An ad for the former WDEW 1570 Westfield

[MarcB]

I was Googling something last night and I came across this guy's Flickr page and he has an advertisement on it for the old WDEW 1570 in Westfield.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33445721@N04/4059119508/

 

[pqgeorge]

That was one great local station. While I was a student at Westfield State College back in the late 70's, that was THE station for local news and information. The Springfield stations really considered the City of Westfield to be of secondary status. Those 2500 watts of WDEW covered the area like a glove. Eventually, Curtis Hahn (the owner) got the CP to move to 640 kHz with 50,000 watts. WDEW itself did not make the move. 640 became WNNZ (640/"WINS") with it's Oldies in Stereo format. Of course today, 640 is basically an NPR repeater. The 1570 facility went silent. Big mistake. Apparently, Hahn tried to sell the 1570 stick. There was no reason why the 1570 station could not stay on the air in spite of the 640 facility. It should have stayed as is. Today, Westfield is only served locally by WSKB-FM (89.5) at Westfield State College, while college is in session.

 

[chris560]

And even THAT is a stretch ... WSKB basically plays "College Radio" tunes and when it's unmanned it's either dead carrier or a loop of the same 65 songs played from ITunes ...

 

[Laurence Glavin]

Which raises the querstion: WHY were the 640 towers erected NORTHWEST of Springfield? If they had gone up in the southeasternmost section of Springfield, they would have been about the same distance AM 800 is from AM 790 in Providence. At the time AM 640 was proposed, then WCCM-AM had 1,000 watts non-directional and then WEAN-AM ran 5,000 watts nondirectional. A 640 operation southeast of Springfield center certainly could have run the equivalent of 1,000 watts toward East Providence/Rumford.

 

[DOuG pRATt]

That was one great local station. While I was a student at Westfield State College back in the late 70's, that was THE station for local news and information. The Springfield stations really considered the City of Westfield to be of secondary status. Those 2500 watts of WDEW covered the area like a glove. Eventually, Curtis Hahn (the owner) got the CP to move to 640 kHz with 50,000 watts. WDEW itself did not make the move. 640 became WNNZ (640/"WINS") with it's Oldies in Stereo format. Of course today, 640 is basically an NPR repeater. The 1570 facility went silent. Big mistake. Apparently, Hahn tried to sell the 1570 stick. There was no reason why the 1570 station could not stay on the air in spite of the 640 facility. It should have stayed as is. Today, Westfield is only served locally by WSKB-FM (89.5) at Westfield State College, while college is in session.

Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment, because I was the news department at WLDM in the late 70's (Westfield State, class of '77). Curt Hahn changed the call letters to WLDM from WDEW after buying the station from Al Roberts. Al was a hands-off owner, and I was spoiled by the freedom I had after the news director, Kevin Brownell, left the station. Brownell hired me after I'd worked as an intern on the recommendation of Phil Shepardson at the college.

Curt was more of a micro-manager, and we didn't get along. My feeling was that Hahn came from the Arthur Godfrey school of broadcasting -- mellow and warm when the mic was on, but a tough SOB when crossed. I was working upwards of 72 hours/week for $100/week net, and I quit after demanding a raise because I had to fill in for Cele one time too many when she was out drumming up business, instead of doing her talk show at noon. Curt admitted he was floating some of the station's expenses out of his savings, and I appreciated his candor, but I had to make more money, so I left.

 

[VoiceofWayne]

The 1570 facility went silent. Big mistake. Apparently, Hahn tried to sell the 1570 stick. There was no reason why the 1570 station could not stay on the air in spite of the 640 facility. It should have stayed as is.

That is a shame. I have to wonder, though if the station would have survived until now. Their signal was very good, I could receive it fine in Somers, Ct. I believe there was at least an app if not a CP issued back in the 90s for a new station to utilize the tower, but not on 1570.

 

[necrat123]

I believe there was at least an app if not a CP issued back in the 90s for a new station to utilize the tower, but not on 1570.

There was. Dennis Jackson had applied to put a new station on 1340 from that tower. However the FCC booted it, because the night time signal did not cover the entire city of Westfield.

 

[VoiceofWayne]

Interesting -- Since they had to provide night time service they could not just re-apply for 1570 like nothing happened.

So much for my grandiose idea of firing up WREB 930 again....

 

[BeckyM1313]

As a Westfield native, I used to listen to this station all the time. At Thanksgiving, they always played Gravy, a parody of Patsy Cline's song, Crazy. It was sung by a woman and I can't find it online. Do you remember the song? I would love to hear it again. Thanks!

 

[VoiceofWayne]

Too bad that station isn't around anymore. Ironically, the studio building and the tower still stand. I wonder if an FM translator could have saved it. Seems like the perfect candidate for one, --- and the old 930 WREB.

 

[alfradio]

WOW!!!! WDEW....!

This is the very first radio station I ever worked at!!!

Starting in early 1968. Under the name of Al Santos, I was assigned to do news out of their Enfield, CT "studio"... Kind of funny 'cuz WDEW's signal barely made it that far into Connecticut?

I took the job was it also included a Sunday afternoon music show which followed a Polish show, which I think I had to engineer or something?....

Although I soon left the station to do morning at WTXL in West Springfield (NO, I sucked on the air BUT, did have an FCC First Class License), my budding radio career began.

W D E W, THANKS FOR GIVING ME MY SHOT!!!

Look up the name, [ Santos, Al ] at http://440int.com/440sat.html and see where I went following my stay at WDEW-AM in Westfield, MA

What a long strange trip it's been...

alfradio

 

[marchoward]

Such a wonderful surprise to literally stumble across this site and thread. I was on the air on WDEW in 1969-1970....a fabulous little "sunrise-sunset" station. I was just graduating Springfield College. I was GM and on-air on the college radio station (WSCB) and I wanted to continue in radio. WDEW was such a great place to begin and learn. Switching on the transmitter at sunrise, doing a talk show (Dew Line) in the morning, doing a Top 40 show later in the day, "ripping & reading" the news.....what fun that all was! Today, I am a VO actor in LA and fondly remember those early days of radio in Westfield. Marc Howard marchowardvo.com