WATD bringing local radio back to Brockton

BROCKTON – For decades, the radio station WBET served as a community forum, where boxing hero Rocky Marciano gave his championship speeches and where local politicians went to debate.

It operated through the Blizzard of 1978 and, even as it adopted the call letters WXBR, the station broadcast countless Brockton High School athletic events and untold hours of morning talk radio.

Then, last July, Brockton lost its local voices.

The final hours of morning talk shows went out over its airwaves, as owner Azure Media LLC switched to a foreign-language format, aimed at the area’s Haitian population.

“The radio station was there helping bring people together,” city activist Ramon Sepulveda said at the time. “It saddens me not to have this in Brockton anymore.”

But local radio listeners take heart. Brockton community radio is on its way back.

Ed Perry, owner of 95.9 WATD-FM, said Tuesday that he has signed a purchase and sale agreement with the company that owns WXBR 1460 AM. He said he made a deposit with Azure Media, and last week submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission.

“We’re excited about this,” Perry said. “I think it can be a good resource for the community and can be a good business for us.”

Perry said a lot remains up in the air, but that he hopes to have a dedicated Brockton version of Marshfield-based WATD, perhaps called WATD-AM, operating in time to broadcast Brockton High School football games this fall.

Details that still need to be worked out include whether WATD will continue to use WXBR’s antennae in West Bridgewater and where the studio will be located.

Perry said he is in talks with Massasoit Community College officials about partnership possibilities, including the use of the new Dale Dorman studio, recently dedicated at Massasoit in honor of the local radio legend.

The deal between WATD and Azure Media materialized in the last month, Perry said, beginning when he was contacted by a broker who has been involved in past WXBR sales. A representative from Azure Media did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

WXBR operated for 60 years as WBET. Its first broadcast was a Thanksgiving football game on Nov. 28, 1946, between Brockton and Waltham high schools.

WBET was formerly owned and operated by The Brockton Publishing Co., which owned The Enterprise at the time.