WLAW - WNAC

[Sean Smyth]

What frequency was WLAW-FM on?

On Wed, Jun 5, 2019 at 5:31 PM Scott Fybush <scott@fybush.com> wrote:

> Strictly from the FCC's point of view, the license continuity was by
> frequency. If you look at the FCC history cards for WRKO, you'll see
> that they start with WLAW in 1937 and show a sale on June 17, 1953 to
> General Teleradio, Inc. and a call change the same day to WNAC.
>
> Likewise, if you look at the history cards for 1260 (now WBIX), you'll
> see that they start with WNAC (the earliest entries are 1931, but of
> course the history went back to 1922) and show a sale on June 17, 1953
> to Vic Diehm and Associates and a call change the same day to WVDA.
>
> So if you use the license records, it was considered a dual sale -
> General bought WLAW from Hildreth & Rogers and simultaneously sold WNAC
> to Diehm. But the WNAC intellectual property obviously didn't come with
> the sale - it stayed with General and went from 1260 to 680. (And
> WNAC-FM/WNAC-TV of course remained unchanged through all of this, while
> WLAW-FM was surrendered.)
>
>  From the listener perspective, of course, WNAC simply "moved" from 1260
> to 680 and WVDA came on as a new station on 1260, just as happened again
> four decades later with WEEI and WHDH and 590 and 850. If you follow the
> FCC license records, the station we now call WEEI 850 is the same
> license that was WHDH, with a sale and a call change in the 1990s. And
> what we now call WEZE 590 is the same license that was WEEI, with a sale
> and a call change in the 1990s.
>
> I don't think anyone played a toilet flushing when WLAW went away, though.
>
> On 6/5/2019 12:32 AM, Donna Halper wrote:
>  > On 6/4/2019 4:05 PM, Doug Drown wrote:
>  >> I have an historical question: When General Tire purchased WLAW in
> Lawrence
>  >> back in 1953 and moved WNAC
>  >> from 1260 to WLAW'S 680 frequency, was it more a merger of the two
> stations
>  >> or an acquisition?  Did General obtain any of WLAW's intellectual
> property
>  >> and hire any of its on-air staff, or did the station for all intents
> and
>  >> purposes become defunct?
>  >
>  >
>  > Beware:  the answer to this is complicated!!!  It also started with
> WNAC, which had been trying to get a better frequency & more wattage for
> ages and ages, but the FRC and then later the FCC kept saying "no." John
> Shepard 3rd had lots of health problems in the mid-to-late-1940s, and
> that caused him to abandon the effort to improve WNAC's dial position;
> but his executive staff carried on the fight after Shepard died in June
> of 1950.  Meanwhile, the Rogers family, which put WLAW on the air in
> 1937 (co-owned back then by Hildreth & Rogers, of which Irving Rogers
> was president), was finding it increasingly more expensive to maintain
> the station, which by then had studios in Boston as well as Lawrence.
> The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune (which the Rogers family also owned) was
> having financial problems, and Irving Rogers decided it was time to sell
> the radio station in May 1953. What ended up was a bit of a swap. WNAC's
> owners-- the Yankee Network division of General TeleRadio, purchased
> WLAW. Meanwhile, the old WNAC frequency (1260) and some of its equipment
> got sold to Victor Diehm, who turned it into WVDA. Diehm got the best of
> both stations-- he also got WLAW's Boston studio, then in the Hotel
> Bradford.  Meanwhile, WLAW's 680 (and 50,000 watts) became the new WNAC,
> which already had a studio complex for AM, FM, shortwave, and TV, on
> Brookline Ave.  Some of the old WLAW air staff did get hired by WNAC.
> Others found work at other stations--  in the early 1950s, there were
> still a lot of radio stations on the air in Boston...
>
>
> On 6/5/2019 12:32 AM, Donna Halper wrote:
> > On 6/4/2019 4:05 PM, Doug Drown wrote:
> >> I have an historical question: When General Tire purchased WLAW in
> >> Lawrence
> >> back in 1953 and moved WNAC
> >> from 1260 to WLAW'S 680 frequency, was it more a merger of the two
> >> stations
> >> or an acquisition?  Did General obtain any of WLAW's intellectual
> >> property
> >> and hire any of its on-air staff, or did the station for all intents and
> >> purposes become defunct?
> >
> >
> > Beware:  the answer to this is complicated!!!  It also started with
> > WNAC, which had been trying to get a better frequency & more wattage for
> > ages and ages, but the FRC and then later the FCC kept saying "no." John
> > Shepard 3rd had lots of health problems in the mid-to-late-1940s, and
> > that caused him to abandon the effort to improve WNAC's dial position;
> > but his executive staff carried on the fight after Shepard died in June
> > of 1950.  Meanwhile, the Rogers family, which put WLAW on the air in
> > 1937 (co-owned back then by Hildreth & Rogers, of which Irving Rogers
> > was president), was finding it increasingly more expensive to maintain
> > the station, which by then had studios in Boston as well as Lawrence.
> > The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune (which the Rogers family also owned) was
> > having financial problems, and Irving Rogers decided it was time to sell
> > the radio station in May 1953. What ended up was a bit of a swap. WNAC's
> > owners-- the Yankee Network division of General TeleRadio, purchased
> > WLAW. Meanwhile, the old WNAC frequency (1260) and some of its equipment
> > got sold to Victor Diehm, who turned it into WVDA. Diehm got the best of
> > both stations-- he also got WLAW's Boston studio, then in the Hotel
> > Bradford.  Meanwhile, WLAW's 680 (and 50,000 watts) became the new WNAC,
> > which already had a studio complex for AM, FM, shortwave, and TV, on
> > Brookline Ave.  Some of the old WLAW air staff did get hired by WNAC.
> > Others found work at other stations--  in the early 1950s, there were
> > still a lot of radio stations on the air in Boston...
> >
>
-- 
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