...and speaking of anniversaries...

[Dave Doherty]

Hi, Matt-

Interesting bit of history. I remember listening to WHSH, but I never 
associated it with WTRY.

I recall the Vail Mills tower from pre-high-school days (Bethlehem Central, 
here).  It was the biggest thing I had ever seen outside of New York City. 
By the time I was driving (1967), it was gone. I found a 1960 topo map 
(Utica 1x2 degree) at the USGS site that shows the tower. It's where I 
remembered it, north of 155 between Vail Mills and Broadalbin, west of 2nd 
Ave.  I do not recall how I got there exactly, but a good start would be to 
head north from 155 on Second Ave for 1/4 mile or so and look for a road or 
path to the left. It was definitely west of 2nd Ave. I'll email you the map 
clip O/L.

-d




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
To: "Matthew Osborne" <mattosborne1976@yahoo.com>; "Scott Fybush" 
<scott@fybush.com>; "Dave Doherty" <dave@skywaves.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 9:02 AM
Subject: Re: ...and speaking of anniversaries...


>
> Wasn't WCDB on Channel 29 in the Mohawk Valley, near Amsterdam? Didn't
> it go off the air when Channel 10, WTEN, went on the air from the
> 1350' tower in Vail Mills, just south of the Sacondaga Reservoir west
> of Amsterdam or Gloversville? CapCities got the FCC to drop in Channel
> 10 there because the spot was just 170 miles from Rochester,
> Providence, and either Ottawa or Montreal (wherever the Canadian
> channel 10 was). Channel 10 later moved to the Helderbergs when the
> FCC granted applications for short-spaced VHFs. If CapCities had
> realized the Channel 10 possibility when they built Channel 29 (I
> don't think they did), they could have built only one tower--the one
> in Vail Mills--and they could have put the Channel 10 antenna on the
> Channel 29 tower. I don't think it worked that way, though.
>
> -----
> Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
> eFax 1-707-215-6367
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Matthew Osborne" <mattosborne1976@yahoo.com>
> To: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>; "Dave Doherty"
> <dave@skywaves.net>
> Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
> Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 7:46 AM
> Subject: Re: ...and speaking of anniversaries...
>
>
>>
>> Just a couple clarifications from a local...
>>
>> WTRY did indeed have an FM partner again well before the 1990s.
>> Although I don't know the exact date, WTRY-FM 106.5 signed on the
>> air sometime in the 1960s or 70s, probably from the same Helderberg
>> Mountain transmit site.  If anyone here is more clear on this
>> history, please correct me - it started out as mainly a simulcast of
>> the AM, until the FCC cracked down on this.  They then gradually
>> became a Beautiful Music - Easy Listening station in the 70s,
>> changing call letters to WHSH (personal side note - one of my first
>> clear memories of hearing anything on the radio was of my
>> grandfather listening to WHSH, and hearing an announcer give those
>> call letters).  This lasted until 1980, when they switched to rock
>> and became WPYX (PYX 106).  Until just the last couple years, their
>> studios were still at the AM 980 transmitter site on WTRY Rd just
>> off Route 7 in Niskayuna (known by some as 'the bunker').
>>
>> Dave, I am originally from Broadalbin, and have always wondered
>> exactly where the old WCDB tower was located (nobody I ever talked
>> to there even knew what I was talking about when I would ask them
>> about it).  Would you be able to tell me where exactly that was?
>>
>>                                           Matt Osborne
>>                                           Schenectady, NY
>>
>>
>> --- On Wed, 6/10/09, Dave Doherty <dave@skywaves.net> wrote:
>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>