Boston and ABC Radio

[Dan.Strassberg]

I'm pretty sure that the 1260 studios did not move to the street-level
location in Park Sq until after Diehm sold the station to Air Trails
and the calls had changed from WVDA to WEZE. By then, as WEZE, the
station was no longer an affiliate of any of the (by then) four ABC
radio networks; it had become an NBC Radio affiliate. And IIRC, it did
not remain an NBC affiliate for terribly long. No Boston-market radio
station carried NBC Radio's full lineup, but at one point, most of the
NBC Radio programming that made it onto the air in Boston appeared on
WNAC 680. That was part of the early stages of the rapid decline of
what had been America's premiere radio network. NBC was probably glad
that the market's second-best signal was clearing some of its
programs, but I doubt whether one person in 100 interviewed at random
on the streets of Boston or Cambridge could have identitied the
station that was carrying the largest amount of NBC Radio programming.
In fact, anyone who had thought about it would have been likely to
have answered, "NBC Radio--is there really still an NBC Radio?"

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Hall" <aerie.ma@comcast.net>
To: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2010 4:12 PM
Subject: RE: Boston and ABC Radio


>I know that WEZE studios were in the office building section of what
>was
> then the "Statler Hilton" in Park Square (now known as the Boston
> Park
> Plaza). These were the studios right on the street on the first
> floor with a
> big curved plate glass window (St. James Ave and Columbus Ave
> intersection).
> I am assuming that these were also the WVDA studios.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org
> [mailto:boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org] On
> Behalf Of
> Dan.Strassberg
> Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2010 11:27 AM
> To: A. Joseph Ross
> Cc: boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org
> Subject: Re: Boston and ABC Radio
>
> I believe that is what happened but I have no proof. For sure, the
> Yankee/Mutual affiliation stayed with WNAC when WNAC moved from 1260
> to 680. WVDA was cobbled together from the old WNAC 1260 transmitter
> in Milton and/or Quincy and the Boston studios of the old WLAW 680,
> whose main studio was in Lawrence, the CoL. I believe that WLAW
> originated more programming from Boston than it did from it's "main"
> studio in Lawrence. The WVDA studios (which had been the WLAW Boston
> studios) were in a well-known Boston hotel, whose name I keep
> forgetting. That hotel had previously been the site of WBZ's studios
> and also the studios of WBOS (not just the FM station but also WBOS
> (AM) 1600, which became WUNR many decades ago).
>
> It makes sense that when 680 became WNAC, the ABC affiliation would
> have moved from 680 to 1260 (WVDA), because both WLAW and WCOP had
> been ABC affiliates (something that was possible because WLAW was
> officially not a Boston station despite having the market's second
> best signal in Boston) and Plough Inc, WCOP's new owner, did not
> want
> WCOP to continue its network affiliation. Despite a 5-kW signal that
> was inferior downtown and elsewhere to 680's 50-kW, WCOP had been
> the
> "real" Boston ABC affiliate for several years before Plough bought
> it.
>
> I think it was established many years ago on this list that, even
> though three or four stations had maintained studios in the same
> Boston hotel at various times, they did not all occupy the same
> space
> at different times. Indeed, there was probably a time when that
> hotel
> was home to at least two unrelated radio stations at the same time.
> Somebody, please supply the hotel name so I can say, "Oh, yeah."
> (Wasn't it on Stuart St? It was neither the Parker House nor the
> Touraine, IIRC.) Thanks.
>
> -----
> Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
> eFax 1-707-215-6367
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com>
> To: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
> Cc: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
> Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2010 1:42 AM
> Subject: Re: Boston and ABC Radio
>
>> I wonder whether
>> WVDA picked up the ABC affiliation from WLAW when that changeover
>> took place.
>>
>> -- 
>> A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
>> 92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax 617.507.7856
>> Boston, MA 02109-2004
>> http://www.attorneyross.com
>>
>>
>
>