the WLAW/WRKO mystery

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

Joe Ross wrote:
>transaction was structured, but it seems to me that WVDA/WEZE/WPZE is also
>a successor to WNAC.  It could only be a successor to WLAW if the former
>owners of WLAW ended up owning it at some point.

This is more accurate than even I realised-- John Shepard 3rd (may he rest
in peace) had developed a regular farm team of stations, and would often
shift personnel back and forth between them.  I never knew until I began
researching it just how many stations had a GM and/or an entire staff
"placed" by Shepard, for use by his Yankee and Colonial Networks.  So in
some ways, virtually every station in Boston, except perhaps WBZ, WMEX and
WBMS, had some link to WNAC!!!  (Shepard had expropriated the old WLEX, for
example, and turned it into WAAB;  most of the staff at WLLH in Lowell were
Yankee Network folks whom Shepard helped to get jobs there, etc etc)  

As I said in a previous e-mail, Shepard had been trying since 1928 (!) to
get WNAC off of 1260.  But as for whatever deal was reached with the former
owners of WLAW, part of the problem here is everybody originally involved
died.  Shepard passed on (in 1950); so did Alexander Rogers (Publisher of
the Eagle-Tribune) and then Irving Rogers, who had succeeded him. And while
Mr Hildreth may have had several buildings in Lowell and Lawrence named
after him, he was never actively involved in the day to day operation of the
station and was never listed as an executive of WLAW-- even back in December
of 1937 when the station went on the air, ("Brilliant Dedication of WLAW"
blared the headline on page 1 of the Eagle-Tribune, which of course was in
no way biased <gg>), Hildreth was not listed amongst the many folks who
participated in the dedication.  It seems to me that when the last of the
Rogers family died, so did interest in running the station.  I have no
evidence that any of the WLAW executives segued over to WNAC, but I will of
course check more into this. 

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