WGTR was WMEX to end all-local talk

["Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@mediaone.net>]

In fairness Garabadian had to get that TV stattion on the air or risk losing
it. It took much longer than expected to find a xmtr location in Hudson and
certainly it was more expensive than planned. But he also knew he could
quickly turn around the TV license for megabucks which he did after only one
year of V-66.

Langer has tried his best I agree, but unlike tv, people don t surf, they
lock in their presets and it is next to impossible to get them to change
them.


> So he thought he'd do all news and create an interesting
> 24/7 news operation in conjunction with Channel 66
> (which, at first, was to be called WGTR-TV). Garabadian
> was still building Channel 66 when WGTR (AM) received
> program test authnority for its 25 kW-D/2.5 kW-N
> operation (which was almost immediately limited to 13 kW-
> D/1200W-N).
>
> But the late Jim MacAlister, the young fellow who had so
> ably headed WGTR (AM)'s news operation from the time the
> station first signed on, decided to quit and go into the
> family landscaping business. Garbedian also had too many
> irons in the fire at the time--TV was only one--and WGTR
> went rapidly downhill from there. The problems with
> obtaining a license (it was never granted) to cover the
> full-time operation certainly didn't help.
>
> What followed was a series of LMAs. The first, with a
> lady from Texas, resulted in the station becoming WSTD,
> the first all-satellite music station in greater Boston.
> Besides calls that had a lot of people joking about the
> station being named for sexually transmitted diseases,
> WSTD, one of the first affiliates of ABC/SMN's StarDusT
> adult-standards Stardust format, was very poorly
> executed. But then, there were very few 100% satellite
> stations from which to learn.
>
> Another early LMA was with Pat Whitley, who rechistened
> the station WTTP and changed the format to locally
> originated talk. (Sound familiar? Of course, nearly all
> talk radio was local then. Networked talk existed only
> during the overnight hours.) Whitley blamed most of the
> problems on the signal, which would have been much
> better if the FCC had allowed the station to operate at
> the power specified in its CP.
>
> I've lost track of the other LMAs. I think a Chritian
> format was next, followed by brokered ethnic, followed
> by Christian again, and eventually by going dark until
> Langer and LMA partner Great Commission Broadcasting
> (now Grace Broadcasting) umm, resurrected the station
> (couldn't resist) as Christian-formatted WJLT.
>
> As a Boston signal, 1060 has several liabilities. In
> town, the daytime signal is merely adequate,
> notwithstanding the great signal in much of New England.
> Because WBZ, whose TX is in Hull, is only 30 kHz away,
> this situation cannot be improved. At night, 1060 will
> never be able to put an adquate signal into Boston.
>
> Nevertheless, the channel is very clean during the day,
> and unless the CRTC puts a 1060 station back on the air
> in Quebec City (an application has been filed), this is
> true even during critical hours. However, even when WGTR
> was using relatively high daytime power, the Quebec 1060
> used to decimate WGTR's signal over most of the market
> from mid-afternoon until sunset during the autumn.
>
> There are, however, two sides to being only 30 kHz away
> from WBZ. It may be less important now that most people
> use digitally tuned radios, but with analog tuning, a
> lot of people would just happen upon the 1060 station.
> Few dial positions in this market have a similar
> advantage.
>
> When Langer was about to put WMEX back on the air last
> winter, I gave it 18 months tops. Then I heard the
> product and the signal and I was greatly impressed. I've
> never been highly optimistic about the station's
> prospects, but I've felt--and still feel--that it may
> have a chance. I don't understand why guys like you and
> Mike Thomas seem to derive so much pleasure from writing
> off anything decent that appears on the air.
>
> > 1060 has been a dog frequency since day 1 (as
> > was 1510 for most of the past 30 years)