Re: The "IV" stations of NY

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 08:59 AM 4/15/97 +0000, you wrote:
>
>Those stations, prior to the religious network (don't know if Pat Robertson
>was invloved) were all put there back in the 50's by Agway (not aMway) as
>agricultural-based station network.  That's why they are all AWAY from the
>cities they're between, and a bit south of.  Then they sold to some
>religion-for-profit group, and then (now) they're all spun off to different
>owners.   All 4 stations has W-IV as jall letters...  WBIV, WJIV, WOIV and
>one I can't remember.
>
But the W*IV calls were not the original ones. Originally, these stations
comprised what was called the Rural Radio Network, and I'm not sure whether
or not the calls were in any way distinctive. I remember three of the
communities of license: S Bristol, DeRuyter, and Cherry Valley. In the early
to mid fifties RRN became the QXR network, relaying the classical music
programming of WQXR in New York City. At least one station was added to the
network at this point--WFLY in Troy (92.3)--then owned by the Troy Record
Newspaper. Subsequently, the network became the Ivy Network, and the calls
changed to W*IV. I'm not sure what sort of programming the stations ran
during their Ivy Network days. Interestingly, the name "Ivy Network" had
previously been used by a group of student-run, campus-limited,
carrier-current AMs at Ivy League colleges. I guess the religious
programming followed the Ivy Network incarnation, and the present
independent status followed that. Considering all of the 80-90 drop-ins that
got licensed to communities nobody had ever heard of, except for the fact
that these were full-power stations and not short spaced, they were decades
ahead of their time.

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Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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