Re: The Colonial Network

["Kevin Vahey" <k-vahey@attbi.com>]

The other clue is the Braves being called the Bees which I believe was 
mid to late 30s.

I am assuming Portand was passed over as WAAB must have had a decent 
signal up the coast.

When the games were on WNAC they had to work around Superman from 515 to 
530 as Shepard had a lot of income from that show.

Another footnote the NY teams had a ban on radio games in NY but the 
sucess of Sox and Braves games from Bridgeport made the teams change 
that policy.

On Sun, 30 Mar 2003 7:53PM -0500, Dan.Strassberg@att.net wrote:
> It could have been from as late as 1943 because I believe that was the 
> year
> that the FCC banned duopolies and Shepard moved WAAB from Boston to 
> Worcester.
> The clue could be WNBX. When did it move from Springfield to Keene NH 
> and
> become WKNE? The Socony trademark was the flying red horse--Pegasus 
> from Greek
> mythology.
>
> As I understand it, the Colonial Network was Shepard's other network 
> (as the
> Blue Network was Sarnoff's other network). Shepard's main network was 
> the
> Yankee Network and Sarnoff's was the Red Network (of NBC), later known 
> as just
> NBC.
>
> When I first became aware of regional networks--sometime during World 
> War II--I
> think the Colonial Network was already defunct. I lived in the Bronx 
> and could
> pick up WICC 600 and WNAB 1450 (and later WLIZ 1300) from Bridgeport. I 
> don't
> recall whether WICC or WNAB was the Yankee Network affiliate in 
> Bridgeport, but
> I vividly remember the network outcue: "Serving 24 hometown stations 
> from
> Bangor to Bridgeport... This is the YANKEE Network." Most, though not 
> all,
> Yankee affiliates were also affiliated with Mutual.
>
> I think Cedric Foster's news commentary, which originated in Boston at 
> WNAC
> 1260, was fed to any Mutual affiliate that wanted it. Talk about DULL 
> radio!
>
> And it's not as if nobody had yet figured out how to make a radio 
> newscast
> interesting. Lowell Thomas was perhaps the best in the business, but 
> there were
> many really good news commentators during World War II.
>
> The CBS World News Roundup, which aired on CBS M-F from 8:00 AM to 8:15 
> (with,
> I believe, an optional cutout at 8:11 for local stations to fill the 
> remainder
> of the 15 minutes with local news) was excellent. I think Douglas 
> Edwards
> anchored for years and years. And during the War, there were live 
> shortwave
> feeds from Europe and the Pacific. The audio quality was sometimes 
> horrendous
> but some top-flight journalists were in the field, including Edward R 
> Murrow
> and Charles Collingwood. Needless to say, it would take many decades 
> before the
> term embedded, as applied to journalists, would be invented.
> --
> dan.strassberg@att.net
> 617-558-4205
> eFax 707-215-6367
>>  Have come across a poster from I would guess the 1930s that promotes
>>  Boston Red Sox and Bees broadcasts on the Colonial Network. Poster
>>  features the logo of SOCONY OIL now Mobil and lists these stations
>>  BOSTON WAAB
>>  BANGOR WLBZ
>>  BRIDGEPORT WICC
>>  FALL RIVER WSAR
>>  HARTFORD WTHT
>>  LACONIA WLNH
>>  LOWELL WLLH
>>  MANCHESTER WFEA
>>  NEW BEDFORD WNBH
>>  NEW LONDON WNLC
>>  PROVIDENCE WEAN
>>  SPRINGFIELD WSPR
>>  SPRINGFIELD VT WNBX
>>  WATERBURY WBRY
>>
>>  Announcer was Fred Hoey who I thought worked for Shepard at the 
>> Yankee
>>  Network. Donna can you offer any background?
>>
>>  Curious why Portland ME wasn't listed.
>>