WMJX (106.7 FM) – branded Magic 106.7 – is a commercial adult contemporary radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. The WMJX studios are located in Boston's Allston–Brighton neighborhood, while the station transmitter resides on the Prudential Tower in Downtown Boston. Besides a standard analog transmission, WMJX broadcasts using HD Radio technology, and is available online via Audacy.
History
Previous FM installation
The first WBZ-FM had its origins in a construction permit held by Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company to operate at 42.6 MHz; this facility signed on as W1XK on November 7, 1940, from the Hull transmitter site of sister station WBZ. Westinghouse soon sought a commercial FM license, and on February 19, 1941, was granted a construction permit for W67B on 46.7, W1XK left the air for good on December 28, 1941, and W67B signed on March 29, 1942. The call letters became WBZ-FM on November 2, 1943. Initially, W67B/WBZ-FM was largely separately-programmed, though in later years it became a simulcast of its AM sister station.
After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved the FM band to 88–106 MHz (later expanded to 108), WBZ-FM began to operate on 100.7 MHz on January 1, 1946 (while still operating on 46.7 as well). The frequency again changed to 92.9 MHz on August 10, 1947 (the 100.7 frequency was reoccupied by WCOP-FM, now WZLX, in 1948). WBZ-FM's transmitter moved to the WBZ-TV (channel 4) tower at the stations' new studios in the Allston-Brighton portion of Boston in 1948, with 92.9 operations from Hull ceasing on July 23, 1948, and the 46.7 operation shutting down on November 21, 1948. After the WBZ-TV tower was destroyed by Hurricane Carol on August 31, 1954, WBZ-FM's operations were discontinued and the license surrendered to the FCC, which deleted it and a Springfield sister station, WBZA-FM (97.1), on November 22, 1954. (The 92.9 frequency has been occupied by WBOS since 1960.)
WBZ-FM (1957–1981)
After securing a new license for operation on 106.7 MHz, Westinghouse signed on a second WBZ-FM on December 15, 1957. The station initially operated only from 5:00 p.m. to midnight with a classical music format branded "Westinghouse Fine Music in Boston"; in 1959, WBZ-FM expanded its operating hours by simulcasting the AM sister station during periods in which the station had signed off. After live programming was replaced with tapes of classical music in January 1960, WBZ-FM's separate programming was expanded, with the simulcast continuing in mornings.
On December 31, 1971, WBZ-FM became a rock music station as "Rockin' Stereo 106.7", programming mostly top 40 with some album cuts. Although automated, it featured voice-tracked announcing from Clark Smidt (who also programmed the station) and Ken Shelton. For a time in the mid-1970s, WBZ-FM was Boston's second most popular top 40 station, only trailing WRKO. In 1975, both Smidt and Shelton left to join WCOZ, which was changing formats from beautiful music to album-oriented rock. By 1979, WBZ-FM had drifted into an automated album-oriented rock format itself, which remained in place through 1981. As a rock station, WBZ-FM also simulcast the hourly newscasts from the AM side, the commercial spots on which were the only commercials heard on the FM side.
Switch to Magic
In June 1981, Westinghouse Broadcasting announced the sale of WBZ-FM to Greater Media for $5 million, becoming that company's first Boston station. The divestiture came as Group W sought to realign its FM station holdings, with a focus on new markets. Concurrently with the sale, Westinghouse applied to change the station's call sign to WMJX, a call sign similar to existing Greater Media properties WMGK in Philadelphia and WMJC in Detroit; the new call sign took effect on August 17, while still under Westinghouse ownership. The sale was completed on January 1, 1982. Under the new ownership, WMJX signed off for a couple of weeks at the very end of 1981. During this silent period, Greater Media installed a new transmitter and increased the height of the antenna on the WBZ-TV tower. A few years later, the transmission equipment was relocated to the Prudential Tower, improving the station's signal in Downtown Boston.