Boston and ABC Radio

[The Seacoast]

WMEX carried "American Contemporary Radio" news 5 minutes before for a while
during some of their "top 40" days.
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan.Strassberg [mailto:dan.strassberg@att.net] 
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 1:39 PM
To: Doug Drown; =?utf-8?b??=
Subject: Re: Boston and ABC Radio

Years before the NBC Blue Network became first a company that was separate
from RCA and then renamed itself ABC, WBZ was a Blue Network affiliate. When
RCA spun off the Blue Network in 1943 (it was forced to do so by either a
law or an FCC regulation that prohibited duopolies), WBZ became Boston's NBC
Red Network affiliate. When I first visited Boston in 1947, there were TWO
ABC affiliates, both full-time affiliates. The reason this was possible was
that one of the stations was licensed to a different city. The ABC affiliate
that was licensed to Boston was WCOP 1150. The one with the good signal was
WLAW Lawrence on 680. I don't know how long the two-ABC-affiliate situation
lasted, but it might well have continued until 1953, when General Tire
bought WLAW and moved WNAC 1260 and its Yankee Network/Mutual affiliation to
the 50-kW 680 frequency. At that time, 1260, which had been WNAC, was sold
to Pennsylvania broadcaster Vic Diehm, who renamed it WVDA (for Vic Diehm
Associates).
I believe that WVDA continued for a while as Boston's ABC affiliate, but
since it was licensed to Boston, either it or WCOP had to drop the ABC
affiliation. I didn't arrive in Boston until 1956, so I have no first-hand
knowledge of what happened to the network affiliations in 1953. WVDA may
still have been an ABC affiliate in 1956; not sure. I don't think WCOP was.
Plough Broadcasting from Atlanta, which had bought WCOP, was heavily into
Top-40 and Top-40 was not thought to be compatible with network
affiliations. Shortly after I arrived in Boston, Diehm sold WVDA to Air
Trails of Dayton OH, which renamed the station WEZE. The station kept the
WEZE calls though several owners and when Salem bought 590 and moved its
Christian preaching/teaching format there, the WEZE calls moved with the
format.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: <revdoug1@myfairpoint.net>
To: "=?utf-8?b??=" <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 12:44 PM
Subject: Boston and ABC Radio


> Just curious:  Has Boston ever had what could legitimately be called
> a long-term ABC Radio affiliate?  I'm thinking of all the stations
> that I think (perhaps mistakenly) have been with ABC at one time or
> another:  WBZ, WRKO, WORL, WHIL, WBOS . . . WBZ has been with the
> network since the '80s, but did the city ever have an American
> Contemporary Radio affiliate or a station that really touted its ABC
> connection prior to that?  Did ABC ever express an interest in
> purchasing a Boston station before buying WEZE (WMKI) for Radio
> Disney?
>
> -Doug
>
>