Another pitch for WBZ/WBZA historic site (Was Re: Adventure Car Hop)

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Dan Strassberg wrote, regarding the location of the Adventure Car Hop:
>if you find out, how about
>this for a group project: Get the state to erect a historical marker on the
>site. This would channel our efforts. We could write to the DPW, our
>legislators, local newspaprers, and the acting governor (who might push it
>as part of his campaign to become an _elected_ governor).

        And when you find it, I'll take mine with ketchup, please.
        I'm actually interested in a serious possible campaign to get the
old WBZ / WBZA transmitter/antenna site in Springfield marked as some sort
of historic site. That's even though my original post here about this a
couple weeks ago was a dud (no one responded).
        My theory, still being researched and subject to possible
contradiction, is that this site is the only one of its kind still existing
anywhere in the U.S. that is nearly intact, or even in existence at all,
from the very early broadcasting stations of 1920-21 or any of those that
claim earlier origins (WWJ, Detroit; the one in San Jose, etc.) Because of
the unusual history of WBZ -- moving from Springfield to Boston and using
the old facility as a synchronous repeater -- the Springfield installation
remained in operation for decades. Meanwhile, all the other earliest
stations eventually replaced their original antennas with vertical
radiators (eventually being defined in the case of WOR as in the 1960s).
        For some reason, Westinghouse never replaced the horizontal-wire
antenna on the roof with a vertical antenna in the Springfield area.
Abandoned in 1962 when they shut down WBZA, the towers are still there
(although the wires between them have broken; at least one is dangling from
a tower). This antenna is representative of those earliest stations -- a
rooftop antenna, with the entire station, including whatever primitive
studio it had, in a shack built on the roof or on the top floor of the
building. Micro-trivia fact: A drawing of a horizontal-wire antenna still
appears among the images on the official seal of the FCC.
        At the moment, I'm trying to check out a report that, in addition
to the towers, supposedly some equipment remains inside the building. I
thought someone posted on this group that he/she had been into the building
several years ago and seen this stuff, but I apparently didn't save the
post.

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