Old South Church Meeting
Donna Halper
dlh@donnahalper.com
Wed Jan 6 12:51:36 EST 2010
At 07:02 AM 1/6/2010, Dan.Strassberg wrote:
>The Boston station that was on 1470 pre-NARBA (3/31/1941) was WMEX.
>Who knows what WMEX was airing in those days? (Donna?)
But of course. WMEX was actually the result of
the Poté Brothers (William, the more disreputable
of the two, and Al-- by all accounts a pretty
good guy with a long history as a radio engineer)
pulling a fast one on the FCC in 1934. The
previous administration, the FRC (Federal Radio
Commission) had taken WLOE off the air-- that was
the first station of the Potés, run mostly by
Bill. The FRC ruled that there were numerous
financial irregularities, and after a long
battle, WLOE finally left the air in 1933. But
nobody was gonna keep Bill Poté off the air-- he
found some backers, put their names on the
application, and suddenly in October 1934, the
new WMEX, owned by the "Northern Corporation",
appeared. It was sometimes in the Hotel Manger
(long gone) in the North Station area, and then
sometime in the late 30s, moved to Brookline
Avenue. The format was what you would expect of
a small 1930s or 1940s station-- a little bit of
everything, from big bands, to shopping shows, to
religion, to jazz to whatever else somebody
wanted to do. Don Kent got his start there, as
did Nat Hentoff. Bill Poté was famous for not
paying people-- he "allowed them" to work there
and get experience... for free of course. And
yes, WMEX was moved to 1510 after NARBA moved all
kinds of stations-- WMEX moved on 29 March 1941.
Dan wrote--
> I don't think
>the station had a consistent format until the Richmonds bought it (out
>of bankruptcy) and flipped it to Top 40 in 1957.
True indeed. The Richmond Brothers did buy it in
mid 1957 and gradually shifted it to the top-40
format. Mac had been involved in an advertising
agency in Philly, if I recall correctly, and he
also owned WPGC in Washington DC. (When top 40
ruled, two of the big ones in the DC area were
WPGC, and Baltimore's WCAO-- they were jokingly
referred to as "The Pig" and "The Cow."
>Dan also wrote--
>Anyhow, AFAIK, WBMS didn't arrive until shortly after World War II. By
>then, WMEX had been on 1510 for at least four years.
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!!! Dan's got
the trifecta. WBMS was licensed in 1946, by the
Templetone Corporation, a radio manufacturer; at
one point, I believe Templetone also operated an
FM in Boston very briefly, because the company
sold FM radios. But by 1948, Templetone was
having financial woes, and WBMS was sold to the
Friendly Group. It went dark. and then, I
believe it changed ownership yet again. It was
at that point, circa 1948, when it did a
classical format for a while, then gave it up in
April 1950, but then went back to it. WBMS also
changed very very briefly in 1951 to the best
call letters for a top 40-- although top 40 had
not yet been invented-- WHEE. WBMS got back its
original calls around 1952 and if I recall, that
is when they went back to classical. At one
point, they used the slogan "WBMS-- world's best music station."
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