WRCA

WRCA (1330 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Watertown, Massachusetts and serving the Greater Boston media market. The license is held by the Beasley Media Group, LLC, part of the Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc.[2] The station carries financial news from Bloomberg Radio with some local news, weather and traffic reports. WRCA's programming is also heard on FM translator W291CZ (106.1 MHz) and on the HD2 channel of sister station WBOS.

This article is about the radio station in Watertown, Massachusetts. For other uses, including former holders of the WRCA call sign, see WRCA (disambiguation).
WRCA
CityWatertown, Massachusetts
Broadcast areaGreater Boston
BrandingBloomberg 106.1
Frequency1330 kHz
Translator(s)106.1 W291CZ (Boston)
Repeater(s)92.9 WBOS-HD2 (Brookline)
1450 WNBP (Newburyport)
106.1 W291CC (Newburyport)
First air dateJanuary 30, 1948 (1948-01-30)[1]
FormatFinancial News
Power25,000 watts daytime
17,000 watts nighttime
99 watts (translator)
ClassB
Facility ID60695
Transmitter coordinates42°17′20.00″N 71°11′21.00″W
Call sign meaningRadio Comedy and the Arts (previous format)
Former call signsWCRB (1948–1975)
WHET (1975–1979)
WDLW (1979–1989)
AffiliationsBloomberg Radio
Westwood One News
OwnerBeasley Broadcast Group, Inc.
(Beasley Media Group Licenses, LLC)
Sister stationsWBOS, WBQT, WBZ-FM, WKLB-FM, WROR-FM
WebcastListen Live (via iHeartRadio)
Websitewww.bloombergradio.com

History
Logo for the station prior to November 15, 2016

The station began operating as WCRB on January 30, 1948, owned by Theodore Jones's Charles River Broadcasting (hence the WCRB call letters). WCRB was originally a community radio station for Waltham, Massachusetts, before switching to a classical music format a few years later. An FM simulcast was added in 1954, WCRB-FM. As FM broadcasting became more popular for music listening, the AM station ceased simulcasting WCRB-FM's classical format in 1975 and became WHET, programming a big band/adult standards format from 1975 until 1978, and then a short run as a beautiful music outlet. Sales of the station to various owners led to formats such as country music WDLW for most of the 1980s, and then "Showbiz Radio" WRCA (standing for "Radio, Comedy, and Arts") in 1990 before the station began leasing time to ethnic broadcasters in 1991 with the WRCA call sign retained. The current owners, the Beasley Broadcast Group, took over in 2000 from the ADD Radio Group.

The station's long time transmitter site in Waltham was discontinued in 2007 when WRCA became one of three AM stations to share a rebuilt transmitter facility at the original site of WBOS AM 1600 on Sawmill Brook Parkway in Newton. This site is now used by stations on 1200, 1330 and 1600 kHz.

WRCA's city of license changed from Waltham to Watertown in 2007, and the power increased to 25,000 watts daytime, 17,000 watts nighttime. In addition to ethnic programming, WRCA had broadcast Northeastern Huskies men's ice hockey games.

Following Beasley's acquisition of Greater Media, WRCA went dark on November 15, 2016, as it moved to new studios; it returned in May 2017 with a simulcast of "Boston's Irish Channel", the HD2 channel of sister station WBQT, as it was believed that WRCA was in the process of signal testing. The station was also paired with an FM translator, W291CZ (licensed to Boston) at 106.1 MHz.[3]

On July 3, 2017, Bloomberg L.P. and Beasley announced that WRCA/W291CZ would begin carrying Bloomberg Radio programming (which moved over from WXKS) beginning the following day. Concurrently, the HD2 channel of WBOS began to simulcast WRCA's programming.[4]

Translator
Broadcast translators of WRCA
Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseFacility
ID		ERP
(W)		ClassTransmitter coordinatesFCC info
W291CZ106.1Boston, Massachusetts14459299D42°20′57.00″N 71°4′31.00″WFCC

References
  1. Halper, Donna; Wollman, Garrett. "The Eastern Massachusetts Radio Timeline: the 1940s". The Archives @ BostonRadio.org. Retrieved December 28, 2011.
  2. FCC Station Ownership database
  3. Radio-Locator
  4. Bloomberg Radio Moving to 1330/106.1 Boston


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