Re: 1939...

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

>Dan Strassberg wrote:
>Well, wasn't WBZ the local NBC Red Network affil? If so, 'BZ carried the
>afternoon lineup of soaps that all the NBC Red affils around the country
>carried.

        This reminded me that someone, Donna Halper, I think, asked awhile
ago about network affiliations in Boston in the old days, and specifically
WLAW.

        In a 1942 list that I have, WNAC was the Red Network; WBZ was the
Blue; WAAB (still in Boston) was Mutual. No affiliation is listed for WLAW.
I believe that going way, way back, WBZ was the Blue. The 1936 list shows
WEEI as the Red and WNAC as CBS. That must be around the time they switched
(except for laziness, I'd look on the Boston Radio Timeline and get the
exact date). In 1936, Mutual does not appear in the network index for the
list.

        As to the earlier question about WLAW: Was it a Mutual affiliate,
perhaps, especially after WAAB was moved to Worcester, which was 1943 or
1944?

        It's interesting to note the huge territory WBZ (with WBZA,
Springfield, of course) had for its Blue affiliation. In the 1936 list,
there is no other Blue affiliate in the six New England states or even
nearby, except for WJZ in NY. WGY? Not. It was Red. If this list is
accurate, the nearest Blue affiliates to the west were WSYR and WHAM. In
Hartford, WTIC was Red and WDRC was CBS. In contrast, the Red had a bunch
of New England affiliates, also including WTAG, WJAR in Providence and WCSH
in Portland.
        When NBC had to divest around 1943, it sold the Blue, and I always
understood that was because the Red was its best network. I wonder, then:
Why was WBZ the affiliate of the Blue--especially considering that the
other two major networks swapped affiliates in Boston around 1936? NBC lost
WEEI as an outlet for the Red, so why not put it on WBZ rather than WNAC?
When NBC had to divest, the Red Network finally moved to WBZ. And, was
WBZ's big exclusivity for the Blue Network in the '30s partly a result of
stations in other cities, such as Providence, wanting the Red Network
instead?
        Looking through these lists also reminds me how few radio stations
there were in 1936. WCSH was the only station in Portland. Providence had
three. Springfield had three, including WBZA, and the third, WSPR, was just
coming on the air in 1936. Worcester had two.

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