Re: WROR-FM?

[Shawn Mamros <mamros@MIT.EDU>]

>Ted Turner walked into WTBS studios at MIT and announced that he wanted
>the call letters for his new superstation. He was told that they belonged
>to MIT and were not available. He took out his checkbook, wrote a check
>for $25,000, held it up and said "are you sure about that?"  

A couple of myths in that version of the story...

- To the best of my knowledge - and I've spoken with a number of station
staff and alums who were there at the time - Turner has never visited the
WTBS/WMBR studios.  (He does have an open invitation to visit us at any
time, however. :-)

- Some station staffers may have had some sentimental attachment to the
old call sign, but in the end, the station needed the money badly.  A
construction permit had been granted to upgrade from a 10 watt Class D
to a 200 watt Class A a few months earlier, but there was no longer money
in the bank to buy the necessary new transmitter.  Turner's money funded
that upgrade.  Without it, WTBS would've become, at best, a grandfathered
Class D which could've been encroached upon at any time by some other
Class A (or better) signal.

As someone else posted earlier, the full story - without any additional
myths or embellishments - can be found at
http://www.bostonradio.org/radio/wmbr.html .

-Shawn Mamros
Treasurer (and Semi-Official Historian), Technology Broadcasting Corporation
E-mail to: mamros@mit.edu