Any "Greater Fools"?

[AKLes]

Back when "local radio" meant something, brothers George and J. Roger Sisson fired up a 250-watt station on 1400 kc (no kHz back then) in Fall River. It was the original WALE, pronounced "Whale".

Wasn't long before Basil Brewer, then owner of WNBH (also local) in New Bedford coveted the call letters, given the whaling heritage of N.B. He offered some huge sum (at the time) of money to do a call letter swap but George and Roger weren't having it.

Years later after WNBH was sold, probably at least two times, there was no interest in getting those calls. The brothers sold WALE to Milt Mittler (who had also started WADK in Newport and WYNG in Warwick) who kept he call. He sold to the same folks who had bought WSAR and they dropped the call. It was immediately picked up for 990, Providence.

So the questions:

Might some owner in New Bedford have any desire to operate a locally oriented station?

Should the (silent?) WALE actually surrender the call, would it still be appropriate to New Bedford?

OR has all the baggage that has become associated with "WALE" rendered the call worthless?

I'm thinking that the general audience (as opposed to those who visit this board), especially in New Bedford, haven't really become aware of all this.....

Thoughts?

 

[tony r]

What happened to Jen Pruccia, may be mispelled?? I believe she did the news on WSAR.

 

[tony r]

Yes, the girlie show on Saturdays.

The dumming down of topics, no wonder this country is in a mess. As a woman , I am embarrassed by the program on WPRO
Saturday afternoons.

 

[DG02816]

tony,

The word is DUMBING...LOL! Les, I'm not sure if 1340 New Bedford or 1400 Fall River would want the WALE call sign after the muck the Battaglias dumped it into in Providence. I'd rather see the WLKW calls back where they belong and 1450 West Warwick back to its original calls of WWRI. And as a pipe dream, put the 1450 stuff on 990 as well....


Dave Gardiner

WVCH 740/WNWR 1540

Philadelphia

 

[N1WVQ]

I agree! WWRI back to 1450 & local programming and WALE's call returns to 1400-Fall River. I went in to a store years ago & asked the woman if she remembered WALE. She did & thought it was a great station: she was thinking of 1400. So, the WALE calls have less stigma than they used to.

 

[jimmyone]

I believe WNBH was sold just once. It's like the 8th oldest station in the country and could have had just about any frequency or power at that time. Basil Brewer , owned the New Bedford Standard Times and built a media dynasty. At one time he owned the Cape Cod Standard Times, WOCB in Hyannis, WNBH AM & FM (later WMYS, Now Cat Country) as well as WTEV Channel 6 which was right next door to WNBH on County Street. I started working at WNBH in 1969. It had been recently sold to Hall Communications, as Brewer's empire was broken up and sold off. WALE would have been great call letters in the Whaling City. However, from what memory tells me, Brewer never really cared if WNBH made money, althought it did. With very few stations at that time, he controlled the media from New Bedford to Provincetown.

 

[jimmyone]

typing mistake...Make that 1967 NOT 1969

 

[VelvetR]

I believe WNBH was sold just once. It's like the 8th oldest station in the country and could have had just about any frequency or power at that time. Basil Brewer , owned the New Bedford Standard Times and built a media dynasty. At one time he owned the Cape Cod Standard Times, WOCB in Hyannis, WNBH AM & FM (later WMYS, Now Cat Country) as well as WTEV Channel 6 which was right next door to WNBH on County Street. I started working at WNBH in 1969. It had been recently sold to Hall Communications, as Brewer's empire was broken up and sold off. WALE would have been great call letters in the Whaling City. However, from what memory tells me, Brewer never really cared if WNBH made money, althought it did. With very few stations at that time, he controlled the media from New Bedford to Provincetown.

More like Brewer was the second owner. I can't remember the name of the guy, he was a hobbyist, who started it with a longwire antenna attached to The Atlas Tack Company smokestack. Studio was in The New Bedford Hotel; hence "WNBH". Brewer once approached George Sisson to buy the call WALE but it wasn't for sale.

The studio WNBH used for many years after leaving the hotel was on the second floor of a retail building Brewer built on County Street, corner of Union (if I recall correctly). The layout was for a TV station with the control room elevated above a large studio. There was a fair bit of TV equipment (I remember the film chains which were moved to the WTEV transmitter site as backups at one point) but it was never used. By the time a TV allocation was available to New Bedford joint ownership of radio/TV/newspaper in the same city was outlawed so Brewer never got to outright own WTEV - rather he was a minority stockholder along with some political figures well connected to Rhode Island Senator John O. Pastore who ramrodded the allocation. I'm reasonably sure that it was at the time The NB Standard/Times was sold to Ottaway newspapers that WTEV was sold to Steinman Stations out of Lancaster, PA. The Ottaway name remains on a street in Freetown...at the end of Winslow and Pierce Ways...where there was a plan to build a WTEV transmitter site...a plan that was rejected by The FCC due to short spacing.

I worked a few fill-in shifts at WNBH, 1970-72 filling in for Wayne Bailey when he was on vacation. Just a short walk across the parking lot from WTEV when I finished my engineering shift. I wonder where "Wonderful Wayn-O" IS these days???

 

[jimmyone]

I always throught Basil owned WTEV outright. WNBH....stood for WHAT NEW BEDFORD HEARS..originally. When on County Street, below it was an upscale women's clothing store..."The California Shop" But velvet your memory is great. Where you a local?

 

[VelvetR]

I always throught Basil owned WTEV outright. WNBH....stood for WHAT NEW BEDFORD HEARS..originally. When on County Street, below it was an upscale women's clothing store..."The California Shop" But velvet your memory is great. Where you a local?

I am not certain about the store name but won't dispute "The California Shop". Brewer owned most of, though perhaps not all of, the block that fronted on County Street, bounded left and right by Union and Spring Streets. The building with WNBH was to have been the TV studios, too, but the ownership rules kept him from a majority position when there finally was an allocation. There was a victorian mansion on the corner of Union and Spring which the plans originally called for to become the TV station and work was started inside it but quickly proved overwhelming so it was torn down and the (then) new station started from scratch. I am absolutely certain about the WNBH/New Bedford Hotel connection. A large part of the station's early programming consisted of live music broadcast from a ballroom in the hotel.

As things continued, after Brewer died WNBH was sold to Hall Communications but had to vacate the building at County and Union. Hall bought the former "Myrna Loy" mansion further along County Street and converted it to studios and offices. At that time the transmitters (AM and FM) were on an island in the harbor - east side of the bridge while WBSM's property was on the left. Hall built a new tower for the FM down in the south end and equipped it with a "skirt" for the AM. I believe the AM lost coverage in the move but the FM gained hugely.

Yes, I was there. Started at the original WALE in about 1958; worked a number of AMs in Rhode Island, got into TV engineering, then left that for the equipment side before retiring to do pro-bono engineering a far distant state. I still dabble in radio but never for money. Money, what's that in radio, anyway, these days???

 

[N1WVQ]

Here's a link to Donna Halper's story: http://www.bostonradio.org/essays/vermilya. Apparently WNBH only dates from November 1925 & WBBG.

 

[jimmyone]

Yes below it was the California Shop, then later became Pat McKenna, which was a woman's clothing store further down Union Strreet that moved in for more space. Read the Halprin story. I knew it was originally in the New Bedford Hotel, but a good authority pre 1963 told me the calls were for What New Bedford Hears. No big deal. Also, I believe Basil Brewer bought the Standard Times from E. Anthony & Sons. Maybe even the radio station but haven't been able to find out for sure.
I could fill you in on Wayne Bailey, but privately, not on a forum.

 

[VelvetR]

Yes below it was the California Shop, then later became Pat McKenna, which was a woman's clothing store further down Union Strreet that moved in for more space. Read the Halprin story. I knew it was originally in the New Bedford Hotel, but a good authority pre 1963 told me the calls were for What New Bedford Hears. No big deal. Also, I believe Basil Brewer bought the Standard Times from E. Anthony & Sons. Maybe even the radio station but haven't been able to find out for sure.
I could fill you in on Wayne Bailey, but privately, not on a forum.

I believe you're right about E. Anthony & Sons but memory (and only memory) says he bought the radio station separately. I also have not been able to find out when the FM came along though I suspect whoever owned WNBH in the 1940's got one of the early FM allocations and hung onto it at the transition to high-band FM. Unlike what happened in Fall River when both the Sisson Brothers and Fall River Herald News walked away from their FMs, causing the allocations to go away entirely. Back in NB, I believe what came on the air as WBSM-FM, Joe Deschenes (Sunbeam Baking Company) probably had it on the air BEFORE the AM became possible. That happened when The Providence Journal-Bulletin bought WEAN (from The Shepard Company) and silenced their lower-powered 1420, WPJB (keeping the WPJB-FM call and adding the heritage WEAN to their stable instead of moving the call onto 790).

I am very much aware of Mr. B's "career" after radio and TV but wondered he had returned to the area. I've never tried private messaging through this board but will give it a go.....

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

WALE's call returns to 1400-Fall River. I went in to a store years ago & asked the woman if she remembered WALE. She did & thought it was a great station: she was thinking of 1400. So, the WALE calls have less stigma than they used to.

At this point, why would it even matter? 1400 now programs in Portuguese, and anyone who is a listener of 1400 knows the place by its current calls, which I believe are WHTB, which were left over from when the station programmed in English just after the Battaglia's sold it off. I think it may have stood for "Home Town's Best".

 

[Skynet74]

I think HTB moved into the same building as WSAR. I don't know how though. They only had three studios in that place. One for WSAR, one studio for Production and one for News. I think WHTB went into the News Studio. So if that's the case I have no idea what studio they broadcast the News from now.

 

[VelvetR]

I think HTB moved into the same building as WSAR. I don't know how though. They only had three studios in that place. One for WSAR, one studio for Production and one for News. I think WHTB went into the News Studio. So if that's the case I have no idea what studio they broadcast the News from now.

Been about 4 years since I visited there. The building was quite a bit larger than when I first saw it some 25+ years before. At that earlier date there were, as you said, but 3 studios and all of them very small. When last I saw it I didn't count the studios but there seemed to be 2-3 more, at least somewhat larger. WHTB (originally "Home Town Broadcasters) was tucked in there somewhere and the Rock Street studio had been converted for use by some other business. I will say that the room I saw being used for news was about the size of a janitor's closet.

 

[haverhill01835]

WALE-Fall River went off the air at 11:06 PM on July 19, 1989. Transmitter turned off by a young buck of a radio guy (me) and Gus Sunneson then a night time talk host who did a very eclectic (and very popular) show from 8-11 PM on WALE 1400.

WHTB-Fall River went on the air at about 0455 hrs by this same young buck of a radio guy (Sleep? Who needs sleep when you've got radio!) and local radio legend Hec Gauthier. Myself, Hec, Bernie Sullivan (radio guy, not newspaper editor), Loren King and Steve Sorel held down the fort until 9, then Paul Rogers came into play at 9:00 AM. Between 5-9, I helped Steve re-establish connection with Mutual radio and the AP wire feed, of which I think we had both up and running by Noon that day. At 9 - I stepped outside for a break to be greeted by a crew from Poyant Sign Co. putting in our new red, gray, and blue sign out in front of the building proclaiming WHTB was "Hometown's Best Radio" - and quite frankly - we were. (Oh and all the locks were changed at some point early in the AM as well...)

For a little 1kw station with a stick in the swamp off Rte 195 - we were the ultimate in local radio. Live and local from 5A-11P (with Larry King until 2 AM). A news department of 3 full and 2 part timers. City council coverage every Wednesday morning following Tuesday night meetings. We HAD to have sound for at least 2-3 stories that came out of the meeting - it was an unwritten rule. Local high school sports coverage (Football on Friday nights or Saturday from area high schools, Basketball on Tuesday and Friday nights) and (at the time) weather forecasts from Steve Cascione, John Ghiorse and the Channel 6 Weather team giving us that "big city sound" in the weather department.

Now, the old studios on Rock Street (at last check) is a real estate office. I was sort of sad the last time I visited Fall River and the station wasn't there. Time moves on, I guess. Thanks for letting me take a trip down Memory Lane.

Marc Lemay

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

For a little 1kw station with a stick in the swamp off Rte 195 - we were the ultimate in local radio.

AMEN!!!. WHTB during that era (and 1400 WALE pre-Battaglia) were stations a community could actually be proud of.

As for sticks in the swamp?...I can think of stations that would kill for sticks in a swamp...990 anyone?. ;D ;D ;D

 

[VelvetR]

As for sticks in the swamp?...I can think of stations that would kill for sticks in a swamp...990 anyone?. ;D ;D ;D

There are swamps and then there are swamps. The WHTB antenna is in a very special swamp. It's physically right on an edge of the market but the swamp connects to immense lakes and waterways. The ground conductivity isn't quite as good as though it were made of solid silver but, compared with the hard pan on Log Road (990), it might as well be.

The only problem I can see with the site is the same problem that helped kill what was once one of the area's best-situated airports, also in Fall River.

Vandalism.

The location is tight up against an area where too many teens and young adults have too little to do. No, I'm not aware of any particular problem the station might have had but I've got to believe that there are some pretty darn good security precautions in place else the whole thing, ground system, transmitter, building AND tower would likely have been stolen years ago.

 

[haverhill01835]

VelvetR - the very few times I went out to the TX site at 1400 you either walked this long, rickety bridge to get to the actual shack or you brought hip waders with you. It was very marsh-like to say the least. What was odd about 1400 from my limited technical knowledge - we covered our market really well (Fall River, Somerset, Swansea, Westport, etc.) but we could reach Providence really well as well, at night too. I'm guessing due to the stick being in the swamp. (Hope I didn't sound negative by saying it that way...from what Steve Sorel taught me, it was a huge bonus to have the stick in the swamp.)

And Dighton Rockhead - I know I was just a young announcer at the time, taking damn near any shift they'd give me, but thanks. I'm pretty proud of what we did at WHTB in those days and I'm sure so are alot of other people.