WBCN, Channel-13, and the old Hancock tower

[Dave Doherty]

Plain text of the response from Maureen Carney:

---
At the beginning of TV (circa 1948 or 49) WHDH applied for channel 13 with
the transmitter on the Hancock Tower. The freeze came along, channel 13
wound up in Portland and WHDH got channel 5.
---

That's a very cool convergence of history and personal memories!

-d

Dave Doherty
Skywaves Consulting LLC
PO Box 11382
Bainbridge Island, WA
201-248-5620 (cell & text)


-----Original Message-----
From: Boston-Radio-Interest
<boston-radio-interest-bounces@lists.BostonRadio.org> On Behalf Of Dave
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:55 AM
To: boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org
Subject: WBCN, Channel-13, and the old Hancock tower

On 11/24/21 12:00 PM,
boston-radio-interest-request@lists.BostonRadio.org wrote:

 >From: A Joseph Ross <joe@attorneyross.com>
 >Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2021 23:44:19 -0500
 >Subject: Re: RIP Al Perry - former GM of WBCN  >  >I wonder if anyone is
left who ran the original WBCN and  >the Concert Network.  I wonder how many
people are left,  >besides me, who were listeners in those days.

Ahhh.  WBCN.

Long time lurker, I'm going to finally crawl out from under this rock.

My father, Jim Bonney was the titular Chief Engineer for WBCN in the
50's/60's.  And once, while he was on vacation, I made $ subbing in for him
doing the weekly transmitter checks and log signing on the 27th/28th upper
equipment floor of the old Hancock tower.  Does that qualify me as 'working'
for WBCN?

As a kid I would frequently accompany him on his rounds when he did his
weekly station visits.  He built and was full-time Chief Engineer for WBUR
but also, over the years, had 'Chief Operator' responsibility for WBCN,
WERS, WPAW/WXTR, the Boston end of the WMTW-TV microwave link, a radio-page
company, and other stations/facilities too numerous and/or lost in my memory
to remember right now.

Once at WBCN I even got to stand on top of the Hancock weather beacon when
the tower monkey's were servicing the antenna.  Going up the stairs inside
the flashing blue beacon was a memory-maker.

Which brings me around to a Question I've had for years:

On the upper equipment floor of the old Hancock tower, colocated with the
WBCN transmitter was another, non-operating transmitter.  Which may have
been a television transmitter.  I have seen an old reference to a Boston
Channel-13.  Could this have been it?  And can anyone provide confirmation?
Was it ever licensed/operational?

Thanx,

Dave