Re: 1939...

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

>Bob Jackson wrote:
<snip>
>The thing that's different with the 1926 line-up is that radio station
>WBZ (900 Kc) 15,000 watts, was in Springfield, and WBZA (900 kc) 500
>watts, was in Boston at that time.  I wonder if there was an
>interference problem?  When was the swap in call letters that I remember
>as WBZA (FM), Springfield, in the 50s?

        According to separate histories of WBZ written by Donna Halper and
by radio historian Barry Mishkind, it went like this:
        WBZ started in Springfield in 1921, with 100 watts at first. In
1924, it opened a studio in Boston, but did not yet have a transmitter
there. In late 1924 or early 1925 (our two expert historians seem to differ
here), WBZ completed a series of power increases that brought it up to 15
kW, where it stayed until 1933.
        In 1925, Westinghouse signed on WBZA as its Boston station, with
250 watts at first. It later was 500 watts, then 1 kW, and that's all it
ever had. Neither of these histories appears to say where the first WBZA
antenna site was.
        At first, the attempt at synchronous operation of  the two stations
caused many problems. Mr. Mishkind's history infers that the Westinghouse
engineers were pioneering in the concept of synchronous operation--i.e.,
more or less inventing it as they went along. He wrote, "Unfortunately,
until the invention of the crystal controlled transmitter, this turned out
to be a technical nightmare, with WBZ and WBZA interfering with each other,
whistling and humming over Boston. The engineers moved WBZA back and forth
between 900 and 1240 trying to alleviate the problems, but achieved only
very short term successes. Eventually, in June 1926, sychronicity was
finally accomplished."
        (Mr. Mishkind's home page is at <http://www.broadcast.net/~barry/>)
        By the very late '20s, both stations were on 990 kHz, where they
stayed until the NARBA treaty of 1941 moved them to 1030.
         In 1931, Westinghouse gained approval to swap the locations of the
stations. It built a new Boston-area transmitter site in Millis, operating
WBZ from there at 15 kW at first, going to 25 kW later in 1931 and then to
50 kW in 1933. WBZA took over the WBZ long-wire antenna on top of the
Westinghouse plant in East Springfield with 1 kW. It never moved to another
antenna site. The towers are still on the roof in East Springfield. WBZA
was shut down in 1962 so that Westinghouse could buy a station in Los
Angeles (KFWB?) and remain within the group ownership limits.
        It's interesting to note that WBZ went up to 50 kW a few years
later than many of the other pioneer clear-channel stations, including
other Westinghouse stations. Perhaps their plans to swap locations of the
two stations somehow was related to that?

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