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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Greater Boston |
| Frequency | 1360kHz |
| Programming | |
| Format | Ethnic |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WAZN | |
| History | |
First air date | December 11, 1947 (1947-12-11)[1] |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | Lynn, Massachusetts |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 53948 |
| Class | D |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 42°27′10.35″N70°58′48.18″W / 42.4528750°N 70.9800500°W /42.4528750; -70.9800500 (WLYN) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
WLYN is abrokered time radio station in theGreater Boston area broadcastingethnic programming. The station is licensed toLynn, Massachusetts, and is owned byMulticultural Broadcasting. Its programming is broadcast on 1360kHz on theAM band.
WLYN firstsigned on the air on December 11, 1947, as adaytime-only station. It operated at 500 watts, and thetransmitter was located near the Fox Hill Bridge.[3] The opening was covered by the city's two local newspapers, theLynn Daily Evening Item and theLynn Telegram-News. The new station's president was A. (Avigdor) M. "Vic" Morgan, a veteran broadcaster who had been involved with mechanical television in TV's formative years; he had been the general manager of the Shortwave & Television Company in Boston in the early 1930s. Among the air-staff were greater Boston radio veterans like Ned French and Raymond Knight. In charge of women's programming as well as public affairs and educational programs was Dorothy Rich; Mrs. Rich was also the radio director atEndicott Junior College inBeverly, Massachusetts.[4]
The station was sold on March 3, 1950, toBrookline businessman Theodore "Ted" Feinstein. (Feinstein also would own other smaller market stations, includingWNBP in Newburyport andWTSA in Brattleboro, Vermont.) For many years, WLYN served theNorth Shore with local programming, local news, local high school sports, and talk shows that focused on local issues. WLYN played mainly popular music, and in the 1950s and 1960s, it continued to employ well-known announcers who had worked at other greater Boston area stations. They included John "Jack" Chadderton, Hank Forbes, Chris Clausen, talk host Morgan Baker (formerly ofWEEI in Boston) and Johnny Towne. Later, WLYN switched to nostalgia andbig-band music, hiring well-known veteran broadcasters like Bill Marlowe.[5] For a brief period of time in the mid-1970s, the station also experimented withcountry music, but this was unsuccessful.[6]
In 1948, WLYN's president A.M. Morgan also put an FM station on the air; WLYN-FM used the 101.7 frequency.[7] For many years, it simulcast WLYN during the day and had its own programming after the AM signed off at sunset. In the early 1970s, responding to an influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants, both WLYN and WLYN-FM began offering an hour of programming in Spanish each Sunday.
By the mid-1970s, WLYN-FM had begun broadcasting Greek and Italian ethnic programming in the midday and late evening hours, with drive times still simulcast with the AM. In 1981, WLYN-FM began broadcasting a nighttime block of "new wave" rock music which eventually became a 24/7modern rock format in 1982 when the midday ethnic programs were moved to the AM side. In February 1983, WLYN-FM was sold to Stephen Mindich, owner of theBostonPhoenix, and in early April it was on the air under new call letters—WFNX; the new station retained for the most part the modern-rock format that had been launched by the previous owners, and subsequently expanded upon it. (101.7 is nowWBWL.)
Since the early 1980s, WLYN has continued to broadcast ethnic programming, and now broadcasts 24 hours a day, with reduced nighttime power. WLYN broadcast inAM Stereo until the end of 2006.