Re: FW: Oops 7/4...and WRKO!

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

At 06:42 PM 7/12/97 +0000, you wrote:
><<On Sat, 12 Jul 1997 01:08:44 -0400 (EDT), "'A. Joseph Ross'"
<lawyer@world.std.com> said:
>
>> Well, strictly speaking, WBZ last year celebrated the 75th anniversary of
>> a defunct Springfield station.
>
>I wouldn't say that, and more than if WXKS(AM) should choose to
>celebrate the anniversary of its founding (in Medford).  The
>distinction that we use in the Archives is continuity of the
>/license/, regardless of where the station is located, and only
>secondarily any other factors.
>
Well, here's an interesting question: Does WPZE celebrate its 60th
anniversary in 1999? I mean, isn't WPZE the legitimate descendent of WLAW,
which started in Lawrence in 1939 and then moved from 680 to 1260 in 1953.
At the same time, didn't WLAW change calls to WVDA, move _main_ studios to
the Bradford Hotel (the studios were already there and occupied by WLAW, but
they weren't technically the _main_ studios), and change COL to Boston?
Subsequent call-letter changes made it WEZE and now WPZE.

And then there's the current WEEI (850). Does it trace its beginnings back
to the old WEEI or to the old WHDH? If I recall, the current WEEI _license_
is, in fact, the old WHDH license. The current WEZE license is, in fact, the
old WEEI license. WHDH became WEEI in a complicated transaction involving
the transfer of certain intellectual property (but not the broadcast
license) from the Boston Celtics (then owners of WEEI-590) to ARS, which
already owned WHDH-850. The Celtics then sold the WEEI license to Peter
Ottmar's Back Bay Broadcasters and retained an option to buy the license.
ARS then sold the option to Salem, which exercised it.

Have I got this correct?

If I'm right, then, WRKO traces its lineage to WNAC; WEZE traces its lineage
to WEEI; and WPZE traces its lineage to WLAW. Somehow, that seems too neat.

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