changed the call letters to WBOS in 1956[3] and eventually added an FM station, WBOS-FM.

The AM station had some leased-time ethnic programming, but also for a time in the mid 1950s was home to one of the first rock-and-roll shows on Boston radio, hosted by a young Arnie "Woo-Woo" Ginsburg. In the late 1950s, WBOS was mostly a beautiful music simulcast on both AM and FM, although some ethnic programming remained on the AM side.

In the late 1960s, WBOS gradually abandoned simulcasting with WBOS-FM and increased the amount of ethnic programming on the AM side. The call letters of the AM station became WUNR in 1969 to reflect its ethnic format.

WUNR's transmitter and antenna are located in nearby Newton, Massachusetts. A few years back,[when?] the transmitter site was rebuilt, which resulted in a more powerful (20,000 watts) signal for the station in most of the Boston area, but still heavily "nulled" to the southwest to protect WWRL in New York City.

References

edit
  1. ^ Halper, Donna; Wollman, Garrett. "The Eastern Massachusetts Radio Timeline: the 1940s". The Archives @ BostonRadio.org. Retrieved December 28, 2011.
  2. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WUNR". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ "WUNR history cards" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
edit