demise of WHDH (AM) was: Nightcap

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 3 Jan 2009 at 23:42, Kevin Vahey wrote:

> Had the Herald kept channel 5 it would have been the Record-American
> owned by Hearst that would have folded and the HT and the Globe would
> have slugged it out.

That's not clear.  The reason the HT folded was because it had been 
declining for years and was being supported by TV station revenue.  
If it had continued to decline, it still would have folded.
 
> Radio? The station flourished under Blair and their Stuart St studios
> were a showcase. But Blair cashed out and once Jess retired in 1991
> HDH had lost its soul BUT you have to wonder if the station was still
> linked to channel 5 it would be as strong as ever today.

Question whether it would have continued to be owned by the same 
company as channel 5 by now.  In the upheavals caused by the early-
90s recession and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, I suspect the 
radio stations still would have been sold off. 

And I'm not sure the HT would have survived in the changed political 
climate.  It was a Republican paper, but it was the Republicanism of 
Dewey, Eisenhower, and Rockefeller nationally and Volpe, Sargent, and 
Brooke locally.  Most Republicans that liberal have long since become 
Democrats.  I wonder whether the HT would have supported Nixon when 
Watergate was raging.  

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax 617.507.7856
Boston, MA 02109-2004           	         http://www.attorneyross.com