WEZE, WCOP and NBC

[Dan.Strassberg]

I don't think I ever heard the Colonial Network but I'm pretty sure
that its key station was WAAB, which was co-owned with WNAC (and was a
very early AM diplex with WNAC from a Blaw-Knox diamond tower at a
site in Quincy or Milton, which might even be today's WMKI site). In
those days ('30s, probably), neither station was directional and WNAC
was the higher powered of the two. When the FCC outlawed duopolies
(1943, I believe), Shepard had the choice of selling one station
(obviously, it would be the lower powered WAAB) or moving one station
out of market. He chose the latter course, which is how WAAB wound up
in Worcester (now WVEI). Did the Colonial network die when WAAB moved
to Worcester? Dunno. Maybe. If it did not die then, what station was
the Boston affiliate after WAAB decamped? It's going to be harder to
get answers to these questions than it was to get answers about the
Yankee Network because so few people who are still living remember
the Colonial Network. I might remember it if I had lived in New
England during its lifetime, but I grew up in the Bronx, where I could
hear the Yankee Network on WICC Bridgeport, and I could also pick up
Class IV WNAB Bridgeport during the daytime, but I do not recall WNAB
being a Colonial Network affiliate.

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Martin Waters" <martinjwaters@yahoo.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 1:19 AM
Subject: Re: WEZE, WCOP and NBC


> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>