Re: WEVD (was WFAN New York)

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

At 12:58 AM 8/2/97 +0000, you wrote:
>WEVD was still at 1330 in the early 1960s, in fact.  I have the 1963 Radio
>Annual which lists the Debs Memorial Radio Fund as still the owner (it was
>owned by Eugene V. Debs, before he died).  I assume any frequency changes
>took place with ownership changes.  My 1984 Radio Guide shows a WNYM at
>1330, and the calls of WEVD are now on an FM...  
>
I don't think WEVD was ever owned by Debs. The Debs Memorial fund was a
creature of the Forward Association, publishers of the (then) Jewish Daily
Forward. My understanding is that the station was named after Debs but was
never actually owned by him. The call letters are Debs' initials. Debs was
an early labor organizer and a Communist. It's a tribute to _something_ (or
someone) that the calls survived the McCarthy-era witch hunts. I don't know
whether Debs was still living by the 1950s, but it's a cinch that if he was
and if he owned WEVD at the time, someone would have found a way to
involuntarily strip him of the license. Debs' perfectly legal membership in
the US Communish party, which, as far as I know, he never renounced to the
day he died, would surely have been enough of an excuse for McCarthy and his
sidekick Roy Cohn to find a way to lift the broadcast license.

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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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