Re: WTIC (AM) anniversary broadcast

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

>Marty wrote:
>         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,

They had so many problems that they had to cease doing it for a couple of 
months and then resume.  The standing joke amongst the Boston newspapers 
was about the "whistle and hum" noises that now came from WBZ/WBZA.  In 
fact, the columnist for the Boston Evening Transcript had a little wager 
going every day as to whether the station would be listenable or not!  It 
took months for the very embarrassed Westinghouse engineers to figure out 
what the problem was and how to solve it, but evidently, they finally did 
get rid of the whistle and hum after changing freqencies a couple of times 
as an experiment (didn't work) and then putting in some new equipment, and 
finally moving the Boston studio to a different hotel (from the Brunswick 
to the Statler) in 1927.