AM in Boston after WW II was: WBZ-AM Allston backup is no more

[Rick Kelly]

You'll really get a headache reading about WXKW on 850 v WHDH and KOA.

Rick Kelly


On Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 4:34 PM Kevin Vahey <kvahey@gmail.com> wrote:

> My head hurts after reading KOA vs WHDH
>
> https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/319/239
>
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 1:34 PM <aerie.ma@comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> > I've always been interested in the KOA/WHDH case from way back when. For
> those unfamiliar, WHDH was originally a daytime station. In 1941 they were
> authorized to go full time, which brought a lawsuit from KOA in Denver and
> NBC on KOA's Class IA status being compromised. The case is online thanks
> to the law school at Cornell. Just search "KOA vs WHDH".
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Boston-Radio-Interest <
> boston-radio-interest-bounces@lists.BostonRadio.org> On Behalf Of Kevin
> Vahey
> > Sent: Monday, October 19, 2020 1:58 AM
> > To: Scott Fybush <scott@fybush.com>; Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>
> > Cc: Boston Radio Group <boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org>
> > Subject: AM in Boston after WW II was: WBZ-AM Allston backup is no more
> >
> > When you look at Boston radio history it is fascinating how signals
> evolved on AM - I am excluding the daytimers from this
> >
> > 590 WEEI - Covered the market well plus the Merrimack Valley and South
> Shore - Only 5kw but at 590 that wasn't an issue - The weakness was in what
> would become Metro West because of WTAG at 580
> > 680 WLAW/WNAC/WRKO - The owners of WLAW obviously found an excellent
> engineering consultant to pull off the upgrade to 50kw and moving the
> transmitter to Burlington.
> > 850 WHDH - Same playbook as WLAW with the upgrade to 50kw and building
> the transmitter in what was rural Needham. They became a player thanks to
> sports and Bob and Ray
> > 1030 WBZ - Moving to Hull from Millis before WWII solved most issues in
> the city and while they were a true 1-A clear channel they became
> directional by choice and thus had the strongest nighttime signal in the
> Northeast.
> > 1150 WCOP -  Transmitter moved from Allston to Lexington in 1947 and
> their 5kw signal was very strong downtown but very weak on the North Shore
> which doomed them in their Top 40 years,
> > 1260 WNAC/WVDA/WEZE - A solid 5kw signal and as WEZE they were the
> top-rated station in the city in the mid-'60s.
> > 1510 WMEX - A decent 5kw signal by day - at night if you were only a few
> miles from the coast not so much
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Oct 18, 2020 at 11:29 PM Scott Fybush <scott@fybush.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > A couple of years ago, iHeart sold its tower portfolio to Vertical
> > > Bridge, which is now one of the big national players in the tower
> > > rental business, alongside American Tower, Crown Castle and SBA.
> > >
> > > On Sun, Oct 18, 2020, 9:27 PM Shawn Mamros <mamros@mit.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Scott wrote:
> > > > >I doubt they'll invest in a new off-site AM backup. Those are
> > > > >becoming exceedingly rare, and especially now that iHeart doesn't
> > > > >own its own tower sites, it becomes harder (or at least more
> > > > >expensive) for them to, say, diplex a 10 kW WBZ signal into one
> WRKO tower.
> > > >
> > > > I may have missed this, but... who owns the towers in Hull now, if
> > > > iHeart doesn't?
> > > >
> > > > -Shawn
> > > >
> >
>
>