Celtics & Bruins on WHDH in the 60

[Kevin Vahey]

For most of the 60's WHDH was the home of not only the Red Sox but the
Bruins and Celtics as well.

In those days there were very few conflicts of the teams playing at
the same time. When it happened one game would be move to WHDH-FM
(94.5). Also when there was a conflict WEAN (790) Providence would air
the game that was on FM in Boston.

I don't know how much of a network the Bruins/Celtics had in Northern
New England but I assume that any station on the Red Sox Network could
join in if they choose. WHDH installed a very fancy microwave setup
for the Red Sox in the late 60's that was run by the Hughes Sports
Network to give top quality audio to the stations along the line.

As for WHDH-TV, they would televise quite a few Celtics games in the
early to mid 60's ( usually road games on Friday night ) with Don
Gillis doing play by play and then cover all road playoff games on
Channel 5. They would from time to time also show a home game if it
was sold out.

The Celtics moved to WIHS-TV (channel 38) around 1965 when it was
owned by the Cathoic Church and the Celtics games were produced by
Budweiser with an unknown announcer as far as Bostonians were
concerned but well known in the midwest...Harry Caray.

The Bruins were seldom on TV save for a few CBS games in the early
60's. WHDH-TV did televise a couple of games from New York. The Bruins
first major TV deal came with WKBG (56) in the 66-67 season with Fred
Cusick. WKBG after that season decided to just go with the champion
Celtics and Channel 38 which had just been bought by Storer
Broadcasting took a chance on hockey.

Then some guy named Orr showed up..... 38 of course became a sports
powerhouse and WKBG never recovered.



On 12/27/07, Maureen Carney <m_carney@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I recently came across a game program from the Boston Garden circa spring
> 1966. There's an ad on the front: "Volkswagen brings you Celtics and Bruins:
> WHDH Radio-TV and the New England Volkswagen Sports Network". Does anyone
> know anything about this? Did WHDH 5 show Celtics and Bruins live? What
> other stations were on the network?
>
>
>
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