There was a time when most decent sized communities had their own community AM station. It was usually live, locally oriented and played whatever the owner wanted. In New England there were dozens of these. But as the 1970s faded into the 1980s, these little local AM stations that found their way as standalone music and community service stations found that FM had eaten away a sizable amount of their audience. As a result, many, if not most of the small town AM stations had to cater to an older group of adults. The ones who still had the jobs, the money and who raised the kids who once listened to their favorite music on these tiny stations.
WLLH in the city of Lowell, Massachusetts was one of these. Like many AM stations sitting in medium sized cities, they found themselves catering to a diverse audience that included different ethnic groups and a mix of young and (mostly) older americans, many of whom didn’t much like Rock n Roll.
By 1993, AM stations that even played MUSIC on a regular basis were becoming an endangered species as well. This was one of the last in the region that still had a music format, albeit heavy on information and announcements, but music nonetheless.
Today, 1400 WLLH is part of the Mega group of stations catering to the ever growing Hispanic population.
Courtesy of Contributor David Boucher
