Old WHDH-FM 1960's MOR format?

[W1DAN-]

Greetings!

I came across some automation reels of tape from the mid 1960s to maybe early 1970s that have "WHDH-FM" in marker on the reels. These are 14" in size with quarter-inch tape that contain over 2 hours of stereo dubs of instrumental and vocal LP cuts with 25hz automation tones on the left channel. Sound quality is quite good, and it seems WHDH recorded these tapes at the station as they are not as polished as the Shulke Easy Listening tapes I used to run in the 1970s at WBYU-FM in New Orleans. After transferring them I would like to move these on, but also am interested in station and technical information about the station during this time period.

Googling reveals Philip K Baldwin W1ZW was the chief engineer of WHDH-AM and FM around this time, the station was owned by the Herald Traveler newspaper who divested the radio stations by court order in 1972. The main offices (and studios?) were at 50 Morrisey Blvd at that time and the Transmitter was at old Hancock building with 20kW ERP and an antenna height 455ft.

I am guessing that the transfers might have been done using two QRK-style rim-drive turntables (no rumble heard and often every other cut has slightly higher distortion) to a Scully 280SP/14 recorder and played on Scully 270s, possibly using an IGM-500-style automation system. Would enjoy any further technical information.

I bet WHDH-FM's MOR format did not do well in competition with Easy Listening and upcoming rock and top-40 formats. Just a fun rabbit hole to look down...

Thanks for any details!

Dan

 

[fybush]

Hi Dan!

Once the old WHDH-TV built its tall tower in Newton Upper Falls for channel 5, WHDH-FM moved there as well, licensed in 1963 for 3.3 kW, later raised to 4.3 and then 6.7. If you do the math, that corresponded first to the old 20 kW class B maximum and then to 50 kW/500' equivalent.

Many of those old TV-owned beautiful music FMs had their automation at the TV tower site, maintained by the TV transmitter engineers. I don't know if that was true for WHDH.

In any event, I believe the Herald-Traveler ownership actually kept the radio stations in 1972 after losing the TV license (that was the huge court case that took years) and selling off the remnants of the newspaper to the Record-American. The radio stations then were sold to what became Sconnix a few years later.

WHDH-FM became WCOZ in November 1972 and traded beautiful music for rock not long afterwards, competing fiercely with WBCN.

As for the 94.5 facility, it has never left the Chestnut Street tower in Newton. Today it's iHeart's WJMN. With 61 years at the same site, it's the oldest commercial FM at the same site in Boston. Only WGBH has been at its site longer!

(This is how you know the Herald ownership didn't lose the radio licenses - they also kept the Chestnut Street site, forcing the new channel 5, WCVB, to build its own new transmission facility in Needham at WBZ-TV's tower. The Chestnut Street tower stayed with 94.5 at least through Sconnix ownership, becoming known as the "Sconnix Tower" or "FM 128" as it picked up more FM tenants. At one point it hosted WBUR, WBOS, 94.5, WJIB 96.9, WROR 98.5 and WEEI-FM 103.3. These days, 94.5, 98.5 and 103.3 still use it as a main site.)

 

[CTListener]

Wasn't it the Herald-Traveler that absorbed the Record-American to become the Herald-American and, later, simply the Boston Herald, which is what it remains -- as a shriveled husk of a paper -- today?

 

[AerieAlso]

At some point in there WHDH and WCOZ were owned by the John Blair advertising company. The Record-American was owned by Hearst, whereas the Herald-Traveler was locally owned, and not doing very well after losing the TV station and selling the radio stations. So in my book, it was Hearst acquiring the Herald-Traveler. It was Rupert Murdock who changed the name back to Boston Herald after he bought it.

 

[Fenway1912]

@fybush Sconnix bought WHDH in March of 1987 and sold it 2 years later to WNEV Channel 7.

Blair bought the stations in late 1973 from the Herald-Traveler and renamed the corporation WHDH Inc.

 

[Gregg.]

According to Wikipedia, WHDH-FM signed on the air in 1948.

Until 1965 ... Simulcast WHDH's MOR (full-service, middle of the road) format.

1965 to 1967 ... Automated MOR (The FCC required FM stations in large markets to have separate programming 75% of the week.)

1967 to 1969 ... Automated AOR Album-0riented Rock (Just before WBCN also flipped to progressive rock.)

1969 to 1972 ... Automated Beautiful Music (After the CEO objected to his FM station playing rock music.)

1972 to 1975 ... Automated Beautiful Music continues but with new call letters WCOZ (for cozy).

1975 to 1984 ... Live DJs host heavily researched AOR format known as "Superstars." Only the top songs from the biggest selling artists.

I would like to know what the 1965 to 1967 Automated MOR format sounded like? I guess it was Sinatra, Streisand, Nat King Cole, Perry Como and Andy Williams singing MOR songs but with no announcers? It wasn't Beautiful Music because it was vocal, not instrumental?

 

[davideduardo]

According to Wikipedia, WHDH-FM signed on the air in 1948.

Until 1965 ... Simulcast WHDH's MOR (full-service, middle of the road) format.

1965 to 1967 ... Automated MOR (The FCC required FM stations in large markets to have separate programming 75% of the week.)

It was not till 1967 that the FCC started requiring most FMs owned by fulltime AMs to stop simulcasting.

1967 to 1969 ... Automated AOR Album-0riented Rock (Just before WBCN also flipped to progressive rock.)

1969 to 1972 ... Automated Beautiful Music (After the CEO objected to his FM station playing rock music.)

1972 to 1975 ... Automated Beautiful Music continues but with new call letters WCOZ (for cozy).

1975 to 1984 ... Live DJs host heavily researched AOR format known as "Superstars." Only the top songs from the biggest selling artists.

I would like to know what the 1965 to 1967 Automated MOR format sounded like? I guess it was Sinatra, Streisand, Nat King Cole, Perry Como and Andy Williams singing MOR songs but with no announcers? It wasn't Beautiful Music because it was vocal, not instrumental?

Wikipedia is a terrible source for actual data. I once did a random selection of station listings and found that about 80% were incomplete, inaccurate or just totally wrong!

 

[Weiserguy]

It was not till 1967 that the FCC started requiring most FMs owned by fulltime AMs to stop simulcasting.

And even then, the restriction on simulcasting was <=50%, not 75%.

Wikipedia is a terrible source for actual data. I once did a random selection of station listings and found that about 80% were incomplete, inaccurate or just totally wrong!

I find Wikipedia is a useful tool for refreshing memory on subjects I already knew but might not have front-of-mind. But because it was just for refreshing my memory, I could also usually tell when something posted there didn't meet the sniff test.

 

[nowradioguy]

Greetings!

I came across some automation reels of tape from the mid 1960s to maybe early 1970s that have "WHDH-FM" in marker on the reels. These are 14" in size with quarter-inch tape that contain over 2 hours of stereo dubs of instrumental and vocal LP cuts with 25hz automation tones on the left channel. Sound quality is quite good, and it seems WHDH recorded these tapes at the station as they are not as polished as the Shulke Easy Listening tapes I used to run in the 1970s at WBYU-FM in New Orleans. After transferring them I would like to move these on, but also am interested in station and technical information about the station during this time period.

Googling reveals Philip K Baldwin W1ZW was the chief engineer of WHDH-AM and FM around this time, the station was owned by the Herald Traveler newspaper who divested the radio stations by court order in 1972. The main offices (and studios?) were at 50 Morrisey Blvd at that time and the Transmitter was at old Hancock building with 20kW ERP and an antenna height 455ft.

I am guessing that the transfers might have been done using two QRK-style rim-drive turntables (no rumble heard and often every other cut has slightly higher distortion) to a Scully 280SP/14 recorder and played on Scully 270s, possibly using an IGM-500-style automation system. Would enjoy any further technical information.

I bet WHDH-FM's MOR format did not do well in competition with Easy Listening and upcoming rock and top-40 formats. Just a fun rabbit hole to look down...

Thanks for any details!

Dan

Would you kindly explain this comment: "

two QRK-style rim-drive turntables (no rumble heard and often every other cut has slightly higher distortion)

I'm not clear on why "every other cut" would exhibit distortion, UNLESS they were switching from one turntable to another.

 

[Wimmmex]

And even then, the restriction on simulcasting was <=50%, not 75%.

Wasn’t it dependent on market size? That’s my (non-Wikipedia) memory.

 

[Weiserguy]

Wasn’t it dependent on market size? That’s my (non-Wikipedia) memory.

Yes, your non-Wiki memory is accurate, the rule only kicked in when the city of license had a population of 100K or more.

According to the FCC's rules as reprinted in the 1970 Broadcasting Yearbook, if an AM and an FM were co-owned, co-located, and the COL had a population (per the previous U.S. census) of 100,000 or more, the FM could not simulcast more than 50% of the AM's programming, either in real time or within 24 hours of when it originally aired on the AM station. So if an AM-FM pair was in a city of 99K, they could simulcast up to 100% of their broadcast day, but if the city was 101K, then simulcasting had to be less than 50%. (Note that the rule doesn't mention market size, only COL size.)

(Hat tip to DavidE's worldradiohistory.com)

 

[Gregg.]

Yes, your non-Wiki memory is accurate, the rule only kicked in when the city of license had a population of 100K or more.

According to the FCC's rules as reprinted in the 1970 Broadcasting Yearbook, if an AM and an FM were co-owned, co-located, and the COL had a population (per the previous U.S. census) of 100,000 or more, the FM could not simulcast more than 50% of the AM's programming, either in real time or within 24 hours of when it originally aired on the AM station. So if an AM-FM pair was in a city of 99K, they could simulcast up to 100% of their broadcast day, but if the city was 101K, then simulcasting had to be less than 50%. (Note that the rule doesn't mention market size, only COL size.)

(Hat tip to DavidE's worldradiohistory.com)

Yes, the rule was not applicable to smaller cities of license. But am I not remembering correctly that the rule for large cities was 75%? I recall some stations simulcasting AM and PM drive on weekdays but having separate programming the rest of each weekday and all weekend. 25% of 168 hours in a week = 42 hours. So 40 hours of simulcasting (8 hours x 5 days) is just under the limit.

I seem to remember WPAT-AM-FM in Paterson-NYC did this. So did KIIS-AM-FM Los Angeles. However, WPGC-AM-FM Washington would simulcast around the clock. WPGC was a daytimer in those days. And its COL was Morningside, Maryland, which even today only has a population of 1,240. So I think that's how this station got away simulcasting all day. Paterson NJ is 152,000 so WPAT had to shadowcast most of the week.

Unless the FCC rule started in 1968 that 50% simulcasting was permitted. But several years later it was reduced to only 25% permitted.

And as for Wikipedia, I agree with Wiserguy. I wouldn't stake my life on Wikipedia's accuracy. But it's a starting point for information. Then if it's something that you want to verify, there are other sources.

 

[nowradioguy]

Yes, the rule was not applicable to smaller cities of license. But am I not remembering correctly that the rule for large cities was 75%? I recall some stations simulcasting AM and PM drive on weekdays but having separate programming the rest of each weekday and all weekend. 25% of 168 hours in a week = 42 hours. So 40 hours of simulcasting (8 hours x 5 days) is just under the limit.

I seem to remember WPAT-AM-FM in Paterson-NYC did this. So did KIIS-AM-FM Los Angeles. However, WPGC-AM-FM Washington would simulcast around the clock. WPGC was a daytimer in those days. And its COL was Morningside, Maryland, which even today only has a population of 1,240. So I think that's how this station got away simulcasting all day. Paterson NJ is 152,000 so WPAT had to shadowcast most of the week.

Unless the FCC rule started in 1968 that 50% simulcasting was permitted. But several years later it was reduced to only 25% permitted.

And as for Wikipedia, I agree with Wiserguy. I wouldn't stake my life on Wikipedia's accuracy. But it's a starting point for information. Then if it's something that you want to verify, there are other sources.

Methinks that many stations in medium-size or smaller markets might have anticipated the day when, even for them, simulcasting your AM fare on your co-owned FM station was going to be ancient history.

Of course, with deregulation and station consolidation, I don't think anything is off the table. Heck, two co-owned AMs or FMs in the same or adjacent areas can carry the same programming. At least, that's how it seems to me.

 

[nowradioguy]

BTW, the appearance of the call letters "WHDH-FM" (very appealing "solid" look to them, I might add) brings back memories of a much simpler and more lucrative era for radio, when owners had to compete with each other and cared more about their on-air production and imaging. The call letters themselves meant something. Notice how fast Channel 7 scoffed the WHDH call-sign as soon as it was jettisoned by its former owner?

 

[davideduardo]

BTW, the appearance of the call letters "WHDH-FM" (very appealing "solid" look to them, I might add) brings back memories of a much simpler and more lucrative era for radio, when owners had to compete with each other and cared more about their on-air production and imaging. The call letters themselves meant something. Notice how fast Channel 7 scoffed the WHDH call-sign as soon as it was jettisoned by its former owner?

Call letters began to be phased out in the 50's, in fact. Often then stations would have "pronouncable" calls like McLendon's Klif and Kilt and Xtra and Kable. By the 60's, most new stations and formats used calls like WIXY which could be pronounced. And in the later 60's and70's we got tons of ones like Koit and The Loop and localized calls along with many which had calls that related to being Y-100 or 96-X or 11-Q or Z-93. By then, we started burying the calls at just the top of the hour to be legal.

After that, nearly all non-heritage stations used names, not call letters just like was done on commercial radio in the rest of the free world. The only stations still using calls were ones like WBT, WSB, KFI and KGO.

 

[BLA]

BTW, the appearance of the call letters "WHDH-FM" (very appealing "solid" look to them, I might add) brings back memories of a much simpler and more lucrative era for radio, when owners had to compete with each other and cared more about their on-air production and imaging. The call letters themselves meant something. Notice how fast Channel 7 scoffed the WHDH call-sign as soon as it was jettisoned by its former owner?

Re: WHDH ... (by its former owner?) Owners of TV7 Boston, since 1982, New England Television Corp., in 1989, purchased WHDH(AM) 850 (radio) and "copied" the venerable call-sign with the obligatory-TX suffix. The radio station was sold in 1992, but I think the 850 WHDH call sign continued after sale for almost two years and was dropped with a "toilet flush" sounder in 1994 becoming WEEI/850 later that day. TV7 was sold in '93, new owner kept WHDH. I guess that means that there has never not been a WHDH-Something in Boston since the early 1930's.

 

[johnster]

(This is how you know the Herald ownership didn't lose the radio licenses - they also kept the Chestnut Street site, forcing the new channel 5, WCVB, to build its own new transmission facility in Needham at WBZ-TV's tower.

WHDH fought this FCC action to the last minute and WCVB had to show the commision they were ready to go on the air so they really had no choice but to build their own facility.

 

[nowradioguy]

OK, I had NO idea that Mugar had purchased WHDH Radio. This is news to me.

My memory was that the WHDH-TV call letters were not used, but were available, and it was felt these would better fit channel 7 than would WNEV. In fact, I thought I'd read that while the radio operation was still using WHDH, channel 7 had to pay for the use of WHDH-TV.

 

[nowradioguy]

WHDH fought this FCC action to the last minute and WCVB had to show the commision they were ready to go on the air so they really had no choice but to build their own facility.

THIS I clearly remember.

 

[nowradioguy]

Call letters began to be phased out in the 50's, in fact. Often then stations would have "pronouncable" calls like McLendon's Klif and Kilt and Xtra and Kable. By the 60's, most new stations and formats used calls like WIXY which could be pronounced. And in the later 60's and70's we got tons of ones like Koit and The Loop and localized calls along with many which had calls that related to being Y-100 or 96-X or 11-Q or Z-93. By then, we started burying the calls at just the top of the hour to be legal.

After that, nearly all non-heritage stations used names, not call letters just like was done on commercial radio in the rest of the free world. The only stations still using calls were ones like WBT, WSB, KFI and KGO.

David,

While I agree that pronounceable call signs were coming into play, as well as monikers like Color Radio or Now Radio, I think call signs really began to disappear after 1999. Thank God that WBZ RADIO has not decided to minimize its identity. I do recall that CBS wanted its O&O TVs to use monikers like CBS-Boston, or CBS-LA, and was overjoyed when WBZ-TV changed back to its rightful identity. ("CBS4 New England" was absolutely horrid.)