"The Radio Rabbi" and early remotes

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Fri, 15 Oct 1999 01:21:04 -0400, Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com> said:

> 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.

The Park Street T station is today located on the same site as the
Park Street BERy station was in 1924.  Boston tradition seems to be
that XYZ Place is an alley or cul-de-sac off of XYZ Street, so I'd
agree with your guess that Winter Place would have adjoined Winter
Street -- which only runs for one block, between Park Street and
Downtown Crossing (then Winter/Summer/Washington) stations.

>  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.

Not nearly as long as WBZ's telephone line from Boston to Springfield,
operational in the same time frame.  The only difficulty, as others
have pointed out, was in getting the line properly balanced and
equalized.

> 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?

Probably the undergroundness was not the special feature of the
wiring, but rather, the fact that NET&T would connect the two ends of
the wire directly together without any intervening battery or switch,
and would properly balance and equalize the line.  (By 1924 both of
those telephone exchanges should have had dial service, so it was
important that the wires not be routed through the switches.)  It's
remotely possible that a physical wire was in fact laid, but this
seems rather unlikely to me.

-GAWollman

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