Tower hunter (cont'd)

[Dan Strassberg]

Well, so much for the idea that, when WORL (now WROL) returned to the air
under new ownership after its license suspension for unauthorized transfer
of control, it used not only the Saugus site that had been abandoned by the
old WHDH (now WEEI), but it also used one of the old WHDH towers. WORL DID
use the former WHDH site and transmitter building but apparently WHDH
removed the old towers when it moved to Needham and increased to 50 kW. It
sure would be interesting to find out the history of the towers that have
stood at the WROL site over the years. I have long suspected that WHDH's two
towers originally supported a long wire and were converted to a DA when the
station was granted night authority sometime in the '30s. (AFAIK, WHDH was
the first US AM to be licensed to operate nights on a frequency that had
'till then been a Class IA Channel.) However I can find no information that
either confirms or discredits the long-wire-to-DA-conversion idea and
apparently nobody who would remember is still living.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
eFax 707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: "Garrett Wollman" <wollman@csail.mit.edu>
To: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 4:23 PM
Subject: Re: Tower hunter (cont'd)


> <<On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 15:17:09 -0400, "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>
said:
>
> > P.S.:  Still no word on the oldest.  I'm still thinking WFEA, though
WZON
> > (nee WLBZ) is a possibility too.  It sticks in my mind that WZON's major
> > tower (affectionately called "Bertha," I'm told,) was built when the
station
> > moved from Dover-Foxcroft to Bangor in 1929.
>
> The Antenna Structure Registration database shows 33 towers in New
> England which were built before 1941.  They are:
>
> 1933-01-01 WICC
> 1933-01-01 Yankee/Armstrong tower, Paxton
> 1934-01-01 WDRC
> 1938-01-01 WATR
> 1939-01-01 101 West St., Springfield
> 1939-01-01 WTIC
> 1939-03-30 WTAG
> 1940-01-01 WEEI
> 1940-01-01 WHJJ
> 1940-01-01 WKNE
> 1940-01-01 WMKI
> 1940-01-01 WRKO
> 1940-07-27 WBZ
> 1940-09-01 WZAN
>
> (Directional arrays have been merged.  A date of January 1 should be
> taken to mean "date unknown".)
>
> Here are the dates for 1941 to 1951, by the way:
>
> 1941-02-01 WGIR
> 1941-10-01 WTAG tower 4
> 1945-01-01 910 New Britain, whatever its current calls may be
> 1946-01-01 WACE
> 1946-01-01 WKXL
> 1947-01-01 WGGB-TV
> 1947-01-01 WLAM
> 1947-06-10 WRIB
> 1947-09-01 WSKI
> 1947-12-01 WEZF stl tower
> 1948-01-01 WHYN
> 1948-01-01 WILD (former)
> 1948-01-01 WJAR
> 1948-01-01 WJIB
> 1948-01-01 WPRO-FM
> 1948-01-01 WROL
> 1948-01-01 WSRS aux tower, Paxton
> 1949-07-01 WXNI
> 1949-08-01 WBSM
> 1950-01-01 990 Providence, whatever it is now
> 1950-01-01 WBZ aux tower, Brighton
> 1950-03-01 WEIM
> 1951-01-01 WPRO
> 1951-01-01 WUNR
>
> For the entire U.S., you have these early towers:
>
> 1923-01-01 KBPS (doubtful)
> 1924-10-01 WNDE
> 1925-01-01 KGO tower 1
> 1925-01-01 WJBC
> 1925-02-01 WKBF
> 1926-12-01 WWVA
> 1927-01-01 Boone (Iowa) Biblical Ministries
> 1927-01-01 KGHL tower 1
> 1928-01-01 WIVK
>
> -GAWollman
>