Re: WICE and early top-40

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

At 05:17 AM 8/3/97 +0000, you wrote:
> 
>WICE was one of the multitude of stations that got licensed in 1947-- I have
>no idea why 1947 was such a big year for new AMs, but it seems there were a
>number of smaller markets (like Lynn and Quincy) that got a new station that
>year, as did WICE in Providence.
>
That's a _simple_ one. There was, of course, a freeze on the construction of
broadcast stations and upgrades to existing stations during World War II.
(Someone posted here or at Airwaves about WNAX Yankton SD getting special
authorzation to build its 950-ft tower sometime during the war. The grounds
were that the station was essential to the morale of the farmers in the
midwest. That upgrade was absolutely an exception.) I believe, however, that
the FCC continued accepting applications for new stations and facilities
upgrades during the war. What I don't know is whether the FCC acted on those
applications during the war and stayed the effectivity of the grants until
the cessation of hostilities. The Commission might have simply kept the
applications on file until the war ended. When the service men started
returning home, many of them also filed applications for new stations. The
FCC must have acted very expeditiously. So by 1947, two years after the war
ended, many new stations were built and ready to go on the air.  

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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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