Re: WTIC (AM) anniversary broadcast

[mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>David W. Harris wrote:
>reported in the New York Times on 3/13/1931 (page 22)
<snip>
>"It was under Mr. Horn's supervision that WBZ and WBZA of Springfield
>and Boston, respectively, first tried out a plan of this nature for dual
>operation.  'Local perculiarities in the Boston area,' however, are said
>to have prevented full achievement of synchronization between the
>Massachusetts broadcasters."

        Thanks for typing in that long passage from the Times. It's very
interesting to me and I'm sure to the rest of the sub-set of radio history
geeks here.
        The reference to WBZ, though raises questions for me. The Boston
radio timeline, compiled by Donna Halper and on the Boston radio archives
site, says that from May 20, 1926, WBZ and WBZA were synchronized. It
doesn't say that was the first time synchronization for regular use was
achieved, but I've thought that was so. I know they had a few problems with
it at first, but I've always understood that basically from the late 1920s
until they shut off WBZA in Springfield in 1961 or '62, they operated
synchronously, although in the earlier days I think WBZA may have cut away
for part of the day to do something local.  As far as I know, WBZ-WBZA was
synchronous without any difficulties well before this 1931 WTIC operation
being written about here. Can anyone enlighten us about the Times referring
to difficulties? The article seems to infer that at this time, 1931,
WBZ-WBZA were not successfully synchronous, and I don't think that is
correct.

>Look at the radio listings in most newspapers of
>the 1920s and you'll find schedules for stations from all over the
>country (or at least the nighttime portions thereof).  For many
>listeners, having a radio and being a DXer went hand-in-hand in the
>early days.

        Also, as with TV in the very early days of TV, a lot of stations
only broadcast in the late afternoon and evening, if they had the license
to do it. Or they didn't broadcast each day for one continuous period but,
for example, maybe came on for part of the morning and then they came back
on again for the evening.