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Just a jump to the left: WBZ to get new studios next to old ones on Soldiers Field Road
By adamg on Sat, 12/21/2019 - 5:18pm
From left: Current WBZ studios, emergency antenna, site of new building.
National Development of Newton says it will soon file detailed plans to replace WBZ-TV's current studios on Soldiers Field Road in Allston with a new building right next door - which will leave plenty of land for additional development on WBZ's current eight-acre lot.
In a letter of intent filed with the BPDA, the developer says it plans to tear down an existing office building at 1200 Soldiers Field Road at Everett Street, next to WBZ's current studios and auxiliary radio antenna, to create 62,000 square feet of studios, production space and offices for the station. The current studio building, built in 1948 when Westinghouse Broadcasting added TV to its AM station in Boston, would also be razed.
National Development says it will use the 18,000-square foot lot at 1200 Soldiers Field Road, plus some of the current WBZ land, to erect the new building and to build a secure parking lot with space for 117 vehicles and a separate 17-space lot for visitors.
The company didn't say what it plans for the rest of the current WBZ site. However, National Development is known for putting up large-scale projects, including the Ink Block in the South End, the Longwood Center biotech complex in the Longwood Medical Area and University Station in Westwood, so it's unlikely to just let the land just sit fallow. The company also recently filed a letter of intent for a 21-story mixed-use building as the first phase of redeveloping some ten acres it now owns along Dorchester Avenue in South Boston.
One of the current tenants at 1200 Soldiers Field Rd. is the Mount Vernon Co., which has been busy planning and building multi-family buildings in Allston and Brighton.
The size of the proposed new WBZ building would be about 3,000 square feet smaller than the current WBZ building. The station no longer needs space for WBZ-AM, because that moved to studios in Medford after it was spun off to iHeartMedia as part of CBS's merger with Entercom in 2017.
In its letter, the company also didn't say whether the plans include keeping the current 256-foot-tall radio antenna, built in 1950 and still used from time to time, although now owned by iHeartMedia.
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Comments
They're taking over
The site of Mix from back in their 98.5 days, before the CBS radio stations (since sold to Entercom) consolidated over on Birmingham.
Yep, the existing CBS property will be taking over the site of a former CBS property.
That tower is 78 meters tall, not 78 feet
The FCC tower registration database records all heights in meters. Towers as short as 78 feet don't need to be registered, unless they're near an airport.
Radio anoraks
are right up there with boat, train and plane spotters.
Yep
Fixed. I saw "78" and just assumed that meant feet, sigh.
Zombie Radio
Anyone listen to WBZ lately, especially since they were acquired by I Heart Radio? Gawd's Holy Trousers, content is like someone randomized Waiting for Godot and is broadcasting it.
I pop it on occasionally for traffic or weather and unless I time it right I am subjected to three or four minutes of "news" I can use. It's either Curriculum for the Academy of the Obvious, or a very minor work of Samuel Beckett.
Forget the tower, just cable it in directly to all the local nursing homes, where it is needed most.
hahaha
We miss you Larry.
Somebody must be listening
WBZ is the seventh most listened-to station in the Boston market, according to Nielsen. That puts it ahead of both WBUR (#8) and WGBH (#13), Boston's other two news stations.
Traffic on the 3's
Traffic on the 3's.. its so embedded into my head..
"create 62,000 square feet of
"create 62,000 square feet of studios, production space and offices for the station" That's sounds like some big expensive studios. I am in my 40's and I can't think of anyone my age or younger who watches those NBC, Fox or CBS channels. I don't even really know the difference from one to the other.
Not saying that people below age 50 are more virtuous because we don't watch those; we watch plenty of other junk online. I am just wondering about the future of these once mainstream media outlets 10 to 20 years from now.
Better hope they survive
After the last newspaper fires its last local reporter, we will only have radio and TV (and Adam!) to actually show up to where things are happening.