Globe: What happened to rock radio in Boston?

[Dan.Strassberg]

In those days, in small--mostly rural--communities (at least in the
northeast, but probably in the other parts of the country as well),
there was a group of grocery stores (I would call them "markets," not
supermarkets) known as IGA stores. I believe the IGA markets were
individually owned but participated in group buying as a means of
competing against the big supermarket chains of the day (A&P and First
National are the names that come to mind). I believe that IGA stood
for International Grocers Association. Since the IGA name contained
the word international, I suspect that IGA stores were found in Canada
as well as in the US.

I suspect that the WGY brand was started as a means of competing
against IGA. Both names contain three letters, of which the middle
letter is G. Like the IGA stores, the WGY stores were probably
independently owned and banded together in some sort of co-op to
increase their purchasing power. Although you have disputed this
claim, there WERE WGY markets and apparently the markets collectively
did enough business to get independent canning companies and suppliers
of packaged goods, such as dry cereals and macaroni, to private label
products under the WGY name. Until I figured this out. I could never
understand why country stores in upstate New York carried the name of
a radio station that was then owned by the mighty General Electric Co.
OTOH, I think every WGY store I ever saw was in the large geographic
area covered by WGY's 50 kW clear channel nighttime signal.

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "A Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 12:05 AM
Subject: Re: Globe: What happened to rock radio in Boston?


>
> I remember when I was in sixth grade in Guilderland, New York, just
> outside Albany, for awhile I was one of the student help in the
> lunch kitchen, and I saw these large cans of apple sauce with the
> brand name "WGY."  The label on the cans even had a stylized drawing
> of a radio station labelled "WGY.:  I have no idea why applesauce
> was being sold under the WGY moniker, but it was.  This was around
> 1956-57.
>
> -- 
> A. Joseph Ross, J.D.|92 State Street|Suite 700|Boston, MA 02109-2004
> 617.367.0468|Fx:617.507.7856|http://www.attorneyross.com
>