WEZE, WCOP and NBC

[Dan.Strassberg]

When I first arrived in Boston (OK, Cambridge) in late May of '56, WBZ
was in the throes of announcing its new all-local schedule as an
independent station (the terminology back then for non-network
affiliates): DeSuze, Dary, Egan, Marlowe, Prescott, Bassett, and
others whose names would ring a bell if you were to mention them. Dave
Maynard was not part of the initial lineup; I remember him joining WBZ
(from WORL 950) several months after the new schedule debuted.

WNAC 680 was the NBC Radio affiliate, but IIRC, it was affiliated with
another network as well and did not carry anything like the full NBC
Radio schedule. Since we know that the other network couldn't have
been CBS (because CBS was on its O&O, WEEI 590), it had to be either
ABC (as I recall, there was still only one ABC Radio network) or
Mutual. I think it was Mutual, but I'm not sure.

Now. was the Yankee Network still in existence in the summer of '56?
WNAC had been a long-time Yankee affiliate (in fact, it had been the
regional network's key station, as befitted the affiliate in the
largest city of the region the network served). Like most Yankee
affiliates, WNAC had carried Mutual as well. (Yankee was one of
several regional networks that were more or less part of Mutual.) If
WNAC remained a Yankee affiliate after becoming an NBC Radio
affiliate, it would have had to continue carrying Yankee news because
news was about the only programming--outside of the Mutual feed--that
Yankee provided and was probably the ONLY programming that Yankee
_originated_. My recollection is really fuzzy, but I think WNAC
dropped Yankee news and replaced it with NBC Radio news, while
continuing to carry Mutual's rntertainment product. If so, and if
Yankee continued to exist, it presumably moved (sans Mutual) to some
other Boston station. WCOP? Dunno. The natural would have been WEZE
1260 (by then, I believe, the _former_ WVDA), which was the same
facility that had been WNAC until around 1954, when General TeleRadio
bought WLAW 680 and moved WNAC to the big 50-kW 680 spot. WEZE might
have been the natural, but I don't think it did become the Yankee
affiliate, although I'm far from sure. I'm quite sure, though, that it
wasn't WHDH 850, which remained an independent as it always had been.

In that time frame (probably a little later) I seem to remember the
radio networks doing something they had never done before: if they
were unable to line up full-time stations as affiliates in major
markets, they would take on daytimers just to be able to clear some
network programming. That would have let WORL, WILD 1090, and WHIL
1430 into the game. It's even possible that, at some point, little
WTAO 740 carried one of the national network news services for a short
while.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>
To: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@comcast.net>; "Dan.Strassberg"
<dan.strassberg@att.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 6:15 PM
Subject: WEZE, WCOP and NBC


>I remember WEZE's glass-paneled streetside studio on Boylston Street
>from
> when I was a kid.  The station was proud of its NBC affiliation, and
> it was
> a major player in the Boston radio market.  For whatever
> in-hindsight-foolish reasons, WEZE dropped its NBC affiliation
> around 1965
> or so and WCOP picked it up.  I think by the time I was in college
> (1969)
> WCOP had been sold, changed its call letters, and Boston was bereft
> of NBC
> Radio.  That was the case until a few years later when WMEX became
> WITS,
> which didn't last long.  After the mid-'70s,  I don't remember
> Boston having
> an NBC outlet again until the early- to mid-'80s when WRKO signed on
> with
> the network.  It remained an affiliate until a couple of years into
> Westwood
> One ownership, when it picked up CBS after WEEI was sold.
>
> NBC really hasn't had a consistent presence in Boston since WBZ
> dropped it
> back in 1956.  And, of course, the network barely exists now, but
> that's
> another (sad) story . . .
>
> -Doug
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@comcast.net>
> To: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
> Cc: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
> Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 3:18 PM
> Subject: The unimpressive run of 1150 AM was: WTTT
>
>
>> With yet another format change on 1150 you have to look back at
>> this
> station
>> as being the worst performing AM in Boston history.
>>
>> When you consider the full time AM's to Boston  590, 680, 850,
>> 1030, 1150,
>> 1260, and 1510  the 1150 license has done very little of note in
>> its
>> history.  ( I didn't include 950 or 1330 or 1600 )
>>
>> Every other AM at one time was the most listened to station in the
>> city as
>> even WEZE 1260 was huge in the mid 60's before WJIB (96.9) came
>> along and
>> blew it away.
>>
>> Certainly 1150 must lead in call letter changes ( with 1510 right
>> behind )
>>
>> In my lifetime only once did 1150 matter to most Bostonians. They
>> were a
> NBC
>> station in the 60's and they had the rights to the 1967 World
>> Series.
>>
>> Also remember 1150 fondly for Monitor in the 60's before the
>> station
> flipped
>> to country.
>