WHTB (1400 AM) is a

Portuguese language Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...

, operating with 1 kW unlimited hours.

History

Originally known as WALE, the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

moved to 990 AM in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

on July 20, 1989. On that date, SNE Broadcasting Ltd. (owned by local businessmen Robert and James Karam) took ownership of 1400 AM and introduced the WHTB call sign. The station's first location was at the corner of North Main Street and Central Street in Fall River, Massachusetts, known as the Durfee Theatre Building. The station's "Whale" was a plaster and chicken wire figure atop the building with the words "WALE 1400" on the sides in white paint. The transmitting antenna was on the roof and had a copper screen ground system. There was no real ground connection to the antenna, and the screen created an artificial grounding system, limiting the coverage area. WALE began broadcasting May 6, 1948, on 1400 kHz with 250 watts power (full-time). It was owned by Narragansett Broadcasting Company. In 2018, WHTB signed on FM translator W229DC on 93.7 from the AM tower.

Personalities

Personalities included Mike "Surfer" Sands (Arthur Lang) and long-time engineer Stephen J. Sorel, who was also an Amateur Radio operator with the call sign K1RFH. Sorel and Lang made the move to WICE in Providence, Rhode Island in the early 1970s. Steve Sorel ended his career as the Chief Engineer of WHTB and sister station

WSAR WSAR is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Fall River, Massachusetts. Its studios and transmitter site are located in Somerset, Massachusetts. Broadcasting on 1480 kHz, its transmitter power output is 5,000 watts unlimited hours, usi ...

. The North Main Street/Central Street site was also the location of WCFR-FM and WCFR-TV, although it is not known if WCFR-TV ever produced a signal as after World War II the Channel 1 assignment (44-50Mc.) was dropped from television and given to the Business Radio Service. WALE moved to Rock Street in the early 1970s and the transmitter was relocated to the area along Interstate 195 West and Route 24 South at the end of Augustus St. and remains there today. The studios have moved to Home Street in

Somerset, Massachusetts Somerset is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,303 at the 2020 census. It is the birthplace and hometown of Clifford Milburn Holland (1883–1924), the chief engineer and namesake of the Holland Tunnel ...

as WHTB and WSAR are still owned by the Karams.

F.M. translator

References

*1992 Broadcasting Yearbook, page A-164

External links

Portuguese-American culture in Massachusetts Portuguese-language radio stations in the United States Fall River, Massachusetts HTB Mass media in Bristol County, Massachusetts Radio stations established in 1948 HTB {{Massachusetts-radio-station-stub