Re: WNAC / WLAW / WVDA

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

At 04:23 PM 7/22/97 +0000, you wrote:

>Nobody bought anything from Rogers-- Alexander Rogers was very much deceased
>and now, so was Irving, which is the reason the remaining family decided to
>exit radio; the radio station had been put on the air in 1937 by Alexander,
>and then left to his son Irving.  As for what happened next, isn't there
>somebody on the list with access to FCC microfiche?  The records I have say
>the following:
>
>Original Owner: Hildreth & Rogers Company (Alexander Rogers-- Lawrence
>Eagle-Tribune).
>
[snip]

Yeah, Donna: But then how do you explain THIS in your OWN post???

>6/10/53:Purchased by Vic Diehm Associates, Inc.
>
>I agree that there is a link between WLAW and WVDA and WEZE/WPZE.  But I am
>not sure the link was a continuation of the license or simply Vic Diehm
>purchasing a frequency that was now vacant.  I assume the FCC microfiche
>could tell us if the license of WLAW was returned to the FCC, couldn't it? 
>
If the WLAW license had been returned to the FCC, Diehm could not have
purchased it! He would have had to apply for it, and if he was the
successful applicant, he would have gotten it for nothing (aside from some
not inconsiderable legal fees and possibly payoffs to unsuccessful
applicants). Given that AM stations in major markets were very valuable back
then, it is quite likely that there would have been several applicants and a
comparative hearing.

If the license for 1260 had been turned back to the FCC, the heirs to the
Rogers estate would have had every reason to sue their attorneys. The
attorneys would have, in effect, thrown away an asset worth, at a minimum,
several hundred thousand dollars (the equivalent of several million in 1997
dollars).

Moreover, 1260 would probably have gone dark temporarily, which did not
happen. The dark period would have been the consequence of the tortuous and
time-consuming FCC comparative-hearing process. (In some cases, a
corporation owned jointly by all of the applicants received temporary
authority to operate a station for the duration of the hearing process. We
know that didn't happen here, though, because there is no record of such
ownership.)

The WLAW-FM license was another story, however. In those days, FM
allocations were going begging. I don't think the heirs had any grounds for
suing their attorneys over the decision to surrender the FM license.
Moreover, I doubt that the license became valuable until after the statute
of limitations for such suits had run out.

But I think we have made a very strong case for saying that WPZE _is_ the
continuation of the WLAW license. Since Donna says that WLAW signed on in
1937, and not 1939 as I had thought, if Salem were into celebrating
anniversaries (I guess they aren't), they should be holding the celebration
this year. But if _we've_ had all this trouble figuring out why they should
be celebrating, just think of the confusion it would cause for the average
listener. I guess it's better that they not say anything.

But how about _us_ holding a radio geek festival at the old WLAW TX site in
Andover? I wish I still had the gadget I built in electrical shop in junior
high. It was supposed to cook hot dogs that you skewered onto a couple of
electrodes. Thing is, none of us knew (and the shop teacher didn't know)
that to cook a hot dog in a time shorter than about three weeks, you had to
supply the electrodes with RF and not 60 Hz (it was 60 cps then). Maybe
there's some of that 60-year-old 680 kcps still running around loose in that
part of Andover :-) If it were there, and if I still had the gadget, we
might be able to cook a hot-dog in honor of WLAW.

BTW, in one of my earlier posts, I referrred to RKO as the owner of WNAC. I
think was not the company's name in 1953. I think that, back then, the owner
was General Tire and Rubber, which only later created the broadcast
subsidiary known as RKO General. 

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