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North American Radio-TV Station Guide

M

MarioMania

When I used to listen to Station far from home in Pacifica in the 80's

I got this Book & Wore it out alot, Love the Book

I found 1 on ebay for under $20 so I grabbed it, The last Issue goes for depends like $70

Why did Vane A. Jones just stopped, Was it SAMS at the time that stopped it?

Who owns the rights?
 
MarioMania said:
When I used to listen to Station far from home in Pacifica in the 80's

I got this Book & Wore it out alot, Love the Book

I found 1 on ebay for under $20 so I grabbed it, The last Issue goes for depends like $70

Why did Vane A. Jones just stopped, Was it SAMS at the time that stopped it?
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Preparation was too expensive for a limited sales item.
MarioMania said:
Who owns the rights?
Click to expand...
The Sams rights holders do.

All are at JONES LOG: North American AM FM TV Guide

A whole bunch of logbooks from the 1920's to today are at RADIO LOG BOOKS - Radio station logbooks and listings from 1923 to 2022.
 
I'm trying to google about

Rand McNally Road Atlas with Radio Station Guide

My school had one in the 80's, Don't know what year

Can't find any from the 80's I think I'm wording wrong
 
MarioMania said:
I'm trying to google about

Rand McNally Road Atlas with Radio Station Guide

My school had one in the 80's, Don't know what year

Can't find any from the 80's I think I'm wording wrong
Click to expand...
Yes, I remember that one. It was just called the 'Rand McNally Road Atlas'. The radio station guide was just one page that only listed AM stations with the most powerful signals (designated emergency alert stations) to tune into for weather, traffic alerts, and breaking news. Wyoming only had KTWO listed. Nebraska was KRVN and KFAB. Arizona wes KOY and KTAR. If you weren't looking for it in the book of maps, it was easily missed.
 
The older Rand McNally Radio Guides from the 1950s had nearly all stations listed, with power and network. At the time, the network was somewhat indicative of programming. Over the years the lower power and Daytimers disappeared depending on the Market. The old Rand McNally State Maps had just a few by Market. Usually those were the most powerful full-time stations. Powers were not listed. Remember that before around 1960, Class IVs were just 250 Watts and rarely listed.
 
I remember from my days as a kid with a bicycle in the late 50's hitting up gas stations near and far for free road maps, and how even interest in those pre-existed the DX hobby. Others here may have experienced the symbiosis too; the distances and the exploration curiosities blending with the instincts.
For some of those maps -- 'Mobilgas' was one -- came with a brief list of radio stations. New York State maps would have the major cities and 3 or 4 stations listed for each. I vaguely recall seeing a WROW 590 listed, for example, under a heading for 'Albany'. It was very long ago......
This thread is the first time I ever read of Rand McNally publishing a radio station guide. To me, they and HM Gousha and AAA and Hagstrom's stuck to maps. I looked up a bit and found that Rand McNally was the main company to've done Mobil's cartography. So RMc probably goosed up their association (plus their own) by throwing in a few freebies.
My Dad worked for Socony/Mobil for almost 40 years, which merged with Eastern States Standard Oil/ESSO/later Exxon. Perhaps someone aboard here will recall if Esso maps were others with those little radio station lists.
Are there any Sinclair or Cities Service, 76 Union, Gulf or Shell map users out there who give a Flying A about the topic?
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Are there any Sinclair or Cities Service, 76 Union, Gulf or Shell map users out there who give a Flying A about the topic?
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Those "gas station" maps with stations listed were fairly common. They show up on eBay fairly often. I have a daily automatic search for them, in fact!

I only buy ones that are interesting to radio history followers, but there are lots of them out there.
 
davideduardo said:
Those "gas station" maps with stations listed were fairly common. They show up on eBay fairly often. I have a daily automatic search for them, in fact!

I only buy ones that are interesting to radio history followers, but there are lots of them out there.
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I have several of the gas station maps. They tended to show smaller markets with mostly the 5 kW stations, regardless of the frequency. I also have the 1956 Rand McNally Road Atlas and Radio Guide. They had a more geographical approach. I think they had WTCM. I'll go check.

In outstate areas, full-time Class IVs at 250 watts tended to be listed, but not in large cities. Some 5000 watt Daytimers were listed.

Traverse City WTCM 250 1400 MBS
 
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For decades, the Chicago Tribune marketed the "Chicagoland Map," custom-produced by Chicago-based Rand McNally. It didn't have a list of stations, but instead, indicated where each station's transmitter was with a little tower symbol. The Tribune-owned WGN tower was bigger than the others. One oddity was WENR listed alongside WLS years after their merger. The Tribune discontinued the sponsorship of the map around 1992, I think, though Rand McNally still publishes two versions of the Chicago map (one focusing on the city, one including outlying suburbs as the Tribune map did).
 
My Chicago Map had only the inner suburbs that fit. It had every street in Chicago shown. Seems like it might have shown WYNR 1390, so it must have been from 1962 or 1963. The National Geographic Map of New York City showed tower icons.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
My Chicago Map had only the inner suburbs that fit. It had every street in Chicago shown. Seems like it might have shown WYNR 1390, so it must have been from 1962 or 1963. The National Geographic Map of New York City showed tower icons.
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I remember Rand McNally publishing a "Guide to Chicago" back in that era. I owned one from 1964 or '65 (it still showed the Skyway as being I-94) showing a full street map of the city and inner suburbs (inside the 294), but I don't remember any radio listings or tower markings at all. I haven't had it for many decades.
 
KeithE4 said:
I remember Rand McNally publishing a "Guide to Chicago" back in that era. I owned one from 1964 or '65 (it still showed the Skyway as being I-94) showing a full street map of the city and inner suburbs (inside the 294), but I don't remember any radio listings or tower markings at all. I haven't had it for many decades.
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It might have been a Rand McNally Street Map of Illinois, not the street map of Chicago.
 
I used to (may still) have a Reader's Digest UK road atlas from the late '80s with a little fold out flap on each page, giving information about the area on the page - tourist information locations and numbers, various other stuff I can't remember, but also the radio frequencies for the area, most of which are long since defunct. I think I saw it when I was packing/unpacking recently for a move, if I spot it when I get home I'll take a pic of the radio bit.

I also used to have a BBC road atlas, which had absolutely nothing special, remarkable or radio-related about it other than a BBC radio logo on the front cover. I think it was some kind of promotional item.
 


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