Re: WLAW-680

["David W. Harris" <dwh@totalnetnh.net>]

It appears I didn't receive Mr. Gallant's original post about WLAW but
from snippets quoted elsewhere I see it raises questions about the
station's studio setup.  I don't know about its final days but if you'd
like to see what WLAW looked like at the time it moved up to 5 kw and
became a CBS affiliate, consult the Lawrence Evening Tribune of
Saturday, November 30, 1940.  There are items about the station on pages
1, 2, 9, 10, and 11, including pictures of facilities and personnel.
'LAW switched to ABC, by the way, on June 15, 1945.  That was also the
day WCOP began carrying the newly-named ABC.

Ms. Halper wrote:

> In 1943, WCOP was still at 500 wonderful watts, and yes it was the Boston
> affiliate for the fledgeling ABC Radio Network.
>
It was still the Blue Network then and WHDH was the place to hear it
from June 15, 1942 through June 14, 1945.

Mr. Waters asked:

> Trivia footnote/question: What station was the Mutual affiliate
> in
> Boston in the wayback old days?
>
I haven't had a chance to verify the early days of MBS in Boston to my
satisfaction, but I can share what the initial research points to.  It
looks like WNAC picked up a program with Mary Sothern on January 7, 1935
to begin Mutual's presence in Boston.  May of that year is the earliest
I have found signs of Mutual programming on sister station WAAB.  At
this time 'NAC and 'AAB split the CBS schedule between them (working
from memory, I believe Columbia's morning and evening programs were
mostly on WNAC while the afternoon shows were on WAAB) in addition to
providing Yankee Network programming and picking up the occasional MBS
offering.  That situation changed on September 27, 1936, when CBS moved
over to WEEI.  WNAC became the NBC-Red/Yankee station and WAAB became
the MBS/Colonial station.  Things changed again June 15, 1942:  WAAB was
off the air for its move to Worcester, WNAC became the Mutual station,
and NBC-Red found a home on WBZ.

All information here comes from research I have done in connection with
something I proposed several months ago:  a grid charting network
affiliations of New England stations to be posted in the archives.  The
research continues, and if you have access to radio history resources
concerning Vermont or northern Maine in the '30s and '40s and would be
willing to look up some information,  please contact me off-list.

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