Re: NorthEast Radio Watch 7/16: WZEN

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

"The BEST and MOST oldies on Oldies 106.5, WZEN
Farmington-Portsmouth-Winnipesaukee"

So where's Winnipesaukee?  I know of no city, town, or political
subdivision in New Hampshire by that name.  From 1907 until the end of
1964 there was a post office on Winaukee Road in Moultonboro by that
name, but I have never heard anyone in that neck of the woods refer to
the neighborhood as Winnipesaukee.  Numerous modern maps continue this
fiction of a community named Winnipesaukee near the end of Moultonboro
Neck, although the dot isn't in the right place for where the P.O. used
to be.  If you hand your outgoing mail to Bud Grant aboard the Sophie C.
he'll be happy to cancel it with a stamp that says Lake Winnipesaukee,
so that may count as an extant community, but the "Lake" part seems to
be missing from WZEN's ID.

While you have your New Hampshire map out, try this: draw a line from
downtown Rochester to downtown Wolfeboro, roughly 22 miles.  Now follow
along while I read to you all the commercial FMs licensed to communities
touched by that line.  Here goes:
Rochester...WQSO, Oldies 96.7
Farmington...WZEN, Oldies 106.5
Wolfeboro...WLKZ, Oldies 105
Notice anything?  Yes, while oldies fans in other parts of the country
must endure the same old songs with the same old jingles and same old
liners all the time, listeners in this area are afforded a wide choice
of jingles and liners to hear between their oldies.  In certain dayparts
they may even choose announced vs. unannounced.  Truly, these are among
the freedoms for which so many have fought and died since our nation was
founded.

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