Clif and Claf and WITS - Was WSMN (Was: Re: Call Letters Meaning on Wikipedia

[A Joseph Ross]

And WMEX/WITS got the radio contract around the same time that WSBK 38 
got the Red Sox television contract.  At the time, where my parents 
lived in Bedford, neither station came in particularly well.  My father, 
who was the baseball fan in the family, wondered why a big league team 
was dealing with minor-league stations.

When I was in law school, I was driving home one night, listening to 
WMEX on the car radio, and just as I turned off the main road to the 
residential streets where we lived, the signal faded out.  I also used 
to have trouble listening to Arnie's Night Train show.

On 6/17/2019 2:32 AM, Kevin Vahey wrote:
> The show came to be when Steve Fredricks was offered a job at his hometown
> WCAU in Philadelphia.
>
> The station was still operating from the WMEX transmitter site in North
> Quincy ( the move to Waltham was around 1980 )
>
> WMEX only got the Red Sox contract because Tom Yawkey was angered in 1975
> when WHDH went to a soft Top 40 format and he called WMEX ( who for years
> was his tenant at 70 Brookline Ave ) to see if they wanted the Red Sox
> contract starting with the 1975 playoffs as long as they would switch the
> format to MOR. Dick Richmond said yes knowing the station's value
> skyrocketed overnight with the Red Sox deal.
>
> WMEX almost got Jess Cain to do mornings until Blair Radio who now owned
> WHDH offered Jess a blank check.
>
> Dick Richmond then sold WMEX to Cincinnati based Mariner Communications (
> who owned WLW ) and the Ohio people had no clue about how bad the 1510
> night signal was. This was the era when Boston baseball fans discovered
> WWEL at 107.9 who carried the 1510 signal at night.
>
> Meanwhile, Clif and Claf became the extended Red Sox pregame show and it
> was outrageous radio for the 70's.
>
> The postgame Red Sox show was hosted by a young Glenn Ordway and it was
> vicious.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 17, 2019 at 1:39 AM Don <astelle.donald@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>>> WMEX 1510 was WITS for awhile--Infomation, Talk and Sports.
>> I remember hearing promost citing the W as standing for weather......as in
>> Weather, Information, Talk, Sports.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Bob Nelson" <raccoonradio@gmail.com>
>> To: "Gary's Ice Cream" <gary@garysicecream.com>
>> Cc: "(newsgroup) Boston-Radio-Interest"
>> <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2019 3:16 PM
>> Subject: Re: FW: WSMN (Was: Re: Call Letters Meaning on Wikipedia
>>
>>
>> WMEX 1510 was WITS for awhile--Infomation, Talk and Sports.
>> "The WITS' End of the Dial"
>>
>> A cartoon in the Globe made fun of one of their shows (Clif and Claf?) with
>> the caption The WITlesS Wonders
>>
>> On Sun, Jun 16, 2019, 2:32 PM Gary's Ice Cream <gary@garysicecream.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Weather, Sports, Music & News is what Al Rock always told me when I
>> worked
>>> there in the 70's.            Across the street, WOTW stood for the
>>> original owner, Otis T Wingate (of Wingate's Pharmacy).
>>>
>>> Gary F.
>>> Gary’s Ice Cream – Chelmsford Creamery, Inc.  Chelmsford, MA
>>> garysicecream.com
>>> Ice Cream College – classes in Massachusetts and Florida
>>> icecreamcollege.com
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Don <astelle.donald@gmail.com>
>>> Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2019 12:14 PM
>>> To: Gary's Ice Cream <gary@garysicecream.com>; 'Doug Drown' <
>>> ashboy1951@gmail.com>; 'Ken VanTassell' <kenwvt@gmail.com>
>>> Cc: 'Boston Radio Mailing List' <
>>> boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org>
>>> Subject: WSMN (Was: Re: Call Letters Meaning on Wikipedia
>>>
>>> What did WSMN stand for?  Salem, Manchester, Nashua?
>>>
>>> Or did it stand for nothing at all?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Gary's Ice Cream" <gary@garysicecream.com>
>>> To: "'Doug Drown'" <ashboy1951@gmail.com>; "'Ken VanTassell'"
>>> <kenwvt@gmail.com>
>>> Cc: "'Boston Radio Mailing List'"
>>> <boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2019 12:47 PM
>>> Subject: RE: Call Letters Meaning on Wikipedia
>>>
>>>
>>>> Kresgees
>>>>
>>>> Gary F.
>>>> Gary’s Ice Cream – Chelmsford Creamery, Inc.  Chelmsford, MA
>>>> garysicecream.com
>>>> Ice Cream College – classes in Massachusetts and Florida
>>>> icecreamcollege.com
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Boston-Radio-Interest
>>>> <boston-radio-interest-bounces@lists.BostonRadio.org> On Behalf Of
>> Doug
>>>> Drown
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2019 12:36 PM
>>>> To: Ken VanTassell <kenwvt@gmail.com>
>>>> Cc: Boston Radio Mailing List
>>>> <boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org>
>>>> Subject: Re: Call Letters Meaning on Wikipedia
>>>>
>>>> Wonder what he thought the K stood for?
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jun 12, 2019 at 10:52 AM Ken VanTassell <kenwvt@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>> When I was in High School back in the mid 70's my English teacher told
>>>>> the class that all the station call signs that started with W were all
>>>>> owned by Westinghouse. Needless to say I had to correct him.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Ken
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Jun 12, 2019 at 9:11 AM Rob Landry <011010001@interpring.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I noticed recently that WGBH's WCRB has started using "We're
>>>>>> Classical Radio Boston", which the old WCRB used briefely in the
>>> early
>>>>>> '90's.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But of course the call letters originally had nothing to do with the
>>>>>> format, but stood for Charles River Broadcasting, which ran WCRB(AM)
>>>>>> for several years as a full service station in Waltham before
>>>>>> adopting the classical format in 1950-51.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Rob
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mon, 10 Jun 2019, Donna Halper wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 6/10/2019 10:44 AM, Jim Hall wrote:
>>>>>>>> I am always amazed at the "Call Letters Meaning" section of
>>>>>>>> entries
>>>>> for
>>>>>>>> radio and TV stations on Wikipedia. I wonder who writes them (and
>>>>> why).
>>>>>> For
>>>>>>>> example, WNEU in Merrimack NH has listed that its call letters
>>>>>>>> stand
>>>>> for
>>>>>>>> "New (or Nueva)
>>>>>>> I spend way too much time fixing errors on Wikipedia, especially
>>>>>>> with
>>>>>> regard
>>>>>>> to radio history.  The "meaning" of call letters is a frequent
>>>>>>> area of contention.  Often, folks confuse an advertising slogan
>>>>>>> for what the
>>>>>> call
>>>>>>> letters meant-- the call letters were often sequentially assigned
>>>>>>> back
>>>>>> in the
>>>>>>> old days; but then the sales department retrofitted those calls
>>>>>>> with a slogan, and everybody in the audience assumed that's what
>>>>>>> the call
>>>>>> letters
>>>>>>> must represent. As you and I know, many of the folks who
>>>>>>> contribute to Wikipedia are not media historians, so their
>>>>>>> contributions (although
>>>>>>> well-meaning) are sometimes not accurate. Fixing the mistakes is
>>>>>>> an
>>>>>> ongoing
>>>>>>> battle, sad to say.  And no, WHDH never stood for "we haul dead
>>>>>> haddock..."
>>>>>>> ;-)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Donna L. Halper, PhD
>>>>>>> Associate Professor of Communication & Media Studies Lesley
>>>>>>> University, Cambridge MA
>>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> ---
>>> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
>>> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>

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