WGTR was a pioneer commercial FM radio station, which was the first of two mountain-top stations established by the
Yankee Network
The Yankee Network was an American radio network, based in Boston, Massachusetts, with affiliate radio stations throughout New England. At the height of its influence, the Yankee Network had as many as twenty-four affiliated radio stations. The ...
. It began regular programming, as experimental station W1XOJ, in 1939. In 1941 it was licensed for commercial operation from studios in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, initially with the call sign W43B, which was changed to WGTR in 1943. In 1947, its designated community of license was changed to
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...
.
During the station's entire existence, its transmitter site was located atop Asnebumskit Hill near
Paxton, Massachusetts
Paxton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,004 at the 2020 census.
History
Paxton was first settled by Europeans in 1749 and was officially incorporated in 1765. It was previously occupied by the Ni ...
. WGTR was deleted in July 1953.
History
Experimental broadcasts
In the 1930s, investigations were begun into establishing radio stations transmitting on
very high frequency
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves ( radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
(VHF) assignments above 30 mcs, well above those used by the standard AM broadcast band. These stations were informally known as
"Apex" stations, because their coverage tended to be limited to line-of-sight distances, so there was a premium in locating transmitter towers at high altitudes. The
Yankee Network
The Yankee Network was an American radio network, based in Boston, Massachusetts, with affiliate radio stations throughout New England. At the height of its influence, the Yankee Network had as many as twenty-four affiliated radio stations. The ...
, a regional network of AM radio stations located in the northeastern United States, began its own investigation of the potential for operation on the new frequencies. In late 1935, it was issued a license for an experimental station, W1XER, originally located in Boston. In early 1936 three Yankee Network engineers attended a demonstration by
Edwin Howard Armstrong
Edwin Howard Armstrong (December 18, 1890 – February 1, 1954) was an American electrical engineer and inventor, who developed FM (frequency modulation) radio and the superheterodyne receiver system. He held 42 patents and received numerous aw ...
of his recent invention of "wide-band frequency modulation" (FM) transmissions. In 1937 a plan was developed envisioning that 90% of New England could be provided with FM programs by building a 50-kilowatt station on a mountaintop at
Paxton (Mount Asnebumskit), plus 5-kilowatt stations on Mount Washington in New Hampshire and on Mount Mansfield in Vermont. (Later plans dropped the proposed Mount Mansfield station.)
A construction permit for W1XOJ was granted on August 18, 1937, although construction did not start until August 1938. The station began broadcasting with a regular daily schedule of 8 a.m. to midnight on July 24, 1939,
transmitting on 43.0 mcs with 2,000 watts. Programming was relayed from the studios of the Yankee Network's AM station in Boston,
WNAC, to the transmitter site away by an FM relay station, W1XOK, transmitting on 133.03 mcs with 250 watts. In August 1939, W1XOJ was reported to be one of only four FM facilities "in actual operation". It was also described as "the first commercial station to be built outside of Major Armstrong's own transmitter,
W2XMN
W2XMN was an experimental FM radio station located in Alpine, New Jersey. It was constructed beginning in 1936 by Edwin Howard Armstrong in order to promote his invention of wide-band FM broadcasting. W2XMN was the first FM station to begin regula ...
at Alpine, New Jersey". In early 1940, it was reported that a 50-kilowatt transmitter had been installed but was currently operating at only 30 kilowatts, as a January 15, 1940 wind storm had destroyed the station's antenna.
The Yankee Network inaugurated the first FM radio network in the United States, beginning with a January 4, 1940 demonstration of an FM over-the-air inter-city relay, which originated in Yonkers, New York, and was received and relayed in turn by Armstrong's
W2XMN
W2XMN was an experimental FM radio station located in Alpine, New Jersey. It was constructed beginning in 1936 by Edwin Howard Armstrong in order to promote his invention of wide-band FM broadcasting. W2XMN was the first FM station to begin regula ...
in Alpine, New Jersey; W1XPW in Hartford, Connecticut (now
WHCN
WHCN (105.9 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Hartford, Connecticut. It broadcasts a classic hits radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. It is called "The River 105.9," a reference to the Connecticut River. The studios a ...
); and then to W1XOJ. Yankee's FM network officially made its debut in December 1940 when W1XOJ was permanently linked with the Yankee station in New Hampshire,
W1XER. Because of their superior audio quality, the FM stations became known for broadcasting live classical music concerts.
Commercial operation
In May 1940, the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) authorized an FM band effective January 1, 1941, operating on 40 channels spanning 42–50 MHz. Yankee was issued a construction permit for a station on 44.3 mcs with studios in Boston that was assigned the call sign W43B, in reference to its location east of the Mississippi River, the last two digits of its frequency (4
4.3), and B, the one- or two-character city identifier for Boston. Commercial operations commenced on April 29, 1941. Effective November 1, 1943, the FCC modified its policy for FM call letters, and the call sign was changed to WGTR, for "General Tire and Rubber", as the
General Tire & Rubber Company had purchased the Yankee Network in late 1942.
The Yankee Network's two mountain FMs also found national defense utility during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. WGTR and
WMTW atop
Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River.
The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934, ...
, remained on the air for nearly all of the war in their air raid warning capacity, covering New England.
On June 27, 1945, the FCC announced the reassignment of the FM band to 80 channels from 88–106 MHz, which was later expanded to 88-108 MHz. WGTR's initial assignment on the new "high" FM band was 103.1 MHz, which was later changed to 99.1 MHz. Stations were given permission to operate simultaneously on both their original "low-band" and new "high-band" assignments until the end of 1948. In 1947, WGTR's community of license was changed from Boston to Worcester, Massachusetts, although it continued to broadcast from atop Mount Asnebumskit. This cleared the way for the Yankee Network to establish a new Boston FM station, WNAC-FM (now
WBZ-FM
WBZ-FM (98.5 FM) is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by the Beasley Broadcast Group, WBZ-FM is the Boston affiliate for Fox Sports Radio; t ...
), when the FCC ruled that although there was some coverage overlap between WGTR and WNAC-FM, this did not violate its "duopoly" prohibition, because Boston and Worcester were considered to be "distinct cities".
In December 1951, Frederick W. Muckenhoupt, a station employee, stole $2,100 worth of equipment from the station. He was laid off from WGTR but escaped arrest and was hired at station
WSTC
WSTC (1400 kHz) is a public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological c ...
in
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...
. However, Muckenhoupt was caught in 1953 tapping his boss's phone using some of the stolen WGTR equipment and apprehended by Connecticut state police.
In October 1948, the Yankee Network had shut down its second pioneer mountaintop FM station, WMNE (the former WMTW). WGTR followed five years later and was deleted on July 24, 1953.
References
External links
"Asnebumskit Hill (and Little Asnebumskit), Paxton, Mass."by Scott Fybush, 2003 (fybush.com)
"John Shepard's FM Stations" America's first FM network"by Donna L. Halper (bostonradio.org)
{{Worcester Radio
Radio stations established in 1939
Radio stations disestablished in 1953
1939 establishments in Massachusetts
1953 disestablishments in Massachusetts
Defunct radio stations in the United States
GTR