WEIM changes

[Dan.Strassberg]

WGTR 1060 signed on in November 1972 as a 1 kW daytimer licensed to
Natick. Studios were at 24 W Central St in Natick and the Tx was on
Kendall Ave in S. Natick. The transmitter was so situated that the
station provided a CoL-grade signal to both Natick and Framingham.
Several years before the upgrade to high power and full-time operation
from the new transmitter site on Sewell Rd in Ashland, which went on
the air in the summer of 1981, WGTR started IDing as WGTR
Natick-Framingham. Today, that would mean nothing, but I believe that,
at the time, it required a modification of the station's license. Once
the Ashland Tx went on the air, Framingham was dropped from the ID
because I don't think the night signal covered enough of Framingham.
My assimption is that, for several years, WGTR was licensed to Natick
and Framingham on a hyphenated basis. This is interesting because WGTR
did not provide a first aural service to Framingham (WKOX (AM) had
been on the air since the late '40s) and probably not a second service
either (I think WKOX-FM signed on before 1972). I have no idea what
arguments John Garabedian or his lawyers mustered to persuade the FCC
to allow the hyphenated CoLs.

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Garrett Wollman" <wollman@bimajority.org>
To: "Dave Tomm" <nostaticatall@charter.net>
Cc: "B-R-I" <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 5:30 PM
Subject: Re: WEIM changes


> <<On Thu, 9 Apr 2009 15:36:35 -0400, Dave Tomm
> <nostaticatall@charter.net> said:
>
>> In Connecticut, WKSS is licensed to "Hartford-Meriden" and must ID
>> as
>> such.  It says so right on the license in the control room.  "WKSS,
>> Hartford" would not be legal in this case.  There is a story as to
>> why
>> the COL was applied for and granted this way but it escapes me at
>> the
>> moment....
>
> There was a time, not that long ago, when you had to have your
> studio
> in the community of license.  95.7, you will recall, is the old
> WMMW-FM and was originally a Meriden station.  Presumably, at some
> point they wanted to move the studios to Hartford, but the
> Commission
> was being ornery at the time and wouldn't let them discontinue
> "service" to Meriden.  (Or maybe they had studios in both cities.)
> The hyphenated community provided some flexibility.
>
> -GAWollman
>