"The Radio Rabbi" and early remotes

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

So, I have been doing research on the career of Harry Levi (obm), probably 
the first rabbi in Boston to be on the radio on a regular 
basis.  Yesterday, I found an amazing letter-- the letter of agreement 
between him and the Shepard Stores (WNAC was the station to do the 
broadcasts from Temple Israel, which back then was located where Boston 
University is, on Commonwealth Ave and Blandford Streets (for you 
Bostonians, today that building is Morse Auditorium). The first broadcast 
of the synagogue's services and the rabbi's sermons began on 20 January 
1924, but Rabbi Levi had previously been a guest speaker on WGI several 
times during 1923 (his correspondence refers to it as "the AMRAD station", 
which seems to be what most people back then called it).

Perhaps some of the engineers on this list can explain something to 
me.  WNAC back then was on Winter Place, which I gather was across from 
where the Park Street "T" station is today.  In order for WNAC to run 
remote lines all the way from downtown Boston out to the Boston University 
area, how would they have done it?  I mean, that's a fairly long distance 
for 1924.  The letter from Rabbi Levi to his temple's board of directors says:

We have discussed [the broadcasting of our services] with the officials of 
station WNAC, Shepard Stores, and with the New England Telephone 
Company.... The Telephone Company's charge is fifty dollars per month for 
rental of the wires.  In addition, there is an initial charge of $25 
because of the necessity of laying special underground wires.  There will 
be a further initial expense of about $25 to cover the cost of arranging 
the wiring within the Temple.

We shall be compelled to pay for [a] period of eight months... the monthly 
cost is fixed and does not vary with the frequency of broadcasting {Donna's 
note-- in earlier correspondence, it was explained that Shepard was trying 
the services out on a one time a month basis to see what response they got; 
if response was good, he was willing to let the temple air a second 
broadcast each month}, so that if the Shepard Stores Station is later 
available to us more than once monthly, the charge will not be 
increased.  Thus, the total annual cost, exclusive of the initial cost of 
about $50 for installation, is only $400..."

So, 8 months of 1 broadcast a month (possibly two) for only $400-- such a 
deal.  I wonder what it would cost today...  anyway, so what does it mean 
about special underground wiring and how would the signal have gotten from 
the temple to WNAC with 1924 technology?  It's so interesting how things 
were done back then... (By the way, one month later, Rabbi Levi reported 
that his first service generated over 150 letters and cards, praising the 
broadcast, and a number of donations from non-Jews (!) who said they 
enjoyed his sermon!)