Re: WLAW affiliation (Was: Sinatra the Radio Man)

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

At 09:08 PM 6/5/98 -0400, you wrote:

>An agreement was reached in December 1945 under which
>you-know-who got to be ABC and Associated would be known as ABS. A
>couple months later the Associated Broadcasting System was history as a
>national network.  When it petered out it was reported to have 23
>affiliates; WMCA New York was one of them, don't know about Boston.
>
Another dynamite post, David! I remember the other ABC/ABS on WMCA, as I
lived in New York then; I was 10 years old, and my fascination with radio
dates back even further. I don't remember much about the programming, though.

As far as I know, America had to wait another five or so years until around
1950, when one of the MacLendon's (I don't know if it was Gordon or John)
started another short-lived national radio network, the Liberty Brodacasting
System, with most programming originating at KILT in Houston. (Or was it
KLIF in Dallas? KLIF and KILT were co-owned.) LBS rapidly amassed hundreds
of affiliates, including, I think, WHN (or maybe it was WMGM by then) in New
York City. Most of the affiliates were daytimers, but there were some
powerful full-time stations. I remember driving across southern Minnesota on
a cross-country trip in 1951 and listening to LBS on (then) WDGY 1130 from
Minneapolis. This is the station with the first nine-tower directional
antenna system in the US. Essentially all of the 25-kW nighttime signal goes
north, and we were on US 40 or US 50 (no Interstates in those days) well
south of the twin cities. At sunset, WDGY just simply disappeared without a
trace. I was impressed.

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