70 years ago today...

[Dan.Strassberg]

In 1941 was WBZ NBC-Red or NBC-Blue? WEEI (590) was CBS. WNAC (1260)
was Yankee Network/Mutual. What year did WBZ drop NBC-Blue (along with
Mutual, one of the two lesser major networks) and pick up NBC-Red
(along with CBS, one of the two greater major networks)? The FCC's
duopoly decision came along in (I think) 1943 and resulted in the
reconfiguration of network affiliations all across the US. That may
have been when WBZ switched from Blue to Red. In Boston, once that
happened, the location of NBC-Blue (later just the Blue Network and
still later, ABC) became very unstable. At one point (1946 or 1947) as
WLAW (680) was readying to increase power to 50 kW-U and move its
transmitter from Andover to Burlington, thus, in effect, becoming a
Boston station, CBS was apparently negotiating to buy 680 and,
presumably, to divest itself of 590. That deal fell through and then
both WLAW and WCOP (1150) affiliated with the Blue Network. That was
possible because WLAW, though it maintained studios in Boston and had
a much better signal in Boston than 1150, was licensed to Lawrence.

During all of this, WHDH (850) remained an independent, modeling
itself on New York's very successful WNEW (1130) but with the added
advantage of carrying both Red Sox and Braves PBP. I imagine that the
PBP for a lot of games was re-created on delay from the wire-service
ticker.
-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@gmail.com>
To: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
Cc: "(newsgroup) Boston-Radio-Interest"
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 11:09 AM
Subject: Re: 70 years ago today...


>I think one thing that gets overlooked today is in 1941 nighttime
>still was
> where the revenue was for radio - I would think in 1941, WBZ and
> WEEI were
> the main night players in Boston with WNAC a distant third only
> because of
> the network affilations.