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A post on my Facebook page about listening to Classic FM rather than continue to listen to sad, awful news on BBC Radio 4 seems to have captured a bit of attention from my friends. Can I muse for a moment about my radio listening history?
When I was a wee babe in the late 1950's, the first radio station I listened to in Marblehead was WEEI. At that time it was one of the 6 or so radio stations that the CBS Radio Network was allowed to own, and it was on 590 kc on the AM band. Kiddies, you might want to ask your grandpa about the AM band.
I listened to it in the evenings after I got home from school, and heard the World News Tonight with Lowell Thomas, as well as short little remnants of the humour programs of network radio from a few years before: Burns and Allen, and even, sadly, Amos and Andy. Other than that, there was CBS radio news on the hour with people like Richard Hottelet, Robert Trout, Winston Burdett in Rome. Edward R. Murrow was on the way out at the time, but we heard him too, before he went to the Voice of America in the Kennedy Administration.
Between the news there were talk shows. The less said about them the better. However, there were broadcast battles about the Massachusetts sales tax (not yet levied on the citizens of the Commonwealth) and no-fault auto insurance. There was even a souvenir map of every hot news spot in the world—I wish I had it now. I recall that Algeria's rebellion against France and the wars in Southeast Asia, especially Laos were particularly prominent at the time.
One other CBS daytime offering comes to mind: Arthur Godfrey Time. Every morning Arthur's variety show rode the kilocycles. When I was home from school because of illness (I often got bronchitis) I would listen to Arthur in between coughing jags and applications of Vicks Vapo Rub.
And in the night hours, when I found it difficult to sleep, I would turn on WEEI and listen to "Music Through the Night", sponsored by American Airlines. I listened on an old 5-tuber radio that gave off heat and light, both of which were comforting in the cold dark Massachusetts winters. The music was long stretches of classical music—a lot of US modern classical composers like Howard Hanson.
In Marblehead it was difficult to get some of the other Boston stations—I expect that they broadcast toward the west of Boston, as toward the East there was only Boston Harbour. There was WEZE, which was The Wonderful World on Music like Mantovani. There was also WNAC, which was the NBC Radio Network station in Boston. It was woefully inadequate toward the Northeast, and was quite difficult to receive reliably at home. I did listen to their "Monitor Radio". And WCRB broadcast commercial classical music until 2009. We also found it difficult to hear in Marblehead.
As for FM, it was in its infancy then. I started listening to WBCN-FM when it was a classical station, part of the Concert Network. Then it shifted to rock and roll on 104.1. Looking at Wikipedia, it's been shifted to an all-digital station.
I shall continue tomorrow. with stations in New York City.
When I was a wee babe in the late 1950's, the first radio station I listened to in Marblehead was WEEI. At that time it was one of the 6 or so radio stations that the CBS Radio Network was allowed to own, and it was on 590 kc on the AM band. Kiddies, you might want to ask your grandpa about the AM band.
I listened to it in the evenings after I got home from school, and heard the World News Tonight with Lowell Thomas, as well as short little remnants of the humour programs of network radio from a few years before: Burns and Allen, and even, sadly, Amos and Andy. Other than that, there was CBS radio news on the hour with people like Richard Hottelet, Robert Trout, Winston Burdett in Rome. Edward R. Murrow was on the way out at the time, but we heard him too, before he went to the Voice of America in the Kennedy Administration.
Between the news there were talk shows. The less said about them the better. However, there were broadcast battles about the Massachusetts sales tax (not yet levied on the citizens of the Commonwealth) and no-fault auto insurance. There was even a souvenir map of every hot news spot in the world—I wish I had it now. I recall that Algeria's rebellion against France and the wars in Southeast Asia, especially Laos were particularly prominent at the time.
One other CBS daytime offering comes to mind: Arthur Godfrey Time. Every morning Arthur's variety show rode the kilocycles. When I was home from school because of illness (I often got bronchitis) I would listen to Arthur in between coughing jags and applications of Vicks Vapo Rub.
And in the night hours, when I found it difficult to sleep, I would turn on WEEI and listen to "Music Through the Night", sponsored by American Airlines. I listened on an old 5-tuber radio that gave off heat and light, both of which were comforting in the cold dark Massachusetts winters. The music was long stretches of classical music—a lot of US modern classical composers like Howard Hanson.
In Marblehead it was difficult to get some of the other Boston stations—I expect that they broadcast toward the west of Boston, as toward the East there was only Boston Harbour. There was WEZE, which was The Wonderful World on Music like Mantovani. There was also WNAC, which was the NBC Radio Network station in Boston. It was woefully inadequate toward the Northeast, and was quite difficult to receive reliably at home. I did listen to their "Monitor Radio". And WCRB broadcast commercial classical music until 2009. We also found it difficult to hear in Marblehead.
As for FM, it was in its infancy then. I started listening to WBCN-FM when it was a classical station, part of the Concert Network. Then it shifted to rock and roll on 104.1. Looking at Wikipedia, it's been shifted to an all-digital station.
I shall continue tomorrow. with stations in New York City.
