Its been nice knowing you all

[Ron Bello]

Did all stations move on the same day ?

How did they do it ?



At 12:56 PM 1/19/04 -0500, Dan Strassberg wrote:
>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
> >