Dick Summer reveals the REAL father of classic rock radio inBoston

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 30 Jul 2006 at 13:13, Dan Strassberg wrote:

> During the period in question, WROW was first owned by its original
> owner, Harry L Goldman, who later sold it to Capital Cities. WROW was
> Capital Cities' first property and the location, New York's Capital
> District (a.k.a. the Albany-Schenectday-Troy market), gave the radio
> company its name. In due course, Capital Cities morphed into ABC,
> which then merged with Disney. 

Ironically, while I was there, WROW changed its network affiliation 
from ABC to CBS, as did WROW-TV.

> I'm not sure of the year in which ownership of WROW passed from
> Goldman to CapCities, but when I left the Capital District in 1956,
> I think (though I'm not at all sure) that Goldman might still have
> owned the station. As best I can remember, when I left, WROW-TV had
> gone on the air on Channel 41, but had not yet acquired WMGT
> Pitttsfield on Channel 74 and moved it to Channel 19. I also can't
> remember whether Channel 29 in Hagaman NY in the Mohawk Valley was
> yet on the air (I don't think so, however). Channel 29 later gave
> way to Channel 10 in Vail Mills NY (very near Hagaman and exactly
> 170 miles from Channel 10 stations in Rochester, Montreal, and
> Providence). 

The move to Channel 10, which supplanted both 41 and 29, took place 
after I left in May 1957.  The addition of channel 29 came sometime 
in 1955 or 1956, and the call letters changed to WCDA and WCDB.  WMGT 
on Mount Graylock moved from channel 74 to 19 before it was taken 
over by Hudson Valley Broadcasting, which was the corporate name of 
WROW, etc. and how they answered the phone.  

The next thing that happened was that a storm blew down the tower of 
WMGT, putting it off the air indefinitely.  When it returned to the 
air, it was as WCDC.  

WTRI, channel 35, came on in early 1954, with a CBS affiliation (it 
was  connected with WTRY radio in Troy, which also was a CBS 
affiliate).  Despite that, many important CBS programs were carried 
on WRGB, sometimes by delayed broadcast.  Ed Sullivan's Sunday night 
show was on Friday night, and Jack Benny's show was on Sunday 
afternoon.  ABC programs got out on bot WRGB and WROW-TV (WCDA).  
Space Patrol was on WRGB, Disneyland and Mickey Mouse Club were on 
WROW-TV, etc.

At some point after that, probably in 1955, WROW became a CBS 
affiliate, both on radio and television (though possibly not at 
exactly the same time).  When that happened WTRI went off the air for 
awhile.  It eventually returned around the fall of 1956, with an ABC 
affiliation. At that time, almost all of the CBS and ABC shows moved 
to their respective UHF affiliates, at their proper times, and WRGB 
became a total NBC affiliate.  Except that "You Asked For It," an ABC 
program, for some reason continued to appear on WRGB.

In 1966-67, when I was a senior at UMass Amherst, I lived in one of 
the high-rise dorms, and I discovered that the dorm TV was able to 
get WCDC, Channel 19.  At that point, WCDA and WCDB had moved to 
channel 10 and become WTEN.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 Fax 617.742.7581
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         http://www.attorneyross.com