New England Sampler #3: Radio 85 WHDH Boston | April 1, 1980

…This oughtta be the first day of Spring!

Curator’s Notes:

This is from an interesting time, of which I’d call more of a time of transition for WHDH. Transition because at this point in time, WHDH was becoming a more contemporary radio station than it had been for a long time. Through the 60s and 70s, WHDH played a much more ‘Middle of the Road’ blend of music, much softer and non-Rock based than it’s competition. For decades, the station’s main competitor was crosstown WBZ. In fact, without going into details which would take too long in this forum, the two stations traded personalities – many of whom didn’t directly go from BZ to HDH or the other way around without going to a different station first. This was also the time period where the morning show changed, although it was a bit later than this aircheck.

Morning Guy Jess Cain was working at HDH during this time, but I didn’t hear his name at the beginning of this aircheck, so I leave it to you to determine if that is he or not. The one name that I did hear plainly is Sean Casey. That’s the final jock in this aircheck. If I recall correctly, Casey programmed a number of stations in Boston over the years. Casey had worked in New York City, at the old WOR-FM (sure wish we had an aircheck of that!) before going to Boston.

In a story that has more similarities to WNBC New York than anything else, WHDH expired on August 29, 1994, when the intellectual property and call letters of WEEI (590) moved to 850. Like 660 New York, the new station was All-Sports. Bostonians who love their sports know well the Sports dynasty that the WEEI network has become.