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Menino Declares Monday WBZ Radio Day In Boston

BOSTON (CBS) – WBZ NewsRadio 1030 turned 90 years old Monday, quite an accomplishment for the first commercial radio station in America.

Related: WBZ Radio History

For ninety years, WBZ Radio has been bringing listeners the hits, the weather, news, sports, talk, and so much more.

Boston Mayor Tom Menino was in the studios Monday morning to read a proclamation, declaring September 19, 2011 "WBZ Radio Day in the city of Boston."

Listen to Mayor Menino's proclamation:

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"If it was a hurricane or a natural disaster, you're there. If something happened in the neighborhoods of Boston, your reporters were always there," Menino told the newsroom and listeners.

"I wake up with you and I just want to say I go to bed with you too with Danny Rea."

From Don Kent to Dave Maynard, Larry Glick, Gil Santos To Gary LaPierre, 1170 Soldiers Field Road has been home to a great deal of history.

According to radio historian Scott Fybush, the station actually started in Springfield in 1921, because that's where the station's owners, Westinghouse, had their factory.

Listen to Carl Stevens' Birthday Poem:

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WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens with David Wade

"They put up a second transmitter on top of a hotel in downtown Boston, called the WBZ-A and they linked them up by phone line. Imagine, 1924, they had a phone line going from Springfield to Boston and it was one of the wonders of the radio era," Scott Fybush said.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens contributed to this report

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