WLAW - WNAC

[A Joseph Ross]

Shortwave?

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...
>

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D. · 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 · Newton, MA 02459
617.367.0468 · Fax:617.507.7856 · http://www.attorneyross.com