Globe: What happened to rock radio in Boston?

[A Joseph Ross]

On 6/5/2012 9:51 AM, Dan.Strassberg wrote:

> 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 remember an IGA store in Bedford that replaced the First National 
Store in the Great Road Shopping Center.

> 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.

There had to be some connection with WGY, since it had a stylized 
drawing of a radio station with tower and radiating waves, labeled WGY.

-- 
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