"Voice of the Patriots" Gil Santos dead at 80

[retailisking]

He was also morning sports anchor for WBZ Radio for decades.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/04/19/gil-santos-longtime-voice-patriots-dies/30qtno0WGXes04P6yaaZaM/amp.html

[giantsfan2016]

He was also morning sports anchor for WBZ Radio for decades.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/04/19/gil-santos-longtime-voice-patriots-dies/30qtno0WGXes04P6yaaZaM/amp.html

I remember him. This fan of the New York Giants was a Patriots fan until the year the owner of Patriots played Governor Rowland and the rest of the State of Connecticut like a fiddle and said he was moving the team to Hartford and then ended up building the new stadium in Foxboro.

I also remember the LOCAL hourly ID during the games circa 1995. "You're listening to the WBCN New England Patriots Rock Radio Network on News-Sports 910 CNN WNEZ New Britain/Hartford and 93.7 The 70's Station WZMX Hartford."

Both 910 AM and 93.7 both were low-rated stations. As News-Sports 910 CNN, WNEZ carried the audio of CNN Headline News, The Fabulous Sports Babe from ESPN Radio, a simulcast of WTNH's Action News 8, New England Patriots Football, minor league baseball - The New Britain Rock Cats, and they were the overflow station for WTIC. - WTIC had the rights to the UCONN Huskies (Men and Women Basketball) plus the Hartford Whalers. On the rare occasion all 3 teams were playing simultaneously WTIC had the UCONN Men, WTIC-FM had the UCONN Women, and the Whalers were on WNEZ.

WNEZ was then sold in December 1996 and went flipped to a Spanish Language format known as Romatica (Spanish Love Songs). The station known as Romance 910 lasted only til March 1997 when they flipped to Urban Contemporary JAMZ 910 and enjoyed 4 years of success until 93.7 FM Flipped to Hip-Hop and put them out of business in 2001. JAMZ 910 flipped to Spanish Top 40 in May 2001 as La Mega 910 WLAT (taking the format from their low power sister station AM 1230). - a format which continues to this day. In 2017, La Mega added a 27 watt repeater on 101.7 FM.

93.7 WZMX struggled until March 2001 when they flipped to Hip-Hop a format that continues til this day. Hot 93.7 essentially brought WZMX's ratings from worst to first. - WZMX's management kept tweaking WZMX's sound until 1998. Thew went back and forth between Classic Hits and Classic Rock. In 1998, they made a fatal move. They flipped to an all Rock & Roll format called 93-7 The Point playing Rock and Roll from the 1950s-1998. (This was 1998). People referred to the station as 93-7 The Pointless. I mean how dumb were they with that format they were trying to draw listeners from 4 stations and pleasing no one. - 102.9 played 50s and 60s Rock & Roll, 105.9 was playing Classic Rock from the 60s and 70, and both 104.1 and 106.9 were playing current rock - 104.1 playing Modern Rock, 106.9 being Hard Rock and Metal.

In 1999, WZMX flipped to Disco as "Z-93.7 Dancin' Oldies". - You might be thinking (as a 21 year old friend of mine did when I told him this story) - 93.7 flipped to Disco in 1999? Wasn't that over 20 years too late? Sort of. In the mid to late 90s Disco stations were popping up all-over the country. Why? I don't know. The format officially known as "Rhythmic Oldies." A company called AM-FM (a predecessor of iHeart Radio) had the term Jammin Oldies trademarked, so 93.7 owned by Infinity used the name Dancin' Oldies in Hartford and Buffalo (on 92.9), and a couple other markets. The format fizzled out late in 2000 with every station that ran the format changing. WZMX flipped to Hip-Hop in March 2001.

Some of the other Disco - Jammmin' Oldies Stations included:

Jammin' 99.5 in DC
Jammin' 105 in NYC
Jammin' Gold 95.7 in Philly
B-92.9 Dancin' Oldies in Buffalo
Star 93.7 in Boston