Waaf
They simulcast on 97.7 FM, which is licensed to Brockton, Massachusetts (where their signal can be better heard in parts of Boston). When its antenna was located in Paxton, the central part of New England, WAAF could be heard throughout much of Massachusetts, as well as parts of neighboring U.S.
states New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and New York.
In spring and summer of 2006, they began testing the new transmitter site, the station's signal strength decreased in most parts of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and Western Massachusetts. WAAF was trying to concentrate the signal into its primary sales market, Boston.
The new transmitter was operating on program test authority (and still is) from the FCC, on Stiles Hill in Boylston, Massachusetts. The first experiment with this antenna took place between October 31 and November 22, 2005 but the station had to resort back to Paxton for a couple of months to address multipath issues.
The addition of 97.7 now gives WAAF improved signal coverage in parts of Boston.
On August 30, 2006, WILD-FM was renamed WKAF.
Early history
The WAAF call letters go back to Chicago, where they were on the air in late April 1922, owned by the Chicago Daily Drovers Journal. The call letters and ownership remained the same until the mid 1950s, when the ownership changed, but the station continued to broadcast from Chicago well into the 1960s.
WAAF had been one of the first stations in Chicago to fully integrate, according to African-American newspapers like the Chicago Defender. During the 60s, WAAF became popular for playing black music and jazz, and it was the home of popular disc jockey "Daddy-O" Daylie.
Later history
The station that became WAAF was actually a distant cousin of an AM station from the early 1930s, WAAB in Boston.
Shepard was a pioneer in FM broadcasting, putting the first FM network on the air in December 1940, when two Shepard FMs, greater Boston's W1XOJ and New Hampshire's W1XER were linked up. While W1XOJ was presented as a Boston station, it was in fact located in Paxton, near Worcester.
By 1951, the station was operating under the call letters of WGTR, at 99.1 mHz, owned by Thomas S.
Lee Broadcasting, which had also purchased the Shepard stations in the late 1940s. 1268) Subsequently, the WGTR call letters, and the station itself, seemed to disappear, and only WTAG, owned by the Worcester Telegram and Gazette newspaper, operated an FM in Worcester during the remainder of the 1950s.
The new WAAF broadcast a Beautiful music format, which was still the most popular FM format at that time. But WAAF switched to its long running Rock music format three years later, in 1970.
For more on the early history of WAAF/W1XOJ see FM broadcasting in the USA and History of radio. For an excellent history of FM Broadcasting, see "Sounds of Change: A History of FM Broadcasting in America," by Christopher Sterling and Michael Keith (University of North Carolina Press, 2008)
Radio station WXOJ-LP 103.3FM "Valley Free Radio" in Northampton, Massachusetts is a low power station whose call letters pay tribute to WAAF's ancestral origins.
The FCC reissued W1XOJ as an amateur radio club call sign to Kurt R. Jackson uses the call sign on a network of simulcast amateur radio repeaters throughout New England, which he named the Yankee Network, a reference to the regional broadcasting network established by Shepard Broadcasting in 1928 that came to include the original WAAB.
On August 13, 2009 rival station WBCN will sign off terrestial radio, making WAAF the longest active running rock radio station in Massachusetts.
Freeform era 1970-1974
In the early 1970s the Rock format WAAF ran was referred to as Freeform, where the air talent is given total control over what music to play, regardless of commercial interests.
In the early 1970s WAAF featured typical rock artists of the day such as The Beatles, The Who, Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, It's a Beautiful Day, Aerosmith, The Doors, Chicago, Stevie Wonder, Electric Flag, Billy Preston, Sly & The Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison, Steppenwolf, Blood Sweat & Tears, and many others.
In hindsight, some of these artists are now considered more pop sounding and part of the Oldies or Classic hits musical genres.
Some are more eclectic sounding acts, popular during the hippie/counterculture era of the 1960s and early 1970s and not remembered as well past that time period. WAAF played a mix of hit music from the 1960s mixed with then contemporary hit music of the 1970s such as Abba.
While most of the Stevie Wonder/Billy Preston/Chicago styled music was considered too pop by the late 70s, a few upbeat pop sounding classics like "Good Lovin'" by The Young Rascals and "Shout" by The Isley Brothers were still in the stations music library and frequently played.
In the second half of the 1970s heavy metal artists like Black Sabbath increased in airplay on the station. Some, such as AC/DC, were played for the first time.
During this era WAAF helped promote the careers of Van Halen and Rush by giving them heavy airplay.
WAAF's slogan in this time period was, "WAAF, The Rock N' Roll Air Force" and had a station mascot that was a giraffe, with the hook the station used: The WAAF GirAAF.
"Non-Stop Rock" era 1981-1989
WAAF went through several more ownership and management changes in the 1980s, but excluding one brief format shift, the station had a very consistent and commercially viable rock format for most of the decade.
During this period of time, the station came to rely on playing an increasingly large amount of older music to meet advertisers demographic demands. The 1980s was a more conservative time and the height of the 'Yuppie' subculture.
WAAF wanted to branch out to this large baby boomer audience located in the nearby Boston market, while not alienating its core Worcester and Central Massachusetts listeners who tended to be younger and working class. They did this through the heavy use of dayparting, playing mostly older music and lighter artist during the day and saving airplay for most harder music for evenings after 7:P.M.
The range included relatively light pop/rock artists such as Huey Lewis and the News and Phil Collins, played more during the morning and afternoon hours. Carroll introduced the format on KROQ in Los Angeles in 1978 and by 1983 was having much success with it.
Core artist during this brief period included Boy George and Culture Club, A Flock of Seagulls, The Human League, Talk Talk, Duran Duran, and Spandau Ballet. They began only playing harder songs by core artists while increasing the amount of current music product being played.
They became a "Rock 40" station playing only rock and heavy metal (mostly metal in the more pop oriented Glam metal genre) but in a manner similar of that to Top 40 stations. The station during this period was inspired by Los Angeles radio station KQLZ , "Pirate Radio 100.3 FM" (WAAF aired the live and nationally syndicated KQLZ produced show "Pirate Radio U.S.A." on Saturday nights from November 1989 through October 1993 when the show ceased production several months after the Los Angeles station changed its format).
'Alternative' lean 1992-1995
In early 1992 heavy metal and hard rock rapidly lost ground to the growing popularity of various "Alternative Subcultures" and the music associated with them.
In trying to keep up with the times, WAAF began adding more music acts popular in the alternative music genre to its playlist rotation.
Alternative artists, including Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Beck and Belly received ample airplay. WAAF was one of the stations to launch the career of Alanis Morissette in the summer of 1995, by playing the first two singles from her Jagged Little Pill album, "You Oughta Know" and "Hand In My Pocket".
Though WAAF included more 'Alternative' acts in their programming during this era, they still played many hard rock and metal bands other stations during that time would not play.
The "In Boston" part of the slogan had to be dropped after several years due to complaints, and eventually a cease and desist order, filed by rival WBCN. WAAF also helped many national Nu metal acts to prominence from the mid-1990s through mid-2000s.
Many artist influenced by such alternative music subgenres as power pop and pop-punk were also placed on the stations playlist, including The Killers, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and AFI.
In January 2007 the station, while keeping the same wider format of rock music styles played, updated its slogan to "The Widest Range Of Rock On The Radio!".
Current on-air personalities
Programming on WAAF is mostly locally produced. Hsu also served as news anchor for The Hill-Man Morning Show from the late 1990s-January 2004.
Mistress Carrie, the "Purple Haired Bitch of Boston", has been the host of AAF's afternoon drive slot from November 2005-Present. Women appear on the show to interview for a position in the calendar, and are asked a standard set of questions about their anatomy, their sexual preferences, and their sexual history.
In the past, women were often asked to fake an orgasm on the air, for the listeners to vote on.
In 1993, Kevin Barbare joined The Hill-Man Morning Show to provide comedic content with his wide range of musical and celebrity impressions as Co-Host.
The show also has two assistant producers, Big Red, though he is very rarely heard from but regularly mentioned and poked fun at by the cast members of the show.
Past shows and personalities
Opie and Anthony
Further information: Opie and Anthony
On February 13, 1995, shock jocks Opie and Anthony came to WAAF from Long Island rock station WBAB. During this event, the DJs (Greg Hill 1993-2003) from the station walk across Massachusetts, asking for change from the people as they stop in each town.
Starting in 2003, while this event is proceeding, the DJs at the station will play requested songs, for a price. While the station will play any song requested, obnoxious or unpopular songs, such as the Spongebob Squarepants theme, will have a higher price than the station's standard fare.
CD releases
The station has released a number of mostly limited edition CDs containing exclusive in-studio performances and various comedy bits from the on-air staff.
Unusual Suspects: WAAF Exclusive Live Studio Recordings, November 19, 1996
Royal Flush: Live On-Air, November 25, 1997
Bootleg Live On-Air, March 23, 1999
WAAF Survive This, October 30, 2000
Prez Dispenser, (during Bill Clinton's administration)
WAAF also released Opie and Anthony's Demented World, a CD that highlighted some of Opie and Anthony's most popular bits during their time at WAAF.