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

[John Andrews]

Ed,

Short answer: I don't know! The TV allocations were quite different in 
1945-6. I'm sure there are important details in the old files at WTAG 
(assuming they all exist), but I don't have access to them any more.

John Andrews

On 10/22/2020 7:30 AM, Ed Hennessy wrote:
> Wouldn't an 11 allocation for Worcester have required FCC permission to 
> be short-spaced to NYC, with WPIX on 11?  That would have limited their 
> power output too, so maybe that was not the best channel choice (even 
> had they arranged with the Providence stations).
> 
> Interesting on 20 and 53--were those open allocations for New England at 
> the time, or had they been assigned to Waterbury and Norwich by then 
> (requiring a change to Worcester if WTAG got licensed)?
> 
> Wasn't there a similar problem with channel 2's allocation to Waltham, 
> in that it wasn't too palatable to networks or otherwise?  (Or was it 
> always a non-comm allocation?) I recall that Raytheon decided after a 
> while to donate the license to what became WGBH.  Maybe that was 
> Raytheon not knowing what to do with TV rather than an 
> allocation/network issue.
> 
> Ed Hennessy
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Andrews <w1tag@charter.net>
> [...]
> 
> All of this clouded the crystal ball enough that they decided to drop
> the Channel 5 approach and try to get something with more power. There
> were three remaining tries for a T&G TV station:
> 
> I wish I had access to the files (I left WTAG 24 years ago), so what
> follows is just from my failing memory. I believe the first step was to
> get Channel 11 (the monochrome/color thing having been worked out by
> then), but some deal would have to be arranged with 10 and 12 in
> Providence, and that proved impossible. They then went after Channel 20
> and I think 53, the latter process being abandoned around 1954. In both
> cases they reached points were the lack of any network willingness to
> settle for Worcester, and they had to give up. Lots of bucks were spent
> with lawyers and consultants in all of those approaches, so it's tough
> to fault their judgement.
> 
> To my knowledge, no TV allocations were pursued after that.