WBSO Lancaster, MA

[Dan.Strassberg]

WBSO were the calls of the station that today is WROL Boston. For many
years, WBSO was owned by the Babson Statistical Organization, hence
the WBSO call sign. Prior to the NARBA agreement of 3/31/1941, WBSO
and its successor, WORL, operated on 920 kc, eventually with a power
of 1 kw. NARBA moved all or nearly all of the stations on 920 to 950.
I believe that the WBSO transmitter (and probably the WORL
transmitter) were located in Wellesley, but I have no idea where.
Sometime--maybe during World War II--WBSO (it was probably WORL by
then) lost its license, I believe because of unauthorized transfers of
control. The WORL call sign re-emerged on the 950 frequency around
1949, now transmitting from Saugus, which remains the WROL transmitter
site to this day. That site was originally developed by the old WHDH
(AM) first on 830 and after NARBA on 850. In 1947, WHDH moved its
transmitter to Needham and increased its power to 50 kW from 5 kW.
That made the Saugus site available to WORL, which returned to the air
as a daytime-only station operating with 5 kW. I do not know whether
WBSO or the earlier incarnation of WORL operated at night.

I provide that info because of its historical interest, but I don't
think that that WBSO is the one you are inquiring about. I think the
WBSO you are interested in is the construction permit that was granted
but never built for 650 kHz in Clinton MA. That CP was granted in the
early 1980s, I believe, and it survived unbuilt until the FCC revoked
it in the early 90s. The CP went though several iterations. The
original grant was for 10 kWD/1 kW-N DA-2. I think there were to be
four towers. At one point, the FCC started to allow higher nighttime
powers for new secondary stations on the former Class IA clear
channels and WBSO received a modification of its CP for 2.3 kW nights.
Since 1997 the 650 frequency in eastern MA has been occupied by the
station now known as WSRO Ashland, a 250W nondirectional daytimer,
which operates with very low nighttime power (9W).

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <mrschuyler@aol.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:31 AM
Subject: WBSO Lancaster, MA


>I was looking at a satellite map of the Leominster State Forest?area
>on which two transmitter locations were noted: WXLO (FM) Fitchburg
>and WBSO (AM) Lancaster.?About the second station, there was nothing
>in the FCC database as far as I could find (no surprise), and nothing
>in my 1984 Broadcasting Yearbook (in which 760 Leiceister-Worcester
>is a CP).?Does anyone have info on this station's (apparently brief)
>history?