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WBOS (92.9 MHz, "Bloomberg 92.9") is a commercial radio FM radio station licensed to Brookline, Massachusetts, and serving Greater Boston. WBOS is owned by Beasley Broadcast Group, with studios and offices in Waltham. WBOS airs a All-news radio radio format from Bloomberg Radio.
WBOS has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 18,500 watts. The transmitter is on the top of the Prudential Tower in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. WBOS broadcasts in the HD Radio hybrid format. The HD2 subchannel WRCA, which carries the former classic rock format of WBOS.
Most of the AM station's programming was beautiful music, but when the AM side began to broadcast ethnic programming, the FM side continued to play beautiful music, which was branded on both AM and FM as "Boston's Music Theatre". In 1975, WBOS changed to a hodgepodge format which did not gain much of an audience.
The success of that show led to WBOS hiring Robin, and a rapid expansion of the disco programming, first to seven nights a week from 8:00 p.m. to midnight (April 1978), and then to 24/7 in September 1978. For a brief time in late 1978 and early 1979, "Disco 93" WBOS was one of Boston's most popular radio stations. But when WXKS-FM came on the scene with a highly promoted disco format, including big promotions and hiring away some WBOS disc jockeys, WBOS' ratings suffered.Jeff McLaughlin, "The disco beat," The Boston Globe, June 28, 1979.
WRKO midday legend J.J. Wright (later at WODS) was one of the original disco DJs for WBOS when the station went round-the-clock disco in 1978. Longtime, popular producer Jack King (WBIM-FM, WVBF, and WBZ) created, wrote and engineered most of the station's disco specials at the time. King was there at the beginning of the station's format change to disco and worked closely with Robin to 'keep the beat going' into the late 1970s and early 1980s. When WBOS changed to adult contemporary music, the duo went to WBZ radio for a long, successful stint there.
Program director and morning personality Dean James, along with general sales manager Dave DiGregorio, worked to bring country to the mainstream in Boston, a city with little history as a country music stronghold. The country format ran for six years.
In April 2005, WBOS made changes to play more music and decrease the amount of talk. The station's morning show, hosted by Bill Abbate and Kristin Lessard, was abruptly cancelled to make way for the DJ-free "All Music Mornings". "It's putting the station somewhat back to where it started in terms of its ideals. Listener perception is that radio plays too many commercials and that DJs can be boring and irrelevant," said Buzz Knight, operations manager for WBOS. Knight said that WBOS would be "the cool station for people over 30".Clea Simon, "Change is in the air for Boston radio," The Boston Globe, April 21, 2005.
In September 2007, George Knight began hosting morning drive on the station, but that would be short lived. That same month, owner Greater Media registered domains that showed that the station was possibly flipping to sports talk as "92.9 The Ticket", complete with a logo and a slogan, "Boston's Only FM Sports Station". The station was rumored to flip on October 1 of that year, but never materialized. WBMX (now WBZ-FM) and WMKK (now WEEI-FM) eventually flipped to the sports format over the next five years.
On July 13, 2016, WBOS rebranded as "Alt 92-9". The station slowly added more air personalities back to the station during this time.
In July 2017, WBOS began carrying the Dave and Chuck The Freak morning show out of sister station WRIF. That same year, the station began broadcasting Boston Bruins hockey games that conflict with New England Patriots games, the arrangement followed Beasley's acquisition of WBZ-FM, the flagship station for both teams.
The change followed a transition from a classic rock-classic hits hybrid to a more conventional classic hits format at sister station WROR-FM, leaving space for a competitor to market powerhouse WZLX. Beasley media Launches Rock 92.9 Boston Radioinsight – April 11, 2019 The station brought back two DJs previously heard on WBCN during its later rock years: Adam 12 hosted middays, and Hardy hosted afternoons, voice-tracking his shift while retaining his primary duties co-hosting the Toucher & Hardy show on sister station WBZ-FM.
On July 19, 2016, Beasley Media Group announced it would acquire Greater Media and its 21 stations (including WBOS) for $240 million. Beasley Acquires Greater Media The FCC approved the sale on October 6, 2016, and the sale closed on November 1, 2016.
The "Coffee House" format was later replaced with Radio You Boston, featuring content programmed by college-aged residents of the Boston area. It was later re-branded as Local 92.9, and featured local music artists from the Boston area.
On July 3, 2017, Beasley announced that Bloomberg Radio programming would be moved from WXKS to sister WRCA, simulcast on a new FM translator W291CZ, and also carried on WBOS-HD2. Following the 2024 move of Bloomberg programming to WBOS's primary channel, WRCA and WBOS-HD2 inherited WBOS's classic rock programming.
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