Its been nice knowing you all

[Dan Strassberg]

Pre NARBA, WBZ was on 990, WEEI was on 590, WLAW was on 680, WHDH was on 830
(I believe), and WLLH was on 1370. That was just prior to March 1941. NARBA
did not move most of the stations below 730. Dropping in the Mexican Class
IA channel on 730 resulted in most stations between 730 and 780 moving up
one notch. The next Mexican IA at 800 caused most stations between 790 and
890 to move up two notches. The third Mexican IA at 900 caused most stations
from 900 to <something> to move up three notches. There were four more
Mexican IAs added--at 940, 1050, 1220, and 1570. Some channels, including
990, moved up four notches, but somewhere one channel must have been
subtracted, because a whole bunch of regional channels in the 1200s, 1300s
and 1400s moved up only 30 kcps (no kHz then). The New York area had
regionals at 1250, 1300, 1350, 1400, and 1450. Most of the New York area
stations on these frequencies were share-timers. Today, the equivalent
stations are on 1280 (WADO), 1330 (WWRV), 1380 (WKDM), 1430 (WNSW), and 1480
(can't remember the current calls). The local channel at 1500 moved down one
notch to 1490.
WMEX moved from 1470 to 1510 and WJSV Washington moved from 1460 to 1500 and
became WTOP. Those moves were four notches. Before NARBA, the "broadcast"
band (there was no regularly licensed FM service, so there was no need to
identify the standard broadcast band as the AM band) ran from 550 to 1500,
with "experimental high-fidelity" stations on 1530, 1550, and 1570. NARBA
did away with the hi-fi channels but extended the band to 1600. NARBA did
not extend the band downward to 540. That happened later. Canada (and maybe
Mexico) went down to 530 still later, but the US never went below 540,
except for TISs.

----- Original Message -----
From: Bill O'Neill <billo@shoreham.net>
To: 'Dan Strassberg' <dan.strassberg@att.net>; <rogerkirk@mail.ttlc.net>;
'Scott Fybush' <scott@fybush.com>;
<boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>; 'Kevin Vahey'
<kvahey@tmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2004 12:02 PM
Subject: RE: Its been nice knowing you all


> > I had one of those Zenith AM-FM radios when I was in college
> > and for many
> > years afterward. Both the AM and FM were excellent, and I
> > believe that a
> > side-by-side comparison with my GE Super Radio III (a very
> > fine receiver by
> > today's standards) would reveal the Zenith to be superior to
> > the SR III in
> > almost all respects on both AM and FM.
>
> That's quite an endorsement I'd not expected. I actually own two of them.
The
> other I picked up at a yard sale about 20 years ago.  It works but
occasionally
> has an audio drop out and there's a very narrow bandwidth audio.  Tube
theory
> ain't my bag, but I think I'll try to tinker with it sometime just for
fun.  I
> also have a GE 1921 floor model radio purchased new by my grandparents at
the
> Bon Marche in Lowell that year.  Broadcast Band, SW1, SW2.  A speaker the
size
> of a satellite dish ;-) and decent sound.  I pre-dates whatever the
smartie
> engineering types invented so as to bring close and far stations into some
sort
> of leveling. So, the locals are very loud and the distants (beyong .25
mV/m it
> seems) need a big of a volume tweak.  Not running a longwire, so I'm not
getting
> SW on it right now.  It still has the station names (Boston/Lowell) market
over
> the five "auto" preselects. WBZ, WEEI (590), WLAW (680), WHDH (850), WBZ
(1030),
> WLLH (1400).  I have to wonder if those were the dial positions in 1921.
I
> don't think so.
>
> Bill O'Neill
>