Colonial Network

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

Donna: I was thinking more about the 1931 article you 
unearthed about WNAC and WAAB. It said that the two 
stations shared the role of key station for the Yankee 
Network. I suppose that might have been true in 1931, 
but didn't Shepard operate TWO networks in New England--
the Yankee Network and the Colonial Network? I know that 
in the 40s, the Yankee Network was the regional network 
that distributed Mutual in New England and nearly all 
Yankee Network affiliates were also Mutual affiliates. 
Mutual was actually an amalgamation of such regional 
networks. Others included the Don Lee Broadcasting 
System on the west coast, the Texas State Network, and 
the Intermountain Network in the Rockies. I thought WNAC 
was the key station of the Yankee Network and that WAAB 
played a similar role for the Colonial Network.

Did Colonial also distribute some national network? If 
so, which one? What were the birth and death years of 
the two New England Regional Networks? How many 
affiliates did each have at its peak? I remember 
listening to Yankee Network news from Bridgeport CT (I 
think from WICC but maybe from WNAB) in New York City 
when I was a kid in the 40s. Besides the famous news 
signature "News while it IS news...the Yankee Network 
News Service is on the air," I remember that all network 
feeds ended with "Serving 24 hometown stations from 
Bangor to Bridgeport... This is the _Yankee_ Network."