- WBZ’s history pages say it was licensed on September 15, 1921, in Springfield.
- GBH first went on the air in October 1951 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
- GBH television signed on on May 2, 1955.
Boston’s place in broadcasting history is out of proportion to its size. Two of its stations trace their roots to the earliest days of radio and of public media. This short history sticks to what the stations themselves record about their past.
1921: WBZ goes on the air, in Springfield
WBZ’s own history pages say it was licensed on September 15, 1921, as a commercial radio station in East Springfield, Massachusetts, and made its first broadcast on September 19, 1921, from the Eastern States Exposition, today’s Big E. In 2021 the station marked its centennial as the first commercially licensed station to broadcast live in the U.S. Early programming included live theater, a farm hour and even sewing lessons.
1924: Into Boston
WBZ did not move to Boston until 1924. Its first broadcast from the new Boston studio, at the Hotel Brunswick on Boylston and Berkeley Streets, came on February 24, 1924. That December it aired the first radio broadcast of the Boston Bruins, and in April 1925 it carried Boston Braves baseball live from Braves Field. Sports on Boston radio, in other words, is almost as old as Boston radio.
Tip: WBZ is still on the air at 1030 AM as WBZ NewsRadio. Its station history pages are worth a browse for the photographs alone.
The 1940s: Radio and TV under one roof
According to the station, its parent company Westinghouse built studios in Allston in the 1940s to house both WBZ radio and WBZ-TV, and the two moved into them in 1948. The station also records a dramatic setback from that era: on August 31, 1954, winds from Hurricane Carol toppled the WBZ-TV tower.
1951: GBH’s first night
Public broadcasting in Boston began with music. GBH’s first broadcast, in October 1951 on 89.7 FM, was a live performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra from Symphony Hall, opening the orchestra’s 71st season. GBH notes that only 15 percent of Greater Boston households had FM receivers at the time, yet the broadcast was considered a success, and the station aired 2,600 hours of programming in its first year. The partnership continues: CRB Classical 99.5, part of GBH, still carries live BSO performances on Saturday nights.
1955: Public television
GBH television signed on on May 2, 1955. Its first broadcast, according to GBH, was a children’s program called Come and See. From there GBH grew into one of the major producers of national public television, and today it runs GBH 2 and GBH 44 plus several program services.
What changed for listeners
For listeners in the 1920s, a radio broadcast of a Bruins game or a symphony concert was new. WBZ’s own records describe a time when announcers were known only by their initials and late-night programming ran from 11 p.m. to midnight, twice a week. By the time GBH went on the air in 1951, the challenge was different: few homes had FM radios, and GBH says only 15 percent of Greater Boston households did.
Television changed the picture again. WBZ radio and WBZ-TV shared a home in Allston from 1948, and GBH added television in 1955. Today the same stations reach audiences through apps, streams and podcasts as well as over the air, but the core of what they do, local news, music and sports, would be recognizable to the first listeners.
A timeline
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1921 | WBZ licensed and first broadcast, Springfield |
| 1924 | WBZ moves to Boston; first Bruins radio broadcast |
| 1948 | WBZ radio and TV move into the Allston studios |
| 1949 | WERS on the air, by its own account |
| 1951 | GBH’s first broadcast, BSO from Symphony Hall |
| 1954 | Hurricane Carol topples the WBZ-TV tower |
| 1955 | GBH television signs on |
| 1991 | WBZ begins moving to all news |
Some milestones are easy to miss. WBZ’s 1920s history notes one of the first French-English bilingual programs in April 1923, a concert from a Montreal vocal group, and a series of courses for credit offered on the air from October 1923. Radio in Boston was experimenting with education and language programming long before public broadcasting arrived.
Small details from those years still turn up today. WBZ’s original Boston studio at the Hotel Brunswick, the station notes, was torn down in 1956 to make room for an office building, and the 1948 Allston building contained a time capsule with predictions about the future of radio and TV.
Today’s dial
Many of the names have changed, and so has the technology, from analog to digital TV and now NextGen TV. But several of the stations in this story are still on the air. You can find them all in Boston Radio Stations by Frequency: FM and AM Dial Guide and Boston TV Channels: Every Local Station You Can Get With an Antenna.
75 years of GBH
GBH began its 75th anniversary year on October 6, 2026. For what it and Boston’s other public broadcasters offer now, read Public Radio and TV in Boston: GBH, WBUR, CRB Classical and the College Stations.