• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Q106 anniversary NEXT year

B

BenKarlow

Guest
Just throwing this out there... WHDQ will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2010. If anyone's planning to commemorate this in any way, on-air or off-air, you've got a whole year to prepare.

Of course, as far as Nassau is concerned, the station is four years old.

One year!
 
BenKarlow said:
Just throwing this out there... WHDQ will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2010. If anyone's planning to commemorate this in any way, on-air or off-air, you've got a whole year to prepare.

Of course, as far as Nassau is concerned, the station is four years old.

One year!
Click to expand...

I'll take it even further. Prior to WHDQ, 106.1 was WECM, an 24/7 Stereo automated Drake-Chenault "Hit Parade" formatted station back in the 1970's. It was a sister-station to WTSV. So, 106.1 in Claremont has been around for the better part of 40 years. It had and still has a pretty solid signal, even into parts of the Lakes Region, where I vacationed for many years, back in the 70's.
 
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:
I'll take it even further. Prior to WHDQ, 106.1 was WECM, an 24/7 Stereo automated Drake-Chenault "Hit Parade" formatted station back in the 1970's. It was a sister-station to WTSV. So, 106.1 in Claremont has been around for the better part of 40 years. It had and still has a pretty solid signal, even into parts of the Lakes Region, where I vacationed for many years, back in the 70's.
Click to expand...

And before that it was WTSV-FM dating back to the early 60s according to some old White's Radio Logs I saved from when I was a kid. It was primarily a simulcast of WTSV-AM in those days (maybe some splits for high school sports, etc).

I grew up in the Lakes region and 106.1 came in quite well.
 
Actually before Dynacom bought WECM/WTSV, 106.1 had been a live Rock station - M-106 - in the early 80's. The home of folks like Bob Rivers, Zip Zipfel and even, for two infamous nights, the late Andy Kaufman.
 
I do believe that what is now Q106 is the oldest FM station in New Hampshire.. It signed on before WTSV-AM. The original WTSV-FM was on 102.1..
 
Andy Kaufman was in the area during the summer of '82, I think - he was with a friend from Charlestown - he showed up at the studios for reasons I don't remember one night and started his "intergender wrestling" schtick - taking calls from incensed female listeners and challenging them to a match if anyone dared to show up the next evening. The following night, he showed up at the then Claremont Triple Cinema (where the current multiplex is on Washington Street) - a few listeners had indeed arrived to take him on. The "matches" took place in the offices of WECM, with desks moved around to make room, with live "play-by-play" broadcast using the Marti. Classic stuff.
 
Didn't Armstrong and/or a network (Yankee?) have an FM on Mt. Washington sometime in the 40's? I think it was used to relay the net to AM affiliates in New England.


Gadon said:
I do believe that what is now Q106 is the oldest FM station in New Hampshire.. It signed on before WTSV-AM. The original WTSV-FM was on 102.1..
Click to expand...
 
NHRadio said:
Didn't Armstrong and/or a network (Yankee?) have an FM on Mt. Washington sometime in the 40's? I think it was used to relay the net to AM affiliates in New England.


Gadon said:
I do believe that what is now Q106 is the oldest FM station in New Hampshire.. It signed on before WTSV-AM. The original WTSV-FM was on 102.1..
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

That is true. Major Armstrong along with Paul DeMars and the Yankee Network set up the FM transmitter to provide coverage to all of Northern New England from the top of Mt. Washington in 1941. The signal had two purposes. First, to provide clear FM reception to the FM listeners areas north of Boston (and it DID!). Secondly, it also provided a mountain-top relay link to other FM stations in Paxton, MA (Worcester), Meriden, CT and Alpine, NJ (New York area) and the associated Yankee Network AM/FM stations around the Northeast.
 
slipcue said:
Actually before Dynacom bought WECM/WTSV, 106.1 had been a live Rock station - M-106 - in the early 80's.
Click to expand...

It certainly was! They had a wide and varied playlist too. I briefly considered taking a job there during the summer of 1980, but after taking one look at the primitive facility at the time, I ran the other way. I also had a sense that the ownership at the time, didn't really have any commitment too, or understanding of the eclectic rock format that they
were programming.
 
I was always a fan of HDQ during the late 70's and into the 80's. Adventurous playlist, enthused air staff. Didn't know about Bob Rivers being there. Did he go to AAF from there? Always thought Guy Dark had a good show when I heard it. Think he was MD there for awhile. Where is he now?
 
Gadon said:
I do believe that what is now Q106 is the oldest FM station in New Hampshire.. It signed on before WTSV-AM. The original WTSV-FM was on 102.1..
Click to expand...

Gadon, I remember reading in "Granite & Ether: A New Hampshire Broadcasting Chronicle" by Ed Brouder Jr. that the original Claremont FM station that you are referring to was WLOB-FM named after Lincoln O'Brien and licensed to the Eagle Times, sometime in the 40's if I'm not mistaken.
 
I don't have my copy of "Granite & Ether" nearby, but you are correct that WLOB dates to the late 40s on the current FM band (I can't confirm at 102.1), and was originally in the 40mHz band prior to then. It may have preceded Armstrong's Mt. Washington station. If I recall correctly, owned originally by the local newspaper as was so often the case. Owner/engineer Bill Rust built and obtained FCC permission to utilize perhaps the first FM transmitter remote control as the original site is not reasonably accessible, and until that time, all broadcast transmitters had to be staffed. Until at least 10 years ago, there was the hulk of an early 3kw GE transmitter in the woods that was destroyed by fire. The replacement was a 1kw RCA (the model with the 200 lb exciter with the CRT that displayed Lissajous patterns for tuning the multiplier stages). That transmitter nearly prompted then owner Norman Knight to turn in the license as it was nearly impossible to keep the transmitter on frequency, and on the air. So it's probably approaching a 60th anniversary this year.

[/quote]I do believe that what is now Q106 is the oldest FM station in New Hampshire.. It signed on before WTSV-AM. The original WTSV-FM was on 102.1..

Gadon, I remember reading in "Granite & Ether: A New Hampshire Broadcasting Chronicle" by Ed Brouder Jr. that the original Claremont FM station that you are referring to was WLOB-FM named after Lincoln O'Brien and licensed to the Eagle Times, sometime in the 40's if I'm not mistaken.
[/quote]
 
According to Wikipedia, Armstrong's FM on Mt. Washington signed on in 1937 and went dark in 1948. Another poster in this thread, however, says the FM signed on in 1941, making Q106 the 2nd NH FM in any case.
Also, according to the same Wikipedia entry, NHPTV has applied to move their WLED TV in Littleton to the old WMTW stick on the Mount.

OlderRadioGuy said:
It may have preceded Armstrong's Mt. Washington station.
Click to expand...
 
Any "reunion" would have to be independent of Nassau Broadcasting. As I stated last year, as far as Nassau is concerned, the station is as old as the day they closed on the deal. It's too bad... I recall, as useless as the Q's web presence has always been, they put together an impressive slideshow of the station history on their 15th anniversary ten years back. The only air personalities currently involved with Nassau that's even corporately still connected to the Jeff Shapiro era is Imus, and maybe Leif Erickson, who was only a part timer anyway IIRC. Honestly any Q alumni still working in the market are now working for Shapiro and Wally at Great Eastern.

I guess the question that cuts to the chase is, honestly, do the listeners care at this point? How many current core Q listeners know who Guy Dark or Ken Barlow are? How many WGXL listeners know Coop was the same Dave Cooper that was once on the Q? Does anyone miss Art or remember The Ol' Tedder (second time around, let alone his first stint).

It was a nice thought when I brought it up a year ago, but a moot point in the grand scheme of things.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom