WBCN, Channel-13, and the old Hancock tower

[A Joseph Ross]

It's good to have this list up and running again.  This is really 
interesting stuff.

I seem to remember that I first heard FM radio in 1953, when my family 
moved from Allston to Albany, NY.  The Boston school system was rather 
stuck in the 19th century in many ways.  There was an "FM School of the 
air" network which carried a number of educational radio programs in the 
early afternoon, and we heard them on the PA system.  At first I thought 
they put a radio in front of the microphone (I was in 4th grade at the 
time).  I eventually saw the equipment in the office, which had a 
built-in AM-FM tuner.  Teachers got a publication in advance which told 
them the program schedule, and they would select which ones they wanted, 
and the office staff would tune in the radio and the classrooms where 
they were going to be heard.

The Boston school system at the time didn't even have PA systems.


On 12/3/2021 7:39 AM, John Andrews wrote:
> WTAG-FM got the QXR Network from WDRC-FM. Couldn't be done from the 
> 4-story building in downtown Worcester, so it was done at the Paxton 
> site, beginning in 1959. Prof. Newell at WPI built a corner-reflector 
> receiving antenna, and a 3/4 wave filter made of copper pipe (4", if 
> memory serves), to try to keep WTAG-FM from overloading the REL 
> receiver. That filter still exists in the basement of the WTAG-AM 
> transmitter site, moved there just before the sale of WTAG-FM to Knight.
>
> John Andrews
>
> On 12/3/2021 2:38 AM, A Joseph Ross wrote:
>> I think the QXR network was one of the earlier such networks.  It 
>> certainly preceded WCRB's efforts.  I imagine it was  fed like other 
>> FM networks of the day (Concert Network, and later the CRB Network), 
>> by picking up the signal of another FM station carrying the 
>> programs.  I imagine that WXHR probably got the QXR Network from 
>> WTAG-FM and WTAG-FM got it from some other station closer to New 
>> York, etc.
>>
>> On 12/2/2021 5:53 AM, Rob Landry wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, 2 Dec 2021, A Joseph Ross wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thank you for this bit of history.  I remember first hearing 
>>>> WTAG-FM from Bedford when I got my first FM radio, back in 1957.  
>>>> At that time, they were simulcasting WTAG (AM), mainly for some 
>>>> newscasts, but mostly carrying the QXR network.  Awhile later, WXHR 
>>>> also started carrying the QXR network for awhile.
>>>
>>> Interesting. I hadn't known that WQXR once had a network. I wonder 
>>> how they fed it.
>>>
>>>
>>> Rob
>>

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D. · 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 · Newton, MA 02459
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