N1WVQ said:
Just thought I'd switch the topics over to here. Anyway, I know WSAR-FM had a license but never knew if it went on air or not. I've seen it listed as 103.7 & know it went off by 1950. Fall River also had UHF TV allotments in 1952: Channels 40 & 46. It would've been interesting to see WSAR-TV or WCFR-TV. But I know Springfield wanted better allocations than what it had (channels 55 & 61) so the non-comm Providence allotment (channel 22) & a Fall River allotment (channel 40) went there. Still, I wonder if one or both Fall River stations came on air if they would be running Portuguese-language today.
I read they tore down the Durfee for a bank building. Here's the entry on Cinema Treasures:
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/6448/
Indeed both WCFR-FM and WSAR-FM were put on the air. I do not recall ever having heard either of them but, in about 1966 I was cleaning out an old house and found a drawer with a newspaper liner, Fall River-Herald News, from about 1948-49. The radio listings had detailed schedules for both plus, of course, WSAR-AM, and several old-line Providence stations. I don't recall whether or not there was anything listed for WALE, so perhaps they had not gotten the 1400 license at that time.
There was no money to build a UHF in Fall River so there were no protests when the allocations were dropped. The first UHF in that area was Channel 16, licensed to Providence, transmitter and studio in Rehoboth, Mass. Call was WNET (I don't believe there was an appended -TV). That was in about 1954. My father, a TV fanatic, put up a special antenna with a set-top, tube-type converter which managed to get a weak picture though we were only about 20 miles from the transmitter.
The Durfee Theater was torn down to make way for Interstate Highway 195 but only a portion of the property actually was used for the road. Central Street was relocated northward to run parallel to the highway (but much above it, the highway was through a cut). The remainder of the property was sold and a bank was built but it's a much smaller structure than was the theater. Today they could not have gotten away with destroying that architectural gem or, as I noted previously, the victorian-era city hall. The highway cut divides downtown but is bridged for a Main Street crossing. The new city hall was built OVER the highway and has been a maintenance nightmare ever since.
As to actual TV from Fall River, there was a remote studio built on North Main Street (in a former drugstore) for newscasts from Fall River on WTEV (6). I think that was part of the deal to get the allocation. It might have been used a few times but not for very long. It was that part of the political deal that got George Sisson into WTEV as Promotion Manager - he had owned (with his brother) WALE and had something to do with the short-lived Fall River news studio (more like a booth). Several other ex-WALE staff ended up at 6 when The Sisson Brothers sold out to Mitt Mitler (who also owned WADK, Newport, R.I. at the time).
