Re: WBOQ and the "martini format" (BRW)

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

As I'm sure the curator of such information, Peter George, will confirm, 
calling WVCA unlicensed is nothing but untrue. Had WVCA not been licensed, the 
Tangers would not have had to pay Geller $1 million for the license, nor would 
a competing company, Grandbanke, whose chairman was--I believe--Josiah 
Spaulding, have spent years in hearings attempting to wrest Geller's license 
from him on the grounds that he was not providing an adequate broadcast service 
to Gloucester and environs.

I'm not sure whether Grandbanke (which was exceedingly well connected 
politically) placed the WVCA license renewal in hearing (something no ORDINARY 
applicant could have managed) only after Geller refused to sell to them or 
whether they were just opposed to paying a licensee for his station and figured 
that, with their connections, they wouldn't have to. In any event, the ploy did 
not work. Geller was able to keep the license and sell it to a different 
company (Marlin, which I believe was even then the name of the Tangers' 
company) at a time of his choosing and a price he negotiated.
--
dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205
eFax 707-215-6367
 
> By the way, the BRW article refers to the Simon
> Geller incarnation of the station, WVCA, as being
> "unlicensed". Unlicensed in what way-- was it an
> outright pirate? Or a licensed station broadcasting
> at an unauthorized power, or from an unauthorized
> antenna?