WILD is a radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts. The station had a legacy of serving Boston's African-American community as a R&B outlet from 1958 to 2011. The transmitter for WILD is in Medford. The station's power output was originally 1,000 watts, but was increased to 5,000 watts in 1978.
History
WILD first went on the air in 1946 as WBMS, with a classical-music format. Eventually, the station went to a "popular music" format, briefly adopted the call letters WHEE, then went back to being WBMS. By the end of the fifties, the call letters were changed to WILD under owner Bartell Broadcasters, who tried a personality DJ and music format. The station's history is best known for a long-lasting urban contemporary format which began in the late 1950s. WILD became the respected voice of Boston's black community for many years. In 1958, Nelson Noble acquired the license of the station. In September 1966, WILD was sold to Dynamic Broadcasting Corporation owned by Leonard E. Walk. In 1972, the Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation purchased Dynamic Broadcasting. In August 1980, locally based Nash Communications, owned and operated by Kendall Nash, bought WILD. When Nash died in 1999, his wife, Bernadine, took the helm of the station's operations. WILD first saw competition when WZOU flipped to a Rhythmic Contemporary Hits format as WJMN in 1993. However, it was not until 1999, when African American-owned Radio One entered the market with WBOT, that WILD saw real competition for Boston's African American population. In May 2000, Radio One took control of WILD through a local marketing agreement, which became an outright purchase later that year. After purchasing the station, Radio One slowly evolved WILD from a rather mainstream Urban Adult Contemporary format to a format that focused more on classic soul music. In addition, the syndicated Tom Joyner morning show was added to the lineup, with the former morning host relegated to giving local updates on the show. In 2005, Radio One brought about the biggest changes to the station in many years. The 1090 signal was plagued with some problems. While the signal covered the Boston area, the station was forced to sign-off every night as a result of former clear channel stationWBAL in Baltimore. In addition, the strong Arbitron ratings of WILD had warranted a better and more-powerful frequency. However, Radio One had come up with a solution. On October 20, 2005, Radio One moved the Urban Adult Contemporary format to the dial position of WBOT. The move replaced "Hot 97.7" for most of the day, but the former mainstream urban format remained from 4:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. WBOT subsequently picked up the call letters of WILD-FM. The move cleared the 1090 frequency for a new format, so when WILD signed on at sunrise on October 20, it was reborn as a new urban contemporary gospel formatted station, "Praise 1090", based on the success of WPZE-FM in Atlanta and WPPZ in Philadelphia. The "Praise 1090" format was short-lived. On January 30, 2006, the 1090 frequency changed formats again. WILD became the Boston affiliate for the company's African American-targeted news/talk network, featuring Michael Eric Dyson and 2 Live Stews. Other talent that were heard on WILD during this period included "The Truthfighters Show" with Warren Ballentine, and "Keeping It Real" with The Reverend Al Sharpton. A local morning program was also added, featuring Jimmy Myers, taking the longtime Boston radio host out of his retirement. The station retained the Black gospel format for weekend programming. The Tom Joyner Morning Show returned to WILD from 6:00am to 10:00am eastern during this tenure. While other affiliates of the network adopted the slogan, "The People's Station", WILD was unable to do so, as that was the slogan of WILD-FM. Instead, WILD used "Where Information is Power", the slogan of Radio One's longtime urban news/talk station WOL in Washington, D.C.. On August 21, 2006, radio industry website All Access reported that Entercom bought WILD-FM and changed the format to rock, a move designed to improve WAAF's signal in Boston area. WILD-FM flipped to the simulcast at 5:30 p.m. on August 22. The sale of WILD-FM meant that the Tom Joyner morning show would return to AM 1090, and WILD would revert to contemporary inspirational and gospel music , ending the news/talk format. The news/talk format subsequently returned that December. In the summer of 2008, the station flipped to a various/brokered format on the weekdays and Classic Soul and Gospel on weekends. From December 2008 to May 31, 2011, WILD was the Boston affiliate for Radio One's African American-targeted news/talk network, once again featuring hosts Ballentine and Sharpton. The station website became defunct during this time period. Radio One sold WILD to Radio Boston Broadcasting, a company 78-percent owned by Universal Broadcasting Group and 22-percent owned by AIM Broadcasting, in 2016. In an attempt to fill a void in Boston Black Radio, former WILD Intern Amir 'MC Spice' Shakir, writer/producer for Mark Wahlberg's music career founded BlackBerry Radio Incorporated, a nonprofit online broadcast company aptly named 'WILD 2.0' with the Internet address blackberryradio.com . The Soul station is hosted by various Boston residents and includes show titles once aired on WILD-AM 1090.
The "Wild" branding
The WILD callsign has been grandfathered years before Clear Channel trademarked The "Wild" branding sometime in the 1990s or early 2000s. The WILD callsign on 1090 meant "Wild about Boston".
