WLAW - WNAC

[Scott Fybush]

93.7.

If you look at the center tower of WRKO in Burlington, you can still see
the remains of the pylon antenna.

On Wed, Jun 5, 2019, 6:37 PM Sean Smyth <ssmyth@alumni.psu.edu> wrote:

> 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...
>> >
>>
> --
> Sent from my iPhone
>