WCCM

[Mark Watson]

Laurence Glavin wrote:

> At some time in the distant past, vandals damaged one of more of the 
> towers and AM
> 1110 (I think it was WVNH at the time), went off-the-air for a protracted 
> period of time.

   IIRC one of the then-WVNH towers was toppled in 1979, late Spring or 
early Summer. I believe it was the southernmost of the 4 towers. As a 
result, they had to operate at reduced power (200 or 300 watts?) 
non-directional as the directional pattern was designed to protect the 1110 
in Providence. Ed McGee was the PD at the time, having left WLLH a few 
months earlier. The station was also supposedly going through some financial 
difficulties, and was unable to afford to have the tower replaced. Not long 
after the tower fell, McGee was overseeing an airstaff of 2 or 3 people, and 
the station cut back to operating 12 hours a day, 6:30 AM-6:30 PM. Within a 
couple of months the station's then owner threw in the towel and took the 
station dark and put it up for sale. New owners purchased the station, 
repaied the fallen tower and put it back on the air at full power sometime 
in 1980. I don't recall the name of the original ownership that put WVNH on 
the air in 1977, nor the owner who purchased it in 1980.

   A few notable names who worked at 1110 in it's WVNH days, besides the 
aforementioned Ed McGee: David Allan Boucher, longtime WMJX "Bedtime Magic" 
host, Russ Mottla, who later went on to WAAF and IIRC moved on to the 
Baltimore market, Matt Stevens, another WLLH alumnus, who was PD around 
1986, when John & Eva Hughes owned the station. Lastly, Ned French, who 
worked in Boston radio (WORL, don't know about any other stations he may 
have worked at then) in the 1940's, also WCAP's morning host for a while in 
the 1970's. He worked twice at WVNH, in 1978-79 until they went dark, and 
returned in 1985-86 as morning host, which would be his last radio job as he 
retired after leaving 1110 for the second time.

Mark Watson