BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — This Friday, Worcester-based alternative radio station WAAF will play rock 'n' roll music for the last time.
According to Entercom Communications, WAAF 107.3 FM has been sold to Christian broadcasting company Educational Media Foundation for $10.75 million in cash. As of Saturday, WAAF's rock sound will be replaced by contemporary Christian programming.
WAAF has been a Massachusetts staple since it started broadcasting in the 1940s, adopting a rock format in the 1970s.
Popular DJ's Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia, better known as 'Opie and Anthony,' got their start at WAAF in 1995. The pair had a weekday afternoon show, but they were famously fired in April 1998 after an April Fools Day prank backfired.
The hosts were let go after they falsely announced former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino had died in a car crash with a Haitian prostitute in Florida.
Since FCC regulations that prohibit the broadcast of knowingly false information if it causes public harm, WAAF was facing the possibility of having its broadcasting license removed. Huges and Cumia were fired within a week.
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Hughes later called the prank "a stupid bit," but on their Sirius XM show the duo later claimed that they purposefully planned the prank so they could leave the station, because executives had offered them a disappointing raise.
While EMF operates hundreds of Christian format station across the U.S., this will be its first K-Love branded station in Massachusetts.
According to Entercom, it will air WAAF on Radio.com, and on its existing HD radio stations 104.1 HD2 and 93.7 HD2.
WAAF will stop broadcasting at 107.3 FM on Friday, with the new Christian programming lineup airing on Saturday.
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