Re: Colonial Network

["Robert Paine" <macandrew@prodigy.net>]

According to a Hartford Times article at the time of the opening of station
WTHT, Colonial was to have begun operations around the latter-half of Sept.
1936, serving smaller market New England stations as well as sharing
stations with the larger Yankee Network. The network ended operations
sometime around 1941, maybe as late as '42.

There were separate control rooms for Yankee and Colonial at 21 Brookline
Ave. I believe these may have been on either side of Master Control. I
photocopied a large amount of information from Bill Hahn, who started at
WNAC-Yankee just after WAAB had moved to Worcester. There is one page that
identifies the news service as the Yankee-Colonial News Service.

On Election Night 1940, both networks set up at opposite ends in the large
studio, the former dining room  which later became Ch. 7's studio.

The best I've been able to find out is that the networks operated at
different times and at one period shared the same phone lines. I don't know
if Colonial distributed programs for one of the national nets.

WICC was in the 40's owned by Yankee. WNAB could have been an affiliate at
some later time. From 1932 to 1948 (and maybe beyond) all four of the
"original" Hartford stations were affiliated with Yankee. WTIC had it on two
occasions; WDRC at least once; WTHT was an original Colonial affiliate and
later became part of Yankee as well, and the present WPOP, as WHTD, WONS and
WGTH, carried Yankee. The ONS was said to represent O'Neill Stations, as
Yankee bought WHTD. Since Yankee obviously wanted their own station to carry
its programs, THT and HTD swapped affiliations on Dec. 1, 1945. ABC went to
WTHT and Yankee/Mutual to WHTD.

Colonial was dissolved because for the same reason NBC had to sell its Blue
network - duopoly. As it turned out, AAB moved to Worcester - where Shepard
had wanted a station anyway - and became the Yankee outlet.