Re: WHDH and Blue (Was: Re: WLAW-680)

[Dan.Strassberg@worldnet.att.net]

The first time I visited Boston was during the summer of 
1947, I believe. Both WCOP, transmitting from Lexington 
with 5 kW-U (DA-2) and WLAW, transmitting from the 
adjacent town of Burlington with 50 kW-U (DA-1) were 
carrying ABC. CBS was of course on WEEI-590, NBC was on 
WBZ-1030, and Yankee/Mutual was on WNAC-1260. By the 
time I moved to Boston, nine years later, the situation 
was drastically different, as I described in a previous 
posting. Only WEEI was unchanged. WNAC had the same 
affiliations as in 1947 but had moved to 680. WBZ had 
become an independent. WLAW was gone. WVDA was on 1260, 
and we can't figure out whether it carried ABC or NBC. 
Moreover, we can't figure out what station carried 
whichever of these two networks WVDA did not carry. I 
guess I need to find a Broadcasting Yearbook from 1956 
or get down to the Copley Square library and see if I 
can find microfilms of a 1956 Boston Globe. (Back then, 
Boston papers carried little ads on the front page. Is 
anybody else in the group old enough to remember that?)

> I didn't realize--until now--that WHDH was the affiliate of the Blue network 
> from 1942 to 1945. I had always thought Blue went with WCOP and WLAW as it's 
> area affiliates as far back as June of 1942.
> 
> I do know that WHDH did gain authority for full-time broadcasting during the 
> war. Was it sometime in 1942? Did they get the go-ahead to expand to 
> fulltime operations prior to Pearl Harbor?
> 
I read someplace that WHDH was the first Class II station operating on
a former Class IA channel to be granted authority to operate full time.
My guess is that this change coincided with NARBA (3/31/41). I wonder,
though, if WLAW didn't get authority to operate nights at the same time.
I don't know where the WHDH TX was located before the move to Route 107
in Saugus (now the WROL site), but I was under the impression that WHDH
operated from that site with 5 kW DA-N (two towers nights). Moreover, I
am under the impression that WROL's tower is one of the two towers
that WHDH used when it was at the Saugus site. As everyone knows, WROL
has a dynamite signal for a 5-kW station, and even the night signal
with just 100W or so isn't bad. On a quiet channel, the 100W signal would
be unbelievable. WHDH's day signal must have been about what WROL's day
signal is now. In, say, Lexington, which was right in the null, WHDH's
night signal must not have been much different from WROL's current night
signal (minus most of the interference). That signal would have been
quite listenable on the radios of the day. Despite the signal being
aimed east from a location northeast of Boston, the night signal
throughout the city must have been excellent, since the path from the TX
to any point in the city was over salt water. It only _seemed_ stupid to
use a site east of the COL for a station that is directionalized to the
east. In fact, the location made perfect sense.

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