Re: ghosts of am's past

["Dan Strassberg" <Dan.Strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

Hey, it's 910 in Bangor, not 950. I don't know when 1230 in Bangor moved to
1250 and became a daytimer with 5 kW, but my guess is that 1250 also put a
listenable daytime signal into Millinocket. 1250 later moved to 1200 with 10
kW-U and subsequently was taken dark in a deal with WKOX (and you see how
far that got WKOX).

When I was a kid, shortly after World War II, my dad planned to go on a
fishing vacation with my mom and me at a fishing camp not too far from
Calais. (Once we got there, we left rather quickly, but that's a topic for
another post--and not on this group.) I guess that WQDY didn't yet exist
because the radios in the house of the camp's owner had pushbuttons for the
three Bangor AMs, WLBZ-620, WABI-910, and WJOR-1230. I was amazed that what
was then a 250W station in Bangor came in well enough that far east of
Bangor to warrant a pushbutton setting. (Even at age 12 or so, I was a radio
geek--even though I don't think the term "geek" had yet been invented.)
There were no other US stations that you could pick up there by day, I
guess, but there must have been some Canadians. 550 in Frederickton was many
years from going to 50 kW, but it must have been audible there. And I
imagine that CBA, then transmitting from Sackville, was also audible. The
few tube radios of the day that had pushbuttons almost invariably had five
buttons, and the three Bangor stations plus CFNB and CBA would have made
five. I don't recall pushbuttons labelled for the Canadians, however.

--

Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
Phone: 1-617-558-4205, eFax: 1-707-215-6367

-----Original Message-----
From: Dib9@aol.com <Dib9@aol.com>
To: Jibguy@aol.com <Jibguy@aol.com>; sven@gordsven.com <sven@gordsven.com>;
rickganley@juno.com <rickganley@juno.com>
Cc: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Date: Monday, May 29, 2000 10:43 PM
Subject: Re: ghosts of am's past


>In a message dated 5/29/00 10:17:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Jibguy@aol.com
>writes:
>
><< Since then, in
> a place like Millinocket, people have gotten used to put up more
> extravagant-than-usual antennas hooked to their FM tuners, and when they
do,
> they can pick up 6 to 10 FM's from 60 or 70 miles away. >>
>
>You don't even need special antennas to pick up that many signals in
>Millinocket.  WQCB, WVOM, and most of the Bangor FMs come in like locals.
>
>If we go back thirty years, when AM was king, WSYY would have been pretty
>much the only game in town during the day.  The Lincoln AM would have came
in
>well and you could probably get 620 and 950 out of Bangor on a good radio
but
>that would have been it.
>
>-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine