The CBS Radio Sports and CHR movement takes another leap forward in August as a pair of Boston FM’s will take on new identities.
On August 13, Hot AC “Mix 98.5” WBMX will become Sports as “98.5 The Sports Hub” WBZ-FM.
The Boston Phoenix reports that WBCN morning hosts Toucher & Rich will host mornings on the new 98.5 and WEEI’s Mike Felger and Comcast Sportsnet New England’s Gary Tanguay will be part of the afternoon show. New England Patriots Football PBP will also slide from WBCN to the new WBZ-FM, while the NHL Boston Bruins move from 1030 WBZ. We can add that 985TheSportsHub.com was registered on June 22.
More on the local Boston perspective can be found at Fang’s Bites.
As of now word is that 104.1 will become the new home of Hot AC WBMX. CBS already has Mix1041FM.com and 1041Mix.com, in its portfolio from a former format in Minneapolis.
Anonymous 
videokilledtheradiostar666 
I understand the Sports flip, but why the frequency switch? Both 98.5 and 104.1 are very good signals and Mix has been doing well on 98.5.
I'm completely baffled by the frequency shift as well.
My first thought was that they wanted to relaunch 104.1 as CHR, but that won't be the case.
The other thing that comes to mind is that 98.5 has a slightly stronger signal in fringe areas like Providence and Worcester.
Could Entercom beat to the bunch of "first FM sports talker in Boston" by simulcasting WEEI on 93.7 and/or 97.7? I think Mike got half decent ratings, considering its jockless format. Well, a simulcast would be low overhead, too…
The move of WBMX to 104.1 makes no sense.
I think CBS should instead have put sports on 100.7, "blowing-up" WZLX, and keep WBCN and WBMX where they were.
On the other hand, Dan Rea's "Nightside" on WBZ-1030 will no longer be bumped by Bruins' games.
Maybe this move will lead the new WBZ-98.5 to broadcast all Bruins' pre-season games (never before had more than three or four of the team's eight to ten pre-season games a year ever been broadcast on radio) and Westwood One's coverage of the NHL All-Star game and Stanley Cup Finals (which weren't picked-up by anyone in Boston last year).
Also expect Westwood One's NFL Sunday-Night/Monday-Night/Playoffs/Super Bowl package to move to 98.5 as well.
Might this force Entercom's hand to flip either the WAAF-107.3/WKAF-97.7 combo or WMKK-93.7 to sports (simulcasting WEEI-850) prior to August 13th??
Or, Entercom could end-up making their own multiple-station move, by moving WAAF to 93.7 and having 107.3/97.7 simulcast WEEI (which would give WEEI a strong signal for Metrowest, meaning Worcester's 50,000-watt WCRN-830 will no longer need to be a Red Sox affiliate after the current season.
I think there's a very good chance that's going to happen, so Entercom would beat CBS radio to the "punch". And Entercom may make the flip within days, perhaps by this Friday (July 17th).
My guess: Boston may very well have two all-sports FM stations by this time (July 21st) next week.
WMKK is doing pretty well. They're not going anywhere.
And with WBCN out of the way, now is not the time to give up on WAAF, although I could see them putting WEEI on 97.7 and leaving 107.3 alone.
I bet the suits at Entercom are really cursing out Nassau right now for screwing up that WCRB deal. WEEI would have been on 99.5 already.
"The other thing that comes to mind is that 98.5 has a slightly stronger signal in fringe areas like Providence and Worcester."
That's probably it then. Might be a few 103.7 WEEI listeners down towards Providence but still in the Boston market that would get a better signal on 98.5 than 104.1.
Still, I'm not sure it makes that big a difference, and I'm not sure it outweighs the costs of rebranding Mix.
It's especially weird to see them pay so much attention to which frequency gets which format when they've been messing up those decisions in DC for years (i.e. putting Tropical on the frequency that covers the fewest Hispanics).
There could indeed be a move to simulcast WEEI on 97.7 or 93.7; but as I understand it WMKK 93.7 does fairly well with their current format.And as far as the 97.7, well, they could flip it to an EEI simulcast but doesn't their WEEI-FM 103.7 cover south of Boston more
than well enough?
Yet another reason not to listen to corporate commercial radio. The suits don't care about what listeners think. It's all about them and their wallets. Commercial radio sucks!