WMEX



WMEX was founded in 1934 by Bill and Al Pote. WMEX operated as an independent (non-network) station with a program schedule filled with everything from live music remotes to ethnic programming. In the early 1950s, the station featured some notable jazz programming, and the recording of a WMEX originated Billie Holiday remote broadcast from a Boston club survives.

In 1957, the Pote family sold WMEX to the Richmond Brothers. Max Richmond, one of the brothers, changed the format of WMEX to a rock and roll dominant pop music format (one of the first in the nation) and hired Arnie Ginsburg, whose nightly rock and roll broadcasts heard on WBOS, were very popular.
The format lasted from 1957 until March, 1975. Richmond was reportedly a challenge to work for, with his alleged micro-managing and abrasive personality, yet his uncanny ability to spot deejay talent, kept his station - despite a poor nighttime signal - a major player and innovator for many years.
Don Parker 1961
Among Richmond's innovations was the hiring of Jerry Williams to conduct a nighttime telephone talk show, with the caller heard on the air, a revolutionary concept in the late 1950s.

With the weekday-only Williams show beginning at 10 PM (after many of the young rock and roll audience was in bed), Richmond shrewdly was able to expand the appeal of his station to the adult community in the late night hours. Malcolm X was a favorite guest of Williams, and many WMEX broadcasts featuring Williams and Malcolm X survive. When the Beatles broke in the USA, WMEX was at the forefront, playing virtually every Beatles song available and fueling the already rabid Boston fans.

CRUISIN' 1961
[ LISTEN ] (41:11)
Arnie Ginsburg
In the early 1960s, main personality Arnie "WooWoo" Ginsburg began his Sunday night Oldies Show, one of the first in the nation to feature early rock and rhythm and blues in a specialty show.
Arnie is doing his usual thing at WMEX on December 12th 1965
[ LISTEN ] (27:28)

In the late 1960s, WMEX received a power upgrade to 50,000 watts daytime, still with 5,000 watts at night. Station engineers had to constantly adjust the phasing network as tides in the Neponset River would play havoc with the station's directional pattern. However, the salt-water marsh area provided the station with an excellent coastal signal.


While the night signal could not be heard clearly inland to many growing and affluent western and southwestern suburbs around Boston, the station's nighttime transmissions were heard very clearly across the salt water to the Boston city neighborhoods and the working class North Shore areas, which gave the station's programming a more gritty, earthy sound. The salt-water path nighttime transmissions kept going right up to Nova Scotia and Labrador, gaining the station an audience in those areas as well.

15 AND TEN SURVEY
August 20, 1965
By the late 1960s, WMEX was facing tough competition in the top-40 format from WRKO, which featured a tight playlist, a more "suburban oriented" polish, and a 50,000 watt day and night signal which was heard very clearly.

However, under the programming of John Garabedian, WMEX countered with an expanded playlist featuring some "progressive rock" album cuts. WMEX shot back up in the ratings and actually beat WRKO in a few time periods, but it was a temporary. Shortly thereafter, Max Richmond died, and FM radios became more common, especially in cars where WMEX was getting the FM audience who didn't have an FM car radio yet.
WMEX decided to abandon top-40 in 1975. Although briefly a MOR station with some talk programming, WMEX captured the broadcast rights to the Boston Red Sox beginning with the 1975 playoffs and became an all-talk station in 1976. In 1978, to better promote its talk format and sports coverage, the station changed call letters to WITS ("We're Information, Talk and Sports")
Long a 5,000-watt station, WMEX/WITS in the 1970s had a daytime power output of 50,000 watts and a nighttime power of 5,000 watts, which led to a less-than-perfect signal in parts of the Boston area, especially at night. WKBW, with 50,000 watts, right next door to WMEX on the dial, at 1520 from Buffalo, New York, and directional straight at Massachusetts, all but buried the weaker 5,000-watt WMEX after dark, in the western Boston suburbs.
On the other side of WMEX, was an equally strong signal from a Washington, DC station (then WTOP), which, together with WKBW, would really put the squeeze on WMEX's signal at night. In 1981, the station moved its transmitter to Waltham and was able to boost power to 50,000 watts day and night. But while some areas did get an improved signal, especially at night, other areas did not.
In 2002 WMEX came back on in Rochester, New Hampshire on the FM dial at 106.5FM until June of 2008 until that frequency was sold to a Christian Group. Under the direction of Gary James who was the Station Manager and Gene Vallee the Marketing Manager for WMEX 106.5 the station hosted a top oldies format for nearly 6 years.
WHO WORKED AT WMEX? Here is the list: Jack Armstrong, Larry Caringer, Chuck Christianson, Jim Connors, Dan Donovan I, Dan Donovan II, Dan Donovan III, Jack Gale, Arnie 'Woo Woo' Ginsburg, Larry Glick, Jim Harrington, Bobby Holiday, Johnny Lujack, Melvin X. Melvin, Bill Rock, Brad Shepard, Dick Summer, Charlie Tunah, Little Walter, Jerry Williams, Rick Williams, and J. Michael Wilson.
Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Internet Archive, Rock Radio Scrapbook, wmexradio.com.