Re: WBZ-FM "Rockin' Stereo 106.7"

["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyross.com>]

On 10 Jan 2002 at 10:17, Ira Apple wrote:

> In retrospect, he may have wanted us to focus as much as possible on AM to
> fight the listener erosion that was slowly taking place and to withhold
> the credibility to the band that Group W would bring. In any case, FM in
> Boston and in Pittsburgh was at the best just maintained for a number of
> years. We played the same Classical tape library fully automated for at
> least three years in the 70's. There was no attempt to sell or promote the
> FM stations.

Quite so.  In fact, they had previous FM stations in Boston which they 
shut down, as described in detail in the Boston Radio Archives.

Oddly enough, in the late 50s, around 1958-59-60 or so, WBZ-FM had a very 
different sort of separate programs.  At a time when most stations simply 
simulcasted the FM, they signed on at 5:00 PM with a live announcer doing 
classical programming until midnight.  The live announcer even did news 
separate from the AM news.  Separate programs weren't mandated by the FCC 
at that time, so it's a mystery why they did it, especially given the 
attitude they had toward FM.

Sometime in summer 1960, they began simulcasting the AM until the 5:00 FM 
sign-on.  Then, around November or December, they discontinued the live 
announcer and substituted classical music from noon to midnight, with the 
only announcement being a station ID, interrupting the music, about every 
half hour.

Unless the rules have changed since then, it wasn't even a correct legal 
ID.  It went "WBZ-FM, your Westinghouse station, in Boston."

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@attorneyross.com
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         http://www.attorneyross.com