Boston AM dial 50 years ago

[Donna Halper]

On 11/25/2013 11:22 PM, A Joseph Ross wrote:
> On 11/23/2013 2:39 PM, Rob Landry wrote:
>
>> Not "Concert Radio Boston", but "Charles River Broadcasting". The 
>> WCRB call letters were original (1948) and predated the classical 
>> format, which began in 1951.

Actually, there's some evidence the 1951 date isn't accurate. I am 
looking at program listings from their early days-- and in 1948-1949, 
they were your basic Waltham-Newton AM station, with locally produced 
educational programs, entertainment by local performers, announcers who 
played popular music, a women's show, a jazz show, etc.  Famous local 
entertainers like vocal duo "Hum and Strum" performed live on WCRB too.  
But there's evidence that this variety type of programming was phased 
out very gradually-- in fact, a Boston Globe interview with Ted Jones in 
early November 1953 said he had finally eliminated the last of the jazz 
and pop music programming, because the listeners were very vocal about 
wanting only "good music"-- concert music, semi-classical, and opera. 
WCRB-AM had been phasing in classical programming since 1951, but the 
total change-over did not occur till November 8, 1953, according to Jones.