Re: The Rock Garden (WCGY)

["'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

On Thu, 8 May 1997, PETER GEORGE, N1GGP wrote:

>      Man, what a station it was.  Formerly the old WCCM-FM, this station
> used to operate from the old Franklin Street site using a 5,000 watt signal
> that barely covered the Merrimack River Valley.  It went to 50,000 watts
> in 1973 from the Andover site still in glorious mono rebroadcasting WCCM
> (800) until sunset and stayed on the air until 10:00 pm.  That was the
> minimum broadcast schedule mandated by the FCC at the time.  

The FCC's minimum broadcast schedule must have changed over the years.
When I got my FM radio in December 1958, commercial FM stations signed on
in late afternoon.  WXHR signed on at 4:30 PM, WBZ-FM at 5 PM, and
WEEI-FM, although simulcasting, signed on at 2 PM.  When WKOX-FM came on,
it signed on at 4:30 PM.

As for WCCM's FM station, as Glenn Spatola mentioned, it originally came
on as WGHJ.  It simulcasted WCCM and even went off at sunset along with
WCCM.  A little later, students from Merimack College got to run the
station on Wednesday evenings with their own programming.  I don't know
why they called the station WGHJ, and not WCCM-FM originally.  A few years
later, they finally changed to WCCM-FM.

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  A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                          617/367-0468
  15 Court Square                                       lawyer@world.std.com
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