17The airwaves over Boston

The short version: Most of the big signals over Boston do not come from downtown. TV comes from a cluster of tall towers on the Needham/Newton line near Route 128, much of Boston's FM has long come from a mast on top of the Prudential, and WBZ 1030 AM comes from two towers on the water in Hull. Underground, the T carries cell signals over fiber and leaky cable, while transit and city crews are moving their own radios to the P25 digital standard. Planes, ships and now electric meters announce themselves by radio too, and the region's radio history includes two famous firsts, one of them disputed.

Where do Boston TV stations broadcast from?

What you see: A cluster of very tall towers on the Needham/Newton line near Route 128.

Boston TV signals come from Needham. WBZ-TV transmits from Cedar Street there, at about 42°18′37″N 71°14′12″W.³⁰² The tower went up in 1957 to replace an original tower destroyed in 1954; it stood about 1,200 ft (366 m) at first and was described as a 1,295 ft (395 m) guyed tower in 2009, according to the trade historian Scott Fybush.³⁰³ The site was formerly owned by CBS and now belongs to American Tower.³⁰²

WBZ-TV is on RF channel 20, virtual channel 4, and it broadcast on analog VHF channel 4 from 1948 to 2009.³⁰² The virtual channel is the number your TV shows; the RF channel is the frequency the signal actually uses. WCVB became a tenant at Cedar Street in 1972, and other tenants include WSBK, WBTS-CD and WGBX.³⁰³³⁰²

Radio lives here too. The nearby "FM-128" community tower was formerly WHDH-TV's channel 5 tower, and WCRB 102.5 moved there.³⁰³ WBZ-FM 106.7 once transmitted from Cedar Street, left in 1981, and that frequency is now WMJX at the Pru.³⁰³

From downtown, Needham lies to the west-southwest, which is the direction a city rooftop TV antenna generally faces.

What is the stainless-steel tower with arms in Needham?

What you see: A tall tower whose top splits into several arms, each holding its own antenna, like a candle holder.

That is the Cabot Street candelabra, which Fybush describes as a "stainless candelabra tower that went up at the end of the 1960s," built out in the early 1970s, with American Tower as landlord.⁵⁷ In 2009 it carried WFXT (channel 25), WSBK (38) and WLVI (56).³⁰³

The repack was the FCC's reshuffle of TV channels after it auctioned part of the TV band to wireless carriers. After the repack, WGBH and WFXT made Cabot Street their main site, and the candelabra became the full-power backup for WBZ-TV, WCVB, WSBK and WGBX.⁵⁷

WGBH-TV (PBS, virtual channel 2) now transmits on low-band VHF, RF channel 5, with its antenna at the very top of the stack.⁵⁷ WBTS-CD, the NBC station branded NBC 10, shares WGBX's RF channel 32.⁵⁷

What antennas are on top of the Prudential?

What you see: A slim mast rising from the roof of the Prudential Tower in the Back Bay.

The Pru carries FM, not big TV. As of 2004, its mast rose 157 ft (48 m) above the roof to 907 ft (276 m) above ground, measured to the tip of an old channel 68 TV antenna.³⁰⁴ A six-bay panel "master" antenna, shared by several stations, carried 100.7, 104.1, 106.7 and 107.9 MHz, and a separate ERI panel antenna carried Greater Media's 92.9, 96.9 and 105.7, which had moved there from the FM-128 tower.³⁰⁴ A shared master antenna lets several stations combine their signals into one antenna instead of each hanging its own.

The John Hancock Tower is about 40 ft (12 m) taller than the Pru, but in 2004 its only broadcast tenant was a small FM translator, W267AI.³⁰⁴

Those lists are more than 20 years old, and call letters and formats have changed since. The FCC's FM Query database shows current licensees.

Where is WBZ's transmitter?

What you see: Two tall radio towers by the water in Hull.

WBZ 1030 transmits from Hull. Fybush reports the site was dedicated on July 8, 1940, with two 500 ft towers (152 m), each a half wavelength tall at WBZ's old frequency of 990 kHz and spaced a quarter wavelength apart.³⁰⁵ Fed together, they form a directional array with a heart-shaped ("cardioid") pattern that cuts the signal over the Atlantic and throws it toward Boston.³⁰⁵ Salt water lies between the towers and the city.³⁰⁵ AM ground signals travel well over salt water.

The sources disagree on details:

Sources: Wikipedia³⁰⁶ and Fybush.³⁰⁵ The two dates may describe different events (a dedication and a move), but neither source says so. The FCC's tower registration would settle the height.

Why can I hear WBZ 1030 at night in other states?

What you see: WBZ coming in clearly on a car radio hundreds of miles from Boston after dark.

WBZ is a Class A clear-channel station.³⁰⁶ A clear channel is an AM frequency where one high-power station is protected from interference over a wide area, day and night. WBZ runs 50,000 watts around the clock.³⁰⁵ At night, AM signals bounce off the upper atmosphere (skywave) and come down far away. Fybush reported in 2005 that WBZ reached New York City strongly at night, while the Outer Cape got a weaker signal, and that WBZ and WWL in New Orleans were the only directional I-A clear channels still operating that way.³⁰⁵

The station is one of the oldest in the US. It was licensed on September 15, 1921, and first broadcast on September 19 from the Eastern States Exposition, operating from Westinghouse in East Springfield.³⁰⁶ It opened a Boston studio in 1924, was assigned 990 kHz in 1928, moved its transmitter to Millis in 1931 and reached 50 kW in 1933.³⁰⁶ On March 29, 1941, it moved to 1030 kHz under the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA).³⁰⁶ iHeartMedia has owned it since December 19, 2017.³⁰⁶

How does cell service reach the T tunnels?

What you see: Small antennas and cable runs along subway tunnel walls and station ceilings, and a phone that works underground.

Your phone cannot hear a street-level tower through the ground, so the T uses a distributed antenna system (DAS), a common cellular fix for tunnels and large buildings. Carrier signals are converted to light, carried over fiber, then turned back into radio at remote amplifiers in the tunnels.⁷³ Much of the signal leaves through radiating cable (also called leaky feeder), coaxial cable with slots that let radio leak out along its length.

The MBTA signed a 15-year contract with InSite Wireless in 2005, and InSite pays the T a revenue share, about $5.3 million expected over the term.⁷³ Service arrived in stages:

InSite runs the shared network, and each carrier connects at a head-end. The build included 71 remote amplifier sites, 354 antennas and 41,585 ft (12.7 km) of radiating cable.³⁰⁷

The size depends on who is counting. The Boston Globe in 2012 described 19 miles of tunnel and 35 underground stations.⁷³ The Wireless Infrastructure Association, in an article dated June 23, 2026, says the DAS was first deployed in 2005 and covers more than 20 miles of tunnel and more than 40 stations, and that American Tower worked with the MBTA to replace legacy equipment and enable 5G.⁷⁴

What radio do MBTA crews and Transit Police use?

What you see: Handheld radios on train operators, station staff and Transit Police officers.

On December 16, 2022, L3Harris announced a five-year, $93 million MBTA contract to replace the legacy Enhanced Digital Access Communications System (EDACS) with P25, the North American digital standard for public safety radio.³⁰⁸ The company said the work would give more users access to the system, including MBTA police, and improve reliability.³⁰⁸ How P25 works is covered in public safety, and dispatch in the sister guide How a City Works.

L3Harris's announcement does not give the band the new system uses, a completion date, or how it covers the tunnels.

What radio system do Boston police and firefighters use?

What you see: Officers' shoulder microphones, and antennas on fire stations and police buildings.

Boston Police, Fire and EMS radio runs on UHF. Introba, the consultant on the city's upgrade, describes "P25 digital and analog" service and new UHF frequencies for interoperability.³⁰⁹ In 2024 the city put out to bid a Radio Upgrade Project (EV00014215, through the Fire Commissioner) covering ten communication sites, with a term from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2027; the bid pages do not show an awardee.³¹⁰³¹¹

On August 18, 2025, a Boston Police radio channel failed during a night of shootings, weeks after the new system was adopted.³¹² The accounts differ: the police union said the outage lasted about 30 minutes, while the department called it "very short" and said it affected one channel.³¹² NBC Boston reported that the department was working with Motorola on the cause and that city councilors sought a hearing.³¹²

Boston Police radio audio is now encrypted. On August 9, 2025, the department switched from analog to an encrypted digital system and said its transmissions would "no longer be available via traditional analog radio scanning equipment."⁹⁰ The department said encryption would prevent interference and monitoring by "bad actors," and offered a free, delayed public audio feed through RapidSOS instead.⁹⁰ The Boston Globe reported the delay would be about 5 minutes in most cases; Justin Silverman of the New England First Amendment Coalition argued the change cuts off real-time information for journalists and the public, and suggested encrypting only sensitive channels.¹¹⁸ What scanner listeners can still hear, and the law on listening, is in scanners.

Why are planes flying over my house in Somerville, Cambridge or Milton?

What you see: A steady line of jets over the same streets, sometimes for hours, then none for days.

The runway Logan is using decides which neighborhoods hear planes, and satellite navigation has narrowed the paths. Satellite-guided RNAV procedures arrived at Logan in 2012-2013 and concentrated flights onto tighter tracks, according to MIT.³¹³

A collaboration among MIT, the FAA and Massport began in 2016 to design procedures that spread or move the noise. One result, a Runway 33L RNP approach with curved segments, came in 2021 and was estimated to put 2,954 fewer people above 60 decibels on a single flight.³¹³ An over-water RNAV approach to Runway 22L was planned for 2024, and MIT named Hull, Lynn and Salem among towns affected by arrival noise.³¹³ Cambridge opposed a 2021 proposed change to 33L departures.¹⁴⁷

Altitude depends on where you are. Milton says Runway 27 departures cross the town at about 3,500 ft (1,070 m) and arrivals pass at about 1,700-2,500 ft (520-760 m).³¹⁴

To complain or ask questions, Massport runs a Noise Abatement Office and a complaint line, 617-561-3333 (staffed 6 am to 5 pm on business days), plus an online form.¹⁴⁷ The FAA's New England noise ombudsman takes email at 9-ane-noise@faa.gov, and the state legislature created a Massport Community Advisory Committee.¹⁴⁷

How can I tell which plane just flew over Boston?

What you see: A jet overhead, and a question about where it came from.

Massport runs a Noise and Operations Monitoring System (NOMS) and a near-live public "Flight Monitor" that shows aircraft tracks around Logan, according to the City of Cambridge.¹⁴⁷ That is the official route. Consumer flight-tracking apps use the position reports aircraft broadcast by radio; how they work, and the frequencies involved, are covered in aviation.

How do I track ships in Boston Harbor?

What you see: A ship-tracking website showing a tanker or container ship moving up the harbor channel.

Large ships broadcast their identity, position and course on the Automatic Identification System (AIS), a data system on marine VHF, and ship-tracking websites collect those broadcasts (more in ships). In the US, 47 CFR 80.393 sets aside four 25 kHz simplex channels for AIS only:³¹⁵

Many of those ships also carry a local pilot. Under compulsory pilotage, a vessel may be legally required to use a state- or federally licensed pilot, depending on its type, tonnage, draft, flag, trade and the waters it is in.³¹⁶ State pilotage generally applies in state waters, and federal pilotage applies to some US-flag vessels.³¹⁶

In Massachusetts, pilotage is governed by M.G.L. c. 103 and, for the district around Boston, by the state regulations at 995 CMR 2.00, which list Lynn, Saugus, Hull, Hingham, Weymouth, Braintree and Quincy harbors.³¹⁷ The pilots of that district, District One, act jointly as the "Boston Pilots" and may operate as the Boston Harbor Pilots Association, LLC.³¹⁷ Their normal boarding area is a precautionary area with a radius of 6.17 miles centered on 42°22.71′N, 70°46.97′W, a position the pilots must have published in the US Coast Pilot.³¹⁷

What is the new meter on my house, and can I opt out?

What you see: A new electric meter with a digital display, installed by Eversource.

Eversource began replacing Massachusetts electric meters with Itron smart meters in summer 2025, under advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) plans the Department of Public Utilities approved in 2022.³¹⁸ The meters send readings by radio over a private network, allowing daily usage data, and need no Wi-Fi.³¹⁸ Eversource's AMI budget is $668 million; it reached 100,000 installs in January 2026, plans more than 1.5 million meters, and is doing denser areas near Boston later in the rollout.³¹⁸

Opting out costs $34 a month,³¹⁸ and Eversource said in 2025 it would also charge a one-time $42 fee.²³⁷ Two bills in the legislature, S.2306 and H.3551, would change the opt-out rules (as reported in February 2026).³¹⁸

On health, Eversource says the meters' RF levels are "well below national guidelines."³¹⁸ The health section covers what the FCC and health agencies say about RF exposure, and everyday radios covers both utilities' rollouts.

Eversource's smart meter FAQ (as of October 2026) says the meters have "an embedded radio" for two-way communication with the company and do not rely on Wi-Fi.³¹⁹ It gives a measured exposure of 0.06 mW/cm² at 8 inches while transmitting, at 902 MHz, which it calls almost 10 times lower than the FCC limit.³¹⁹ The FAQ does not say whether the meters use a mesh or a cellular network.

Was the first radio broadcast really from Brant Rock in 1906?

What you see: A plaque, an anniversary story, or a ham station on the air every Christmas Eve.

Reginald Fessenden's station at Brant Rock, on the Massachusetts South Shore, is often credited with the first broadcast of voice and music, on Christmas Eve 1906. The evidence is thin. The claim rests on a letter Fessenden wrote on January 29, 1932 to S. M. Kintner of Westinghouse, and as the historian Thomas White puts it, "There do not seem to be any contemporary accounts."³²⁰ Helen Fessenden's 1940 book repeats his account, which claimed reception "as far down as Norfolk, Va."³²⁰

The engineer and writer James O'Neal found that searches in 1956 turned up no newspaper or journal mention, and that Navy, United Fruit and Frank Hart logs show nothing unusual.³²¹ What is documented is a December 21, 1906 demonstration, in which the alternator produced about 36 watts and about 12 watts reached the antenna.³²¹ O'Neal suggests Fessenden may have conflated events with Navy tests in 1909, and concludes the Christmas Eve broadcast can be neither confirmed nor ruled out.³²¹

The anniversary is still marked: in 2020 WA1ZMS transmitted on 486 kHz on Christmas Eve under FCC Part 5 experimental license WI2XLQ, as it had each December for several years.³²²

Where was Marconi's station on Cape Cod?

What you see: A marker on a bluff in South Wellfleet, inside Cape Cod National Seashore.

Guglielmo Marconi arrived on Cape Cod in February 1901 and built four 210 ft (64 m) towers in South Wellfleet.³²³ The historical marker at the site says that on January 18, 1903, a 48-word message was sent "from here to England" and a reply received, "the first two-way transoceanic communication."³²⁴ President Theodore Roosevelt's greeting to King Edward VII is dated "Wellfleet Mass January 19 1903."³²⁴ Cape Cod & the Islands magazine dates the Roosevelt exchange to January 18, so "January 18-19, 1903" covers both accounts.³²³

The station relayed the distress call of the steamship Republic in 1909. The Navy shut it in 1917, it was dismantled in 1920, and the site is now part of Cape Cod National Seashore.³²³

Elsewhere in the world

Clustering TV towers on high ground outside downtown is a common pattern: Mount Wilson above Los Angeles and Sutro Tower in San Francisco are classic examples, alongside Needham.³²⁵ WBZ's place on the dial was set under NARBA, a North American agreement, so its clear-channel status is a North American arrangement.³⁰⁶ The AIS table above quotes the US rule, 47 CFR 80.393;³¹⁵ AIS itself is a system standardized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), according to the US Coast Guard.³²⁶ P25, the standard Boston and the MBTA are adopting, is a North American standard; much of Europe uses a different one, TETRA, an ETSI standard that national police, fire and ambulance networks such as Belgium's ASTRID, the Netherlands' C2000 and Sweden's RAKEL run on.³²⁷

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