...and speaking of anniversaries...

[Doug Drown]

. . . And, of course, WOFX and WTRY-FM are now owned by Clear Channel, which 
also owns WGY.  Who would have thought that would ever happen??

-Doug


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Doherty" <dave@skywaves.net>
To: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 11:20 PM
Subject: Re: ...and speaking of anniversaries...


> Hi Scott-
>
> Albany had a pretty confusing early TV history, too.
>
> My Dad worked for a short time in the late 40's at WTRI-FM, which was 
> co-owned with WTRY (980, now WOFX)) and spawned WTRI-TV, which I think was 
> a UHF that eventually morphed into channel 13. WTRI-FM went off the air in 
> the early 50's, and AFAIK WTRY didn't have an FM partner again until the 
> consolidation movement in the 90's. In the late 1950's, I went to the 
> WTRI-FM site on Heldeberg Mountain with my Dad, and I recall the tower 
> sections stacked on the ground with the weeds growing up over them.
>
> WROW (590) was co-owned with channel 10.
>
> Channel 10 was originally WROW-TV on channel 41, eventually became three 
> UHF stations, WCDA(41), WCDB(29), and WCDC (originally WMGT on channel 74, 
> but eventually WCDC on 19).
>
> WCDA was on the WRPI tower in Troy, WCDB was on a very early 1000' tower 
> in Vail Mills (licensed to Hagaman), on the south end of Scanadaga Lake, 
> and WCDC still exists on Mount Greylock in the Berkshires. When they got 
> channel 10, WCDA and WCDB were abandoned. They removed the tower at Vail 
> Mills, and I guess they donated the Troy tower to RPI. I visited the Vail 
> Mills site years ago, and the concrete was still there. As a kid, I 
> free-climbed the WRPI tower (yes, the statute of limitations passed a long 
> time ago).
>
> Of course, GE Broadcasting was the powerhouse in the market from the 
> beginning. WGY (reputedly named for Wirless General electric schenectadY) 
> was arguably the first 50kW station in the world. WGFM was an obvious 
> choice of call signs. Channel 6 was named for Dr. Walter Ransom Gail 
> Baker, a GE and IRE engineering luminary who also spent some time at GE 
> competitor RCA (http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Walter_Baker)
>
> Interestingly, there is a tie between the GE stations and channel 10 
> involving none other than WRGBaker. It seems that old WRG was an 
> entrepreneur who built some statons in upstate NY that were acquired by 
> the Outlet Company. At one time, Cap Cities owned both WTEN and the Outlet 
> Company's WPRO-TV (now WPRI).
>
> -d
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
> To: "Dave Doherty" <dave@skywaves.net>
> Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 9:44 PM
> Subject: Re: ...and speaking of anniversaries...
>
>
>>
>> Dave Doherty wrote:
>>> Hey Scott-
>>>
>>> RIP WHAM-TV analog: Age 60 years plus one day.
>>>
>>
>> With one confusing twist: the WHAM-TV that signed on in 1949 and will 
>> sign off Friday at age 60 years plus a day is now WROC-TV...while the 
>> station on channel 13 that now bears the WHAM-TV calls is only 46+ years 
>> old, having signed on in 1962 as WOKR(TV).
>>
>> It's a nearly identical situation to the two WHDH-TVs in Boston: WHDH 850 
>> spawned WHDH-TV 5, outlived those calls on its TV sister, then went on to 
>> again loan its calls to a different station (ex-WNAC-TV/WNEV on 7) years 
>> later.
>>
>> (And it gives rise to a trivia question: how many other such examples 
>> exist out there? Hartford has had two WTIC-TVs, both associated with WTIC 
>> 1080. Syracuse has had two WSYR-TVs over the years, both associated with 
>> WSYR 570. There have been two WWJ-TVs in Detroit, both associated with 
>> WWJ 950. I can't come up with any others at the moment...)
>>
>> s
>>
>