WBZ Family
1990: Dave Maynard is moved to middays, Tom Bergeron gets the morning shift.
June 1991: Dave Maynard announces his retirement, completing over 34 years of service.
September 1991: WBZ wins a Crystal Award for Excellence in Community Service from the National Association of Broadcasters.
January 13, 1992: First official move towards an all-news operation begins. WBZ is calling itself “Boston’s News Station.”
September 30, 1992: Second stage of the move to all-news is completed.
June 1993: Veteran news reporter Streeter Stuart dies.
February 1994: WBZ does a 30th anniversary retrospective on the Beatles’ visit to Boston. Gary LaPierre hosts the five-part series.
Fall 1994: WBZ is devoting weekends to sports/talk. Also in the fall of 1994, the first signs of David Brudnoy’s health problems are revealed, when he is rushed to the hospital with pneumonia. It is revealed in November that he has AIDS.
David Brudnoy and Peter Meade
January 1995: David Brudnoy returns to the air. Mayor Menino declares “David Brudnoy Day,” to honor the popular talk host.
Fall 1995: WBZ Radio wins the NAB’s Marconi Award as Major Market Station of the Year.
November 1995: WBZ gets the rights to broadcast Boston Bruins hockey once again– something it first did in 1924!
November 16, 1995: Shareholders of CBS vote in favor of Westinghouse’s acquisition of CBS Inc.
November 22, 1995: The Federal Communications Commission approves the Westinghouse acquisition in a unanimous vote that completes the approval process.
1995 and 1996: WBZ wins the RTNDA’s Edward R. Murrow award for excellence in electronic journalism.
February 1, 1996: WBZ gets a new general manager, Ted Jordan. He comes from KDKA in Pittsburgh.
September 1996: 75th Anniversary Celebration. WBZ is one of the few heritage stations to still have its original call letters.
75th Anniversary
October 1996: Popular late night announcer Norm Nathan dies.
December 1997: Westinghouse changes its corporate name to CBS, ending the use of “Westinghouse Broadcasting” – a name synonymous with WBZ since 1921.
Fall 1998: WBZ wins another Marconi Award. ‘BZ also abandons much of its weekend sports-talk programming and expands its news coverage even further.
June 1999: Bob Raleigh retires after a 23 year career. Steve Leveille, who had been a station fill-in announcer, is given Raleigh’s shift. Also in June, newspaper editor Paul Sullivan of the Lowell Sun is given a regular talk show from 10 to midnight. David Brudnoy’s health problems have led to cutting back his hours from 7-10 (he had been doing 7-midnight himself).