Providence radio history question--AM 900 WEAN?

[dustintv]

I was going through a guide of clear channel and other 50KW stations from 1989 and it listed WEAN-AM 900 in Providence as being one. Twenty years later, WEAN-AM 900 no longer exists. What happened to it?

 

[DG02816]

That was AM 990, WEAN.....which is now WALE.

 

[dustintv]

Ah thanks must be a misprint in the guide.

 

[Skynet74]

Wasn't WEAN on 790 at one time? I'm pretty sure that is where it was when I was growing up in the 70's. I remember My dad listening to it when they were a news station. I still remember the CBS sounder at the top of the hour.

 

[Deleted member 64531]

Wasn't WEAN on 790 at one time? I'm pretty sure that is where it was when I was growing up in the 70's. I remember My dad listening to it when they were a news station. I still remember the CBS sounder at the top of the hour.

There was WEAN and WPJB-FM. Both stations of The Providence Journal Bulletin. WEAN was at 790 and WPJB-FM at 105.1. I remember them as such until I moved to Virginia in 1975.

 

[DG02816]

True, and the WEAN calls were picked up later by what was then WLKW 990.....

 

[Power Of Radio]

Were WEAN & WPJB ever in the same building?

 

[VelvetR]

Were WEAN & WPJB ever in the same building?

When both were owned by The Providence Journal they were both in the Journal Building. At that time the call letters were WEAN and WPJB-FM. The "FM" occasioned by the fact that, at one time, there was also a "WPJB", the 1420 AM that went silent when The Journal bought WEAN from The Shepard Company (which had run a department store in Providence and which had started its' own radio station in order for people to have something to listen to on the radios it hoped to sell). At one time a big clock was maintained on the outside of the department store; it stayed in place long after the store itself went out of business....a landmark that was, I believe, somehow protected. Been too many years since I've been in Providence so I can't guess whether someone could honestly say: "Meet me under The Shepard Clock".

 

[Deleted member 64531]

Were WEAN & WPJB ever in the same building?

At one time a big clock was maintained on the outside of the department store; it stayed in place long after the store itself went out of business....a landmark that was, I believe, somehow protected. Been too many years since I've been in Providence so I can't guess whether someone could honestly say: "Meet me under The Shepard Clock".

Good memory VelvetR and it looks like folks can still "Meet under the Shepherd Clock".
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/TheOtherBigJohn/ShepherdClock.jpg

 

[Runrigger]

That clock actually fell on a friend of my Mom's. It was probably in the 60s or early 70s. I don't know if the face popped out and hit her or if the top of it just came down, but it gave new meaning to that jingle.

 

[Skynet74]

That clock actually fell on a friend of my Mom's.

OK.. stop right there. You win funniest post of the week! ;D

 

[wondorlandohits]

They were at 10 Dorrance St. I worked there.

 

[MarcB]

Trainwreck radio - Oops I mean Peter Arpin's WARL 1320 AM is at 127 Dorrance Street.

 

[N1WVQ]

WJAR was at 111 Dorrance Street, right next door. Now it's another JWU building.

 

[VelvetR]

They were at 10 Dorrance St. I worked there.

Was not #10 Dorrance Street once The Crown Hotel?

WICE - 1290 had studios upstairs in The Crown back in the late 50s and early 60s when Sherm Strickhauser was PD and Freddie Weiss was engineering. Remember "The Singing Clock"? Station later moved to what had previously been The Social Security Building, closer to (perhaps) under the freeway further down Dorrance Street. I'm wondering if the old WICE studios got somehow recycled!

 

[iyiyi]

They were at 10 Dorrance St. I worked there.

Was not #10 Dorrance Street once The Crown Hotel?

WICE - 1290 had studios upstairs in The Crown back in the late 50s and early 60s when Sherm Strickhauser was PD and Freddie Weiss was engineering. Remember "The Singing Clock"? Station later moved to what had previously been The Social Security Building, closer to (perhaps) under the freeway further down Dorrance Street. I'm wondering if the old WICE studios got somehow recycled!

"The Singing Clock"! A tape of 3-5 second jingles singing the WICE calls and the time. If you didn't hit it, it would automatically advance to the next minute's jingle and wait for you there. Very expensive but very effective identity for 1290! Of course, it NEVER screwed up...

Dyer Avenue from the Crown Hotel. WICE at Crown was before my time. Heard of Herr Weiss, not sure I ever met him. I worked for Myron Mufts and his NE Recording studio at the Crown. It was an excellent "live dead end" studio. That studio was definitely NOT ever a part of the WICE operation (a common urban myth at that time).

Those days with Sherm at the Crown Hotel were Jim Mendes' favorite. He'd often tell stories about them. The funniest?... At signoff (sunset) Jim would say "goodnight" to the ladies working at Outlet, across Garnet Street from WICE. The ladies would wave back thanking Jim for the shoutout. One day Sherm, thinking Jim had buttoned things up for the day, walked into the studio - dropped his pants to the ankles - and starting doing the hula! Ponder THAT one for a while...


-

 

[VelvetR]

"The Singing Clock"! A tape of 3-5 second jingles singing the WICE calls and the time. If you didn't hit it, it would automatically advance to the next minute's jingle and wait for you there. Very expensive but very effective identity for 1290! Of course, it NEVER screwed up...

Those days with Sherm at the Crown Hotel were Jim Mendes' favorite. He'd often tell stories about them. The funniest?... At signoff (sunset) Jim would say "goodnight" to the ladies working at Outlet, across Garnet Street from WICE. The ladies would wave back thanking Jim for the shoutout. One day Sherm, thinking Jim had buttoned things up for the day, walked into the studio - dropped his pants to the ankles - and starting doing the hula! Ponder THAT one for a while...

After WICE Fred moved over to WJAR-TV, as did so many engineers in and around Providence when the FCC rules changed and pretty well eliminated the good engineering jobs. I should imagine he's long retired now, if still alive.

Actually TWO tape decks, one with odd minutes, other with even. That way there was never a period where no time check was available. I can't remember whether the separation between time checks on the tape was optical (oxide removed from tape) or electrical (aluminum tape stuck onto the oxide side of the tape to short contacts).

Yes, I can imagine Sherm's hula performance. And.....I.....wish......I............couldn't!

 

[Ken Grady]

This is a great thread. Was Myron "Arnold's" recording studio in the Crown Hotel ever the studio from some radio station? I played in a band that recorded there in the 1960's and and I'm sure he said it had been a radio studio. It was just a little place and it did look like a radio studio.

 

[Skynet74]

Is this the same Myron Arnold that still has a recording studio in East Providence (or at least he did)? I met the man. I stood in that studio and he was very nice to me. But I was not aware of his history. So that name jumped out at me when I saw it here.

 

[iyiyi]

"The Singing Clock"! A tape of 3-5 second jingles singing the WICE calls and the time. If you didn't hit it, it would automatically advance to the next minute's jingle and wait for you there. Very expensive but very effective identity for 1290! Of course, it NEVER screwed up...

Actually TWO tape decks, one with odd minutes, other with even. That way there was never a period where no time check was available. I can't remember whether the separation between time checks on the tape was optical (oxide removed from tape) or electrical (aluminum tape stuck onto the oxide side of the tape to short contacts).

I did not remember the second machine. I guess its been a while... I'm thinking optical for durability and engineers not liking metallic tape swiping heads. Then again, The Singing Clock was an oddball proprietary device so you got me on that one too... Jim Pierce (sp?) was an engineer at 1290 forever and knows all technical history for them. He is around 80 now if he's still with us.

Myron would be in his 90s if he's still around. He was handicapped and the sole of one shoe was about 4" thick. He left the Crown Hotel studios when JW converted it to dorms. From what I know, the studio wasn't slated to survive the renovations. Last saw Myron beginning to build a new setup in a former dance studio above the old Picadilly Bar at the corner of Empire and Washington Sts. He owned Muffetts Music near the corner of Empire and Weybosset for years.

I've never had the opportunity to meet Ken Grady, but if correct, he's the guy who established 91.5 WCVY in Coventry. Excellent job my friend!

The Crown studio was never part of a radio station, confirmed by Jim Mendes and others who worked 1290 then. The board came from WHAT 1340 in Philly and was hacked for stereo (no simple task) by a WJAR engineer. Most material was mixed mono into a Scully (model ??) and the final take would be cut on a lacquer by a (Scully? Presto?) lathe with a hot diamond stylus in a Grampian head, driven by a 50 watt McIntosh amp. Another option was to have Myron bring the master tape (Myron ALWAYS kept the master) to RCA in New York. They would press the discs for his Planet record label and you would have as many "real" records to distribute as you could order.

It looked like any typical radio studio but another buzz kill (besides not being WICE's) was: The board was not the on air one Hy Lit played the Clovers on, but from WHAT's production studio. Myron payed well and all his engineers had to have a 1st class FCC license.


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