Re: more about...WEZE rock

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

At 07:27 PM 5/3/97 +0000, you wrote:
>
>I would not.  I follow the ``continuous chain of ownership'' model,
>which means that we recognize three separate stations with distinct
>histories:
>
>WLAW 680 (R.I.P.)
>WNAC 1230 - WNAC 1260 - WNAC 680 - WRKO 680
>WVDA 1260 - WEZE 1260 - WPZE 1260
>
>We would have to look carefully at the history to determine how the
>WNAC-WLAW transaction was structured, since there are three
>possibilities:
>
>1) WNAC and WLAW swapped licenses.  This would have meant that, for at
>least a legal instant, there was a 1260 licensed to Boston, but owned
>by the old owners of WLAW, which was then sold to Diehm.  
>
>2) WNAC bought WLAW and sold the 1260 license in separate
>transactions, with FCC approval of the first contingent on the second.
>
>3) WNAC bought WLAW and turned in the 1260 license, then sold the 1260
>facilities to a completely new licensee.
>
>If (1) were true, then we would describe the history of WLAW together
>with 1260.  However, this alternative seems to me the least likely of
>the three.
>
>In all cases, the FCC would also have had to agree to change the 680
>city of license to Boston (or rather, ``Boston and Lawrence''; I have
>a tape of such an ID).

I think that your scenario #2 is what actually happened, but I am not sure.

As for the 680 COL, I know some about that. I was not in Boston when WNAC
moved from 1260 to 680, WLAW went silent, and WVDA appeared on 1260. But
when I got here 41 years ago this month, WNAC was IDing as WNAC
Boston-Lawrence and WNAC-FM Boston. As far as I know, as soon as WNAC moved
from 1260 to 680, the station began using the dual-city ID. I seem to recall
reading in the FCC actions in what was then Broadcasting Magazine (now
Broadcasting and Cable), that WNAC had to receive a waiver of the
then-existing COL rules to use the dual ID. (Such waivers were rare, but
WNAC's was not unique.) I do not believe that there was ever a
signal-strength issue. I believe that ever since the TX moved to Burlington,
the station has met the signal-strength requirements for stations licensed
to Boston. And, of course, the station has always met the requirements for
stations licensed to Lawrence.

Several years after I arrived here, Lawrence was dropped from the ID. I
don't remember if Lawrence disappeared from the ID while the calls were
still WNAC or whether the change took place at the time the calls changed to
WRKO. I think that the station had to once again obtain FCC permission to
change the cities mentioned in its ID.

Don't you suppose that Hildreth et al had it in mind to build a Boston
station from the very beginning, but had to adopt a gradual approach to keep
from upsetting the FCC? I assume that when the application was first
granted, other applicants had applied for the same facilities in Boston. The
FCC most likely granted Hildreth's application because it promised a first
local service to a community that then had no local station. (A question
here is whether WLLH had yet begun using its synchronous transmitter in
Lawrence at the time the FCC granted the original application for WLAW. Even
if WLLH was already on the air in Lawrence, WLAW could have convinced the
FCC that WLLH was really a Lowell station, whereas WLAW would be a _true_
Lawrence station.) At the time of the move to Burlington and the increase to
50 kW, WLAW's owners had basically accomplished their objective of becoming
a Boston station.

There are several other fascinating historical questions here. Both WLAW and
WHDH operated on clear channels. I had heard that WHDH was the first class
II station to be granted a full-time license on a clear channel. That is,
until WHDH began nighttime operation, each clear channel had one, and only
one, station operating at night. If this situation (all clears nonduplicated
at night) ever did exist, it was clearly before NARBA in March 1940, because
NARBA established quite a few channels on which there were two US Class IB
stations. The channels were 710, 810, 1000, 1080, _not_ 1090--what is now
KAAY didn't become a class IB until _many_ years after NARBA, 1110, 1130,
1170, 1500, 1510, 1520, and 1530. Like KAAY, the two IBs on 1560 also did
not attain IB status until many years after NARBA.

Both WEEI (ex WHDH) and WRKO (ex WLAW) operate on IB channels to which only
one IB station is assigned. (Yes, I know, there is no more IB class; all
former IA and IB stations are now called Class A. What used to be Class II
and III stations are now class B, and what used to be Class IVs are now
Class C.) Besides 680 and 850, the other IB channels with only one US IB
station are 1060, 1070, and 1140. On 680, 850, and 1070, the IBs are
nondirectional at night. First question is whether the IB class was
established before NARBA. When this class was first established, was it
solely for frequencies occupied at night by two clear-channel stations? Were
full-time Class II (secondary) stations on clear channels a later
development? Next question is whether WHDH was operating full-time prior to
NARBA on KOA's channel (whatever became 850). Final question (for now,
anyhow) is whether WLAW commenced full-time operation coincident with NARBA.

Neil Dunn reported here that when WLAW operated from Andover with 5 kW, it
used a three-tower array. My understanding is that when WHDH operated from
Saugus with 5 kW, it used a two-tower array. WHDH was protecting a station,
KOA, that is about 1000 miles closer to Boston than the station WLAW was
protecting (KPO San Francisco--now KNBR). This would seem to suggest that
WHDH should have had the more complicated array. So perhaps, by the time
WLAW became a full-time station, the other 680s along the east coast were
authorized or on the air--WPTF and WCBM, for example. Whereas, when WHDH
became a full-time station, the only station it had to protect was KOA. If
so, this suggests that WHDH was operating full time on KOA's channel before
WLAW began full-time operation on 680.

- -------------------------------
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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