WBZ Radio - 50K Clear Channel Station Created as Part of Homeland Security Plan

[Tilden]

The great media historian, Donna Halper, can speak with more authority than I but I believe that WBZ Radio's clear channel 50K Watt Signal was created in the first quarter on the 20th Century of part of a greater Homeland Security Plan with other like clear channel stations to inform and protect citizens across the country with a clear medium to inform the public about national security.

For more than 90 years WBZ Radio has fulfilled that obligation which comes with its powerhouse, blowtorch signal.

I think these clear channel stations can easily be compared to President Eisenhower's plan to create a series of interconnect interstate highway systems to protect the citizens in a case of a national emergency and if necessary to easily move US armed forces across the country.

If who or whatever finally takes over WBZ Radio from CBS attempts to dismantle this long standing part of our homeland security in the name of bottom line profits or the current format of the second, minute, hour, day, month or year there must be an immediate petition not only to the feckless FCC but also to Congress and the President that this dismantling of part of our national security in these very turbulent times must not be allowed.

I believe our own US Senator Edward Markey is well versed in the machinations of the FCC both as a United States Senator and earlier as a Congressman to address this issue when and if it becomes necessary to move forward.

The country must save WBZ Radio !

 

[TheBigA]

If who or whatever finally takes over WBZ Radio from CBS attempts to dismantle this long standing part of our homeland security in the name of bottom line profits or the current format of the second, minute, hour, day, month or year there must be an immediate petition not only to the feckless FCC but also to Congress and the President that this dismantling of part of our national security in these very turbulent times must not be allowed.

Wow, that's an interesting statement. First of all, anything that was done with regards to radio and homeland security was completely changed as a result of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. If something happened in the first part of the 20th century, it changed after 9-11. Once Congress passed that Act, the responsibility for homeland security was given specifically to local emergency officials. By law, they are the ones who are tasked with providing emergency information. Radio and the media is certainly part of that plan, but it begins with local emergency officials, not with radio.

But I'm curious what makes you think the new owners of WBZ will "dismantle" anything? What makes you think iHeart is any more interested in profit than CBS? Clearly, the reason CBS sold its radio division, according to its CEO, was to increase "shareholder value." So if you have a complaint over what's happening with WBZ, it sounds like your complaint begins with CBS.

However, there is no indication that the new owners plan to change anything with regards to WBZ's compliance with any Emergency Alert System notifications, or the stations Primary role in the EAS plan. WBZ is no more important than any other primary EAS station, including WOR in NYC. The requirements for that service are pretty minimal, if you read them. All responsibility is placed 100% with local emergency officials.

 

[raccoonradio]

Civil defense was supposed to have stations on 640 and 1240 that would have broadcast info...the EBS test had a part that said had this been an actual emergency 'you would have been instructed where to tune in your area for official information'.

There is now the EAS.At WMWM I note we are equipped to rebroadcast WBZ-FM 98.5 if alert is triggered etc.

 

[DavidEduardo]

The great media historian, Donna Halper, can speak with more authority than I but I believe that WBZ Radio's clear channel 50K Watt Signal was created in the first quarter on the 20th Century of part of a greater Homeland Security Plan with other like clear channel stations to inform and protect citizens across the country with a clear medium to inform the public about national security.

For more than 90 years WBZ Radio has fulfilled that obligation which comes with its powerhouse, blowtorch signal.

I think these clear channel stations can easily be compared to President Eisenhower's plan to create a series of interconnect interstate highway systems to protect the citizens in a case of a national emergency and if necessary to easily move US armed forces across the country.

The 25 US 1-A Clear Channels, of which WBZ was one, were created as a result of the actions of the Federal Radio Commission in 1927. The newly created FRC reorganized the band, eliminating a lot of part time and hobbyist stations. As part of the reorganization, several classes of stations were created, including local channels (low power), regional channels (5 kw maximum) and clear channels (in two classes, 1-A and 1-B).

So the Clear Channels were really created in the second quarter-century of the 1900's. It was not until the last years of the first quarter-century that the government even started licencing (in the early 20's) the operation of stations... most of which were very low power by today's standards.

Look at http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Logbooks/Zion-Radio-Log-and-Callbook-1925.pdf for a list of the stations on the air in 1925... the beginning of the second quarter-century of the 1900's. There were only about 20 stations over 1000 watts, and the most powerful was 5,000 watts.

Note that WBZ was not even in Boston back then.

The idea of the clear channels had to do with the fact that in that post-FRC era, there were around 500 radio stations. Many areas of the country had no local or even regional radio in that period. So the FRC wanted to insure that there were signals that reached to all parts of a nation that was much more rural than it is now. Existing stations did not offer superior coverage of much of rural America.

Stations did not immediately raise power. There were under twenty 50 kw stations by 1930, but the improvements in technology and greater reliability of tubes and components allowed nearly all the 1-A and 1-B to increase to 50 kw in the 30's.

There was no thought of the use of those more powerful stations for "national security" as the whole concept of security was very different back in that era of the depression and post-depression years. The idea was to bring news and entertainment into all American homes by creating a structured class system.

By the 70's, the FCC had decided that the 1-A clears, which were essentially the only night service in the continental US on each channel, had outlived their usefulness and the channels could be used by co-occupants in "gray areas" where there was sparse population and little radio. Thus places like Grand Junction, Kalispell, Guymon, Window Rock, Lexington, St. George, Reno, Roswell and Boise got "clear channel" stations, many at a full 50 kw.

As time went by and FM became more important, listening to stations from out of one's own area declined greatly, so the only advantage of being a 50 kw AM station on a semi-clear channel is in having a signal that will overcome man made interference locally.

WBZ only gets reported listening in a few close-by surrounding markets, like Worcester, Portsmouth, Manchester, Cape Cod, New Bedford and Concord, and even then, the listening audience total (cume) of those surrounding areas is less than 5% of the total WBZ cume.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Civil defense was supposed to have stations on 640 and 1240 that would have broadcast info...the EBS test had a part that said had this been an actual emergency 'you would have been instructed where to tune in your area for official information'.

Civil Defense did not have any stations of their own. AM stations that were participating in CONELRAD were equipped to change frequency to either 640 or 1240, under control of the government. The transmitters would switch on and off in each area, rotating between stations so none was on long enough for Russian missiles to home in on them.

 

[TheBigA]

It seems Mr. Tilden has taken on the role of Paul Revere, warning the people of Boston that "The iHearts are coming! The iHearts are coming! To arms! To arms! We must save WBZ!"

I find this topic laughable. If any radio station in this country was created for the purposes of homeland security, it would have been WLW, The Nation's Station. At one time, it was licensed at 100,000 watts. Of course, that was a long time ago. WLW has been owned by iHeart for 15 years, and I have seen no indication that national security has been compromised in any way as a result.

 

[frankberry]

It seems Mr. Tilden has taken on the role of Paul Revere, warning the people of Boston that "The iHearts are coming! The iHearts are coming! To arms! To arms! We must save WBZ!"

I find this topic laughable. If any radio station in this country was created for the purposes of homeland security, it would have been WLW, The Nation's Station. At one time, it was licensed at 100,000 watts. Of course, that was a long time ago. WLW has been owned by iHeart for 15 years, and I have seen no indication that national security has been compromised in any way as a result.

Actually, WLW was licensed for 500,000 watts at one time.

 

[frankberry]

Civil Defense did not have any stations of their own. AM stations that were participating in CONELRAD were equipped to change frequency to either 640 or 1240, under control of the government. The transmitters would switch on and off in each area, rotating between stations so none was on long enough for Russian missiles to home in on them.

David,

A generation ago, when I was the Chief Engineer for 540/WGTO, the old 10kW transmitter was equipped with a 640 crystal.
Switching frequencies was a tedious mess. Re-tuning the PA drive and plate circuits ... putting the transmitter into a single tower (which was close enough to 50 ohms so the transmitter wouldn't trip off).

I never actually operated the station at 640 but I did put the transmitter on 640 into a dummy load. After re-tuning the transmitter, it worked just fine.

 

[TheBigA]

"One if by land, Two if by sea, Three if by LMA!"

 

[Tilden]

Please get Donna Halper on the phone. Understand all the changes after 911 and the replacement of CONALRAD to EBS and I believe another configuration. All that said, 90 PLUS years of WBZ delivering to the community cannot be disregarded. If I am Paul Revere I will wear that name as a badge of honor. I hope i Heart does the right thing. If not many of us will not remain silent. For the record, I never worked for WBZ or WBZ -TV.

 

[CTListener]

It seems Mr. Tilden has taken on the role of Paul Revere, warning the people of Boston that "The iHearts are coming! The iHearts are coming! To arms! To arms! We must save WBZ!"

I find this topic laughable. If any radio station in this country was created for the purposes of homeland security, it would have been WLW, The Nation's Station. At one time, it was licensed at 100,000 watts. Of course, that was a long time ago. .

Then that makes Tilden Paul REVERSE, doesn't it?

 

[TheBigA]

I hope i Heart does the right thing. If not many of us will not remain silent.

Keep in mind that a lot of people were angry when WBZ started adding talk to the station, and still calling itself NewsRadio.

As I said, the law is pretty clear about the station's obligations. The main thing they have to do is stay on the air. The rest is handled out of house.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Please get Donna Halper on the phone. Understand all the changes after 911 and the replacement of CONALRAD to EBS and I believe another configuration. All that said, 90 PLUS years of WBZ delivering to the community cannot be disregarded. If I am Paul Revere I will wear that name as a badge of honor. I hope i Heart does the right thing. If not many of us will not remain silent. For the record, I never worked for WBZ or WBZ -TV.

CONELRAD was replaced by EBS in the early 60's as technology for guiding missiles made homing on radio stations irrelevant. Keep in mind that the fear of homing on local stations came from the very real use of KGU in Honolulu for Radio Direction Finding purposes during the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941.

Once missiles had their own guidance systems, homing... and CONELRAD... were no longer relevant. A new system was developed for the sole purpose of providing information, not to thwart the steering of enemy missiles. And EBS, the single-tone system, was later replaced by the EAS, the warbling tone alert system often called the "duck fart". Each system was an implementation of later technology.

EAS began around 1997, IIRC. Its deployment came years before the 9/11 tragedy and was unrelated to that event. In fact, the EAS system was not activated following the WTC attacks.

EAS can remotely trigger even unattended radio stations and cause them to broadcast messages. That represents a major step from EBS, which required manual intervention and validation at the station end. It also allows local, state and federal authorities to activate the system without first having to "get the attention" of station employees. It also works in the same automated fashion with cable systems, which did not exist when the EBS was developed... and it can put audio and video on every channel in a system. Likewise, and extension of the system can send messages to cell phones in targeted areas.

Also remember that when WBZ began, it was a Springfield station, not a Boston one.

A totally separate issue is that AM listening by people under 50 or 60 is so slight that the usefulness of any AM station in the event of an emergency is quite limited. Should local FMs fail, many radio listeners will have to be told what AM is, how to use it and what station to go to before WBZ could be of use in an emergency. That's why in Houston AM based news programming was put on multiple FM stations during the recent hurricanes, and a similar course has been taken in the Puerto Rico hurricane disaster.

 

[inorm99]

keep in mind that a lot of people were angry when wbz started adding talk to the station, and still calling itself newsradio.

As i said, the law is pretty clear about the station's obligations. The main thing they have to do is stay on the air. The rest is handled out of house.

once again, wbz didn't add talk, and then call itself newsradio!!!!
It added news blocks in increments during the first half of the 90's.
Engage brain before typing

 

[Wimmmex]

Engage brain before typing

I'm not sure how old you are iNorm...but you are arguing about wordings, names of formats, slogans, and lots of other nonsense.

Sounds like you are trying to hold onto the past...and have not come to grips with today commercial media landscape.

Have you ever worked in commercial radio?

BTW...When WEEI 5090 was mostly (all?) talk (remember Paul Benzaquin?)....they were Newsradio59.

 

[Oldie919]

Actually, WLW was licensed for 500,000 watts at one time.

And, rumor has it during WWII WLW actually ran up to 700,000 watts for a short time (during the so-called "Pelican" broadcasts - coded messages for US and allied troops).
I had a chance to visit the site in Mason, OH back in the '70s.....and got to actually CLIMB INTO the old 500 kw rig!!! (Ummmm, the power WAS OFF!!!). It has a mahogany outer case....NICE!!!
Back then, the VOA Bethany Station, next door, was still operating....and I assisted in manually switching antennas during a frequency change!!

 

[mistermicrophone]

once again, wbz didn't add talk, and then call itself newsradio!!!!
It added news blocks in increments during the first half of the 90's.
Engage brain before typing

That's rich! Pot, kettle...

 

[RickStarr1]

But I'm curious what makes you think the new owners of WBZ will "dismantle" anything? What makes you think iHeart is any more interested in profit than CBS?

.

Debt. CBS has none (or very little), iHeart is massively leveraged, therefore they need to cut expenses and pump up profits in the short term to serve the interest they must pay to bond holders. CBS is under no such pressure.

Clearly, the reason CBS sold its radio division, according to its CEO, was to increase "shareholder value." So if you have a complaint over what's happening with WBZ, it sounds like your complaint begins with CBS.

Radio is a different business from television (and has been for a while, see ABC & NBC divestments), there are no longer any synergies (except possible a few minor ones in the news division) for CBS. The stock market no longer values the cash flows of radio the way it does television, which now has multiple platforms and ancillary revenue sources from streaming, video sales, libraries, etc. Radio is facing competition from streaming without those other revenues, so CBS thinks shareholders will be better off without that division, using the cash received to invest in films, productions, and platforms which will garner higher revenues. CBS is in "invest" mode, iHeart is in "harvest" ["milk assets"] mode and will try to use the businesses' own cash flows to pay for it, therefore they need much higher profitability than CBS does out of the same stations. Very different business strategies.

 

[TheBigA]

Debt. CBS has none (or very little), iHeart is massively leveraged, therefore they need to cut expenses and pump up profits in the short term to serve the interest they must pay to bond holders. CBS is under no such pressure.

That is not true. CBS has about $9 billion in debt, according to this:

https://ycharts.com/companies/CBS/total_long_term_debt

But there's no point talking about CBS any more. They are not going back in the radio business. That train has left the station.

If you would simply study how iHeart runs its station clusters in major markets, you'd see they don't operate like a company in debt. Because they're a privately held company, not a public company with stockholders, they have no need to pump up quarterly profits. The only reason a station cluster would need to cut expenses is if they're not meeting their numbers. But the company hasn't used its stations to pay down their debt in any way. If the Boston cluster is run well, and keeps generating good revenues, there will be no short term need to cut expenses.

 

[TSBench]

........The great media historian, Donna Halper, can speak with more authority than I but I believe that WBZ Radio's clear channel 50K Watt Signal was created in the first quarter on the 20th Century of part of a greater Homeland Security Plan with other like clear channel stations to inform and protect citizens across the country with a clear medium to inform the public about national security...........

Did Donna Halper actually tell you this, or were you channeling her in an alternative reality or trying to make her look like a dunce? If she actually thinks that the clear channel allocations were part of a homeland security plan she can toss her 'great media historian' credentials into the shredder.

........For more than 90 years WBZ Radio has fulfilled that obligation which comes with its powerhouse, blowtorch signal......

Just total BS. As somebody who worked there in the 12-share glory days, I can tell you authoritatively that NOBODY ever mentioned, or cared about, or tried to serve, any listeners outside the Boston TSA or regions where our local advertisers wanted to move product (mostly non-TSA Maine and New Hampshire.) That the talk show hosts would field listener calls from Michigan, Ohio, or Canada was considered a meaningless curiosity dropped into small talk in advertising sales pitches. And, those out-of-state-or-country calls only came in during the overnights with Maynard, Glick, or Raleigh; programs not found in anyone's homeland security plan.

As indicative of how important that clear channel status was to the station. the only mention of "clear channel" in the station's media kit was in a section describing how WBZ "is heard in 38 states east of the Mississippi." Geography was not the promotion department's long suit.

......I think these clear channel stations can easily be compared to President Eisenhower's plan to create a series of interconnect interstate highway systems to protect the citizens in a case of a national emergency and if necessary to easily move US armed forces across the country......

And you would be wrong.

......If who or whatever finally takes over WBZ Radio from CBS attempts to dismantle this long standing part of our homeland security in the name of bottom line profits or the current format of the second, minute, hour, day, month or year there must be an immediate petition.....

Sort of like asking the Department of the Interior to declare the unicorn a protected species.

.....I believe our own US Senator Edward Markey is well versed in the machinations of the FCC both as a United States Senator and earlier as a Congressman to address this issue when and if it becomes necessary to move forward.......

The FCC has the power to impose formats on radio stations? Do you have any idea what you are talking about? Ever?