WEZE, WCOP and NBC

[Martin Waters]

Dan Strassberg wrote:

      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
... 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 . .
.
---------------------------

    As was mentioned in the string, WNAC and the
Yankee Network were co-owned and married at the hip.
Yankee always originated from WNAC. I'm betting there
never was a period when Yankee was on another Boston
station. Just seems like it couldn't be. (Donna, can
you help here?).

   From 1963, when my memory starts, I recall Yankee
as running a 5-minute (I think) top-hour newscast
every second hour. WNAC did its own newscast on the
other hours and followed Yankee with 5 minutes of its
own. Some, or maybe all, the news announcers on Yankee
were also on WNAC -- and I can't recall if the same
announcer read both newscasts at the same hour on
WNAC.

   I recall that by that time at least, WEZE was the
NBC affiliate, although I think perhaps they did not
run Monitor on the weekends and maybe didn't clear
some other programming beyond the hourly news.

    I remember in Scituate listening to Monitor from
WCSH in Portland, which put in a near-local signal
daytime and a good signal nighttime. (Today, it's not
so good at night -- because, I imagine, the FCC has
licensed dozens of nighttime signals that interfere.)
But maybe I just listened to Monitor on WCSH because
its signal was so much better than WEZE's down there. 
And, again, I'd be very surprised to learn that WNAC
ever ran NBC news on the hour. 

   RKO General killed the Yankee Network the same day
it flipped WNAC to WRKO and top 40.

   Shepard/RKO General/WNAC also had a second regional
network, the Colonial Network, about which I know just
about nothing and don't remember ever hearing. It may
have been killed off earlier.

   Shepard started the Yankee Network, according to
the stories I have read (perhaps written by Donna!),
back in the '30s, when radio was still fighting with
newspapers about access to wire service news, etc.

    The news intro, up until the end -- and I think
always -- was a semi-subtle slap at the newspapers:
"News while it is news. The Yankee Network is on the
air."

-Marty Waters