DX AUDIO SERVICE - HISTORICAL MOMENTS(c) SCRIPT For December 1997 By: John D. Bowker Thanks, Phil .. and now, Historical Moments in Radio .. a collection of stories about the development of broadcasting on the a.m. radio dial .. and today I want to share with you some of the nostalgia I felt this week in looking through a White's Radio Log from 1947 -- 50 years ago. I must admit that I wasn't prepared to be reminded of all the changes that have occurred during these few years that I've been dx'ing.. so now I can better appreciate why some of the "good old days" a number of us recall sound so old fashioned to many of the younger members of the club. I was a New Englander in 1947 so my eyes naturally looked to Boston for openers .. and this is how the stations were set up .. and, from my perspective still should be. We've got CBS and WEEI at 590 .. 680 is the biggie in Lawrence just up the street .. that's WLAW right where it should be .. then WHDH at 850 of course .. (jingle: 850 on the dial, keep listening all the while, to W-H-D-H .... Boston) .. and WORL at 950 .. WBZ was right there at 1030 from the Hotel Bradford, Boston; the Hotel Kimball, Springfield; WCOP at 1150 from Copley Square downtown with the most modern of studios in town ... WNAC one of the network pioneers at 1260 and finally that great music station at 1510, WMEX. Wow. 8 stations; only one remains unscathed in the past 50 years. I won't go down the New York City list .. suffice it to say that WMCA, WOR, WCBS, WINS and WLIB have NOT changed. The call letters of the other nine stations there have either moved to new frequencies, moved to new cities, or disappeared. In the mid-West, in Cleveland, there were 4 stations there in 1947 and two of them remain as they were .. WHK and WTAM .. okay, so you're saying "hey wait a minute!" .. well the fact is that after 3 or 4 other call signs, they're back to WTAM and newcomers to the hobby today will look back on "3 W E" as an old-fashioned set of letters. How many of YOU remember WJW at 850 .. the living sound .. or WGAR at 1220 .. that's where Don Imus took off, right? I won't even touch Cincinnati .. not sure I could figure that one out even if I tried what with all the swaps they've made across the dial. Dare I look at Chicago? Well, here are the stations from 50 years ago: WIND-560 .. all in English, of course; WMAQ at 670 with all those good NBC entertainment programs; WGN at 720, an anchor of the Mutual Broadcasting System; WBBM-780; WAIT-820; WENR and WLS sharing 890 .. but those stations would probably never amount to much; Yeah, right. At 950 we had WAAF, and then WCFL at 1000; WMBI at 1110, same as today; WJJD at 1160, and then the famous three-some at 1240, WCRW, WEDC and WSBC; WGES at 1390 .. and that was it! You know, another fun thing to look at are the clear channels. 540 had only CBK in Watrous, Saskatchewan; WSM was all alone at 650; Only WMAQ broadcast at 670; 700 was the Nation's Station all alone from Cincinnati; WGN had no interference on 720; WCBS was the only station on 880; WHO was alone at 1040; KMOX at 1120 had no competition for the frequency and finally there is KXEL all by itself at 1540 on everybody's dial. Now wait, you cry! How about WOAI at 1200? Well, okay, it was the only U.S. station on 1200, but there too was CHEF in Granby, Quebec. True, at night from Vermont I would hear WOAI .. but not as well as its neighbor down in Del Rio, XERF, Paul Kallinger speaking .. remember him? I guess I should also tell you that 1550 and 1580 only had one U.S. station on them, but there were broadcasters in our neighboring countries that really filled up the channel at night. Radio listening was such a kick back there.. I'm John Bowker.