WEIM call letter change

[Scott Fybush]

Martin Waters wrote:

 > What about WEEI? Doesn't it qualify as a continuation of the station
 > started in 1925, merely with a frequency change? WRKO is considered a
 > continuation of the station started as WNAC.

Well, no...at least not in the way we categorize them at the Archives, 
and at least in the case of WEEI, not in the way the FCC recognizes them.

We follow the FCC's facility ID numbers, and as far as the FCC is 
concerned, what happened in 1994 was this:

Facility #1912, the station on 850, changed calls from WHDH to WEEI on 
9/19/94 and changed ownership on 9/01/94.

Facility #3594, the station on 590, changed calls from WEEI to WBNW on 
9/8/94 and had changed ownership on 6/01/94.

The FCC wasn't assigning facility ID numbers back in 1953, but I'm 
pretty sure the license records followed the frequencies back then, too: 
General Tire & Radio sold the facility on 1260, which changed calls from 
WNAC to WVDA, and purchased the facility on 680, which changed calls 
from WLAW to WNAC. Wasn't WNAC 680 initially licensed "Lawrence-Boston" 
after the sale?

 > For Massachusetts as a whole, WSAR may have the second-oldest calls
 > after WBZ. IIRC, it's the second or third oldest surviving station in
 > the state (can't remember if it started before or after WNAC/WRKO).
 > WSAR may have had different calls briefly -- a few months to a year,
 > maybe? -- when it started. But I can't think of any stations with
 > original call letters that also started in 1922. Isn't WTAG from
 > around 1924? WMAS has its original calls, but it started in 1932.

You're almost certainly right about WSAR. Note that WMAS does not have 
its original calls; the AM station changed calls to WHLL when it changed 
format a year or so ago, and WMAS-FM is much more recent.

s